84: Dr. Tiffany Lester: The Biomarkers Women Should Track Before Symptoms Escalate

You can be told your labs are "normal" while still dealing with fatigue, hair loss, weight changes, brain fog, or feeling like something is clearly off. Sometimes the bigger issue is that the right markers were never tested in the first place, or that falling inside a wide reference range does not tell the whole story.

In this episode of Hello Hormones with Dr. Carrie Jones, Dr. Tiffany Lester and I break down the biomarkers women should know before and during perimenopause, including ferritin, fasting insulin, thyroid markers, ApoB, testosterone, inflammation, and more.

Dr. Tiffany Lester is a board-certified integrative medicine physician and the Women's Health Medical Director at Function, where she leads the clinical strategy for women's health. If you have ever been told everything looks "fine" on paper while you still do not feel like yourself, this episode will help you understand what else may be worth looking at and what questions to start asking.

What's Discussed:

(1:22) Why persistent fatigue deserves more investigation than "you're just getting older."

(3:30) Why ferritin can be low even when you are not technically anemic.

(5:37) Why fasting insulin is worth tracking before perimenopause.

(9:21) Why blood sugar and insulin can become harder to manage as hormones shift.

(15:59) What an expanded cholesterol panel can reveal beyond basic LDL and HDL.

(20:59) Why free and total testosterone matter for women in midlife.

(27:02) The thyroid markers Dr. Lester considers essential beyond TSH.

(28:43) When ANA testing may help uncover an autoimmune issue.