Anxiety, rage, depression, 3am wake-ups, fear that freezes you in your tracks — psychiatrist Dr. Allie Sharma joins us this week to explain why perimenopause is a real window of mental health risk. We unpack how shifting and declining estrogen and progesterone levels drive mood, sleep, and anxiety changes (and why anxiety is often the first symptom, even before hot flashes), plus how hormone therapy, medication, testosterone, acupuncture, and CBT can help, often in combination. We close with a guided breathing and full body-scan exercise to help calm the nerves during this often emotionally-fraught time.

Dr. Allie Sharma (Sonali Sharma, MD) is a Cornell-trained, board-certified adult psychiatrist who ran a private Manhattan practice for over a decade. She's currently Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Being Health, a Women's Health Advisor for menopause care startup Evernow, and an advisor to Kenneth Cole's Mental Health Coalition, following a role as Associate Medical Director at Cityblock Health. Her background spans emergency and student psychiatry at Columbia, mental health work with NYC's homeless population, and global public health leadership, including advising post-conflict countries and the World Health Organization (Libya, Ethiopia, mhGAP guidelines) and directing a ThriveNYC workforce initiative. She earned her MD from Weill Cornell, trained at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell and UCSF, and holds a master's from the London School of Economics. She is a mother of two and lives in Brooklyn, NY. You can learn more about her and her work at sonalisharmamd.com and Beinghealth.co.

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