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Perimenopause: The Season No One Prepared You For & How to Reclaim Your Balance

Angel Turlington, WHNP-BC, Bio-Indentical Hormone Specialist

If you’re a woman in your late 30s, 40s, or early 50s and suddenly feeling “off,” you’re not imagining it.

Mood swings. Anxiety. Weight gain. Poor sleep. Brain fog. Fatigue. Low libido. Irregular cycles. New food sensitivities. A sense that your body no longer responds the way it used to.

Welcome to perimenopause.

Perimenopause is the transitional phase before menopause when your ovaries begin producing hormones inconsistently. Estrogen and progesterone start fluctuating, sometimes dramatically—often years before your periods stop. This hormonal roller coaster impacts nearly every system in your body: your brain, metabolism, gut, skin, sleep, and emotional resilience.

Yet most women are never properly educated about this phase.

At Southeast Aesthetic + Wellness, my mission is to change that.

As a board-certified Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner and owner of a medical wellness practice serving women since 2002, I’ve walked alongside thousands of women through this transition. My approach blends evidence-based medicine with functional and integrative care, because perimenopause deserves more than a “just deal with it” attitude.

Why Progesterone Matters in Perimenopause

One of the earliest and most common changes in perimenopause is declining progesterone.

Progesterone is your calming, sleep-supporting, mood-balancing hormone. When it drops, women often experience:

• Insomnia or restless sleep
• Increased Cortisol
• Increased anxiety
• PMS that feels worse than ever
• Irritability
• Heart Palpitations

This is why I developed About Time Progesterone Cream—a carefully formulated, bioidentical progesterone support designed to gently restore balance during this transition. When used appropriately and monitored clinically, progesterone can be a powerful tool for restoring emotional and physical stability.

The Gut–Hormone Connection

What many women don’t realize is that your gut plays a major role in hormone balance.

Your microbiome helps regulate estrogen metabolism, inflammation, detoxification, and immune health. When the gut is compromised—through stress, antibiotics, poor digestion, or inflammation—hormone symptoms often worsen.

That’s why my perimenopause programs at Southeast Aesthetic + Wellness always address:

• Gut health testing and healing
• Nutrient optimization
• Inflammation reduction
• Mitochondrial support
• Stress and cortisol regulation
• Personalized hormone balancing

Hormones never exist in isolation. True healing happens when we treat the whole system.

A Different Approach to Midlife Health

Perimenopause is not the beginning of decline. It is an invitation. An invitation to learn your body on a deeper level. To shift from survival mode into sustainable vitality. To build health that supports your next decades, not just your next month. My work is centered on helping women feel confident, informed, and empowered in their bodies again. You deserve answers. You deserve personalized care and you DESERVE to feel like yourself again.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

If you’re experiencing symptoms of perimenopause and want clinical guidance with a compassionate approach, I invite you to schedule a virtual consultation.

Together, we’ll explore your hormones, gut health, lifestyle, and goals—and create a customized plan through our Hormone Balance and Gut Healing Programs.

You don’t have to navigate this season alone.

Visit Southeast Aesthetic + Wellness to book your virtual consultation and begin your journey back to balance, clarity, and confidence.

Because midlife is not about fading.

It’s about rising.

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As a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner, I’ve helped countless patients break free from the painful cycle of chronic UTIs. Here are some tips to get you started.

Master Your Hydration

Stay hydrated to flush more harmful bacteria from your system when you urinate. Speaking frankly, most women tend to put off peeing until the last possible minute. This increases your chance of getting a UTI — so listen to your body! Drink a lot of water and urinate as soon as you have the urge.

I always encourage EVERYONE to add minerals and electrolytes to 8 ounces of water everyday. This is a great option for men, women and children: Electrolyte Synergy.

Nurture Your Microbiome

Keep your gut and vaginal flora healthy with a diet low in sugar and high in fiber, especially from leafy green vegetables consumed every day. Almost NONE of us get enough prebiotic fiber. I personally use a prebiotic called PhytoBiome.

Embrace Fermented Foods

Eat fermented dairy products three times per week, such as yogurt, which was shown in one study to dramatically reduce the likelihood of getting UTIs. Low-sugar yogurt is an excellent choice that’s easy to incorporate into your daily routine.

Restore Balance After Antibiotics

Repopulate your gut flora after antibiotic use. Start taking a high-quality probiotic like ProbioMed to replace healthy gut flora that the antibiotic annihilated. Keep taking the probiotic to maintain balance and repopulate your digestive system, vaginal system and whole body with healthy bacteria. The more you encourage healthy flora to grow, the less likely it is that disruptive bacteria and yeast can reproduce and cause symptoms.

Harness the Power of Cranberries

The special compounds in cranberries — cranberry d-mannose — can dramatically reduce the colonization and growth of bacteria in urine, preventing UTIs as well as being an important part of treating an infection. You can use cranberry extract and juice, or look for a cranberry d-mannose supplement like this one. Start taking it at the first sign of a UTI developing.

Consider Your Birth Control Options

Let’s talk about something many medical professionals don’t discuss: the relationship between birth control and UTIs.

The use of oral contraceptives doubles the risk of UTI, and the use of diaphragms and spermicides doubles the rate of UTI compared to oral contraceptives! So if you’re using these and getting UTIs, consider another form of birth control, including condoms and my favorite, the OURA ring, which tracks your body temperature. This is a fabulously effective way to prevent pregnancy, but it will not be as effective if you have irregular periods.

If you’re using barriers and want to continue, great! Just be sure to remove the devices and ALWAYS urinate after any sexual activity. And don’t forget the vagina is not intended to be over-cleansed with soaps — this can affect pH and cause other issues!

Up Your Vitamin C Intake

Finally, you also want to get some Vitamin C. Studies show Vitamin C enhances the release of nitric oxide in the urine and this has antimicrobial effects against three of the most common urinary bacteria that cause UTIs. I generally recommend a liposomal form, like Hit The Lights. I love Vitamin C because it is not only great for your immune system, but it also makes your skin GLOW — and who doesn’t want that??

I see women struggling with UTIs in my office all too often, and I want you to know you don’t have to just “live with it.” If you’re tired of worrying about UTIs or just want to chat about your wellness goals, let’s have a chat!

Yours Truly,
Angel Turlington, WHNP

The post Preventing Chronic UTIs — 7 Things a Doctor Wants You to Know appeared first on Southeast Aesthetic + Wellness.

When you think about radiant skin and hair, the first associations that come to mind are often topical products, such as moisturizers, sunscreens, shampoos, and conditioners. But beautiful skin and lustrous hair aren’t just about what you apply on the outside. Although quality products and treatments play a part, healthy hormonal balance also has a critical role in achieving a healthy glow from the inside out.

Understanding this internal-external connection can transform your beauty and wellness routine. At Southeast Aesthetic + Wellness, we take a holistic approach to helping you discover your “Best Self”. We offer a suite of aesthetic treatments and hormone balancing services that support the physiology of clear, radiant skin and strong, luxurious hair.

How Do Hormones Affect Skin?

Your skin is your body’s largest organ, and it acts like a mirror that reflects your internal health. The intricate relationships between internal factors, including the interactions of your various hormones, show up on your skin’s canvas.

Hormones are so influential because they are your body’s chemical messengers that convey information from one set of cells to another. They orchestrate countless processes that affect your skin health, including:

• Elasticity and firmness
• Sebum (oil) production
• Cellular turnover
• Inflammation
• Hydration
• Pigmentation

Skin Health & Estrogen

Estrogen may be best known as a reproductive hormone, but it also may be associated with supporting the skin’s barrier function, moisture retention, thickness, and wound healing. This is one reason why you see differences in your skin as you get older and your estrogen levels drop.

Estrogen deficiency may prompt undesirable skin changes, such as dryness, atrophy, impaired wound healing, decreased blood flow, and the loss of elasticity. The breakdown of collagen and elastin fibers can lead to more visible fine lines and wrinkles.

Skin Health & Progesterone

Progesterone is another hormone that may play a supportive role in healthy skin development and composition. Working through specific receptors (PR-A and PR-B), progesterone may influence:

• Keratinocytes — the primary type of cells found in the epidermis
• Fibroblasts — cells important for collagen production, wound healing and connective tissues
• Sebaceous glands — responsible for the skin’s oil production and moisture retention

Skin Health & the Menstrual Cycle

Have you noticed your skin behaves differently throughout the month? There’s a scientific reason for it. Hormonal fluctuations during your menstrual cycle can trigger a variety of skin responses.

Fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone may be associated with perimenstrual cutaneous reactions, such as autoimmune dermatitis, acne, eczema, rosacea, urticaria, and psoriasis. The fluctuations in hormones can cause a melanocyte-stimulating hormone, and excess estrogen may stimulate melanogenesis, which may contribute to premenstrual hyperpigmentation! Who knew?

During the second phase of the menstrual cycle, excess progesterone may contribute to increased vascularity and sebum production, which can lead to what we may call rosacea and the dreaded adult acne (yuck!).

Skin Health & Menopause

The hormonal shifts of menopause bring unique challenges for your skin. As your levels of estrogen and progesterone decline, your skin may lose structural integrity. It may become drier and more susceptible to damage, as well as slower to heal and renew itself.

During menopause, estrogen and progesterone could play a supportive role for healthier skin development and composition by promoting moisture retention and collagen synthesis.

How Do Hormones Affect Hair?

Hormonal balance may also impact hair physiology and health. For example, estrogen may play a key role in the hair cycle by promoting the anagen phase. This is the active stage when hair follicles produce hair fibers and the hair grows. Conversely, androgens (testosterone and dihydrotestosterone) may inhibit scalp hair growth.

Menopause-related hormonal fluctuations may also contribute to a reduction in the hair diameter and a faster transition from the anagen phase to the telogen resting phase, when hair strands remain in their follicles but stop growing. This may lead to a shorter hair-growth period and chronically increased hair loss.

Solutions for Hormone-Related Skin and Hair Changes

If this sounds no fun, we agree and that’s why we are here to help!

Hormone Balancing

Angel Turlington is now offering hormone supportive services to bring your body back into balance. Our bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) program restores your natural hormone balance using plant-derived compounds that closely match your body’s own hormones.

Your journey begins with thorough hormone testing through blood, saliva, or urine analysis to measure your current levels. Based on these results, we create a personalized treatment plan that may include:

• Customized topical creams and gels for gradual absorption
• Convenient patches for steady hormone release
• Long-lasting pellet therapy for consistent delivery over several months

We complement your BHRT regimen with lifestyle guidance to optimize your results, focusing on nutrition, exercise, stress management, and sleep quality. Regular follow-up appointments ensure your treatment evolves with your changing needs.

Aesthetic Treatments

While BHRT works from within, our aesthetic treatments enhance your results from the outside. These are a few of the treatments you may wish to consider if you are in perimenopause or menopause:

• Exosome Hair Treatment and Serum — stimulate natural hair growth and thickness using powerful cellular messengers
• BBL Hero and Moxi Treatments — advanced light-based treatments to improve skin texture, tone, and radiance
• Hyperdilute Radiesse — natural-looking volume restoration and collagen growth with a biostimulatory injectable

Recommended Products

Each product in our carefully curated collection works synergistically with our treatments to enhance and maintain your results. Our team can help you select the perfect combination for your needs and treatment goals. A few of our favorite products for hair and skin are:

• Hair and Skin Collagen, available at Southeast
• About Time Progesterone cream with magnesium, vitamin D, available only at Southeast — $65
• Fem-Guard + Balance — $58.99

SHOP SKINCARE

Take Control of Your Hormone Health

Southeast Aesthetic + Wellness is a premier destination for aesthetic and wellness treatments. Our hormone specialist, Angel Turlington, WHNP-BC, offers personalized consultations to help you navigate these changes and develop a tailored treatment plan.

Ready to discover how balanced hormones can transform your skin and hair? Contact Southeast Aesthetic + Wellness in Clayton, NC, today to schedule your consultation. You can reach our team through our online form, or by phone at (984) 249-2514.

The post The Role of Hormones in Skin and Hair Health appeared first on Southeast Aesthetic + Wellness.

This is the real power of individualized weight loss treatment—not just in its offering of medical-grade weight loss solutions, but in its completely customizable and personal approach.

At Southeast Aesthetic + Wellness of Clayton, NC, we offer fully tailored weight loss programs that are as unique as you are. From your initial evaluation on, we will ensure every aspect of the treatment directly and holistically addresses both your body’s needs and your goals.

But what exactly do weight loss programs look like in the med spa world, and how can they be customized? Read on for a complete overview of all things custom weight loss, including how our team at Southeast Aesthetic + Wellness approaches this potentially life-changing med spa service.

What Do We Mean By “Custom Weight Loss”?

Especially for the many people jaded by the never-ending tide of generic and gimmicky weight loss products out there, we understand that a weight loss plan that actually takes your body and your circumstances into account may seem a bit foreign. Still, this is what medical weight loss is—a patient-centered approach to weight loss that tailors a full suite of treatments towards each person’s unique makeup.

At the beginning of each customized plan, we rely both on lab work and your input (through questionnaires) to comprehensively evaluate your metabolism, overall health status, and various subjective factors (goals, relationship with food, lifestyle/habits, etc.) to provide the basis for an informed treatment approach.

Then, we collaborate with you to establish which services will be most effective. Importantly, an effective custom weight loss program is responsive. Your progress and feedback are closely monitored to inform any needed adjustments.

Our Custom Weight Loss Treatments and Their Benefits

Southeast Aesthetic + Wellness offers a broad range of med spa weight loss services, including, but not limited to:

• Gut Testing and Optimization
• Body Contouring Treatment
• Nutritional Counseling
• 30-Day Reset Program
• Weight Loss Injections
• Peptide Therapy

Thanks to the quality and variety of these services, weight loss is just one of several potential benefits of a consistently upheld program. Optimizing your nutritional intake alone can improve focus, energy, digestion, mood, and much more.

We encourage all of our custom weight loss patients to consistently reflect and report on how they actually feel (beyond simply checking the scale) to support these positive changes as well.

How Our Custom Weight Loss Process Works

During or shortly after the aforementioned initial visit, in which your lab work and medical history will help to form a basis for treatment, we will assign you to a Wellness Coach. Your coach is there to provide any advice and/or support you need to consistently maintain your diet and exercise plan.

If applicable, you will also be started on prescription weight loss medications in the earlier phases of treatment. We will clearly establish the “take-home components” of your treatment, ensuring you are completely confident regarding what to do and how/when to do it.

From this point on, your progression will be closely monitored as you report to regular follow-up appointments and stay in touch with our team. If any issues arise with one or more aspects of the treatment, or if an additional service becomes more relevant, we will make any and all adjustments needed to maximize effectiveness.

Tips for Success With Custom Weight Loss

Ideally, patient and provider will come together early on in the weight loss program to assess any potential barriers to success, which are unique for each patient. That said, there are many common themes echoed among successful cases, including the following:

Set realistic standards. Especially if your diet and exercise regimen are less than stellar at the outset, nobody is going to benefit from extremely radical changes in these areas. Challenge is great, but highly radical changes simply are not sustainable in the long-term scenario. Together with your provider, it’s important to incorporate realistic goals and self-forgiveness into the process.

Meditate on your relationship with food. For some people, simply taking a moment to reflect on what triggers certain eating behaviors can make a world of difference in habit reformation. For others, counseling might be the most beneficial way to restore a healthy relationship with food.

Understand your body. While generally true, the age-old “calories in versus calories out” prescription doesn’t paint a very clear picture for people struggling to lose weight despite their continued efforts. We will help you to identify and address the physiological reasons behind your body’s resistance to weight loss.

Achieve and Maintain Life-Changing Results With Southeast Aesthetic + Wellness of Clayton, NC

The first and greatest change you can make when it comes to finally losing that stubborn weight is to rethink the entire paradigm. It’s time to stop focusing on this product or that diet. It’s time to take your entire physiological makeup into account, alongside your subjective desires and mental health.

At Aesthetic + Wellness, we are deeply passionate about our personalized fat loss solutions because we understand the frustration of trying to lose weight to no avail, and the incredible confidence boost of finally getting there.

We’re here to bridge that gap for you with an effective, industry-leading custom weight loss program. Contact our office for a weight loss consultation and give your weight loss journey the kick it needs!

The post How To Achieve Your Health Goals With Custom Weight Loss Services appeared first on Southeast Aesthetic + Wellness.

Signs that you may be deficient in Magnesium: 

• Muscle Cramps or Eye Twitching
• Irregular or Disturbed Sleep
• Persistent Irritability or Mood Change
• Unexplained Fatigue
• Increased Anxiety or Stress
• Increased Bruising or Lingering Bruises

Why Magnesium Glycinate?

When it comes to choosing the right magnesium supplement, not all forms are created equal. Magnesium Glycinate stands out for its high bioavailability, meaning it’s easily absorbed by the body. This makes it an excellent choice for supporting restful sleep and calming the nervous system. It’s also gentle on the stomach, making it a great option for those looking to improve digestion without discomfort.

Other Magnesium Forms for Optimal Health

While Magnesium Glycinate is ideal for sleep and anxiety reduction, other forms such as Magnesium Citrate can help with digestive health by relieving constipation. Magnesium Malate is another excellent option for energy production and reducing muscle discomfort. No matter your needs, magnesium has the versatility to support a range of health goals.

Why Choose Designs for Health?

Here at Southeast Aesthetic & Wellness, we trust Designs for Health, a company that has spent over 30 years creating physician-grade supplements that are trusted by healthcare professionals. As a family-owned business, their passion for quality and high bioavailability drives everything they do. All of their products are made right here in the USA with the highest standards for purity and effectiveness. A few of our favorite Magnesium products from DFH include:

• Magnesium Glycinate Complex
• TriMag Supreme Night
• NeuroMag
• Magnesium Chelate

Ready to Feel the Difference?
Take the next step toward better health today with our premium magnesium supplements, shipped straight to your door at 20% off. Simply click the link below and use code SOUTHEAST to start your journey with Designs for Health and experience the power of magnesium for yourself.

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