Sarah Carson APRN, FNP-C, IFMCP

01/05/2026

When the body does not feel safe, it cannot rest, digest, reproduce, or heal.

Chronic stress keeps the HPA axis activated and signals ongoing cortisol release.

While this response is protective in the short term, prolonged activation disrupts normal communication between the brain, adrenal glands, and other hormone systems.

👉🏼 Over time, this can contribute to sleep disruption, blood sugar instability, slowed digestion, increased inflammation, and hormonal imbalances that feel difficult to resolve.

This is why stress physiology is a foundational focus in functional medicine.

Supporting the HPA axis helps restore regulation across multiple systems rather than addressing symptoms in isolation.

This diagram breaks down how the stress response works and why prolonged stress can have such widespread effects.

📌 Save this post if stress feels like a key part of your health picture and you want to better understand what’s happening beneath the surface.

And comment any questions you have below! 💙

12/31/2025

Chronic stress doesn’t just make you feel tired.

It changes how your hormones function.

When stress is constant, the body prioritizes survival. Cortisol stays elevated, inflammation increases, sleep becomes disrupted, and communication between the brain, adrenal glands, and reproductive hormones becomes less efficient.

This is why hormone symptoms often persist even when nutrition and supplements are “dialed in.”

Supporting hormone health requires supporting stress capacity.
The tools in this post are free, accessible, and supported by research.

They work by calming the nervous system, improving cortisol rhythm, and restoring balance to the stress response.

You cannot supplement your way out of chronic stress.

But you can build resilience through daily, intentional practices.

If you’re experiencing fatigue, mood changes, irregular cycles, poor sleep, or persistent stress symptoms, this is often where the work needs to begin.

Save this post as a reminder that simple does not mean ineffective 💙

12/22/2025

Which one made you laugh because it felt a little too accurate? 😅

Perimenopause changes how the body handles stress, sleep, stimulation, and recovery.

This is driven by shifts in estrogen and progesterone, but also by how those hormones interact with cortisol, blood sugar regulation, and overall metabolic reserve.

That can show up as lighter sleep, lower tolerance for noise and small talk, stronger reactions to food, and a much shorter fuse in busy environments.

The holidays tend to amplify all of it.

From a functional medicine lens, this is less about willpower and more about total load. When the system has less reserve, the same inputs feel louder and more effortful.

Understanding what is changing makes it easier to adjust support instead of trying to push through the same way you always have 🩵

12/15/2025

In perimenopause, gut healing IS hormone support.

Hormone balance isn’t just about how much estrogen your body makes.

It’s about how efficiently it processes and clears it.

And one of the main systems responsible for that?

Your gut.

During perimenopause and menopause, it’s common to see functional shifts like:
👉🏼 slower digestion
👉🏼 reduced stomach acid
👉🏼sluggish bile flow
👉🏼 slower gut motility

These changes affect how estrogen moves through the body.

After estrogen is used, it’s sent from the liver into the gut to be eliminated.

But when digestion and elimination slow, that process can break down.

Instead of leaving the body, estrogen can be reabsorbed back into circulation, which is how hormone symptoms can worsen even when labs look “normal.”

This is why gut healing in perimenopause isn’t about throwing probiotics at the problem.

From a functional medicine perspective, the focus is on restoring digestive capacity, bile flow, motility, and microbial balance first.

When the gut works better, hormone clearance works better too 💙

12/08/2025

If you feel like your old nutrition habits “stopped working,” nothing is wrong with your discipline.

‼️ Your metabolism is responding to a new hormonal environment.

In your late 30s and 40s, progesterone declines first.

Ovulation becomes less predictable, and estrogen fluctuates before it eventually drops.

Those shifts change how your body uses glucose and stores energy.

Blood sugar swings faster, recovery takes longer, and late-night wake-ups become more common.

👉🏼 This is why “eat less and exercise more” backfires.

It increases cortisol, pulls more from your progesterone pathway, and can worsen symptoms like intense PMS, heavier cycles, bloating, mood swings, and fatigue.

✅ If you’re unsure where to start, personalized care is the most effective approach.

Your labs, symptoms, cycle changes, and metabolic patterns tell a clear story of what your body needs right now.

💫 Wild Fig specializes in root-cause treatment for perimenopause, including advanced hormone testing, nutrition strategy, and bioidentical therapy when appropriate.

Visit our website to learn more! 🩵

11/24/2025

Most women don’t realize the earliest signs of perimenopause show up in the brain long before there are any changes in their cycle.

👉🏼 This is why so many women spend years feeling “off” without anyone connecting the dots for them.

As progesterone declines and estrogen begins to fluctuate, it affects the areas of the brain that regulate mood, memory, sleep, energy, and stress.

These shifts can happen even when your labs look “normal” and your cycle hasn’t changed yet.

When we take a functional medicine approach, we look deeper at what is driving these early changes.

We explore nervous system shifts, cortisol rhythms, nutrient status, inflammation, gut and liver function, and sleep patterns to understand the full picture.

If you’re experiencing these symptoms and want a true root-cause evaluation, Wild Fig offers comprehensive functional testing and personalized care to help you understand what your body is telling you.

💙 Click the link in my bio to get started! 

11/17/2025

The FDA’s decision last week wasn’t “just another update.”

It quietly closed a 20-year chapter where women’s health was shaped more by fear than by evidence.

For two decades, women were making decisions about their bodies based on a study that didn’t reflect real-world menopause, didn’t use bioidentical hormones, and didn’t include the women who actually needed treatment.

That fear trickled into exam rooms.
It confused providers.

And it left millions of women white-knuckling through symptoms without real support.

This update is bigger than HRT.

It signals a shift toward evidence-based, individualized care, not blanket fear, outdated warnings, or “this is just aging.”

Menopause care should never feel like guesswork.

Your options shouldn’t be limited because of outdated interpretations.

And you shouldn’t have to advocate this hard to feel like yourself again.

At Wild Fig, we look at the full picture, your symptoms, labs, risks, history, and long-term goals.

When appropriate, we use bioidentical hormones as part of a medically supervised, root-cause plan that supports your heart, brain, bones, metabolism, and quality of life.

If you’re navigating perimenopause or menopause and want a provider who’s actually up to date (not 20 years behind), we’re here.

Head to wildfigfunctionalmedicine.com to schedule 💙

11/11/2025

I attribute much of the push back against mainstream medicine on the topic of HRT, specifically estrogen replacement therapy, to Peter Attia, MD. Thank you for your unbiased, scientific interpretation of the literature, and for your passion in educating the public about one of the largest injustices to women around the world.

11/10/2025

Long overdue, but thrilled to finally see this. This was a decades long injustice to women’s health and quality of life.

The Food and Drug Administration will remove the "black box" warning from hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products for menopause.

11/10/2025

Here’s the truth most people never hear 👇🏼

Your labs can look “normal” while your thyroid is still struggling.

Most conventional panels only test TSH, the signal your brain sends to your thyroid.

It’s one piece of the puzzle, but it doesn’t tell us:

🔺if your thyroid is actually producing enough hormones
🔺if those hormones are converting into their active form (T3)
🔺or why your thyroid might be slowing down in the first place

Sometimes it’s stress.
Sometimes it’s inflammation, nutrient deficiencies, or even early autoimmunity.

This is where functional medicine changes everything.

We go beyond the surface to understand what your body is really saying.

Your symptoms aren’t random. They’re signals.

💙 Learn more about our approach to thyroid health or schedule a complimentary discovery call through the link in bio.

11/03/2025

You shouldn’t have to convince anyone that something feels off in your body.

For so many of my patients, that’s where their story starts.

They’ve done “all the right things.”
They’ve seen every specialist.
They’ve taken the meds, changed their diet, maybe even felt better for a while…

But the fatigue, bloating, anxiety, or brain fog always seem to find their way back.

Not because they didn’t try hard enough.

But because no one ever stopped to ask why their body needed the medication in the first place.

That’s what we do differently at Wild Fig.

We find the fire, the root cause behind the symptoms, and build a plan that helps your body heal itself instead of just suppressing signals.

Because when you finally understand what your body’s trying to say, everything starts to make sense again.

🌿 If you’re ready to stop chasing temporary fixes and start healing on a deeper level, head to the Wild Fig website (link in bio) to schedule your complimentary discovery call 🩵

10/27/2025

At Wild Fig, we believe healing starts with the right team 🩵

Each of us found our way to functional medicine because we’ve lived what so many of our patients experience.

The frustration of feeling unheard.

The search for answers that never seem to come.

The deep desire to finally feel better.

Our team brings different specialties and personal stories, but we share one mission: to help you get to the root of what’s going on in your body and support you every step of the way.

🌿 We’re so excited to reintroduce ourselves and share the heart behind this practice.

Stick around to learn more about functional medicine and the Wild Fig way of healing.