Dr. Jen Pfleghaar: The Truth About Perimenopause, Sex & Hormones

This is StRest! Kerstin Lindquist sits down with Dr. Jen Pfleghaar, a board-certified family nurse practitioner, author of The Perimenopause Reset, and women’s health advocate whose work brings together faith, integrative health, and the realities of midlife. Dr. Jen explains why she believes symptoms such as anxiety, heart palpitations, difficult PMS, weight changes, and disrupted sleep can be signals that something deeper needs attention rather than issues women should simply cover up.

Dr. Jen opens up about her own spiritual journey and how she became deeply involved in yoga, meditation, Reiki, crystals, and other New Age practices while working in integrative medicine. She explains why she ultimately walked away from those practices, returned to Scripture, and began rethinking where she placed her identity as a doctor, mother, and professional.

The conversation turns to family, marriage, and the major changes Dr. Jen made after realizing the stress of running a brick-and-mortar medical practice was affecting her home life. She shares why she closed the practice, moved with her family to a small farm outside Nashville, shifted to virtual care, and began putting greater emphasis on her role as a wife and mother.

Kerstin and Dr. Jen also explore what they describe as spiritual warfare during perimenopause. Dr. Jen explains how changing hormones can leave women experiencing anxiety, isolation, weight gain, emotional changes, and symptoms they may never have faced before. She believes those vulnerable seasons make it especially important for women to protect what they consume mentally and spiritually and stay grounded in their faith.

They also get into the science and lifestyle factors that may affect how women experience perimenopause. Dr. Jen discusses progesterone decline, fluctuating estrogen, blood sugar, muscle mass, stress, genetics, liver health, alcohol, inflammation, and environmental exposures. She explains why two women can enter the same stage of life and have completely different experiences.

Kerstin gets personal about giving up alcohol after her husband became sober and how her own body began reacting differently to alcohol in her forties. She and Dr. Jen talk about replacing the ritual of drinking with coffee, tea, sparkling water, date nights, and other habits while acknowledging that sometimes what people miss is not the alcohol itself but the experience surrounding it.

The conversation becomes even more candid when Kerstin talks ab