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

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Cheryl Fischer (00:00):
Are you ready for story time?
Today I want to share with youmy HRT journey so far.
And you've heard me interview afew different people.
I'm in fact going to link someepisodes in the show notes that
you definitely want to listen toif you haven't already.
You've heard me interview a fewdifferent people about hormone

(00:20):
replacement therapy, but Ihaven'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, onethought at a time.
Unlike most advice out there,we believe that simply telling
you to believe in yourself orchange your habits isn't enough

(00:44):
to wake up excited about life orfeel truly confident in your
body.
Each week, you'll gainactionable strategies and, oh my
goodness, powerful insights tostop feeling stuck and start
loving your midlife.
This is the Mind Your Midlifepodcast.
One thing that I always say isthat coaches need coaches.

(01:08):
Sort of related to that, I usedto be a teacher, I still do
training.
Often teachers are not thegreatest students.
Coaches are not the greatestcoaches, but we need those
teachers.
We need those coaches.
We can't always figure out andsee things for ourselves.
We need support.

(01:30):
And so I want to share with youhow HRT has been going for me
and how I got to where I am nowand what really made not made,
but really kind of was thereason I made the decision to
try it, because maybe somethingwill resonate with you about
your story.
This is not simply a storyabout physical symptoms that I

(01:55):
was having.
Now, I do have to say, I am nota therapist, I am not a doctor,

(02:20):
I am not a nurse, so this isnot meant to be in any way
medical advice.
If you are thinking thatsomething resonates with you, go
and see a medical professionaland make sure you look for
someone who is certified by themenopause society.
You can go to the menopausesociety's website.

(02:43):
If you are in the DC, Maryland,Virginia area, you can go to
Vita Women's Health withAdrienne Thompson.
She meets virtually.
There are other all over theplace.
It's starting to happen allover the place.
Doctors and medicalprofessionals who want to help
us during this period of time.

(03:04):
I like her.
However, about six months ago,when I went for my usual, you

(03:25):
know, smear and all the stuff, Isaid to her, you know, my
skin's been really dry, my earsbeen itching.
Like I have a few of these, afew hot flashes.
I wonder if I should dosomething about it.
And she, when we had thisconversation, it was about 10
minutes after she had almostfallen out of her chair

(03:49):
realizing that I wasn't takingany medication.
I am 54, I'm almost 55.
It is true.
I am not taking any medicationbesides the hormones that I'm
now taking.
But at that time, I was not.
I'd take certain vitaminsupplements and things like
that, but I was not taking anyprescription medication.
And she truly was falling outof her chair about it.

(04:11):
And if you follow me on socialmedia, you might have seen me
posting back then in the springof this year, I think it was, oh
my goodness, is it really thatunusual to not be taking any
prescription medication?
And I had people commenting tome, yes, it is.
And there were people who werecommenting, that's me too, but I
think it is unusual.

(04:32):
So I'm not saying anythingnegative.
If you need to take aprescription because you have a
health condition and you need totreat it, then please do.
I feel very lucky that I didnot have to do that.
And so what she said to me whenI asked, you know, is there
something I can do for thesesymptoms?
She said, Well, are they reallyimpacting you?

(04:53):
And I was like, ah, you know, alittle bit bothersome, but I
ideal.
And she said, Well, you're nottaking anything.
I don't think you want tostart.
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 begrudgeher saying that.
And so unfortunately, becausebelieve it or not, in one-on-one

(05:22):
situations, I do get a littleshy sometimes.
Unfortunately, what I took awayfrom that was that even if I
went back, I wasn't sure that Iwould 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 andI'll figure it out.
And my symptoms kept happening.

(05:45):
And my physical symptomsweren't, they weren't super
awful.
I have heard friends tell meabout hot flashes that just
resulted in sweat pouring downtheir head, down their body, you
know, whatever, wet pajamas atnight, all of that.
Mine weren't that bad.
It just sort of felt like I waslike a cartoon character that

(06:07):
just burst into flameoccasionally.
And then it would, and then itwould stop.
I was a little annoyed atalways being like the tiniest
bit sweaty, almost likeglistening, if you've heard a
woman say that before.
I was a little annoyed aboutthat, but it wasn't that bad.
I think possibly one of themost annoying physical symptoms
I had was my ears itching.

(06:27):
What in the world?
That actually is aperimenopause-menopause symptom.
My ears were itching all thetime, and I didn't think I
should be walking around likealways with my finger in my ear,
itching it.
But truly, it was reallybothering me, and it is a real
symptom.
So if that's you, I understand.

(06:48):
My skin, I felt like my cheekswere starting to sag a little
bit.
You know what I mean?
My skin was getting dry, and Ialready have eczema issues, and
I already have very, very dryskin, and I'm very careful about
what I use on my skin becauseI'm allergic to half the world
of skin care, basically.

(07:09):
Well, maybe more than half.
So I was a little annoyed aboutthat too.
I'm just getting drier anddrier and drier, drier
everywhere.
But I was living with it.
And what happened then was thatthis summer, maybe like early
fall, I went for my physical.
And you know, I went to myfamily doctor and everything was

(07:30):
fine.
And she said, let's do theblood test.
Okay, great.
So my blood test results cameback, and my vitamin D was low.
And I'm just gonna go on alittle tangent about vitamin D.
And again, remember, this isnot medical advice, I'm just
sharing with you.
But years ago, a differentprimary care doctor, a woman,

(07:52):
had said to me, if you donothing else for your health,
please take vitamin D.
And I said, Well, don't you getit from the sun?
And mine isn't like super low.
And she said, vitamin D makes adifference in basically
everything.
And she said, and you can factcheck me, I never really looked

(08:12):
this up.
This was my doctor telling me,she said, vitamin D isn't even
really a vitamin, it's ahormone, and it affects so many
processes in your body, youwould be shocked.
Vitamin D, vitamin D, vitaminD, vitamin D.
If you took one thing, vitaminD.
So there you go, message frommy doctor of the past.
So I was actually taking avitamin D supplement, and still,

(08:34):
when my blood test results cameback in let's say September,
somewhere around there, it was alittle bit low.
And I was like, ugh, okay,well, I guess I should be taking
more.
And to be honest, I'm not Iwasn't perfect about it.
I didn't always remember, but Idid okay.
But the thing that really hitwas my cholesterol.
So my LDL cholesterol, I don'tremember the number, and the

(08:59):
number doesn't matter, it wasabove the healthy range.
All the other measures wereokay.
LDL much higher.
And it had been graduallygetting higher over the past few
years.
And so my doctor's advice inthe little message that you get
in the system was to stop eatingred meat or at least minimize

(09:24):
it, to eat more fiber, to eatmore fruits and vegetables, to
try to eat healthy in general,to minimize the alcohol.
Okay, I'll grant you minimizingthe alcohol maybe is something
I need to be cognizant of, but Ialready don't eat red meat all
that much.
I in fact watched on Netflix, Idon't remember what it was

(09:45):
called, a twin study that theydid where they had one identical
twin on a vegan diet and oneidentical twin, the other one on
a carnivore diet.
And the benefits coming fromthe vegan diet were crazy good.
So I had really startedlimiting all meat.
I'm still gonna eat eggs.
I'm not focused enough ongetting my protein totally in a

(10:08):
vegan way, but I had reallyminimized it.
So it's not the red meat, I cantell you for sure.
And I already eat reallyhealthy.
That has been my thing for along time.
I used to have a health andwellness business, and I still
do have clients in thatbusiness.
And I go to barre typicallytwice a week.
Now, at the time of recordingthis, I haven't been in two and

(10:32):
a half weeks, so there's aholiday season, right?
But I'll do it, I'll get back.
So I move, I exercise, I eatpretty healthy.
I haven't I haven't changed myclothing size in a long, long,
long time.
And in fact, I'm either e Ithink I'm only like half a size

(10:52):
in clothing bigger than when Igot married 28 years ago.
So I'm doing okay, in myopinion.
And I got a little annoyed, andI said, you know what?
Okay, I can increase my fiber.
That's a good idea.
I will do that.
But is that gonna be thesolution for this LDL
cholesterol going higher andhigher and higher and higher?

(11:14):
I started looking into itbecause that was all the doctor
said to me, and she said, youknow what, it's not ridiculous.
Let's check it again in a fewmonths.
Let's see how it is in a fewmonths.
That's fine.
And I haven't gone back andrechecked it, so we'll see.
Because things started tohappen, choices started to be
made.

(11:34):
And so I was Googling around,and goodness we know we have to
be careful when we Google abouthealth things, wondering what is
going on with my LDLcholesterol going high in my
mid-50s.
You want to know what I found?
It can be something thathappens in your body when your

(11:58):
estrogen drops.
What?
I really did not want to go onstatins for cholesterol.
I really did not want to dothat.
I do not think that I need todo that, and I want to actively
avoid it.
Now, if you're taking them andyou need them, please, I'm so

(12:18):
happy they exist, right?
I'm so happy they're helpingyou.
But I did not want to do that.
So I need to figure outsomething, but I did not know
that there was potentially alink with estrogen levels.
No one said that.
No one said that.
And to this day, no one hassaid that except the internet.

(12:41):
But I found it quite a bit onthe internet, so that started to
make me think.
And around the same time thatall this was happening, so late
summer, early fall, I alsostarted looking for a therapist
because I don't talk about it onthe podcast, and I am unlikely

(13:01):
to, but I have been goingthrough a few things in my life
that are really hard.
And I was feeling really down.
And I have known multiplepeople who have had depression
in a way that they neededmedication, they needed
treatment.

(13:21):
I've seen it, I've seen what itcan look like.
I've not seen every possibleway it might look.
And I knew I didn't haveclinical depression, but I knew
I didn't feel right.
I was letting these things thatare legitimately sad and
difficult things really bring medown.

(13:43):
I really didn't feel like goingout and doing things as much.
And this was very gradual.
And I I wanted to come on andshare this because if this
resonates with you, or if youcatch this, then maybe, maybe my
experience will help you aswell.
It was gradual.
I just I'm a knitter, sositting and knitting and

(14:08):
listening to an audiobook orsort of half-watching a show on
TV is something I love to doanyway.
I'm also a reader.
So I always joke with myhusband that he has all these
active hobbies that he likes todo, 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'twant to do anything else.

(14:30):
I just wanted to sit, I waskind of cocooning a lot.
And there's nothing wrong withthat until it becomes, until it

(15:50):
becomes almost like a copingmechanism.
And so I recognized that inmyself, and I went out and I
looked for a therapist, and Ihave been on kind of a gradual
basis seeing her and talkingthings through, and that has
been a good thing.
I don't think it's ever not agood thing, quite frankly.
But then I kept doing myresearch about this LDL

(16:12):
cholesterol, and you know whatelse I found?
I found that it is possiblethat anxiety, tiredness, lack of
interest in doing things mightalso be symptoms of hormone
levels changing.
And I think it was estrogenagain, could have been

(16:33):
progesterone.
I think it was estrogen again.
What?
So I went ahead with the startof therapy because again, can't
hurt, don't think it could hurtanyone ever.
But I realized maybe it wasn'tthat that was making me just
feel so low and low energy, andjust I don't want to do

(16:53):
anything.
Maybe again it was thehormones.
So I didn't have night sweatsthat were just ridiculously
awful, and I didn't have hotflashes that were what I've
heard described as awful.
I had them, but they weren'tthat bad.
But I had so many other thingsstarting to add up.

(17:16):
Low energy, uh, like feeling alittle like I was a little bit
depressed or or low mood, itchyears, dryness everywhere, high
LDL cholesterol, I'm trying tothink, I mean, I can't even
remember what else.
All of this stuff washappening, and it all was
potentially related to hormones.

(17:38):
What?
So instead of just beingannoyed at the doctor, adding
some fiber to my diet, and justhoping for the best, that is
when I went and saw, and she wason this podcast, Adrienne
Thompson.
Now, as I said, there's manymedical practitioners out there

(18:00):
that that really focus on HRTand menopause.
She was my choice, she's in myarea.
She's a virtual practice, butshe's in my area.
So we talked this through andshe did more blood tests.
And in those blood tests, shewas checking hormone levels and
checking in detail some morethings than what your average
kind of physical would check.

(18:21):
And my estrogen was in thetoilet.
I mean, it was like one ofthose things where it says less
than a number because they'renot even going to measure after
that.
And I've been in menopause foruh, you know, the official year,
a little bit more than that.
So I wasn't that surprised.
And as I looked at thesymptoms, and she had me fill in

(18:43):
the intake forms and we talkedthrough my symptoms, they really
were very much focused onestrogen levels, not so much
progesterone.
I believe progesterone can becalming, can help with sleep
issues, and of course, otherthings.
That wasn't really my issue.
It was related to low estrogen,all these different symptoms.
So I wasn't, as someone whonever had to take medicine all

(19:05):
the time, I wasn't thrilledabout having to do something
every day for ever.
But we really talked through isthis safe?
What are the healthimplications?
And we talked about the factthat cardiovascular disease is
the number one killer of women.

(19:27):
Well, what affectscardiovascular disease?
Uh, cholesterol is a big one,for sure.
Now, what she told me, and whatI need to responsibly tell you,
is that it's not recognized,I'm gonna say, yet medically,
that taking hormone supplementsis a treatment for high LDL

(19:50):
cholesterol.
So I can't tell you that thatis a fix.
But if having very low estrogencan potentially affect my
cholesterol, then I am willingto try taking the hormones to
see if the cholesterol comesdown.
You'll have to stay tuned, ithasn't been long enough to tell
you that.

(20:10):
But it has been two months.
So I started on progesteronebecause if you have a uterus,
which I do, you need to takeprogesterone alongside estrogen.
If you hear differently thanthat, look into it further
because that is the safe way todo it.
Make sure that these arebioidentical and you can get

(20:33):
them as generics.
It doesn't have to be from afancy compounding pharmacy.
It's not the weird syntheticstuff that was being used back
when our moms might have beengoing through this.
So I started takingprogesterone, that's one little
tiny pill at night, and it's sotiny, it's so easy to swallow.
I was happy about that becauseI don't love the big ones.
And then an estrogen patch, andI change it twice a week, and

(20:56):
it's really tiny, super easy.
And so, what she told me wasyou need to give it some time.
We're going to start out, andat first, the progesterone, she
said, might help me sleep even.
More soundly because it mightmake me sleepy at first.
That's why I take it at night.
And the first few nights, Izonked.
It really did make me sleepy.

(21:16):
The body adjusts to that,though.
It doesn't have that effect onme as much anymore.
Although, if you have symptomsfrom progesterone being low,
then it probably could stillhelp you.
Then she said, just let's giveit some time.
In my head, I'm thinking acouple months with the estrogen
as well, and let's see what'sgoing on.
And eventually we'll do a bloodtest, we'll check, I'll have

(21:39):
all these results for you.
But here's what has happened sofar.
My flipping ears do not itchanymore.
And truly, truly, it wasdriving me bananas.
It bananas.
I could not stop scratchinglike inside my ear.
Ridiculous.

(22:00):
And it looks weird too, right?
It doesn't they don't itchanymore.
They just don't.
It's incredible.
I don't have hot flashesanymore.
At first I had, you know, alittle bit, a little bit, nope,
gone.
My skin is starting to get alittle bit better.
Don't have quite so muchdryness all over the place if

(22:21):
you get my drift.
And I'm thrilled.
And then I've been sitting heretrying to evaluate, okay, how
about my how about my mentalstate?
Do I have more energy than Ihad back in like August,
September?
Do I feel like doing morethings?
And you know what?

(22:41):
I do.
The issues that I was dealingwith at that time are still
issues that I'm dealing with atthis time.
And they're super sad andthey're super difficult.
And yet I find myself wantingto get off the couch and wanting
to do things and feeling alittle bit happier about it.

(23:04):
That just malaise might be thebest word for it, is lifting.
And I can't believe that maybeI would have gone through that
and had no idea that there wassomething that would help.
It's incredible.
I even said to my therapist uhmaybe a session or two ago, you

(23:25):
know, I started this becausethis was really, really bringing
me down and I was worried, butI also think that might have
been hormones.
And she said, absolutely couldhave been.
Absolutely could have been.
Incredible.
So I can tell already in twomonths' time that this is making

(23:46):
a difference.
And if you saw my social mediathe other day, I was mentioning
that someone that I know uh thatI saw in person recently came
up to me and said how impactfulthat episode with Adrian about
how to talk to your doctor aboutthings like this was for her.
And she went to a practice whoactually listened to her and

(24:08):
took blood tests, and she'sgoing to be starting on HRT as
well.
Incredible.
Incredible.
And the research is there toshow that for most of us, this
is safe.
Now, you might be in the groupwhere hormone replacement
therapy is not as safe for you.

(24:28):
And so there are other things.
And doctors, again, who arecertified by the menopause
society, have been taught thoseother things.
There's been this kind of20-year gap where doctors just
weren't educated about what wewere starting to find out was
actually healthy and okay.
And that's what the menopausesociety is trying to change.

(24:51):
Hypnosis, believe it or not, isa good option.
There are non-hormone-basedmedication options that may be
good for you.
There is topical estrogen thatmay be safe for you, even if you
can't do more than that.
It could make a big difference.

(25:12):
So there are so many options.
And I am telling you thatsitting here now, realizing that
all those symptoms werestarting to go away and feeling
so hopeful about whenever I goand get my blood test and I look
at that LDL number, that it isgoing to come down, feeling so
hopeful that I'm actually doingsomething that will make a

(25:34):
difference in my overall health,because then we have bone
health that is going to bebetter, most likely, because of
appropriate hormone levels.
And we have, of course, thecholesterol, the cardiovascular,
I mean, just so many things.
I'm feeling so optimistic aboutthat and so happy that I stood

(25:56):
up for myself and I said, maybethese aren't horrible, awful
things, but they aren't greateither.
And I want to do somethingabout it.
And so that's my story so far.
I would love to hear from youif 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 spelledF-I-S-C-H-E-R.

(26:18):
Tell me what your experiencewas.
It will not be a bot answeringyou.
I answer DMs.
Now we are smack into theholiday season right now.
I hope you have time withfamily and friends, and I hope
you are enjoying it.
I know there can be strife.
I know it can be up and down.
That is the case for me forsure.

(26:39):
So I wish you happy holidays.
We'll be back next Friday.
So make sure you hit the followbutton because I have a guest
on next Friday, and we are gonnatalk about vibrant aging.
And you're gonna like thisdiscussion.
And in the meantime, keepremembering that now is your

(27:02):
time to take just a little bitbetter 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 caremakes a huge difference.

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

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