Episode 13 - Katie (Speaking up for your care in peri/menopause & beyond)

Join me in discussing Katie's journey to getting the care she needed and her experience with GLP-1s.

If you are interested in working with Katie: https://katierubin.com/

Erin is the creator and host of Menopause Chats. She is also a somatic and intuitive coach who helps women in the in-between live with more magic and intention through her signature approach The 5 Cs of Becoming Her. More information at: www.pauseandalign.com

The stories shared in Menopause Chats are not intended as medical advice, but for information and entertainment. Please seek a medical professional for specific advice regarding your menopause journey. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hi everyone. Welcome to Menopause Chats. I'm Erin D'Arusca. I am delighted to have uh someone new to me join. I love when I get to do them and I don't actually know the person. I've had a lot of them where I know the people. So it's even better in some ways when I don't know the people because then I get to actually learn about somebody new. So I get to we all get to learn today about Katie and her story. So thank you, Katie, for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Thanks for having me. Really glad you're doing what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Thank you. So tell us where are you on your journey?

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Well, let's see. Uh one, two, probably three years ago. I'm 48 years old. About three years ago, a bunch of things shifted all of a sudden in my body, and I didn't think anything of it because I was just living my life, and I thought, you know, my sex drive has been kind of a problem in my life. So it's kind of nice that all of a sudden it's just gone. I thought, like, well, this is a relief. Like for me and my particular life circumstances, it was kind of nice. I just all of a sudden didn't care about dating, all of a sudden didn't miss anybody, just felt good being solo. That went on for about a year. Then I got back together with my long-term partner who I've been with since. And we moved in together. And about, I don't know, probably about a year after I moved in, I was living in on the East Coast and I came back to California where I'd been living for 20 years. And I don't know, nine months to a year into being back together, all of a sudden I had all of these wild symptoms in my body all at one time. And for a little bit of context for what how it went for me, my whole life has been sort of like a healing journey. Um, I work as a healer, that's my profession, and I do sort of deep uh trauma healing work with people using sort of, I call them off-grid energy healing techniques. So I use a system called NET, another one called EFT, I use EMDR, I use divine light transmission, I use a lot of tools with people to like dig out the deepest trauma. I also teach a system called human design, which is like a really fancy sort of, you might know it, complicated personality and soul typing system. Anyway, um, I all of that is to say I've had a lot of experience with weird stuff going on in my body and all of it being trauma related. So I'm very used to like, oh, another thing's up for me to process with my weird off-grid healing techniques. I'll just get busy doing that. So I was working with all the things I know to do, which are very, I'm lucky because the tools I have are very powerful and they work. Nothing was working. And I was feeling, I'll describe how I was feeling. I felt hopped in the center of my chest only, in a way that like felt, I always describe it like it felt like physical heat combined with rage, but directed at everything and about nothing. I would have intermittent hot flashes that were so sudden and out of nowhere, and also like months would go by with none, that I'd be in a target and I'd be stripping my shirt off, going, This can't be a hot flash. I'm 47. How this is this a hot flash? Just getting naked in the target and going like, I probably should not do this. I need a bathroom. And then it would pass, and I'd be like, Don't people who have hot flashes like it happens all the time and you know it's coming? I don't, I didn't know anything. So that then it turned into um lots of pain in the downstairs region, just standing still, just pain, standing still. And then they say brain fog. I don't experience it like a fog, I experience it like there's no machine in here anymore. Nothing happens, nothing stays, I don't know anything anymore. It doesn't feel like a fog, it's like emptiness, which is kind of nice, frankly. Um, and then one day, here's the long and short of it. I was riding my e-scooter, listening to a podcast randomly about other topics, and they had, excuse me, Dr. Mary Claire Havert on, who I think is a lifesaver, a game changer, a change agent, thank God for her. She came on to some podcast, I can't even tell you what I was listening to at the time, and she said, all of the symptoms, she was like, women don't know, so I'm telling everybody. Do you feel this, this, this, this, and that? All of that is hormone related. And I listened to the entire podcast, and she taught me about how all of the organs in the body apparently have hormone receptors. Nobody ever told me that, including my brain and my heart and Alzheimer's is related to this and everything, everything. And I had one of those experiences where I'm scooting around town and it all just clicked, and I went, almost every problem I've been having physically, because I've also had period problems my whole adult life, clearly is hormone related. And I was brainwashed like everybody else was with the news that we got 20 years ago or whatever it was, that everybody was gonna die of cancer if you got on HRT. And so I was like, Well, I can't get on, uh-huh. So that was just written off years ago. So here she is re-educating me. No, most people don't die of cancer from hormone replacement therapy. That was incorrect information that was misinterpreted by the W, whoever, whoever. No, you're not gonna, you know, she just debunked everything, literally named all of my weird symptoms. Let me say this for anybody listening who might be going through this. Another weird symptom I had that came out of nowhere that made no sense is maybe you've heard this before. I had never experienced it a feeling of little bugs. I felt like there were little tiny bugs in my scalp and on my skin, like all of a sudden I'm like smacking my arm. There was nothing there. Little bitey, kind of like I was like, Am I covered in bugs? What is happening?

SPEAKER_00 6:08

I get the like the leg version that feels like electric, like little electric pulses. Ugh.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Thank you, nature. So she listed that, and I I had hadn't even thought to include that. I just thought like some weird things going on with my skin. Who knows, you know. So anyway, that sort of e-scooter ride changed my life. And then I the the next layer of the story is the story of trying to get treatment, which I did I could happily tell you that story, but that's like a whole other treat story.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Yeah, no, I'd love to hear it because it is like I I think a lot of people have similar. I'm I'm I'm going to assume you didn't maybe have you probably weren't heard.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

What a surprise, right? So again, I have history with the medical system already, like lots and lots of medical system history, whereby part of what I do in the world is because of how uh badly heard and supported I was in my 20s and early 30s when I really needed some help. And people just uh minimized my pain, told me it wasn't possible or happening, uh, that I needed to calm down and get a therapist. And of course, like I was I was like in the middle of becoming a trauma specialist. Like I knew about therapy. That was not the issue. I was having physical problems with the vagus nerve and all kinds of weird stuff, which ultimately, surprise, surprise, and a sort of off-grid healer solved for me. Fully healed it in one session after 10 years of nobody in the medical field could help me at all. And they were dismissing me, minimizing me, judging me, making me feel bad. Okay. So cut to now, I was prepared. Like that was one gift in my life. I was like, I'm not expecting these people to help me. So luckily, currently, I have I got some new health insurance a couple years back, and I have a female doctor who is kind. She's also pretty good at most normal doctor stuff. Like, um, what's the doctor called that you go to all the time? Your main primary care? Primary care. Thank you. See, no brain. Primary care stuff, she's great. We have a rapport. She's sort of my most positive doctor experience yet. So I'm thinking this will be great. I'll I'll tell her what's up. Well, her response was that I should get on a birth control pill. Now, I happen to have already tried birth control for various other reasons in the past. It doesn't work well for my system. It never has. I've tried it several times, so I told her that. And she was like, Well, that's where we start, people. So let's start you there. Like cookie cutter. This is what we always do. And I said, But it doesn't, I can't take it. It makes me these symptoms and this symptom, and I can't do it, and I can't focus, I can't. And she was like, Okay, well, that's where we'll start. And she just kept repeating the same sentence. You're like, no, no, no, no. So I left there and I said, Okay, I'll think about it, fully not preparing, planning to think about it at all. And then what I did, and I so strongly recommend this to people if you're having any experience with doctors not listening or not understanding or minimizing or dismissing you. I uh listened to every single thing I could find that Dr. Mary Claire Haver was saying on the internet. I educated myself listening to her because what she was saying matched my experience. So then what I did was I I Googled, where can I get some hormones? And I found Alloy. Exactly. So I went to alloy.com. I'm a big fan of Alloy, and I talked to their doctors. It's just an online platform. They do not take insurance. So I did pay out of pocket to have a session with a doctor there. I explained all my symptoms. I told them what Mary Claire taught me, and they were like, yeah, you need estrogen, progesterone, and maybe some testosterone. Let's talk about that later. And I was like, great, how much should I take? They were like, exactly this amount. And then if it doesn't go well, we'll adjust you. And I was like, thanks for having, you know, answers. So I paid them money that it would have been nice to have insurance cover, but I paid them because I was desperate. I mean, my symptoms were, I was like a 10 out of 10 all day, every day. Uh-so angry, so distracted, so tired, so moody, so hot, so spiky bugs all over my body, crazy. Depressed, but also amped up at the same time, like anxious and depressed at the same time, which was not typical for me. Anyway, they sent me the stuff. I tried the stuff. I mean within half a day, I was a different person. I was back to not only normal, but better than normal. Because, like I said when we started, I think I said this anyway, I think I've had hormone stuff that's been off my entire life. And once I got on, I do an estradial gel on my arm and I do um I do a um progesterone pill at night. Oh, and that was another thing. No sleeping. I was not sleeping. I was up at 5 a.m. and I was awake till, you know, every morning, up at five, and then up and down, up and down all night, sleeping terribly. Now I sleep like a little tiny baby, being swaddled by mama, and it's great. So then what I did was, okay, I realized, all right, this is working, but I don't want to keep paying out of pocket. I can't keep paying out of pocket. What am I gonna do? So I went back to Kaiser, my health insurance company, back to my doctor. I made another appointment. I showed up in person and I said, okay, I figured out what works for me. It's this much of this and this much of that. Also the cream, by the way, I do the vaginal balloons. Oh, balloons. When I said vaginal, Zoom loves vaginal. Yeah. I love that. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Celebration. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

So I told her what was working, and I said, Can you prescribe me this? And she said, Absolutely. And so she prescribed it to me, and then I just canceled the alloy. So now my insurance does cover the correct thing. But you know, I'm sure you can relate. What I was so cranky about was like, why couldn't you have just said, Oh, I hear you, you don't want birth control, that doesn't work for you. Let's explore some other options. She made it sound like there's no possible way to start other than that.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

And I was lucky that I was educated enough by this woman I had found on the internet that I knew better. Yeah. But what about everyone who doesn't know anything because the medical system doesn't teach anybody anything? Which last thing I'll say is I give her, Dr. Haver, so much credit for she keeps saying very clearly, it would be really easy for us to hate all the doctors. And I think she's making a good point here. She's like, but you have to understand, they a lot of doctors are good people and they want to help. They were poorly educated on this topic.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

And she even says herself, like when she went through medical school, she was poorly educated on this. Like her story about the whiny woman, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

A hundred thousand percent. So, yeah. So um sorry, I'm getting a fraud alert on my phone. I'm gonna say this was not me because I don't want someone stealing all my apparently my dog is interested in joining today. Hi, doggo. I'm so sorry to do this middle.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Oh my gosh, I know, and these are this is recorded live and I don't edit. So the whole world gets to know you may have had a fraud alert.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Yeah, I'm just checking. Okay. No, we don't anyway. So I I'm really grateful now because I feel like I'm on the right stuff. My system is healthy again. I mean, I could talk about uh sort of other related things, but just learning the the mirror idea, it's just like these lights went on when I came to understand through her education and teachings that every organ system in the body has hormone receptors. Like they should tell us that when we're nine. Like, we should be learning that. She also told me directly, no, just kidding, on the internet, and I listened that she her sort of advice to young women in their early 30s is like, get on immediately, get on in your early 30s, the hormones, because the the studies are showing the longer you're on them, the less likely your chance of getting heart disease and uh Alzheimer's is. And all of that runs in my family. So I'm A, I'm sure the people, the women in my family just needed some freaking hormones. B, if I had known this earlier, I I would be decreasing my odds of having all of you know, you get the point.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Yeah, and so interesting because I even have like my similar, I was gonna ask you, I'm glad you mentioned about the insurance, because I was thinking the same thing. I'm like, oh, like my primaries doesn't take insurance, but I still go see her. And but all of my well, not all of it, my patch runs through my insurance. My cream doesn't because why? Because because uh I don't think I don't I don't think I can get balloons if I say vagina, but in my opinion, in my opinion, the uh I don't think I don't think our healthcare system cares if my vagina works or not. Yeah, I think you're right. So it's like, oh, it doesn't work. You're you're past your childbearing years. You're of no use to us. Right. Too bad for you. Yeah. So it's like oh fuck it up. So I mean, so for years I was dealing with pain um and you know, prolapse and other things that just weren't, you know, relate like that everyone's just like, oh well, we kind of gotta live with it.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

This whole thing too about like right, exactly. Like the medical system's idea of like that's just aging. Some of us are a little more proactive than that. Like, we're not just going down. It's I'm 48, I'm not 78. Like, I have things to do. Let's go. Like, we're gonna some of us are gonna like find a way to handle it. What I get, I can't, it's you know, I try to find empathy for the doctors, and I'm thinking, I know they're overworked, they're overwhelmed, they're seeing too many people, and they they there's pressure on them to have answers they don't always have. I always feel like I would like them to be educated, like there should be a whole section of med school that's just about humility, right? Where you could just say to a a patient, you know what, I don't know the answer to that, but you know what, I'm gonna look into it and I'll get back to you. Right. What about just that? That's to know everything.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Yeah, I think it would be a big shift too in general, with like going to, I think people also there's a lot of pressure on them, right? Like people come in to a doctor expecting you to know the answers too. So I think there need to be a shift on both sides, right? For people to say, I don't expect my doctor to have all the answers, but to work with right. And for the doctor to have the humility to say, I don't know, let me find out. But because on that, I'm not as up to date on the information. Let me see if something's changed since the last time. Because the thing is most medical, the medical community doesn't stay like static, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Otherwise, we should all be having leeches on our bodies and of course, but the general public is not gonna be educating themselves, like they don't know to get ready to go to the doctor and be uh allowing of what the doctor doesn't know. So, like if you're in a position as a professional, like when people come to me for healing work and they ask me something I don't know, it would be so um uh uncaring and uh what's the word I want? It would be so like misleading and toxic for me to pretend I know. I just say, I I don't know. I'll find out, I'll call a guy. You it's not that hard to just own that you don't know a thing, right? But the ego just gets so, you know how it is to be a person anyway.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

And it's there's been studies around just even a doctor, if they don't know, but they have empathy, right? If they have the ability to say, like, I hear you, to like listen, your care actually is better. It's been because it's perceived better, right? Because a lot of our, you know, how we interpret our care impacts our care. Of course. So, you know, like my doctor listened to me. Wow. Because my job, and this is why I pay my doctor versus going to the regular doctor, like going through my insurance, because she can spend more than 15 minutes with me. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Yeah, so the health insurance system is fucked and the doctor system is fucked, and all of it sets everybody up to fail.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Yeah. And I mean, and I I work my my day job is in human resources, so I work with benefits a lot. And I see on the carrier side too, of like, you know, employees trying to fight claims and you know, being frustrated that there, you know, something was denied because the average person didn't know, oh, I should check to see if this is covered first, or oh, I had a surgery and my and you know, the the anesthesiologist wasn't in network. Well, I'm how how am I supposed to know this?

SPEAKER_01 19:30

You know, yeah, like and also when we're sick, it's not the time when we're doing our best research. Right. Right. You know, when you're not well, you you you it doesn't always occur to you what ex you're not at your best mind.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Yeah, that's why we tr trust knowing to ask the things, right? Like you can call your doctor and say, How are you gonna build like how do you how are you gonna code this? Or call the insurance, hey, is this covered? So I had this happen. I've had an IUD for years. I'm on my third one. So the first one, though, that I got, she said, uh I called the insurance, I said, is this covered? And they said, Yes, but only under these circumstances, which wasn't birth control. And so I said, Okay, thank you. And when I went to the doctor, I said, please make sure you bill it under these codes so that it's covered, so that you get paid and I don't have to pay more than my copay.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Smart.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

But I'm just like, how would I know this otherwise?

SPEAKER_01 20:24

100%. I mean, that's another thing uh I always try to say to women I talk to is like you you can't uh uh because something I see with people a lot is they're being they're politing themselves out of the care they need. Like if you if I come in to the doctor and she says something that I've researched and know isn't true, I'm rude enough, ballsy enough, aggressive enough, entitled enough, whatever word you want to use, to say, actually, could we discuss that? Or no, I don't want to do that. But so many people are not boundried, they're not empowered, they don't believe they're allowed to know something their doctor doesn't know, they don't believe they're allowed to ask questions, they don't feel like they can pick up the phone. And for whatever the failings of my parents were, I have to give them a lot of credit for those people taught me when you don't know a thing in life, you pick up a phone and you call a person who might know and you ask them because that's the only way you're gonna get through this reality. And I mean, that's they were right. And I'm remark, I'm it's remarkable to me regularly how many people, including my own partner, I have to say to him all the time, Hunt, why don't you just ask them? And he'll be like, Well, I don't want to make them feel uh huh. And I'm like, we're talking about your health. You could die from politeness. Stop it. Like, call the guy. Also, I think it's a misunderstanding that this framing so many people have of like, I don't want to bother them. It's impolite to ask a question. No, it is not. It is required. Humans are fallible. They're busy and they're fallible. So it's not their fault. They're not bad and wrong because they're busy and fallible, but they're busy and fallible. So it's wise, it's self-honoring to ask as many questions as you can think of in any setting. Because you can't, you can't assume people are just on top of it and they're gonna think for you. They have their own lives and their own challenges. They can't think for you.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Well, and you can't assume that your doctor knows, right? Like, I mean, they may not have been exposed to it, or maybe it's been a while since they've come across this thing, like whatever this thing is. And I have a like a personal example, unrelated menopause, but like I had, I was getting, I well, I have them off and on anyway, migraines. And I went, you know, they have you keep a little headache diary and like what things bother you. But part of that also is like, well, let's have you have an MRI and make sure there's not like a brain problem, no brain problem, but I had a huge mass in my sinus. And they're like, that needs to come out. And I was like, all right, well, and then he's like, but we don't do these surgeries very often. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna get a second and third opinion before you go in and take this out of my face. And uh one of the opinions was through dentists because they actually had to cut into my jaw, like get into my sinuses through my upper jaw inside my mouth. So they're like, you know, I was like, can you look at these? I've cut thankfully I've cut them through dentists, like, can you take a look at this? So like, yeah, absolutely. And then the other was a second ENT, and they're like, No, so it's like once I got all the opinions of like this, wasn't just someone who was like, let you open uh that I was safe to go under the knife, and it's it was fine. It came, it turned out to be nothing. So apparently I was just growing something for the fun of it. But wait, it turns out our bodies. It turned out to be nothing, meaning you didn't have to have it cut out? Oh no, it turned out to be like it was just benign, like it was nothing. There was nothing to it. It was there, it was a math, and it showed it, but it wasn't causing my migraines either. So I don't know. But I still was like, well, if it's not causing my migraines and like it's not bothering me, really bothering me, like what was the point of this? Yeah, so but whatever, whatever it was, just uh, you know, yeah, the twin, maybe I don't know. Sure, third arm. Um but yeah, so it's it's just you know, the asking, like, well, you know what, hey, like and telling the the doctor, I'm gonna get a second opinion. Yeah, sorry. And you agree to do that.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

I mean, that's that's my point, is like so many people are just trying to like not there's a there was a a a how do I call it like a place I learned some self-help stuff a lot of years ago that said most people are operating at all times on avoiding looking bad and trying to look good. And so I think you know, and I see, and I that one stayed with me because I see it all the time. People don't want to look bad or see or not look good. Right. So they're trying to just it's all image management and politeness, so everybody likes you. Meanwhile, your health is at risk. So I there's a way to politely be direct. One can be kind and direct at the same time, those are not mutually exclusive.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

I 100% agree. And I and I I try to tell that to people when I'm in the workplace talking about feedback.

unknown 25:29

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Like, no, you need to you think you're being nice by not giving this person feedback, but you're actually being mean because you're allowing them to continue to fail. That's it. So you need to care and be kind and give this feedback so that they can improve.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

It's the distinction between nice and kind. Yeah, yeah. Kind is like I tell you the truth and I tell it with care. Right. Nice is I don't tell you the truth because I'm worried about me. Yeah, nice is polite. Exactly. And nice and polite are self-centered. Whereas kind is actually about you benefiting. It just doesn't sound nice in the short term. So people are so programmed to be nice, they just stay sick. And it I it makes me insane. That's why I'm so glad you're having these conversations with people because Mary Claire Havert can't find everyone. Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Yeah. And you know, she is great. And like I like I showed it, I think, on the very first one. I was like, here's all the symptoms, like in her book, it's this thick of symptoms. So buckle up, everybody. Like, yeah. So, and I really do feel it's important, especially for people who are starting this, like in that sort of perimenopause, even pre, you know, sort of perimenopause, but to know like these are the things that are coming up. You know, we have a mutual friend, and that was part of you know, her video of saying, like, I'm, you know, I'm 10, I'm just starting out on this. And because I have friends who are older than me, I am learning about these things, right? And so, you know, I like I don't know about your family, but like no one in my mom's generation, like none of my aunts or anything talked about this. They didn't I don't think they knew anything. Yeah. But I do. I remember the study that you were referencing is like I remember being psychologist and being like, oh, I don't want my mom on HRT, you know, like, oh, you know, like that's that's the I still like literally I'm I was a women's studies minor. Like, I really I remember learning these things and thinking, like, oh gosh, I don't wanna, you know, I don't really do that. So I had a long conversation with my own doctor about that of like, well, what you know, what are the pros and cons? And like, should I and is this? And and even she was saying, like, yeah, a lot of those, one, the study was you know, had issues anyway, but like it also was on um oral estrogen, which which your body uses in a different way than any sort of gel or cream or patch, because the gels, the creams, and patch bypass the liver, they don't go through the liver, and so there's these other things. And it's like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. And you know, yeah, and we'll monitor it, right? Like, I love what you said with your doctors being like, we're gonna try the different things first and see like what the levels are. I've been on the same level for over a year and I've been fine. My cream has changed because the first cream didn't work at all, and then I was like, well, maybe you need some testosterone in your cream, and then that really everything.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Now, I I do want to ask you about your because that's the one I haven't gotten to yet, though it's on my list because everything I learned about the testosterone makes me go, I should have some more of that, I think.

unknown 28:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

But yeah, what's your experience been with it?

SPEAKER_00 28:39

Yeah, so I was on, I'm only on the topical uh cream for the vagina, and it is um a compounded, so it is estradiol and testosterone together, which is so funny to me because I literally have to show my driver's license and sign a thing because it's a controlled substance. And I'm like, really? Like I it's a cream that's like a small percentage of like something that's not gonna cause any like anyway. It is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

I mean, is that is that because like men and weightlifting?

SPEAKER_00 29:12

I guess I don't, you know, but it's or state law, who knows? It makes no sense to me, but okay. So I um I was originally on just an estodal cream for uh and it just didn't really nothing really changed in my experience. I still was experiencing pain. And then um the doctor's like, let's and so when I switched to the compounded cream um one, it's like my vaginas 20 again. It's like all of the like dryness and like I had a lot of pain that was related to dryness because like the when your skin is out, it's just more thin and you know gets irritated easily, and so that went away. Um, and then now you know being able to be intimate is no longer like a painful experience. That's so great. And who knew it was just a little bit of testosterone?

SPEAKER_01 30:09

I didn't even know till right now there was a compounded cream for the veg.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Yeah. Well, I mean, you have to go to the compounding pharmacy, you know, your doctor has to know about it, takes you to the, you know, it says sends it to the compounding pharmacy, and then you know, and then that's why it's not covered by insurance because there are other things I think that you can that may or may not be covered by insurance. I think when I looked into mine, the insurance didn't cover it, or it covered it and it was still gonna cost me the same as the compounded stuff. So the compounded.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

So yeah, I mean, um now that you've told me, I'm just gonna make an appointment immediately and be like, hey, can we talk? Can you order me some of this?

SPEAKER_00 30:49

Right. And then see what happens, right? Because all you can do is ask, as you were saying, like, hey, I think about this. Would this work for me? Is this a you know, is this a possibility?

SPEAKER_01 30:58

I don't even, I'll just call me crazy. I don't even say, would this work? I don't ask her stuff anymore. I get educated and I tell her what I want this. Yeah, yeah, you'll be ordering me this now. I do it politely. Hey, could you order me this? Right, but I'm not asking her because when I ask them, they do what they do, which is follow their little rigid cookie cutter thing they're supposed to do.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

This is not on my checklist, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

You know, or and and let's talk about how they're doing it for liability, right? They're doing it for liability, they're doing it because they're covering their ass, which is understandable because we live in a weird, litigious, capitalist, patriarchal country where you have to cover your ass as opposed to help people in a helping profession. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

So that was my my original primary. So I made an appointment with this lady, and I and she's like, I want you to run, I want these are the tests I want you to get run. And she's like, You can either do it through our lab or you can do it through your insurance. I said, I'll I'll just do it through my insurance. But my my other primary was like, No, I won't run these. And I was like, I literally said to her, No, you will.

unknown 32:01

Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

My insurance, it's not you know it's not costing you anything, like it's it's my insurance, so yes, you will run these. Um, and she goes, Fine, well, I won't talk to you about the results. And I said, That's okay. I haven't heard a doctor for that. I have yet to do that. But why? What was the reason? I mean, I honestly, I think what happened, I think I just struck a nerve. I think to your point of the humility, I don't think she had the experience to talk to me about that. Yeah, and uh she was triggered. Right. Like it's like, oh, like you're you're exposing the fact that I don't know this.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

And and you know, and I'm sorry. And if if she finds her way to this, you know, like, hey, like it's okay to not know. And it would have been a different experience had she just been like, you know what, I don't know a lot about this. And hey, why don't you go to your doctor and then come back and tell me what you found or email me and tell me what you you know what she said. I'm curious what she has to say. Any any kind of humility would be nice. Yeah. Yeah. So you get it. Here we are. Well, thank you for sharing your story. I super appreciate it. Is there anything else you want to share?

SPEAKER_01 33:09

Or anything I haven't asked that you want to I I mean, in brief, because this could open a whole other can of worms, I'll just add like it's a two-hour edition. Yeah, yeah. I'll just add that like okay, we're learning in real time what the GLP1 drugs do beyond this whole weight loss diabetes uh context that they came to us through. And I just want to say I am having experiences, I'm on one and I love it, and there is an affordable way to do it. It's called uh joinmochi.com, 175 bucks a month, way better than what it used to be, and way better than anywhere else I've found, and I've researched it. It not only changed my relationship to food and helped me drop pounds when I just like blew up during perimenopause, but it it I learned in researching it, which none of my doctors were able to answer this question. I had to figure it out myself. GLP1s are a hormone replicator. They bind to a hormone. I don't know the exact science, but I know enough to know it's hormonal what's going on with people who can't regulate satiety. That is not a moral issue, and that is not an emotional issue, that is a hormone issue. And again, I'm someone who's had hormone stuff my whole life, and I I knew some of it, but there's a lot I didn't know. Well, it turns out the GLP one is helping me with menopause symptoms, which they didn't even know that was a thing that could happen. And I'm having knock wood, no side effects. I had some in the beginning, I treated them, and now I don't have them, and I didn't have to do it with drugs either. There's ways. Reach out to me, ladies, if you're curious. There are ways to treat side effects to GLP1s and other medications that you need, if you need them, that are not other medications. These off-grid tools I use with my clients treat everything. They can treat almost everything. So I've found ways through this journey that have where my um mental well-being through peri-end menopause, menopause has shifted my attitude, my energy. Um, things about my period are different with the GLP one. Anyway, it's worth looking into if you're someone dealing with this menopausal time, if that medication is useful to you in more ways than just the exterior, how the body looks ways. And I just want to put that out there because it is a hormone replicator. It's not just, it's not a uh an appetite suppressant, it's a hormone replicator that helps your body satiety uh triggers and cues exist. Some of us, believe it or not, don't have them. I never had them. There's a whole panel I highly recommend people listen to that Oprah facilitated with a number of doctors. You might have seen it, I'm not sure. Female doctors, GYNs, all kinds of experts, and they had um endocrinologists on teaching and educating about exactly what is this GLP1 thing doing. And it's not what the general public is hearing in the media, it's much more kind of revolutionary and amazing. And I want to debunk some of this like anti-GLP one sentiment that exists, or I want to be part of just a void being a voice that says, hey, it's not all about vanity. There's other things this this medication is treating. And boy, is it turning out to be amazing, both for the endocrine system, for the digestive system, for the brain, for the organs, and for everything that is affected by hormones. Done preaching. You're like, make drop, I'm done.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

Anyway. So, well, thank you for sharing that because yeah, I'm sure some people don't know that either. And so there's something else. They can go to their doctor and be like, hey, or research on their own and say, okay, hey, I found this. I want, I want to try this, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:17

Or look into it. Listen to experts who are talking about it. Don't listen to influencers unless they're they know what they're talking about. Like you want people that do research and know things. You don't, you know, that's why we all go to the doctors blindly. But now we're in a situation in the in our world where you can't blindly just trust that the medical system has your back. They don't always know. So, but some people do know and they are findable, and that is the gift of the internet. Where there are many failings of the internet, that's the gift. Anywho, thank you for letting me rant.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

Oh my gosh, of course. Thank you for ranting. Um, and thank you, uh, everyone who's been listening today. Uh, so always, as always, uh, please feel free to like and share and subscribe. If you're interested in being a guest, please feel free to reach out. Um, and otherwise, I hope you have a wonderful day. And my doggy wants to say hi, keeps bugging and coming around. Um, thank you all uh for watching, and we'll see you next time.