Heather gets together with Dr. Shabnam Sarshar – phytopharmacist, PhD in pharmaceutical biology and phytochemistry, and certified endocannabinoid medicine specialist – to pull back the curtain on a woman’s most overlooked hormonal partner in her body: the endocannabinoid system (ECS).

Like a soundboard running beneath every organ from head to toe, the ECS doesn’t just regulate sleep, mood, and pain — it’s in constant, bidirectional conversation with estrogen, mirroring it receptor for receptor across the very systems that go haywire in perimenopause.

If your moods are swinging without warning, your sleep is shot, your brain feels like it’s buffering, and nobody has given you a satisfying answer — this episode names the missing piece and hands you something you can actually start doing about it.

Conversations include

The Bliss Molecule You’re Running Low On — Anandamide – Sanskrit for *bliss* – surges with estrogen at ovulation and crashes with it in perimenopause. Dr. Shabnam explains why the ECS, not just the ovaries, is driving the mood, pain, and sleep chaos of the perimenopause years.

Why Men and Women Don’t Share the Same ECS — Receptor distribution, endocannabinoid tone, and how women metabolize THC into stronger, longer-lasting metabolites — sex-specific biology that most practitioners have never been taught.

2-AG, Orgasm, and Depression — The second major endocannabinoid, 2-arachidonoylglycerol, spikes after orgasm and is significantly depleted in women with major depressive disorder — a finding that reframes both pleasure and mental health as ECS territory.

High-THC Culture and the Overloaded System — What chronic high-dose THC actually does to ECS receptor sensitivity over time, why perimenopausal women are hitting the wall faster than they expect, and the case for never needing flower above 20% THC.

The Simplest ECS Reset You Can Start Today — The omega-3/omega-6 fatty acid ratio is the raw material your body uses to manufacture anandamide and 2-AG — and the Western diet is wrecking it. Dr. Shabnam’s most practical, no-prescription takeaway.

Tune in to recalibrate your understanding of what perimenopause is actually doing — and walk away with the science that turns confusion into agency, and symptoms into signals you finally know how to read.

About Dr. Shabnam Sarshar

Dr. Shabnam Sarshar is a phytopharmacist and women’s health strategist specializing in cannabinoid science and female-specific physiology. With a PhD in Pharmaceutical Biology and Phytochemistry, and certifications in Endocannabinoid Medicine and Natural Women’s Medicine, she has spent over a decade across pharmaceutical research, medical advisory, and women’s health entrepreneurship.

Her career pivot into cannabinoid science began in a Berlin-based medical cannabis company, where she led two landmark projects: a pharmaceutical compounding kit designed to improve clinical cannabis formulations (including vaginal suppositories and ocular preparations), and a research initiative investigating cannabinoid-based therapeutics for endometriosis. That work launched her deep investigation into the endocannabinoid system’s role in female-specific biology.

Her work translates complex hormonal and sex-specific biological mechanisms into clinically actionable insights for research, product development, and medical education, and she advises medical and wellness companies on women-focused innovation. She is the founder of The Recalibration, a platform redefining midlife as a biological recalibration, not a decline.