Emily Rodriguez, a nurse practitioner with functional medicine and midwifery background, explains how chronic stress biochemically disrupts women's health across the lifespan. She details how cortisol elevation suppresses digestion, reproduction, and thyroid function—affecting sex hormones and T3 conversion, leading to weight gain, brain fog, and insomnia. She notes that COVID increased women's stress loads via dual work-home responsibilities and accumulated stressors. Rodriguez explains that as women age into perimenopause, declining protective sex hormones and increased environmental exposures (infections, toxins, poor sleep) reduce resilience, making stress effects more damaging. She discusses testing cortisol curves to identify dysfunctional patterns and emphasizes lifestyle factors like meal consistency and stress coping strategies.
