April is Stress Awareness Month. Every woman has been told to “manage stress” without ever being told what stress is actually doing to her body or how to measure it. The adrenal and stress-response conversation has moved dramatically forward in the past decade, and markers now exist that give real, actionable insight into what chronic stress has done and where recovery stands.
This session covers stress physiology as a measurable system. We’ll walk through cortisol testing (which is more nuanced than most single-point tests suggest), the emerging markers that reveal HPA axis dysfunction, and the connection between chronic stress, hormone health, sleep, and cognitive function. If you’ve been told your stress hormones are “normal” while still feeling depleted, wired-and-tired, or unable to recover from ordinary demands, this session gives you the framework to push for a proper stress physiology assessment.
Standard of care markers we’ll cover include single-point serum cortisol, standard TSH thyroid screening, and basic hormone panels. Emerging markers include 4-point salivary cortisol curve, DUTCH testing (dried urine total hormones and cortisol metabolites), DHEA-S in the context of adrenal function, comprehensive HPA axis assessment, and the specific hormone-cortisol interactions that shift at perimenopause.
You’ll leave with a much more sophisticated understanding of what stress is doing at a physiological level, the specific tests to request beyond a single blood cortisol, and the framework for a conversation with your physician about adrenal and stress recovery.
