63. What HRT Changed About My Midlife Health, Mindset, and Hormones

0:00 Are you ready for story time? Today I want to share with you my HRT journey so far. And you've heard me interview a few different people. I'm in fact going to link some episodes in the show notes that you definitely want to listen to if you haven't already. You've heard me interview a few different people about hormone replacement therapy, but I haven't told you my story. And so let's talk about it. Welcome to Mind Your Midlife, your go-to resource for confidence and success, one thought at a time. Unlike most advice out there, we believe that simply telling you to believe in yourself or change your habits isn't enough to wake up excited about life or feel truly confident in your body.

0:48 Each week, you'll gain actionable strategies and, oh my goodness, powerful insights to stop feeling stuck and start loving your midlife. This is the Mind Your Midlife podcast. One thing that I always say is that coaches need coaches. Sort of related to that, I used to be a teacher, I still do training. Often teachers are not the greatest students. Coaches are not the greatest coaches, but we need those teachers. We need those coaches. We can't always figure out and see things for ourselves.

1:28 We need support. And so I want to share with you how HRT has been going for me and how I got to where I am now and what really made not made, but really kind of was the reason I made the decision to try it, because maybe something will resonate with you about your story. This is not simply a story about physical symptoms that I was having. Now, I do have to say, I am not a therapist, I am not a doctor, I am not a nurse, so this is not meant to be in any way medical advice.

2:27 If you are thinking that something resonates with you, go and see a medical professional and make sure you look for someone who is certified by the menopause society. You can go to the menopause society's website. If you are in the DC, Maryland, Virginia area, you can go to Vita Women's Health with Adrienne Thompson. She meets virtually. There are other all over the place. It's starting to happen all over the place. Doctors and medical professionals who want to help us during this period of time. I like her.

3:18 However, about six months ago, when I went for my usual, you know, smear and all the stuff, I said to her, you know, my skin's been really dry, my ears been itching. Like I have a few of these, a few hot flashes. I wonder if I should do something about it. And she, when we had this conversation, it was about 10 minutes after she had almost fallen out of her chair realizing that I wasn't taking any medication. I am 54, I'm almost 55. It is true. I am not taking any medication besides the hormones that I'm now taking.

4:00 But at that time, I was not. I'd take certain vitamin supplements and things like that, but I was not taking any prescription medication. And she truly was falling out of her chair about it. And if you follow me on social media, you might have seen me posting back then in the spring of this year, I think it was, oh my goodness, is it really that unusual to not be taking any prescription medication? And I had people commenting to me, yes, it is. And there were people who were commenting, that's me too, but I think it is unusual. So I'm not saying anything negative. If you need to take a prescription because you have a health condition and you need to treat it, then please do.

4:40 I feel very lucky that I did not have to do that. And so what she said to me when I asked, you know, is there something I can do for these symptoms? She said, Well, are they really impacting you? And I was like, ah, you know, a little bit bothersome, but I ideal. And she said, Well, you're not taking anything. I don't think you want to start. She said, if it gets way worse, maybe come back and talk to me again. And that's fine. And I don't think I begrudge her saying that. And so unfortunately, because believe it or not, in one-on-one situations, I do get a little shy sometimes.

5:25 Unfortunately, what I took away from that was that even if I went back, I wasn't sure that I would be able to get any help. And so I was kind of just like, I probably won't do it. And so I said, you know what? I'll go forward on my own and I'll figure it out. And my symptoms kept happening. And my physical symptoms weren't, they weren't super awful. I have heard friends tell me about hot flashes that just resulted in sweat pouring down their head, down their body, you know, whatever, wet pajamas at night, all of that. Mine weren't that bad. It just sort of felt like I was like a cartoon character that just burst into flame occasionally.

6:09 And then it would, and then it would stop. I was a little annoyed at always being like the tiniest bit sweaty, almost like glistening, if you've heard a woman say that before. I was a little annoyed about that, but it wasn't that bad. I think possibly one of the most annoying physical symptoms I had was my ears itching. What in the world? That actually is a perimenopause-menopause symptom. My ears were itching all the time, and I didn't think I should be walking around like always with my finger in my ear, itching it. But truly, it was really bothering me, and it is a real symptom. So if that's you, I understand. My skin, I felt like my cheeks were starting to sag a little bit.

6:54 You know what I mean? My skin was getting dry, and I already have eczema issues, and I already have very, very dry skin, and I'm very careful about what I use on my skin because I'm allergic to half the world of skin care, basically. Well, maybe more than half. So I was a little annoyed about that too. I'm just getting drier and drier and drier, drier everywhere. But I was living with it. And what happened then was that this summer, maybe like early fall, I went for my physical. And you know, I went to my family doctor and everything was fine. And she said, let's do the blood test. Okay, great.

7:34 So my blood test results came back, and my vitamin D was low. And I'm just gonna go on a little tangent about vitamin D. And again, remember, this is not medical advice, I'm just sharing with you. But years ago, a different primary care doctor, a woman, had said to me, if you do nothing else for your health, please take vitamin D. And I said, Well, don't you get it from the sun? And mine isn't like super low. And she said, vitamin D makes a difference in basically everything. And she said, and you can fact check me, I never really looked this up. This was my doctor telling me, she said, vitamin D isn't even really a vitamin, it's a hormone, and it affects so many processes in your body, you would be shocked.

8:22 Vitamin D, vitamin D, vitamin D, vitamin D. If you took one thing, vitamin D. So there you go, message from my doctor of the past. So I was actually taking a vitamin D supplement, and still, when my blood test results came back in let's say September, somewhere around there, it was a little bit low. And I was like, ugh, okay, well, I guess I should be taking more. And to be honest, I'm not I wasn't perfect about it. I didn't always remember, but I did okay. But the thing that really hit was my cholesterol. So my LDL cholesterol, I don't remember the number, and the number doesn't matter, it was above the healthy range.

9:03 All the other measures were okay. LDL much higher. And it had been gradually getting higher over the past few years. And so my doctor's advice in the little message that you get in the system was to stop eating red meat or at least minimize it, to eat more fiber, to eat more fruits and vegetables, to try to eat healthy in general, to minimize the alcohol. Okay, I'll grant you minimizing the alcohol maybe is something I need to be cognizant of, but I already don't eat red meat all that much. I in fact watched on Netflix, I don't remember what it was called, a twin study that they did where they had one identical twin on a vegan diet and one identical twin, the other one on a carnivore diet.

9:54 And the benefits coming from the vegan diet were crazy good. So I had really started limiting all meat. I'm still gonna eat eggs. I'm not focused enough on getting my protein totally in a vegan way, but I had really minimized it. So it's not the red meat, I can tell you for sure. And I already eat really healthy. That has been my thing for a long time. I used to have a health and wellness business, and I still do have clients in that business. And I go to barre typically twice a week. Now, at the time of recording this, I haven't been in two and a half weeks, so there's a holiday season, right?

10:34 But I'll do it, I'll get back. So I move, I exercise, I eat pretty healthy. I haven't I haven't changed my clothing size in a long, long, long time. And in fact, I'm either e I think I'm only like half a size in clothing bigger than when I got married 28 years ago. So I'm doing okay, in my opinion. And I got a little annoyed, and I said, you know what? Okay, I can increase my fiber. That's a good idea. I will do that. But is that gonna be the solution for this LDL cholesterol going higher and higher and higher and higher? I started looking into it because that was all the doctor said to me, and she said, you know what, it's not ridiculous.

11:23 Let's check it again in a few months. Let's see how it is in a few months. That's fine. And I haven't gone back and rechecked it, so we'll see. Because things started to happen, choices started to be made. And so I was Googling around, and goodness we know we have to be careful when we Google about health things, wondering what is going on with my LDL cholesterol going high in my mid-50s. You want to know what I found? It can be something that happens in your body when your estrogen drops. What? I really did not want to go on statins for cholesterol.

12:08 I really did not want to do that. I do not think that I need to do that, and I want to actively avoid it. Now, if you're taking them and you need them, please, I'm so happy they exist, right? I'm so happy they're helping you. But I did not want to do that. So I need to figure out something, but I did not know that there was potentially a link with estrogen levels. No one said that. No one said that. And to this day, no one has said that except the internet. But I found it quite a bit on the internet, so that started to make me think. And around the same time that all this was happening, so late summer, early fall, I also started looking for a therapist because I don't talk about it on the podcast, and I am unlikely to, but I have been going through a few things in my life that are really hard.

13:08 And I was feeling really down. And I have known multiple people who have had depression in a way that they needed medication, they needed treatment. I've seen it, I've seen what it can look like. I've not seen every possible way it might look. And I knew I didn't have clinical depression, but I knew I didn't feel right. I was letting these things that are legitimately sad and difficult things really bring me down. I really didn't feel like going out and doing things as much. And this was very gradual.

13:49 And I I wanted to come on and share this because if this resonates with you, or if you catch this, then maybe, maybe my experience will help you as well. It was gradual. I just I'm a knitter, so sitting and knitting and listening to an audiobook or sort of half-watching a show on TV is something I love to do anyway. I'm also a reader. So I always joke with my husband that he has all these active hobbies that he likes to do, and I have the ones that require me to sit on my butt. I knit, I read, I podcast. It's all sitting on my butt. But anyway, just joking. I noticed though that I didn't want to do anything else.

14:30 I just wanted to sit, I was kind of cocooning a lot. And there's nothing wrong with that until it becomes, until it becomes almost like a coping mechanism.

16:04 And so I recognized that in myself, and I went out and I looked for a therapist, and I have been on kind of a gradual basis seeing her and talking things through, and that has been a good thing. I don't think it's ever not a good thing, quite frankly. But then I kept doing my research about this LDL cholesterol, and you know what else I found? I found that it is possible that anxiety, tiredness, lack of interest in doing things might also be symptoms of hormone levels changing. And I think it was estrogen again, could have been progesterone.

16:45 I think it was estrogen again. What? So I went ahead with the start of therapy because again, can't hurt, don't think it could hurt anyone ever. But I realized maybe it wasn't that that was making me just feel so low and low energy, and just I don't want to do anything. Maybe again it was the hormones. So I didn't have night sweats that were just ridiculously awful, and I didn't have hot flashes that were what I've heard described as awful. I had them, but they weren't that bad. But I had so many other things starting to add up.

17:27 Low energy, uh, like feeling a little like I was a little bit depressed or or low mood, itchy ears, dryness everywhere, high LDL cholesterol, I'm trying to think, I mean, I can't even remember what else. All of this stuff was happening, and it all was potentially related to hormones. What? So instead of just being annoyed at the doctor, adding some fiber to my diet, and just hoping for the best, that is when I went and saw, and she was on this podcast, Adrienne Thompson.

18:08 Now, as I said, there's many medical practitioners out there that that really focus on HRT and menopause. She was my choice, she's in my area. She's a virtual practice, but she's in my area. So we talked this through and she did more blood tests. And in those blood tests, she was checking hormone levels and checking in detail some more things than what your average kind of physical would check. And my estrogen was in the toilet. I mean, it was like one of those things where it says less than a number because they're not even going to measure after that. And I've been in menopause for uh, you know, the official year, a little bit more than that.

18:48 So I wasn't that surprised. And as I looked at the symptoms, and she had me fill in the intake forms and we talked through my symptoms, they really were very much focused on estrogen levels, not so much progesterone. I believe progesterone can be calming, can help with sleep issues, and of course, other things. That wasn't really my issue. It was related to low estrogen, all these different symptoms. So I wasn't, as someone who never had to take medicine all the time, I wasn't thrilled about having to do something every day for ever. But we really talked through is this safe? What are the health implications?

19:31 And we talked about the fact that cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women. Well, what affects cardiovascular disease? Uh, cholesterol is a big one, for sure. Now, what she told me, and what I need to responsibly tell you, is that it's not recognized, I'm gonna say, yet medically, that taking hormone supplements is a treatment for high LDL cholesterol. So I can't tell you that that is a fix. But if having very low estrogen can potentially affect my cholesterol, then I am willing to try taking the hormones to see if the cholesterol comes down.

20:18 You'll have to stay tuned, it hasn't been long enough to tell you that. But it has been two months. So I started on progesterone because if you have a uterus, which I do, you need to take progesterone alongside estrogen. If you hear differently than that, look into it further because that is the safe way to do it. Make sure that these are bioidentical and you can get them as generics. It doesn't have to be from a fancy compounding pharmacy. It's not the weird synthetic stuff that was being used back when our moms might have been going through this. So I started taking progesterone, that's one little tiny pill at night, and it's so tiny, it's so easy to swallow.

21:02 I was happy about that because I don't love the big ones. And then an estrogen patch, and I change it twice a week, and it's really tiny, super easy. And so, what she told me was you need to give it some time. We're going to start out, and at first, the progesterone, she said, might help me sleep even. More soundly because it might make me sleepy at first. That's why I take it at night. And the first few nights, I zonked. It really did make me sleepy. The body adjusts to that, though. It doesn't have that effect on me as much anymore. Although, if you have symptoms from progesterone being low, then it probably could still help you. Then she said, just let's give it some time.

21:42 In my head, I'm thinking a couple months with the estrogen as well, and let's see what's going on. And eventually we'll do a blood test, we'll check, I'll have all these results for you. But here's what has happened so far. My flipping ears do not itch anymore. And truly, truly, it was driving me bananas. It bananas. I could not stop scratching like inside my ear. Ridiculous. And it looks weird too, right? It doesn't they don't itch anymore. They just don't. It's incredible. I don't have hot flashes anymore. At first I had, you know, a little bit, a little bit, nope, gone.

22:25 My skin is starting to get a little bit better. Don't have quite so much dryness all over the place if you get my drift. And I'm thrilled. And then I've been sitting here trying to evaluate, okay, how about my how about my mental state? Do I have more energy than I had back in like August, September? Do I feel like doing more things? And you know what? I do. The issues that I was dealing with at that time are still issues that I'm dealing with at this time. And they're super sad and they're super difficult. And yet I find myself wanting to get off the couch and wanting to do things and feeling a little bit happier about it.

23:15 That just malaise might be the best word for it, is lifting. And I can't believe that maybe I would have gone through that and had no idea that there was something that would help. It's incredible. I even said to my therapist uh maybe a session or two ago, you know, I started this because this was really, really bringing me down and I was worried, but I also think that might have been hormones. And she said, absolutely could have been. Absolutely could have been. Incredible. So I can tell already in two months' time that this is making a difference.

23:58 And if you saw my social media the other day, I was mentioning that someone that I know uh that I saw in person recently came up to me and said how impactful that episode with Adrian about how to talk to your doctor about things like this was for her. And she went to a practice who actually listened to her and took blood tests, and she's going to be starting on HRT as well. Incredible. Incredible. And the research is there to show that for most of us, this is safe. Now, you might be in the group where hormone replacement therapy is not as safe for you.

24:39 And so there are other things. And doctors, again, who are certified by the menopause society, have been taught those other things. There's been this kind of 20-year gap where doctors just weren't educated about what we were starting to find out was actually healthy and okay. And that's what the menopause society is trying to change. Hypnosis, believe it or not, is a good option. There are non-hormone-based medication options that may be good for you. There is topical estrogen that may be safe for you, even if you can't do more than that.

25:21 It could make a big difference. So there are so many options. And I am telling you that sitting here now, realizing that all those symptoms were starting to go away and feeling so hopeful about whenever I go and get my blood test and I look at that LDL number, that it is going to come down, feeling so hopeful that I'm actually doing something that will make a difference in my overall health, because then we have bone health that is going to be better, most likely, because of appropriate hormone levels. And we have, of course, the cholesterol, the cardiovascular, I mean, just so many things.

26:02 I'm feeling so optimistic about that and so happy that I stood up for myself and I said, maybe these aren't horrible, awful things, but they aren't great either. And I want to do something about it. And so that's my story so far. I would love to hear from you if you have a similar story or if this helped you at all. Find me on social. I'm at Cheryl P. Fisher all over the place. Remember, Fisher is spelled F-I-S-C-H-E-R. Tell me what your experience was. It will not be a bot answering you. I answer DMs. Now we are smack into the holiday season right now. I hope you have time with family and friends, and I hope you are enjoying it.

26:45 I know there can be strife. I know it can be up and down. That is the case for me for sure. So I wish you happy holidays. We'll be back next Friday. So make sure you hit the follow button because I have a guest on next Friday, and we are gonna talk about vibrant aging. And you're gonna like this discussion. And in the meantime, keep remembering that now is your time to take just a little bit better care of yourself on the inside and on the outside. Your mind, your mental state, your mindset, and your physical health. Just a little bit better care makes a huge difference.