JS is a 57 year old woman. She is married to a wonderful man and is a grandmother. When I met her she was already eating an organic diet and was walking her property on a regular basis. She complained about being unable to sleep, unable to lose weight, debilitating back pain, hot flashes, poor focus, fatigue and vaginal dryness. She felt like she was 80 years old, not 57.
Her insomnia was debilitating and it was greatly affecting her life. Her other doctor had tried numerous sleep aides but she either had side effects or they did not help her. She was told that she simply had to live with it: a doctor told her that “not sleeping never killed anyone”. JS was fatigued on a daily basis because of her insomnia. This was her biggest complaint. She had no idea that insomnia can be a symptom of a hormonal imbalance. After all, it was not always the hot flashes that kept her awake. The hot flashes were pretty mild and usually in the daytime–she did not feel they were worth treating.
After a complete hormonal evaluation we put her on Progesterone which is very calming and helps sleep. It also helps improve bone strength. She had a hysterectomy and was told by a prior physician that she no longer needed Progesterone. This is simply not true—there are other cells in your body that require Progesterone. For example, the brain has Progesterone receptors. By optimizing her Progesterone levels she was able to sleep better and this greatly improved her energy level.
She was also found to be low on Testosterone. Although her back pain had a physical cause, replacing Testosterone helped her body heal better. Optimal Testosterone levels helps to decrease general aches and pains. Many people feel that Testosterone is simply for sex drive but that could not be further from the truth. Testosterone is important for both men and women, performing multiple functions. Helping your body to heal is one of those functions. Testosterone also helps you to focus better, improves energy, allows your body to build muscle and burn fat, etc. Once we optimized the Testosterone of J.S., her back pain, focus, and energy all improved. She regained her vitality.
She was also given vaginal estriol which repaired her vaginal lining safely. Once the vaginal dryness and pain was repaired, her sex drive improved. (The Testosterone helped in that department too)
JS was a woman who thought that she could not lose weight. Once we got her sleep normalized and her Testosterone was optimized, she was able to move around better and have more energy, plus she was able to build muscle. This helped her to lose weight when combined with her healthy diet and active lifestyle. In addition, we did find that her thyroid was not optimal. Once her thyroid level was optimized, she was better able to achieve a healthy weight. Each hormone is a piece of the puzzle. Once the levels are optimized utilizing bioidentical hormones and you add in a healthy lifestyle; weight loss should occur naturally.
This brings up a great topic. Often lab results are interpreted as “normal”, when in fact they are not optimal for you. Keep in mind that “normal” values are obtained by testing a random group of people and then taking the average values. These people can appear fine, but they are in fact not in optimal ranges. Do you want to be average or optimal?? Sometimes achieving optimal levels means that your lab values will fall outside of the “normal” ranges. It is important that you have communication with the bioidentical hormone specialist that you are seeing. Communication is the key to your success. The way that your body responds to your treatment program will actually be more important than the lab values. Balancing your hormones to an optimal level is for the person who understands that quality of life is the goal and that you must listen to your body for feedback.
JS made improvements in her symptoms about a month after the start of her treatment program. It did take several more months to get everything fine tuned and she now lives a fairly pain free and active life. She feels good on most days, compared to feeling bad most days in the past. She loves that her body no longer feels that it is declining.
Her advice to the readers is this: “If you think that you may have a hormonal imbalance then chances are this type of treatment will benefit you. I feel bad to see so many friends have mental and physical problems and not seek this kind of help”.