HRT: Plot Twist

HRT wasn’t on our bingo card… until it was. In this episode, we talk Hormone Replacement Therapy and bring on our first-ever guest to share her personal HRT journey, the good, the confusing, and the game-changing.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hot Flash and Sassy, a podcast with hot takes, hotter flashes, and a whole lot of sass.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Welcome back to Hot Flash and Sassy, the podcast where we talk honestly and sometimes hilariously about the real life experiences of perimenopause and menopause.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

I'm Renee. And I'm Holly. And today we're diving into a topic that sparks a lot of questions, a lot of opinions, and sometimes a lot of confusion. Hormone replacement therapy, also known as HRT. You've probably heard different things about it. Some women swear by it, others feel unsure about the risk or whether it's the right choice for them. The truth is every woman's experience is different. So today we're talking with someone who's here to share her personal journey with hormone therapy, which led her to explore it, what the process was like, and how it's affected her life since starting it. If you've ever wondered whether hormone therapy might be an option for you and you're just curious about what the experience can be like, this conversation is for you. And today is exciting because I am seeing double. So, Renee, why don't you introduce our special guest? Yes, there's a reason that you're seeing double.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

You're not crazy? You're not crazy. But much like our audience, you're you're not crazy either out there. But I we have brought on my twin sister, Andrea Simons, to share her hormone replacement journey with us. And we're so excited to have you. Thanks for being here, Andrea. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Welcome, Andrea. We're excited. First official guest.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

I'm excited to be here. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

All right. You want to kick it off and tell us just a quick thing about you, who you are.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Um, well, I'm a 48-year-old woman who's been on a journey for about seven years on this hysterectomy journey.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

I just want to point out that our listeners know that we're not really 48. We're 29. Oh, no reason to lie after anything like that. We don't have to lie to them.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

I apologize. I am a young woman, uh mother of two golden retrievers that rule my life. Um I am uh I have a leadership role in the company I work for, and I have been on my journey for about seven years.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Oh God. Knowingly, unknowingly. Let's put this right. Knowingly and unknowingly. It's a rough seven years. Well, but that's why we're here. We're gonna get into that knowingly and unknowingly.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Yeah. Can you kick it off by telling us some of the symptoms that you were experiencing that really led you here?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

I think um, again, unknowingly, uh, my first symptom was probably my hair. Uh, I had some drastic changes in my hair texture, how it responded to being cut, being styled, anything. Um, so really I think my stylist was the first one to s even mention the word hormones. I think this is shout out to Shelly.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

I say how interesting that she'd bring that up. I had not heard about the texture being able to change, but of course, that I mean it makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

Yes, so hair does not like hormones either.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Welcome to the body.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Now she went down a couple different paths of potential fixes, uh, including Brazilian blowouts and um just different um what's a Brazilian blowout? Uh it's it's a it's a process, it's almost like I think a four or six hour process to like straighten your hair and um I don't know what the technical part is. I don't have any idea. It's very detailed.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

I don't know, but she I think on top of the Brazilian blowout, I think I remember at least you changing hair products six times. At least.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

At least at least we tried everything um shampoo, um, any kind of oils, what have you. So yeah. I think um unknowingly, again, that's probably when my journey started. That was the kickoff. That was the kickoff. But then I started experiencing uh night sweats, hot flashes. Welcome. Welcome to the party again.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

Oh, new drinking game. Welcome to the party. I gotta say it with your fun little accent, though. It's bad. Welcome to the party. What else? Sorry. You're gonna get a lot of eye rolls out of her today. We get real sidetracked here. Yes. We apologize. I know what she's thinking.

unknown 4:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Here's another part of the problem is I know what she's thinking. So she's uh she does not have to say it. She is very expressive, even though she doesn't speak it. Here we go.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Efficient expressions. Since you want that, just go ahead and take the audience on that journey. Um we are twins, as I alluded to in the introduction. So we do feel each other's emotions, pain, life, all the things. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

I feel all about I am fascinated by this. I don't have a twin, and so I hear about that. But yeah, what does that look like on this like hormone journey when you guys can feel each other's well, and I I think that's where when I say unknowingly, I was on this journey.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Um Renee went on the journey, of course. Um, Renee is very much so into knowing her body, understanding her body, and proactively trying to fix things as they're coming around. The migraines probably kicked off her journey, so to speak. I don't know, I don't know how far you've gotten into your journey specifically, but Oh, they know it all. No, the audience knows it all. Not like if you ever expressly said this is where it started. I don't know if you ever diagnosed it as where it started, but um, my problem was we feel each other's emotions. So me, my whole life has really been trying to understand what is my emotion, what am I feeling, what is really real that you're feeling, and what is her. Um, so I think some of it I resisted as my own symptoms.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

I can see that.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Projecting them as hers.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

It's like, how do you know the difference?

SPEAKER_02 6:15

It's so much easier just to say there's somebody else's. I would want to do that too.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Not my problem.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Here you go.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

It's Renee.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

You want my dry skin? It's all yours.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

You want my migraines? Oh, go ahead. We definitely uh have had to battle, feel our way, blindly feel our way through our lives of really trying to understand our body. She's adopted it very much more than I have, I think.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Uh you're on your way. No, I'm on my way now.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

I think I'm on my way now, but I think I resisted knowing what was actually going on in my body. Well, of course, because we're 29, so how could we possibly be in perimenopause? Well, and I think there's another aspect you have to think about here. I've never had children. So my path, uh I don't know, some of it I attributed to she's had kids, she's gone through like her body changing.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

So some of it you can say it naturally, she's crazy. It's okay. We're all friends here. I would never say that.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

So you thought we're all crazy, by the way. You were were you thinking then that her symptoms were more related to having children?

SPEAKER_00 7:26

I mean I kind of attributed some of it, some of the more dramatic uh things, like sh her body's already gone through that change. I've never, my body hasn't gone through that kind of change. My first female body change was my hysterectomy.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Yeah, take us there. Yeah, let's talk. How'd you go for your hysterectomy? Yeah, what led to that?

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Um, I had very rough menstrual cycles, and it was almost, they would almost last two weeks, and then I might get a break, and then I was gone for another two-week cycle. Um, very heavy, uh kind of uncontrollable cramping was horrible. It was just, I almost didn't have really a comfortable period of my life, you know, when it came to that. You you enjoyed a week of your life before you waited for somebody else to show back. This is I this one thing I don't miss.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Well, I was gonna say, I know this is like total me button into real personal business, but was your menstrual cycle similar to your sister's? Yes. Same type of issues, yes. Okay, a year later, but the same stuff, the same things, but just at a different time. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Okay. I was on birth control uh most of my life. My my menstrual pain uh cramping and cycles started 14, somewhere in there, 13, 14 time period. Um, I mean, it's only been 10 years, but like so fast. But anyway, um this started early for me, so I had been on um birth control since that time period because they were so heavy. So that was the doctor's first um suggestion was to put me on birth control. So I've been on birth control most of my life, um and never obviously conceived. So I just figured there was something going on. And um, I guess when I was 15, 16, I started having uh irregular pap smears where I had cancerous cells, um, did the cryo, did various things um along that journey. That's a whole nother world. That's another episode. Um and really, I just thought as much as my body had gone through, like I was never gonna be able to conceive. So I was just at the point where I needed some sort of relief. I had gone through this long enough, and my doctor was finally uh in agreement that um I had polyps. Um there she said that just the size and number of them, um, there was probably unlikely a chance to conceive. So that was roughly 39, 40 years old that that all we started talking, having that conversation about having a hysterectomy.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

You also had cis, so it wasn't the ovarian cis and the palyps, right? Powp, ballop, tomato, tomato.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Um, so anyway, I think uh once I started to um agree and decided that I wasn't gonna be able to conceive, I'm already going into my 40s. Let's just find some relief.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Did you have a full hysterectomy?

SPEAKER_00 10:28

I did not. I still have my ovaries. And I will tell you this one thing which I love my doctor. I still love her, she's wonderful. Um, but one of the recommendations after I had my hysterectomy was I didn't need to go back to see her. I didn't need to see my female doctor. Well, that's not the truth. Wrong.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Wrong again because especially with your ovaries left. I'm surprised that they would say that.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

So she said I only had a 1% chance of having ovarian cancer since I've had my hysterectomy. Um, and I was healthy. Obviously, I could come back to her if I needed to. Um, but we definitely I took that like, oh good. One last doctor's appointment I gotta go to. See you later. Perfect. So then two years later, when I needed to go back and see my doctor, my female doctor, just because, again, just because you had a hysterectomy does not mean that you're not a female anymore. You still have very much everything female, and you will need your female doctor. Keep going to your female doctor. There's other things that are gonna come up, and there's other things that are going to eventually um come about.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Oh, you mean like hormones? Hormones. Yes, yes, yeah, yeah. Somebody's gotta manage that stuff. We still need medical professionals for it. We do.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Was your doctor willing to talk to you about hormones?

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Um, my female doctor? Yes. Yes. Um, but more so my general doctor as well. Again, I went back, I had to go back two years later for something um specifically, but I was then treated like a new patient. So that's my heads up. Just keep going to see your doctor. Just make sure she knows you're still there and everything's good.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

For the love, it's hard to get in as a new patient. It is.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Yeah, so it was about six months before I could get into her. So now here I am two years and six months down the path. I think um part of Renee's journey started me questioning what's going on with your body. Is this really could this be related to it? So when she talks about um the testosterone, um, the palates, um, all these things that she's actively pursuing, I'm sitting there thinking, maybe I should get my blood tested. Maybe I should get my blood tested. So I did.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Let me interject here. Get your blood work done. Yeah. And ask for more than just a CBC.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Yes. You don't have to get hormone replacement therapy if you don't want it, but at least get your blood work done and let them know what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Going on in that mess.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Well, I'll give you a caveat to that too, though. Let's hear it. Yeah, we're all ears. I know. I um I did get my blood work done. My doctor did, and he was willing to go the distance with me. By the way, this is your PCP. This is not your OBGYN. This was not my OBGYN, correct. I did go back to see her and I did get back in with her, and I do have her as my as my doctor, uh, my OBGYN. But he was very much willing to work with me and try to figure out what could be going on. Yeah, let's hear that journey.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Because he didn't just say, Oh, you need hormone replacement, did he?

SPEAKER_00 13:30

No. No, no. Uh he was willing to look at some different aspects. So far down, we went um through some ADD testing. Um I did the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Oh, isn't that I did the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

You're not crazy, but we'll do some ADD testing.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Okay. I did I went down the same path, the same thing that I did when I was going through this. It's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

He was willing to look at other things that could be going on. So he was we were we were gonna check every box, and there's nothing else that could be affecting you or your body. Um, so he did do the blood work and then he expanded the blood work, and um, I was going back and seeing him every three months.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Um because that's fun. Let's test it out for three months and see how that medicine works.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Well, I'll be honest with you, the ADD medicine um I did not have. I don't naturally like taking medicine. I don't, I'll take vitamins before I would have to actually take a medicine. So this keeps alluding down this line to where I got on the hormone therapy, just so you all know.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

Um, one thing that we've noted often is that prescription meds have side effects. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Lots of side effects. Lots of side effects. Yes. I the ADD medicine, um, I had heart palpitations, I felt like I was on speed. The one appointment I went in and he's like, Did you take your medicine this morning? And I was like, Yeah. He's like, I can tell. He's like, You I mean, I couldn't. I was constant and moving. And he's like, Okay, we probably need to take that down a little bit. And so he's like, I started you on the lowest, but I can take it down to like half of that. Um, and I was like, I'll try it. But that he said, if you are still feeling this way and you're still having the heart palpitations with me taking it down a half. Now, mind you, this is the very lowest part of the spectrum that I could have been on. So it's just how my body reacted to it. He said, just stop taking it and call me. Call me and we'll figure something out. So um we definitely tested a few different kinds of medicine and it it just wasn't for me. I am um a holistic person, I think, in general, the way I treat myself. So meditating helped my anxiety levels. Um, but it was definitely there was a switch that got turned on in me that was heavy. Heavy is the only way I can really present it to you. It was hard to get out of bed, it was hard to sit at a desk all day. It was hard.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

It was just life was hard and it was heavy.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

You're gonna make me cry.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

I know that is it is it's an emotional journey. We're not telling you this to scare you, but we're telling you that it is an emotional journey because it's your body and your sanity and your life that you're trying to get a hold of. Yeah, and you have no control over it.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

You have no control and it's keep it, it's trying to keep you down, you know, and it's uh stupid hormones. Yeah, so you're f you're resisting, you're going uh against the current and really trying to keep swimming and just just keep swimming.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

And it's it's frustrating when you're you're doing all the things you think you're supposed to be doing with going to the doctor and you're trying all the medicines, you're doing all the tests, and you still feel this way. It's like it's you're defeated. I it's interesting. I feel like her and I had a very similar journey.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

I mean probably you guys connected, yeah, drew together, yeah, drew into each other. Yeah, but uh I am here to tell you, I don't this isn't to scare you, but you are normal. Nothing's wrong with you. You probably don't have ADD. Um, and really um I think the the understanding your body and understanding like not letting the mental, I mean the brain fog, all of that, it all leads to anxiety, it all leads to fear, and you have no idea where you're going. Like, how are you going? How did you get here? Why are you here now? Yeah, yeah. Um so I think it all just puts you in um just a mindset that you really have to be strong-willed and strong-minded to get out of.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

Yeah. So tell us about how you went from the anxiety medicine, which you didn't stop at the anxiety medicine. There was two, was there two other meds, prescription meds that he put you on before HRT? Um, I feel maybe it was you changed the dosage. So that counts as one. Wasn't there another one that you went went on?

SPEAKER_00 18:09

So we started with depression or the anti-depress depression medicine, um, anti-anxiety medicine. I just I don't react well to medicine. I have um, I don't like not feeling like things. I want to be able to feel like I want these emotions and I want to know how my body is feeling. I don't want to go through a la la world, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:32

Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Um so we did antidepressants, anxiety, ADD, and then a version, right? Lit Ridlin is more for a kid's version. So I did try a Rydlin version. Yeah. Um and just nothing was really doing it for me.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Nothing was really So beyond the symptoms, the prescription itself wasn't giving you any relief. You know, sometimes you can get the sleepiness, but if you it gives you the clarity or whatever that you're seeking, you want to stick with it a little bit longer, but your side effects were just too strong all around. It didn't benefit you at all.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Well, I'll I will tell you, it did benefit me. It was I definitely had clarity. I could definitely sit and stay focused. Um which one was that? The Ridlin? No, the ADD. Oh. The ADD, the the highest, the 10 that he started me off with and then went down to half that. Um just trying to control the palpitations. It was one um I just couldn't relax. I think that was my biggest problem when I tried to relax, when I tried to unwind, is when the heart palpitations started going off. Um, if I just needed to be dialed in and focused, it definitely did that. It definitely did that. Yeah, but I didn't realize how I was acting. It was going to my doctor's appointment where he had to tell me, he's like, Oh, I don't like this. He's like, You're talking really fast, you're moving, he's like, you haven't stopped shaking.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Isn't that sad that your doctor has to see it accept that maybe that's not the right stuff for you?

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Well, and I again I have to, I I'm just giving him a thousand kudos because I feel like some of my doctors in the past and some of the people I've spoken to in the past, in like before this journey, I don't feel gave me that attention, really cared. I kind of wrote it off. No, this is like okay, you have this, okay, whatever. Um, so I leaned into the fact that he was willing to help me and try to figure out what was going on with me.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

So sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

I have a question. So um, were you having like the hot flashes and things like that also on top of these other things?

SPEAKER_00 20:45

I think that's a great call out. Uh, I did. I had the night sweats. There were mornings I was, you know, woke up and drenched in sweat. Um, but it wasn't regular, it wasn't every day. Um, the hot flashes didn't happen every day. I remember the first time I had a hot flash, I'm like, holy crap, what the happened? Like it took my breath away. I was like, I had 10 tons of my of weight on my chest.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

Um sweating. You'll get drip of sweat going down your back. You're like, whoa, fuck.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

What is that's awesome. Renee and I have been having hot flash recently.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

It's uh it's crazy. And really, we've had a girlfriend that's had hot flashes most of her life. And I like that second, I was like, oh my God, poor thing.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Like you don't realize how I feel like it seems so simple, like a hot flesh, how bad can it be? And it's like, you don't understand.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

No, you get a fan, but there's like nothing you can do with it. You need a fan like inside your body. Yeah, outside your fan. Not working. Right. Um, but I think again, another aspect of this is she's had her hot flashes, I don't know. Years, tens of years before we even started talking about this or going through what we're going through. So it doesn't have to just start later in your life.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Hey Google, it doesn't start at 50.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

I it doesn't. It doesn't. Really? So you're doing hormone replacement therapy now.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

I am doing hormone.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

What form are you doing? Hold on. Oh, I can't get there again.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

Was it the OBGYN that gave you your hormone replacement or your PCP?

SPEAKER_00 22:31

It was my OBGYN.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

I uh stopped taking everything. I really um I think the best part about the ADD medicine was it's instant. So you can take it and not take it. And it's not like the antidepressants where you have to stay on it for two weeks before you start to feel anything. And it's like you wasting two weeks just waiting to see if anything's gonna happen, right? You know? Um, so yeah, uh I stopped taking those, and we did um one of my blood works was testosterone, um, progesterone, estrogen, and estrogen, and progesterone. Yep, all of it. Whatever the panel was for all that that that blood work, and it came back good. Like the next time I went to see my doctor, he said, You're like your levels look great.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

So that was the primary, or was that? That was my primary, which we now know, thanks to Judy, that the normal ranges are not accurate for the different stages you're in. So you have to look at what stage you're in in your process to know whether that's actually normal. And by the way, the normal ranges are set for like 18 to 56 or something crazy. You know, it's like you can't compare me to an 18-year-old. I'm sorry. I know I look it, it's okay. But you know, you can't compare me to an 18-year-old. Right. It's not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Yeah, so I just really thought I was um, I listened to Renee all the time uh about her journey. This is recorded, just so you know.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

Yes. I have that forever now. She listens to Renee sitting between the sisters.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

No, but it was good because um eventually there was, I think one of the um time frames was when you were getting your pellets or you hadn't had your pellets for a couple weeks or something, and you're like, I just can't wait to get back to it. And I'm like, wow, okay, my testosterone's fine. I don't want to do the pellets. I don't want like specifically testosterone injected into me. I don't know what that's supposed to look like. I don't know what my body is. I trust her knowing her body, but I don't know what mine's supposed to look like. So um I decided to go back and see my OBGYN. And I she was and is and always will be fabulous. Um but she sat there and I could almost feel it. Like I can feel Renee, like I could almost feel it. She's like, uh-huh, keep going.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

She did what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Get to the end of your little story here because I know what's going on. I would like to listen to you, but I really got the answer for you. So she's like, Andrea, I think it's time we talk about hormone replacement. And I was like, okay, like, okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

Which by the way, we are very, very fortunate because our OBGYN also does hormone replacement therapy, so she gets pellets. So she was very open. We do understand that there's not all OBGYNs have that same mentality, so you have to find one that has the same mentality of what you're interested in going through, and you just gotta keep trying. You gotta keep trying to find the right person that wants to support you and wants to support your journey.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

So she prescribed it to me. What did she prescribe to you? Tell us more because we get pellets.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Uh, so I have a progesterone pill that I take at night, and then I have estradol. It's a patch that I put on once a week.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

I change it once a week. My favorite thing that you told me, I feel like it was a month after you got the patch because I didn't even know you had started it yet. And you go, Renee. Actually, you say it. It'll sound cuter coming from you.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

Well, again, I'm resistant to medicine in general. Um, so I was gonna start with a patch. I'm just gonna put on the patch. And I again dragging my feet. I waited about a week, and then I was like, Sundays, I'm just gonna make Sundays my day, and I'll change, plan to change my patch every Sunday. So that Sunday, I I don't know, I went to the kitchen and I opened this patch, and again, I don't know what it's gonna do.

SPEAKER_02 26:52

Were you like, hi, little patch? Please be my magic. I need magic today. No, no, I don't have a combo. Listen, I'm resistant.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

I'm still resistant at this point. She's rolling her eyes, but she's gonna be able to do it. Yes, I'm like, oh god, here we go. Let's see what this is gonna do. Yeah, but again, like the heart palpitations, that wasn't fun. So, like, what if this gives me heart palpitations or I don't I don't know what I was expecting again. You know, I say it all the time, but that what to expect when you're expecting, there should be that for this.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Yeah, there you go. There's our book. That is our book. We'll make a hormonal replacement and imperial menopause and menopause. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

I I mean, truly, if somebody would have handed me that book, I probably wouldn't have read it. Let me just be honest. We also appreciate that honesty.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

You guys have that in common. I'm just saying that it would have been nice to have some sort of guide notes version would have been great.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Yeah, but I feel like you need it kind of for every stage of your life. Like, um, you know, when I first got my period, of course, when I um went through some of the toughest times that I did having my menstrual cycle. And then when I get to this stage, how about hysterectomy? Well, forget give me a book on that. Making that decision. That's the same decision as making this decision, having hormone replacement therapy, you know. Well, is it gonna be the best thing for your life? Yeah. Well, I will tell you, I put that patch on, and you know, when you were a kid and you were acting up, when you're like your your dad is like, he comes over and grabs you by your shoulder and kind of just straighten up, pull it together. Where somebody has to tell you to straighten up. Yeah, like you are acting out of sorts, you are not in your right mind, pull it together. Yeah, this is what this patch did. It grabbed me by the shoulders, and I literally felt almost like a jolt. It was almost like a jolt, and it was almost like happy, like I felt like happy, like I had this emotional, bodily experience that I can't even describe to you. But I felt normal for the first time in a very long time.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

So it was magic.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

It was magic.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

But are you on any other medicines for those symptoms that you had been on before?

SPEAKER_00 29:17

No, nothing, nothing, yeah. I cold turkey everything, nothing. If it doesn't work for me, I'm not, I don't give it too much time. Sorry. That's fair. Um again, I'm resistant to medicine. Um, very more natural, if you will. So I'll do vitamins, um, but I'm not not trying to do prescriptions. Not trying to do my I am her twin sister, so I do have Hashimoto as well, which I blame on her.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

That's totally her fault. Yeah. She definitely was gifted this much later than like what was it three years after I was diagnosed with Hashimoto, she was finally diagnosed with Hashimoto. So there's a lot of other symptoms at play, but literally, this was the magic that your body was like, oh, that feels better. We get it when we get our pellets because all of a sudden it's like, I don't hate everyone anymore. Yeah, I actually want to be around humans now. Yeah, I like humans. I like humans now. Yeah. All right, Holly. So we do have to wrap this up. Um, you do you have any final words of wisdom that you would like to share with our fans out there?

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Um I don't know that it's words of wisdom. Again, I'm not a doctor. I'm just here to share. Oh, they know that.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

We're not medical professionals. We tell them every time.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

Um, I think a couple things that I would have uh made note of. Um take a step back. Don't lean into your emotions, don't let them lead you in your life, your family, your kids, whatever it looks like. Take a step back and just know it's your emotions talking and it's not you. And don't build, let don't let the anxiety build up because it can definitely take wear you down. Um document your feelings. Look at the time of the month it was. Again, I had a hysterectomy, but I do still have my ovaries, so I do still ovulate. So it's almost like I've still having my menstrual cycles. Um, so you know, you do get tender breasts and all the things that are hap happening um when you do uh ovulate and have your menstrual cycle. Uh so just know the times of the month, start learning what's happening with your body and when it's happening so you can kind of feel more in control. Yeah, because I feel like that's the biggest thing. You feel so out of control. Yeah, yeah. Um, but once you start understanding what's happening and correlate it with what could be happening or what is um actually transpiring. Um it's okay to say you need help. Ask for help. Amen. Go down the journey. Um, I don't know. Journey is the right word. I feel like we need to find a better word for it because it's a it's a roller coaster.

SPEAKER_02 32:10

It's a roller coaster for sure. There's no journey. I feel like journey sounds positive.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Okay, yes. Don't let fear rule your life and keep going until you get it. You'll get there. Yes, girl. Yeah, really good words of advice. It's great words of advice.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

Um, yeah, we thank you so much for coming on here today. It was such an insightful conversation. It was really good.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

Do you feel like you know us better, Holly? I do. Who knew I could know you any better today? I know so much already. I gotta keep Audrea away from Holly now. That's the important part now. That's the next step. Keep Audrey Holly away.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

I felt like I connected with her. I feel like a lot of her story got us. I know, I knew you guys would. It's so it was inspirational. I really appreciate you taking the time to share it with us.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

Um I have to tell you guys, thank you for doing this. I think it's so important to put yourself out there like this um to talk about these journeys and the different options and the different things that are out there and available. So I think thank you for for being so bold and inspiring.

SPEAKER_02 33:13

Listen to our libido episode yet. We literally laughed through the whole thing. You're getting positive feedback for that one. Thank you very much. But we're putting ourselves out there, that's for sure. Right.

SPEAKER_00 33:26

Sometimes that's the best thing you can do is laugh your way through it.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

It's exactly that's the only way to get through it sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

All right. So if today's conversation resonated with you, uh, we'd love for you to share this episode with a friend because chances are she's going through the same thing as you.

SPEAKER_02 33:42

Like us.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

Like us. Crazy like us.

SPEAKER_02 33:45

And always, as always, like, follow, comment, subscribe to our Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok pages. We'd love to hear from you. So if you want to send us an email, we're at hot flash and sassy, all spelled out at gmail.com. And our new episodes drop every Thursday. So be waiting for this one to come out. We can't wait to air it and have all of you hear Andrea's story. Thank you. Thank you.