88: Jolene Brighten: Can’t Build Muscle? Always Tired? Check Your Hormones First
Can't Build Muscle? Always Tired? Check Your Hormones First
Dr. Jolene Brighten reveals why your hormones might be sabotaging your fitness goals. Learn about PCOS, endometriosis, stress hormones, perimenopause, and how to optimize hormonal health for better strength training results.
How many times have you been told your heavy periods, low libido, or mood swings are "just part of being a woman"? Or that the only solution is birth control, without anyone actually explaining why your body feels off in the first place?
If you're nodding along, and especially if you're working your ass off in the gym but not seeing results,this conversation is essential. Because here's the truth: your hormones have a massive impact on your ability to build muscle, maintain energy, and feel like yourself. And if they're out of whack, no amount of perfect training or nutrition is going to fix it.
In this episode, Tara sits down with Dr. Jolene Brighten, a board-certified naturopathic endocrinologist, menopause specialist, and author of Beyond the Pill and Is This Normal? This conversation drops serious truth bombs about women's health, hormone myths, and why understanding your body is the first step to actually making progress with your fitness goals.
The Truth About Women's Health (And Why It's Still So Ignored)
Let's start with the uncomfortable reality: women's health has been historically understudied, underfunded, and dismissed. For decades, medical research was conducted primarily on men, and then the findings were just... applied to women. As if our bodies work exactly the same way.
Spoiler alert: they don't.
Dr. Brighten breaks down why women's health issues are still so often ignored or minimized. Symptoms that significantly impact quality of life, painful periods, brain fog, low energy, difficulty building muscle, are dismissed as "normal" when they're actually red flags that something is off.
The result? Women spend years, sometimes decades, suffering through symptoms that could be addressed, simply because they've been told it's just part of being a woman. They're prescribed birth control to mask symptoms without anyone investigating the root cause. Or worse, they're told it's all in their head.
This dismissive approach doesn't just impact quality of life, it directly affects your ability to train effectively, build muscle, and achieve your fitness goals. Because when your hormones are out of balance, your body is fighting an uphill battle just to maintain baseline function, let alone adapt to the stress of strength training.
PCOS and Endometriosis: What Your Doctor Isn't Telling You
Two of the most common hormone-related conditions affecting women are PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) and endometriosis. And chances are, if you have either one, getting a diagnosis was probably a nightmare.
The PCOS reality: PCOS affects how your body processes insulin and produces androgens (male hormones). This can make it harder to build muscle, easier to store fat, and leaves you dealing with symptoms like irregular periods, acne, and hair growth in unwanted places. The kicker? Many women with PCOS are on birth control, which masks the symptoms without addressing the underlying metabolic dysfunction.
The endometriosis struggle: This condition causes tissue similar to your uterine lining to grow outside your uterus, leading to inflammation, severe pain, and fertility issues. But here's the thing Dr. Brighten emphasizes: you can't actually diagnose endometriosis while you're on birth control. The pill suppresses the condition but doesn't treat it, meaning women often go years without knowing what's really going on.
Both conditions have serious implications for your fitness and overall health. Chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, and hormonal imbalances all make it harder for your body to build muscle, recover from workouts, and maintain stable energy levels.
The conversation emphasizes the importance of actually understanding what's happening in your body rather than just masking symptoms. Getting proper testing, working with providers who actually listen, and addressing root causes, not just taking a pill and hoping for the best.
How Stress Is Destroying Your Sex Drive (And Everything Else)
Here's something that doesn't get talked about enough: stress doesn't just make you feel anxious or overwhelmed. It fundamentally alters your hormonal balance in ways that affect your sex drive, sleep quality, muscle building capacity, and overall health.
When you're chronically stressed, your body prioritizes cortisol production over sex hormone production. This is called "pregnenolone steal," and it's your body's way of saying "survival is more important than reproduction right now."
What chronic stress does to your body:
Tanks your libido by diverting resources away from sex hormone production
Disrupts your sleep, making it harder to recover from training
Increases inflammation and interferes with muscle protein synthesis
Messes with your thyroid function, slowing your metabolism
Makes you insulin resistant, affecting how your body uses nutrients
Dr. Brighten explains that this isn't just about "calming down" or "managing stress better." It's about understanding that chronic stress, whether from under-eating, over-training, work pressure, relationship issues, or lack of sleep, has real, measurable effects on your hormonal health.
And here's the part that fitness-focused women need to hear: if you're undereating and overtraining in pursuit of body composition goals, you're creating massive stress on your body. Your cortisol is elevated, your sex hormones are suppressed, and your body is in survival mode, not muscle-building mode.
The Hidden Connection Between Hormones and Sexual Desire
Low libido is one of those things women often feel embarrassed to talk about, but Dr. Brighten wants you to know it's incredibly common, and it's often a sign of broader hormonal issues.
Your sex drive isn't just about testosterone (though that matters). It's about the delicate balance of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, thyroid hormones, and cortisol all working together. When one is off, the whole system suffers.
Common libido killers:
Birth control that suppresses your natural hormone production
Chronic stress and elevated cortisol
Under-eating and over-exercising
Poor sleep quality
Thyroid dysfunction
Nutrient deficiencies (especially zinc and vitamin D)
The conversation normalizes talking about sexual health as part of overall health. Your libido is a vital sign, it's your body's way of telling you whether your hormones are balanced and whether you're actually thriving or just surviving.
If your sex drive has tanked and you've been told it's "normal" or "just happens with age," that's BS. It's a sign that something in your hormonal system needs attention. And addressing it isn't just about your sex life, it's about optimizing your overall health, energy, and ability to build muscle and recover from training.
Perimenopause: How to Thrive in Your 40s and Beyond
Here's a topic that desperately needs more attention: perimenopause. This is the transition period before menopause, and it can start as early as your mid-30s to early 40s. And for many women, it's a confusing, frustrating time filled with symptoms no one warned them about.
Common perimenopause symptoms:
Irregular periods and unpredictable cycles
Hot flashes and night sweats
Brain fog and difficulty concentrating
Mood swings and increased anxiety
Sleep disruption
Changes in body composition (easier to gain fat, harder to build muscle)
Decreased libido
Dr. Brighten emphasizes that perimenopause isn't the end of feeling good in your body, but it does require adjustments to how you approach training, nutrition, and self-care.
How to optimize your fitness during perimenopause:
Prioritize strength training even more. As estrogen declines, you lose some of its protective effects on muscle and bone. Strength training becomes crucial for maintaining muscle mass, bone density, and metabolic health.
Adjust your training intensity. You might not recover as quickly as you used to. This doesn't mean training less, it means training smarter. Focus on quality over quantity, and be more strategic about recovery.
Pay attention to protein intake. Protein needs increase during perimenopause. Aim for at least 1 gram per pound of target body weight to support muscle maintenance and recovery.
Manage stress like your life depends on it. Because during perimenopause, your body is less resilient to chronic stress. Prioritize sleep, incorporate stress management practices, and stop the under-eat/over-train cycle.
The message is clear: perimenopause doesn't mean giving up on your fitness goals. It means adapting your approach to work with your changing hormones rather than against them.
Eating, Sleeping, and Strength Training: The Foundation of Hormonal Health
After all the discussion about complex hormonal issues, the episode circles back to the fundamentals. Because here's the thing: you can't supplement or medicate your way out of poor lifestyle habits.
The non-negotiables for hormonal health:
Eat enough food. Chronic under-eating is one of the fastest ways to wreck your hormones. Your body needs adequate calories and nutrients to produce hormones, recover from training, and maintain basic metabolic function. If you're trying to build muscle on 1200 calories a day, you're fighting a losing battle.
Prioritize protein and healthy fats. Protein supports muscle building and satiety. Healthy fats are the building blocks of your hormones. Skimp on either, and your hormonal health suffers.
Sleep like it's your job. Seven to nine hours of quality sleep is non-negotiable. This is when your body produces growth hormone, processes stress, and recovers from training. Chronic sleep deprivation tanks testosterone, increases cortisol, and makes insulin resistance worse.
Lift heavy things consistently. Strength training is one of the best things you can do for hormonal health. It supports insulin sensitivity, stimulates growth hormone production, and helps maintain muscle mass as you age.
Manage stress through lifestyle, not just mindset. You can't meditate away the stress of chronic under-eating, over-training, and sleep deprivation. Real stress management means adjusting your lifestyle to reduce actual stressors, not just changing how you think about them.
Dr. Brighten's message is empowering: you have more control over your hormonal health than you think. Yes, some conditions require medical intervention. But the foundation is always going to be the basics, eating enough, sleeping well, training smart, and managing stress.
The Bottom Line
If you're struggling to build muscle, constantly tired, dealing with mood swings, or watching your libido disappear, your hormones might be the missing piece. And you deserve better than being told it's "just part of being a woman" or being handed birth control without investigating the root cause.
Understanding your body, getting proper testing when needed, and addressing hormonal imbalances isn't just about feeling better (though that matters). It's about unlocking your body's ability to build muscle, recover from training, and actually achieve the fitness goals you're working toward.
What hormonal symptoms have you been told are "normal" but don't feel right? Share your experience with us on Instagram @broads.podcast, this conversation matters, and you deserve answers.
