Erica Chidi

0:00Speaker Welcome to It's Open. My guest today is Erica Chidi, who is a thought leader in women's health and a woman who leads thought. Erica is a health educator, an author, strategist, and full-spectrum doula who's been in this work, Women's Health, through all these mediums, through uh long form writing, video, podcasting, media, and tech.

0:24Speaker The way her mind works just tickles my brain. I find her to be totally visionary and grounded at the same time. She most recently joined Refinery29's Unbothered as the senior vice president of brand and editorial content. And she started her own YouTube channel, Bodied with Erica Chidi, where you can get uh expert advice and also learn how to research your own health as a woman.

0:52Speaker She is incredible. And I really enjoyed this conversation and excited for you to hear it. Come on in. It's open. Erica Chidi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hello. Hi. I love ya. I love you. We're friends and we've gotten closer and closer and closer over the years. Um and it always feels like we have information to share.

1:20Speaker And the reason I'm saying it like that is because this Cornell rape case is like so upsetting and it's like so crazy to see all these different reactions. And I had this experience recently on a like smaller production of a uh sexual uh sexual harassment thing that occurred. And um seeing this young woman who experienced it and and uh, you know, uh came to me to talk about it and we figured out how to how to uh do the right thing about it, which is like, by the way, not easy.

1:58Speaker This was like a uh younger person who's like 15 years younger than me. And I'm like, do I even know how to handle these things? And is it like, do I need a corporate structure to know how to handle these things? Or is that worse? And then my other friend was like, she was like, sorry to be like dour, but can you tell me like what is worse about the Cornell rape than what the rest of what we've seen?

2:23Speaker And I was like, oh God, the range, the the darkness, it it's so dark. Yeah, it's so dark. And I feel like um you and I like share a lot of information in a positive way. We're both like really creative and like to build things, but how how's it been hitting you?

2:38 It's a really intense moment that we're in. And I think that that case, that rape case, just reminded me of how much our culture is stagnating or has stagnated, and how, in many ways, how little change is happening, you know. Because I think I I just think with all of the resources and structures that are in place at most universities, you would think, you know, that there would be more protection for women in that environment in 2024, 2025, 2026.

3:21 So I think when I heard about it, I was just like, wow, that's still happening. And not that rape is still happening. Rape is a scourge, a malaise on our society, but the level of harm and the volume of violence, I think, is the thing that kind of made me really just take pause, you know, and again, it's like I have I have so much empathy for survivors, and survivors are on a spectrum, right?

4:00 There's all different kinds of things that we've experienced in our life, like myself included, I'm a survivor of sexual assault. Even though the experiences are very different, I think the thing that is bringing us all together as as women, as people, around what's happening right now is just the level of harm is so uh accessible.

4:26 I think anyone who's hearing about the case is like, oh, I really feel that, even though that hasn't happened to me. You can there's a palpable weight to it where it really Yeah, it really just it's heavy.

4:42Speaker You have a substack called Bodied, right? But you have you are moving it, it has moved and has launched on a YouTube channel, bodied with Erica Chidi.

4:50 Yes, yes. My old Substack was called Soft Boundaries, but it is no more as of this morning, and it is now the written companion to my new YouTube channel.

5:00Speaker Which we're gonna talk about, but I have to tell you Soft Boundaries, the which is now bodied, the your bodied Substack post after like I don't know what iteration of the Epstein files being released came out. Like reading the way that you spoke about systemic pedophilia, I was like, it's so, it's so painful.

5:21Speaker It is so fucked up. And like, you know, I'm remembering when we had AOC on the podcast and talking about who's like up in knowing this stuff and having access to this, and talking about being millennial women, and we knew in our teenage years, we're like, there's this is connected to the whole world.

5:37Speaker We got this attention as teenagers, but I don't know, something about our awareness and our age and the internet or something. There was just something where it was like accessible, accessible. And the way that you wrote about it, I don't know, it was really um, it was uh like a raft in the ocean. I was feeling so drowning in the despair of it and the disgustingness of it.

6:04Speaker And you know, you just said the uh rape is this stain on our society, but what's like so hard is to um balance, to reconcile like society or humanity. You know, is it this thing that is part of our being mammals? Okay, but societally, we've haven't we gotten above and beyond it? Haven't we gotten above and beyond famine and more?

6:31Speaker Like, you know, we're just at this crazy point right now, yeah, with this consciousness that I I do think that most people are seeing that there's two classes, the Epstein class and everybody else. And oh my God, it just feels like just want to get above, I just want to get above and beyond it so badly.

6:53Speaker You know, it's like I'm only 39. I feel like I'm 150 years old. I hear you. And also like, when the fuck does this get to tip over? You know, like the Cornell thing, what you're saying, accessible. There's something just so right the fuck there about it.

7:07 Well, you can feel the difference in power, you know. I think when we, you know, there's a difference between a rape between two when two people are involved, but when you are are gang raped, there is this the volume is just different. And so I think that is typically I think why there's so much more traction around these types of cases when they do go through the intense process of even being or or having a day in court, you know, when we hear this idea of that many people assaulting one person.

7:40 Holy fuck. It just it I think it brings out the protector in all of us, you know, it brings out a very specific kind of rage, you know? Yeah. And, you know, again, it's like there's so much going on right now, it's hard to it's hard to know exactly where to put your focus. But I think I think making space for this conversation, you know, is really important.

8:04 And I think too, you know, whether, and these things are not the same, but I think that when it when we think about violence and how that's showing up in society right now, I think a lot about Lindsay Clancy. I mean, we don't have to get into all of the details of the case, but for someone like myself who's worked in women's health, maternal health for so many years, I think it was not surprising to me that there was so much support kind of galvanizing around her because of the fact that you know postpartum mental health disorders are not in the DSM.

8:40 So when w yeah. Wait, oh, you don't you don't even know that that's this is the issue. The issue is that postpartum psychosis is not in the DSM, meaning there's not research going into figuring out how to solve for it. And, you know, having really And you know what, Erica, just say what the DSM is for everybody.

8:58 Um this is the DSM is a uh a book that basically lists out all different types of uh mental health disorders.

9:07Speaker And it's the diagnostic diagnostic statistical manual for the mental health world, but has its own troubles where like until 1973, being gay was a mental illness or something.

9:19 You know, which is like, okay, then sure.

9:21Speaker Right. Right, right. But but whatever, it's changed in over time, but not changed enough that there's there is no postpartum mental health disorders in the DSM you're saying in 2026.

9:30 Yeah, no, it's it's it's it's really not there. And the the crazy and and again, the thing that I and I haven't really spoke publicly about the case, um, mostly because I've been too busy doing a lot of other things, but I'm excited to be moving back into being a part of just a larger conversation about all things to do with women's health.

9:51Speaker Through your YouTube channel, bodied, right?

9:52 Yeah. Uh but her case to me makes her case to me is so powerful as much as it is a tragedy, because I think what she I think what she exemplifies or what she embodies is the sixth state of care available to pregnant people, pregnant mothers and women as new mothers in our culture. I think America does not care enough about moms at the institutional level where the right kinds of support are there to get you the health care you need both during pregnancy and after.

10:42 And I think the fact that she was a nurse, so she had a clinical understanding of herself. Secondly, she had been prescribed 13 medications over maybe a two or three year period. She was really working to figure out like what is the right medication management for me to not feel the way that I'm feeling.

11:12 And a lot of times, you know, I think even our understanding of psychosis has been so media driven or television film driven. We kind of think of psychosis as this bombastic, intense, like mania uh experience, which it can be, but for the most part, it is a kind of like an inside hijack experience where you're having these intrusive thoughts, you're hearing things, you're seeing things.

11:42 And you know, to me, it can be very hard to treat because the person who's going through it has to volunteer the emotions, the feelings, the scenarios that they're having inside. Right. Right. And to admit that you want to do the things that you're hearing or being told to do is really difficult. Um, and I think parenting in America is very, very, very hard.

12:08 Yeah. Uh I always say, like, this country is the only country where it's normal for two people or two sets of hands to take care of one baby. You know, other parts of the world, there is some type of familial network, there's aunties, there's grandmas, there's cousins, and there's people who can come in and relieve you, especially in those early postpartum months.

12:30 Um that's not really the case here. And a lot of new mothers are isolated, and that isolation plus the pressure to go back to work really quickly, you know, it it's it's a snowball effect, right? And I think if you and I think mothers are sold this like perfectionist narrative around how to be pregnant, how to be a mother, all of these things.

12:55 And so there's this constant internal, external evaluation that's going on. That if you are prone to mental health disorders, OCD is probably a great example of one. It just revs, you know, it might stay a little quieter during pregnancy because of pregnancy hormones, specifically progesterone, does help for a lot of people over the years that I would work with that had anxiety.

13:18 Typically, once they got pregnant due to the hormonal changes, they just got a little bit more relaxed. Right. But if you are prone to mental health disorders, postpartum is can get you. It can get you and it could really pull you into the abyss, mostly because you're not getting consolidated sleep. Sleep hygiene is like the number one thing that we can do to protect our mental health.

13:42 Given my family trauma and family origin background, I know the only reason why I'm still here is because I can sleep. Like I can go to bed and have dead sleep for like, you know, six to eight hours most nights. Doesn't matter what's happening.

13:56Speaker I'm looking at David because my sleep hygiene has gotten well, it goes in cycles. And when it's um I'm just in a rough period right now and I lose I I really lose my mind. I really lose my mind. And it's just, I'm like struggling, I think, with the hormones at therapy with my hormones at 39. I'm like, it feels like hormonal that I just wake up and I'm like, oh, I'm up.

14:19Speaker Like there's not, I I don't know. I um I'm just working on it, but I'm also working on, I've regressed a little bit, like in my waking up and being like, why the fuck are you up, you dumb bitch? And then I'm just like, who is she? Who is this bitch talking to me like this? Me. It's fucking me.

14:36 Yeah, it's you.

14:37Speaker Postpartum psychosis is I heard from you first. Postpartum OCD, I heard from you first. And it's such a relief to even know that there is a container for the feelings because it's not in the diagnostic statistical manual. Um and yeah, so so um sleep hygiene, how do you how do you find your healthy sleep?

14:59 Well, you know, sleep is a really funny thing, right? Uh I do think we are now, I'd say, at like the peak inflection point of people talking about sleep, sleep hygiene with their wearables, whether it's an aura ring or a whoop, or you have an eight sleep bed, there's definitely been this like technological layer uh added to how we interpret our sleep.

15:23 I have a couple thoughts. I mean, I'm very lucky, I'm just a good sleeper. I've just had that and we thank God. But I think sleep really is about routine and in in in many ways. And so I when I say that too, I like to also talk about the fact that newborns, so we're let's just say zero to three months, what they need is rhythm and routine, right?

15:48 Like basically they get used to anticipating when I, you know, when I open my eyes, this is what happens, when I'm hungry, this is what happens, when I'm tired, this is what happens. And then we do it over and over again, right? And I think as adults, there's less of that routine, especially if you're a creative, uh, especially if you're working a nine to five job that demands you to really work from nine to nine.

16:10 If you don't have a sleep routine or a routine during the day to get you to sleep, that is the first thing you want to look at because it's having the rituals, whether it's like you take a shower at a certain time, uh, you maybe turn off the TV at a certain time, or you put on your comfort show. For me, it's Anthony Bourdain, no reservations.

16:35 Really love that show.

16:36Speaker Is it on the TV or is it on a laptop?

16:38 It's on the TV.

16:39Speaker Cool.

16:39 It's on the TV. Yeah, nice.

16:40Speaker I like it further away. Yeah, a little further away and then get to see the world around the TV, not that close.

16:46 Exactly. Like maybe tonight we're going to Marrakesh. I don't know.

16:48Speaker But I'm always everywhere.

16:51 Yeah. Yeah. It's like patron sane. And I just also I know the beats. I know nothing really stressful is gonna come up while I watch it. So it's always nice to be like, okay, what's my flow gonna look like? So it's like, are you watching something or not? Are you reading? Obviously, if you're reading before bed, a physical book, it's going to put you to sleep a lot faster.

17:11 Um, you know, I think depending on people's jobs, phones are in the room or not in the room. But I know Vatana and I, my partner, my fiance are trying to install like a no phones from 10 from 10 p.m., which I think is really gracious. Yeah. It's not like eight, it's not like seven, it's like maybe we'll get there one day, but like, you know, the 10 p.m., no, no phones in the room.

17:31 And then, you know, really thinking about how where you're sleeping. So I am a total fuss pot when it comes to sheets and to your linens. You know, you spend so much time in bed. Like, why are we giving basic bed? I I does not compute.

17:47Speaker Brooklyn and call her. Okay. Call her for bodied with air cut Chidi.

17:51 Give me a call. Yep. Um, so yeah, I feel like you want to have a bed that you love and are just so excited to retreat to. And, you know, I'm I'm newer, diverse. I'm also tact very tactile sensitive, meaning that, you know, the clothes that I wear need to feel a certain way. I'm cutting tags out of clothes.

18:09 I'm one of those clothes. Yeah. Okay. And so for me, I don't want to go to bed and feel tactile defensive, meaning I'm defending myself from the linens I'm putting my body into. Okay. And some people don't even know that that's actually what they're experiencing. That's right. And so that's why it's really important to make sure your bed is like actual refuge, not cognitive refuge, like somatic refuge.

18:32 Your bot that that needs to be clear. Because some people just have whatever sheets, and not even because they couldn't afford better ones. They're just they're solving for color, they're solving for aesthetic when you need to actually solve for comfort and for like promoting the most amount of sleep that you can possibly have.

18:50Speaker Yeah. It's really this um, it's really the knowledge. You know, uh, you made me aware of neurodiversity when I was pregnant. We like I kind of consulted with you um during my pregnancy and also non-binary gender structures, all these things that really helped uh my partner and I feel like we knew ourselves and were better rooted in our bodies and our experience to welcome this new person into the world.

19:16Speaker And just the best person. The best, the best. It really is something that, like, when you know these little things, like make you feel less crazy. Even knowing the term postpartum psychosis can help somebody like be aware of it, you know, and know that it's there, postpartum OCD. Like intrusive thoughts became a more popular term that was useful, but oh my god, it's like there's so much information and so little knowledge these days.

19:42Speaker Yeah, we're being flooded and our focus is so um is so blurry. I actually do turn my phone off at like six. That's good. It's at like six because I get jealous. I get so honestly anxious and upset. And any day that I go on Instagram, I am so upset for the whole day.

20:04 I mean, number one, having built a tech product with Loom, my my last company.

20:11Speaker Yeah, let's just stop there one second. So you you built this um this uh talk about it. You built a tech product called Loom.

20:18 Yes. So Loom used to be a physical space in LA where we taught women's health classes across the spectrum, everything from like periods to uh perimenopause to sex and intimacy, um, to you know, pregnancy classes, um new parent classes, all of that. And um, I was encouraged by a dear friend uh to raise venture for what we were building in the space to see if we could solve for it at scale, because obviously there's this huge knowledge gap for women about their bodies.

20:48Speaker And so uh meaning like raise money, make a product so that people can log into their phones and get the education that you were offering in a in person, but you know across the country. That's right. Okay.

20:59 And so, you know, it was a really cool, hard process. I got very fortunate with the raising venture capital thing. Um, it just so happened that I was really natural at it. And I think that has more to do with the fact that so much of raising capital is really your ability to storytell about something that doesn't exist yet.

21:20 And so I I think a lot of times when people talk about raising capital or business, they they forget the creativity and the imagination and the storytelling and the orating that goes with all of that. Uh, which, you know, fortunately for me are just skills that I had that were helpful to, you know, bring Loom to life in a digital sense.

21:40 But learning about the fact that most apps are meant to habituate you, meaning they are meant to become a habit and something that you cannot do without, right? So I knew that really early. I got onto Instagram like 2012, like right when they started. And I'm grateful between 2012. 2012 and 2018, I was able to build a lot of my career there because at that time it really was a platform where you could build audience, share what you're working on.

22:09 Like even my first book, Nurture, the Chronicle Books, the editor there reached out to me on cold email and was like, we love the work you're putting out there about pregnancy and early motherhood. Would you want to write a book? Uh and so it was, it was just a very rich, supportive place. The years that I was on and able to meet so many incredible people working in the wellness, well-being space, etc.

22:34 But when we started building a tech product, I just understood what needed to happen in order for it to be good. And for it to be good, it needs to be sticky. And so when I think a lot about social media, I think about it in two ways. Firstly, I don't use TikTok. I go on TikTok when I need to find something.

22:54 Like I actually use it like a search engine. Like I was trying to figure out how to put my SD card in this new camera I got, and I was like, went on there for that, found a great 30-second video. I'm out. I never subscribed on to the high velocity scrolling forever uh product build of that product because to me it just felt so addicting.

23:16 Like so addicting. And the reason why TikTok is so exhausting at scale, like in your own life, like the more you use it, is because you're constantly context switching. There's a person with a lollipop, there's a person with a basketball, there's a get ready with me, there's someone at a waterfall. Your brain is not meant to go boop, pop, pop, pop, boop, pop, boop, pop, pop, pop.

23:40 Right.

23:40Speaker Yeah.

23:40 It it it and it's and what happens is when you're in that kind of like constant context switching, you kind of get into like a into almost a trance, into like a malaise, and it's hard to like get other things done because you're just searching for that next like hit, right?

23:58Speaker Yeah.

23:58 And same thing with Instagram. Like, I've never liked stories. I don't look at stories because I don't like the slot machine effect of like, I don't know what I'm gonna see next. Like for me, like my psychic constitution is like I need to sort of know what I'm gonna see next, which is why YouTube is a better platform for me, just because it's more long form and even their shorts, it's like once your algorithm gets in the right place, it's it's pretty generative and pretty helpful.

24:26 X is a good platform for me because I'm always researching and I find that I know. Well, basically, if you are interested in science and any kind of research information and wanting to keep up on technology, that is the place. But it's manageable for me because my algorithm is really, really good there.

24:43 Like I can find like what it is I'm looking for, whether I'm trying to find out if anyone's done like a new recent anemia study, I can like kind of get that information more there than I could anywhere else. But um, but yeah, I think the larger note is that all of these social platforms are designed to hook you, habituate you, and get you addicted.

25:03 And I think, you know, there's varying levels of addiction. And I think if being on social is a part of your job, then you know, so be it. But I really try to only interact with the platforms in a way that is more in a way that's attuned to my needs, meaning I'm not on stories, I don't I don't really look at the explore page.

25:28 I kind of go in and find the person or thing that I look for and I get out. I'm not because I just know for me, if I were to get a TikTok, I would be addicted to it. Like it's very clear that that's that would be my journey.

25:43Speaker When I was pregnant, I really did use prenatal multivitamins by ritual. Um they're like the actual supplement inside of oil, inside of a capsule, and it was very easy on my on my stomach. Um, I was really super sick during my first six months of pregnancy, and like it just um it didn't gross me out to drink, it didn't make me sick or feel anything.

26:07Speaker I actually just felt um taken care of and like I was getting what I needed, and like in a nice smooth entry with the oil. The oil, I I can't tell you why, but it just made the difference. Um, so highly recommend rituals prenatal vitamins, and you can go to ritual.com slash alana for 25% off your first month's order.

26:27Speaker That's ritual.com slash alana for 25% off your first month of prenatal vitamins by ritual. The way that you were able to have nuance around social media and emerging technology models for me, uh leading with curiosity and not fear, because I have so much fear right now. Um, maybe in the context of being a mom, but really in the context of myself, my own mental health every day.

26:50Speaker I kind of I I, you know, I have to be like a little more strategic, I think. And when I am, I'm happier. But like yesterday I was just like caught on it a little bit all day. And I find out like news and information there that I guess is useful or I think I'm glad I know this, but it just, it just is um so upsetting.

27:12Speaker So upsetting. And, you know, the non-consensual nature of big tech right now is is so um so completely overlapping the Venn diagram of the Epstein class and big tech and how it's uh penetrating our lives against our will. That's part of what's upsetting too. I've just been thinking, I've been thinking a lot about rape culture.

27:38Speaker That that was like a phrase, I feel like 10 years ago, that was like a little bit more um accessible to people 10, 15 years ago that like kind of dropped, you know? And but it it sounds harsh, but it's exactly true, like rape of the land, rape of the people literally, or of taking the resources, stolen labor, so all this shit.

27:58Speaker And, you know, right now I feel like it's such the the um the convergence of all the non-consent, whether it be in the literal individuals who are in the Epstein class, or the non-consensual, you know, nature of AI entering my search engine. I just wanted to like search on Google. I don't want Gemina telling me like what she thinks about shit.

28:21Speaker You know what I mean? It's like so, and like the um AI summaries and emails, like this is more shit going into my eyeballs that's taking up space in my brain that I don't want. It's feeling so upsetting to me. And it's feeling like the Venn diagram is completely overlapped. There's no like spread out.

28:39Speaker I'm I'm having trouble uh sifting through and finding nuance, and I really, really appreciate, even if I don't have the skill that you have to have nuance, I'm like Erica has it, and nuance exists there.

28:50 Yeah.

28:50Speaker You know, it's a relief to me.

28:52 Well, I really get all of that, and I think something I was saying the other day is that we're in the middle of an inflection point right now. And by that, I mean we really don't know what the next 15 to 20 years are going to look like versus I'd say 15, 20 years ago, at least for us because we're the same age.

29:12 I had a pretty good idea. Felt it felt like I knew how things could unfold. I feel like for our generation, we're living through truly unparalleled times. And to me, that just requires so much nuance, so much creativity, so much imagination, right? To me, like doomerism or doomsday energy is completely misogynistic.

29:38 It has no uh, it has no imagination. And I think if we as a culture start acknowledging the fact that Doomerism is male and men have created pretty much we can say it, an unlivable environment for women, then we can try to get on board with something that feels more neutral and radically optimistic and positive.

30:06Speaker You know, like that's and the the like the gag to me is also it's created an unlivable planet and life for most men. Yeah. I mean, it's like who this this patriarchy thing, like it's not working. It's not working at all. It's not working at all. It's so it's so destructive, it's so true. I totally find that doomsday shit.

30:29Speaker You're totally right, it's uncreative and it's so it is misogynistic.

30:32 Dodo. That's what it is.

30:35Speaker It's giving they're like, I'm gonna pwn you. That's what you know what I mean. And it's like, but you're not, you know what I mean? And you can try and you've done it actually, you've succeeded at times, but like ultimately you are not.

30:46 Yeah, you have to also think about it this way. You know, I studied um media and television and writing in college. That was my one major, and then the other major was art history and visual culture. And what we learnt about Noam Chomsky and Hegemy and how like narratives get built, like literally, as you probably have heard, if it if it bleeds, it leads, right?

31:08 And so so much of the media, whether you're getting it from your favorite TikTok journalist person or you're getting it from wherever you're getting it, it's all meant to antagonize. Like we would not have news if the news was positive. It's just not, it's just not the construct. So I think that it's really important to understand and identify like the best places to get your information.

31:33 And that's not to stay in a little like algorithmic bubble, but I think we have to understand that the negative narrative and consensus is very male-driven. And women are just downstream of that and tend to harness it and continue to perpetuate it. Because, for example, I love David Attenborough. You know, it's another sleeper moment for me.

31:58 We'll put him on, put Anthony on. Um, you know, men who have had a lot of privilege in their life and been able to travel and go to places and and and take things in. And that's not, I don't say privilege as a negative thing. I'm just saying, like in their lives, they've had this opportunity to take in the world and to know and see things that maybe other people don't.

32:18 Just like for real. Just like for real. And David Attenborough's newest documentary called Oceans is really phenomenal. And there's this moment in it where he talked about how little we understand about the oceans. And basically the ocean is space on earth, like in terms of everything we can see down there, right?

32:37 And what we have been able to see and what we're starting to be able to see. And one of the things in that documentary that I loved hearing and that I pinned and I I try to do a little bit more research when I can, is talking about the fact that these kelp forests or the the kind of like the green life below the sea could potentially help offset carbon eventually.

32:57 And it's not something that we knew enough about to factor into you know the modeling of it all. But I look, I heard that in the doc and I was like, wow, that's really good news. Yeah. Like, oh what? The ocean that and the ocean that we haven't actually seen the whole ocean, like not human eyes have not seen every bit of ocean on Earth.

33:16 And we still are learning so much about the ocean, but we're learning that maybe that's going to help. That's huge. Like it's truly like where you go look for your information. If you want to just stay in like the linear news and it's like climate change, it's super hot, it's hotter than it's ever been.

33:32 Half the time when we're talking about climate change, too, like, especially you say what happened in Europe this year, right? It was super hot, there are fires, that type of thing in the summer. And like, yes, the world is warming. We know that. But I think the things that we don't know is what are the solves, what are the remedies that have not even been made yet?

33:53 And I think when we when I think about AI in any capacity, I always am thinking, okay, from a science perspective, there's really interesting things going on around climate defense. Um, I could go into a bunch of detail about that. And I think also on the healthcare side with drug discovery and also just giving clinicians, doctors more time back potentially by having the support of notes beaten taken in a way that allows them to actually just be more in the human experience versus EMR and charting, which has destroyed the kind of interconnectivity of medicine.

34:31 It's much easier and it is a low intelligence endeavor to just be like everything is bad and it's all going to shit and there's nothing left.

34:40Speaker This is where you and I uh fight and fight. No, I'm just kidding. But like where we really disagree because with AI, I'm just like, I can't even look for a good thing about it. I cannot look for a good thing, but it is not the tools, it's who the tools are in the hands of. But it's really hard for me right now because that to me is like there's a bomb in their hands that I'm like, wait, get the bomb back, get it, get it back, give me the gun, give me the gun, give me the gun.

35:06Speaker Like that, I it's just it's hard for me, but I'm like uh to to be creative and effort to have nuance there. But I do hear you, and I like to know that your opinion is what it is, because it it at least is here for me. And I don't have to be you hold a space of non-doom. Yeah. For me that I I really appreciate.

35:27Speaker You know, just with the this show, it's open. Part of like why it's called that is because of the narrative being open for us to write. And it's like a practice for me to keep remembering it is open, it's not closed. Yes. And I I get this thing where like, you know, people think uh of who Alana Glazer is or who Alana Wexler is, that I I'm so positive in body, but it's a fucking defense mechanism.

35:54Speaker I'm I'm five foot one. You know what I mean? It's like and petite power though.

35:58 As another 5.15 foot person.

36:01Speaker Fully petite power. And like the thing is sometimes I do get like domed by this, I'm gonna fucking pwn you narrative that I'm like, god damn, girl, like you're falling for this. You know what I mean? You're falling for this. I I just appreciate your your take on it. It's I I really you model a lot for me as a friend that I you do for me, follow.

36:20Speaker Yeah. Um, so thanks for that. Yeah. And it's open. The narrative is fucking open for us to write. Like, you know, we I do think it's the the key is women like appointing ourselves to lead this moment and lead lead ourselves out of it um in a uh intersectionally feminist tone. Yeah, you know, it is just sort of it's just time.

36:45Speaker It's just time. I do feel like millennial women are the ones that have been able to get the chorus loud enough to be like, rape is wrong. You can't rape us anymore. Yeah, and you at least can't rape us without being called the fuck out on it. It's fucking disgusting. We're past it, and like figure out how to get laid consensually.

37:04Speaker Everybody else has had to. Figure it out. It's not easy. It's not easy, and it takes like effort and introspection. Figure it the fuck out. And like millennial women, it's just it's it's like the consciousness is just there. It's just too much for us to like let this go. Yeah, we have to and can is that that's what I mean.

37:24Speaker We can write this chip. Um, here's the hard pivot. You ready?

37:31 Ready.

37:32Speaker What do you think of HRT? As I stare down the barrel of uh pre-perimenopause, perimenopause, then menopause, I'm sort of drooling about it. What how about you?

37:42 I so what's interesting for me, and it's actually not left field, because if we are gonna be open and we're gonna write the path, like we need to have hormonal calibration in order to do that.

37:54Speaker Hey, I love, I love, I love it.

37:57 You know, I am super pro hormone replacement therapy. I think so. I think what's important though, and there's like I think there's a distinction that needs to start to enter the narrative. So menopause is one full year without bleeding. That's that's when you know you're there. And it takes about 10 years.

38:18 And in that 10-year process, and it can be shorter for some genetics, all of that play into it. Um, and it can start earlier for for and it can start earlier for some, depending on, again, genetics, lifestyle, all these different things. But perimenopause is really like in vogue right now. Everybody's talking about it.

38:38 But I think sometimes there's like a distinction issue, right? Hormone replacement therapy can be great, you know, it's going to vary from person to person. Like, what is the right kind of cocktail of hormones that's going to be helpful, whether it's testosterone or it's estradyl or you know, all of these different things.

38:56Speaker Wow.

38:57 But perimenopause means that you start to have some menopausal symptoms, but you're still having your period, right? Like that's the toggle. Like as you move towards menopause, you start to have these other strange symptoms, whether it's, you know, even anxiety can be a symptom of perimenopause or you know, night sweats, different things like that.

39:24 And so I think yeah, relaxed. Yeah. But my, you know, your sex drive can start to well, I actually don't believe in sex drives. I your desire and your arousal capability might start to really shift. And by that I mean like your ability to, you know, get wet or from a desire standpoint, even pull up sex is something that you want to do, whether it's with yourself or with your partner or whatever the case may be.

39:48 So I think that hormone replacement therapy can be helpful if you start to have a lot of unmanageable menopause-like symptoms whilst still getting a regular period. An intervention might be great. But if you are, say, 42, still aren't having any early signs of perimenopause, everything seems normal. I don't think it makes sense to be preventative and get ahead of it.

40:19 I think as soon as you start to see kind of a cadre of symptoms come up and you're like, I don't really like these things, and they're starting to be, they're starting to come into your life in a way where they're garnering a lot of your attention, there's a lot of preoccupation about these symptoms, maybe there's some catastrophizing about these symptoms.

40:37 That's when I think an intervention is helpful, right?

40:40Speaker And you're saying this because, or am I getting this right? I'm sensing that you're saying this about preventative care not being exactly the right thing to do because now that it's in vogue, people might be jumping to do HRT a little early. Correct.

40:53 And again, everybody, it's everything is not for everybody, and everything that is being put out there can be used at different stages of your life. So my thing is it's just really important to have a good relationship with your care provider, whoever that is, and just to really track the symptoms that you're having and then really ask yourself like, what is this manageable or not?

41:16 Right. Because at the end of the day, we're learning so much about the female body in terms of like from a physiological standpoint. You know, we are learning about new organs that are related to the ovary, like we didn't know about.

41:31Speaker Right, right, right.

41:32 You know, there's all these things happening. And so I always like to say when it comes to women's health and well-being, we have to be radically optimistic because we're finally having more traction in terms of getting more studies done and more women having more advocacy about how they want to take care of themselves.

41:50 And so those market pressures are going to continue to me to yield better and better tools, medications, opportunities for women to continue to take care of themselves as they get later in life. Because women outlive men, just statistically. You know, but also it works in both ways. You know, the lack of care that's offered to women in the culture globally is why the birth rate is so low.

42:17 You know, women actually feeling like they have enough infrastructure, both psychological, financial, uh, relational, their community being there for them. There's so many deficits that the upside, there is no upside right now of being a parent, unless you're unless the things that I just said, like you've got a great real relational uh component of your life.

42:41 You've got really good financial stability, right? Uh your mental health, you know, is is where it needs to be. Yeah. So so that's my thing. I'm very pro managing perimenopause, but I don't believe in aggressive management of it, right? I think that it really needs to be. Well, what I really think is women need to understand how to pay attention to their own vital signs, what to be looking for so that they can tell something is amiss.

43:14 I think like I think preventative perimenopause care seems a little interventionist to me. Copy that. But I'm not opposed. It's really just, and my approach to everything is always nuance. And I always feel when I talk to any woman, whether I'm doing coaching or if I'm teaching, or even when I'm writing things, my whole stance is whatever you want for yourself, I want that for you.

43:39 And so that's my approach. But I think just generally in terms of where the market is, I think what we really need to be doing is the education to normalize some of the things that happen in that 10-year stretch en route to menopause.

43:54Speaker Wow, that's so wild. A year of full one full year of non-bleeding, it could take 10 years to get there. Yeah.

44:00 And for some, it can take a year. It's really just depends. But just in terms of the fact that perimenopause really means you're still bleeding regularly, regularly-ish, and you're starting to have these menopausal symptoms. And so again, it's just wanting to figure out okay, what symptoms are really degrading my quality of life, you go after those first.

44:23 Versus, I think I need tea or I think I need progesterone or all these different things. It's they're all there and they can all be used. It's just making sure that you have the right care provider who's going to take more of like a tri-traded approach. Yeah. Dosing you in slowly and gently over time to meet your body, you know, wherever it's at.

44:44Speaker Even just you saying it's there, just like the thing of knowing that postpartum psychosis or postpartum IC OCD exists, it's such a relief, you know, just having that knowledge. Um, well, Erica, I am so grateful to be friends with you. Me too. You have so much information, but the way that you connect the dots is wisdom.

45:04Speaker It's knowledge and wisdom. And then the way you articulate it is just so beautiful. It has so much style. It's just such a joy. And um, just lastly, you lead with such a caring heart. So I'm I'm really excited for everybody to have some access to this wisdom of yours through your new YouTube channel, Bodied with Erica Chidi.

45:26Speaker And um, thanks for talking to me. Let's let's do it again soon.

45:29 Yes, please.

45:29Speaker I love you.

45:30 Love you.

45:33Speaker Thank you so much for joining us today. I really hope you got as much out of that conversation as I did. Thank you, Erica Chidi, for joining us. And be sure to check out Erica's YouTube page, Bodied with Erica Chidi. I want to thank um everybody who helped make this video podcast possible today. I want to thank David Rooklin, my husband and producer and co-creator.

45:53Speaker I want to thank uh my brain trust, that is Annika Carlson, Kelsie Kylie, Glennis Meagher, and Madeline Kim. And I want to thank Amanda Jane Stern, our producer, and Tovah Leibowitz, our editor. Uh, thank you, Raymo Ventura, for the intro musical sting and this beautiful branding, and Don Hur for the outro music.

46:10Speaker This has been a Starr Pix production. It is a human only made production. That is it. You can count on that. If you like this show, like and subscribe, comment. It makes a difference in us being able to bring it to you uh everywhere you podcast and or on YouTube. Um, thank you so much. See you next time on It's Open.

46:27Speaker Bye.