The Modern Woman Pattern

In my practice, and on a day-to-day basis, I see that the modern woman is burnt out. She’s overwhelmed. She’s juggling everything — career, kids, relationships, daily to-do lists, all the responsibilities. Everyone comes before her. From an emotional point of view, she is the main carer. Everything comes before herself, and she’s doing all of this while also feeling pressure to look good and hold it all together. There’s this extra pressure: “I’m doing all the things, I can’t manage, I’m overwhelmed — and I also need to look really good.” This creates a disconnect. The pressure is enormous. I see women from their 20s through their 40s with a range of symptoms: low energy, fatigue, irregular or painful cycles, PMS, mood swings, sleep disturbances. I see weight gain or difficulty losing weight, hair loss, sugar cravings. Some women feel addicted to sugar or find themselves binging in the evenings. Many have digestive issues, allergies, low libido, or very low stress resilience. Many are constantly freezing cold. These symptoms are our hormones trying to get our attention. In our 20s and 30s, we might experience some of these signals, but they’re usually less intense. Once we move into our 40s, things often come to a halt. This is because major shifts are happening — including perimenopause and more frequent anovulatory cycles. The hormones that were quietly trying to alert us before — that something about how we live isn’t aligned with our physiology — become louder. Symptoms often worsen during this time. If you’re a midlife woman, you’ve probably seen countless pieces of advice and solutions: cut this out, avoid that, try this diet, follow this plan. It becomes overwhelming to figure out what actually works. Something I see often is that what used to work in our 20s and 30s — a certain diet or exercise routine — suddenly stops working in our 40s. The tricks and systems that helped us before simply don’t work anymore. This leaves many women confused. And from a nutrition point of view, the modern woman is often skipping meals — especially breakfast — and eating erratically throughout the day. I see a lot of women intermittent fasting, or experiencing big energy swings. Many say they’re “good during the week,” and then everything falls apart on the weekends. There’s a lot of yo-yo dieting. Some women are living off coffee, or adopting extreme diets like keto, carnivore, or vegan that cut out whole food groups. Others are skipping meals unintentionally — eating on the run, finishing their kids’ plates because they don’t have time to make their own food. Many avoid dairy, carbohydrates, or animal proteins because they’ve been told those foods are “bad.” And I also see women who feel like they’re doing everything right, but things still aren’t working. Their hormones feel out of control. Their bodies are changing. They gain weight despite effort. This happens because, in perimenopause, our cycles become more erratic and we have less of the protective hormones like progesterone — which impacts metabolism, stress resilience, and emotional steadiness. Losing progesterone also affects the brain and nervous system, reducing our ability to cope with stress and increasing risk of anxiety, depression, and memory issues. It impacts sleep as well. Everything we’ve been doing up until now affects our hormones. And when we reach perimenopause with fewer protective hormones, these symptoms become more intense. This is what I see daily — in clients, in friends, in women my age. So many of us fit the picture of the modern woman: overwhelmed, depleted, undernourished, and trying to push through symptoms that are simply the body asking for support.