The Bestie Blend
Where friendship, life and a little chaos come together perfectly. We've been best friends since 7th grade which means we have seen every version of each other. The good, the bad and the what were we thinking phases. Grab a cup of coffee or wine, settle in and let's blend our stories together.
The Bestie Blend
Episode 8: The Hidden Signs of Perimenopause You Can't Afford to Ignore!
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Most women don’t realize how many menopause symptoms are actually manageable — hot flashes, fatigue, libido dips, brain fog — you name it. Nancy Ann and Jen shatter the silence around perimenopause, sharing raw, personal stories and breakthrough truths that could change your life.This episode isn’t just about symptoms; it’s about reclaiming your power, busting myths, and embracing your body’s natural shifts with confidence. Whether you're in your 30s, 40s, or nearing menopause, you’ll discover practical tips on hormone therapy, why doctors often dismiss symptoms, and the astonishing impacts of personalized treatment. You’ll hear how hormone imbalance affects everything from sleep and mood to muscle gains and heart health — and how HRT can be your secret weapon against feeling lost in the change.We break down the myths that keep women suffering in silence: that irregular periods aren’t normal, that hormone therapy causes breast cancer, and that aging means sacrificing your vitality. Nancy Ann’s and Jen’s journeys reveal the transformative potential of understanding your hormones, advocating for yourself, and exploring new treatment options that can revive your energy, libido, and peace of mind.This is essential listening if you’re tired of feeling like your body is betraying you. If you want to step out of the fog and into a future where you thrive, not just survive — hit play now. Your best life after 40 starts here.
Welcome back to the Bestie Blend, where our opinions are strong, our coffee is stronger, and our medical histories are apparently trending topics.
SPEAKER_03I'm Nancy Ann, a survivor of uterus purge of 2026, thank God. Still accepting some pick cookies and awkward questions, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00And I'm Jen. Recently just had a PRP injection in my back, which means I'm either healing or secretly plotting to become a bionic bustie. Either way, buckle up. All right. So before we head into this, we're gonna do a quick disclosure as we dive into today's topics. We are gonna cover some adult health topics and frank medical chat that might be inappropriate for our kids. So if you're listening, discretion is advised. And maybe pop in some headphones if you're near little ears.
SPEAKER_03All right. Today we're talking about HRT, women's issues that we deal with as we're getting older. We'll share myths, tips, and probably at least one awkward personal story. We have many, because what is podcasting without oversharing, right?
SPEAKER_00Totally. So one of the things that we always talk about is what are the common complaints as women suffer from going into perimenopause. And we're not talking about full-blown menopause, because that's obviously going to be a little bit of a different issue with some. So it's funny when we hear these different, I don't know, complaints that, oh yeah, that happened to me. So one of the biggest common complaints, and I think this is where I started this HRT journey, is having irregular periods. Like I would never miss my periods. I would have them every single 28 days, which I still do and I'm 49 years old. But my cycles changed a bit where everything was heavy and the cramping was awful.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it I feel like as we get older, the pain and the heaviness gets worse. I mean, gets more and more extreme. Right. Just more awful.
SPEAKER_00And then we always hear about those hot flashes and night sweats. Did you get those?
SPEAKER_03I think that was one of the telling signs for me that I was going starting to go through the change were the hot flashes. And that was one of the things that was the weirdest thing for me is I didn't get hot flashes and like start to sweat everywhere. I just got them in my head or on my head. So I will sweat and get hot flashes and just get like burn up on my scalp. Well, that's weird. It's the weirdest thing. It when I wake up in the morning, when even when I'm out and I get a hot flash that hits me, it's all just in my head, it's on my head. Not in my head, but on my head. And my scalp just I get drenched. It's the it's the weirdest thing. I'm sure a doctor would say it's all in your head. Yeah, absolutely. But actually, it was it's it's such a weird thing. And I think that it being just my head made it a little bit more of a you're not just hot or sweaty. There's really an issue. Like maybe you are going through the changes, starting to.
SPEAKER_00I never had hot flashes. I would just have like night sweats, but only during PMS week. So I knew when my period was coming. And it wasn't just like a little bit, like I'd have to get up and change a shirt because I'd be so drenched. My hit back of my neck, my yeah, everything, my arms, and you know, like the creases of your elbows or your whatever above your forearm. I'd just get drenched. But then that would be it. It wouldn't be a consistent thing. It would be one or two nights. So I knew my period was coming, even though I know it's every 20 days. Yeah. But I never had the hot flashes or have to carry around a fan with me.
SPEAKER_03Oh my gosh. I swear I should become like a spokesperson for fans, right? Like I carry like at least three of them in my bag. I mean, I'm in Tennessee right now and I have three in my bag that I traveled with. Because and I have to put it on my head because if my face in my head starts to get, that's like where my hot flashes start. That's so weird. But I mean I wouldn't I don't want to say weird, but it's I guess it's so normal. That's what we should be saying. But again, that's another that was the sign of like, oh, maybe I need to start looking into it. And I think that you actually started on HRT before I did. And that's when I started to go through like the the whole issues with my marriage and everything. And you had made those comments to me about, you know, what you really should think about it and go, you know, talk to your doctor about it. And that's when I did. And it was like, oh no, you you need to be on hormones. You definitely my blood work was definitely saying, hello, you definitely need to be on these.
SPEAKER_00Right. I think another problem I had sleep problems. Again, only during PMS. And I knew I wake it up at like, gosh, it was almost like two o'clock in the morning or one, even one o'clock in the morning, and when it takes me forever. And it sucked because I had to be up at four o'clock.
SPEAKER_03Well, and did did you did you suffer from like when you would wake up in the middle of the night and just be wide awake? Yeah. Like you couldn't, it wasn't like one of those things where like you woke up and like you had to pee or whatever and go back to bed and like fall asleep. No, like I was waking up in the middle of the night and I was awake. There, I was like, I need to start my day now because there was no, like nothing, nothing could help me go back to sleep and get more rest.
SPEAKER_00Don't laugh at me, but I would just grab my phone and pay play Candy Crush because that actually made my eyes tired. Yeah. And so I can play that for about 10-15 minutes and that would start making me tired. And then sometimes I could fall right back asleep and sometimes I couldn't.
SPEAKER_03Well, during that time for me, I saw a lot of sun sunrises. Right. Well, I see them many ways because I'm up at four. Yeah. But like I, yeah, I would just get up and start my day, get some coffee. And of course, by the time, you know, six or seven o'clock rolled around, I was exhausted. And that is actually a funny thing for me, is that I started napping with starting on HRT and starting to go through perimenopause. I was not a napper at all. I couldn't do it. And now, like, oh, I can go down for 45 minutes, I can go down for 20 minutes, two hours. It's almost like I'm meeting it during the day.
SPEAKER_00Well, I just so weird to me. I was always a napper, so I can't really say that you know I've been on perimenopause the last like 20 years, but I did notice that I was more tired faster during the day than I've ever been. It's like you wake up at six o'clock in the morning, or I should say four, because I am up at four. Yeah. And then by the time I get into work, I'm sitting there and I'm just like, I really want to go back to bed. And that has never been an issue with me at all. Caffeine doesn't do anything. I just like the taste of coffee.
SPEAKER_01It's nothing like it.
SPEAKER_00I'm not, I don't have to use caffeine to keep me up. And I would use pre-workout often in the mornings for working out because it would just help me push through the workouts, even before I started getting this way. Yeah. And even taking that, after I take it, do my workout, I was ready for a nap. And that was never the case. It was really frustrating.
SPEAKER_03Well, it's like our the body is going through those changes. You kind of don't, like, you know, something's up, but you don't know exactly what it is. And I know when I went to my doctor after he had told me about our HRT, and I had had this conversation about because we were also dealing with my fibroids and all the other stuff that I was dealing with. And he told me, this is the craziest thing, but he told me that so many women my age and your age go through this and think it's just that something normal that they have to go through. They don't even realize that there is help like HRT or you know, medical help or different things that you can go through. They don't even realize it because women just think, oh, okay, well, I guess it's just something else we're just gonna have to deal with and consider normal.
SPEAKER_00Well, how many of our parents ever really talked to us about, hey, by the way, here are gonna be some of these changes that could potentially happen as you, you know, you're into your 30s and then you get into your 40s or anything.
SPEAKER_03No one does. Also, for those women, like our parents, our I mean, our moms and friends who are older, they didn't want to talk about it either. I mean, how many like I was talking to a friend of mine who's in her 60s, and she told me the first time she went to the doctor's office to try to figure out what was going on with her, he prescribed her an anti-anxiety drug. Well, that was common. I mean, and that's what they would do. It's like, oh, you're crazy.
SPEAKER_00Like, you're like Yeah, it it's just insane. And we'll go into the myths here in a few minutes, but yeah, I I don't understand how doctors don't do more research on this as it's coming up, none of us would ever know if some of our other friends hadn't started this. And that's how I got into this, is because I had a friend who started this and I was like, Yeah, interesting.
SPEAKER_03Well, and you don't have to suffer. You don't you can do things to make it better for you. You don't have to go through those things. And I will tell you that because you're only on one particular HRT variant, right? I have two. Are you on two?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'll talk about that.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Actually, three, three. Cause because I'm on two, two as well. And I mean, you just depending on how it is, I mean, you can you can definitely feel better. I know I feel much better.
SPEAKER_00Oh, a hundred percent. Because I think really when I started to notice it and going, okay, this isn't right. So for those of you that have never met me, I'm a fitness coach, but I also have competed in a few uh did three bikini competitions and a figure competition. It was the last one was three years ago. No, it's gotta be longer than that. Four. I can't remember now. Golly geez. I never did any, I literally, it was all natural percent. And I never took anything that I wasn't supposed to do, except for one time when I didn't realize what I was taking, and I'm going, wait a second, I don't want to take this. But this was like many, many years ago. Yeah, I took it for a week and then I was like, Yeah, I can't, it's not what I thought it was. Um, because sometimes coaches don't always tell you exactly what you're taking. They're like, You do this and you want to trust them. Yeah, I don't do that anymore. I research everything now.
SPEAKER_03And we'll talk about that maybe on a different episode.
SPEAKER_00Right. But when I everybody always says, as soon as you come off of a training session or for a comp you know, a comp competition type style training, your body is tired. You've really screwed up hormones because you're diminishing what you eat. You're you're not sleeping like you should because you're just overly tired from all of the training. And I recovered pretty fast from the bikini competitions. But as I got into that figure, I was a lot older and I noticed that my body wasn't building muscle like it really should be. I was holding on more fat. My lower body was great, but I could not build my upper body and I was 100% on the diet. And so it was that was frustrating. And then after that competition, that is when I noticed everything really started to change. The tiredness was worse. The, you know, even months after when I'm at my normal weight again, it was like I went to bed and would wake up 20 pounds heavier and I'm not eating any differently. You know, I do have I I indulge here and there, but nothing I've done this whole my whole life.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00My pants are getting tighter. And I was like, what in the world? I let's see if I starve myself and let's see if that works. I'm kidding. Yeah. That's just the frustrating part. And so that was, I think for me, that was like, all right, so periods aren't fun anymore. I'm tired. I didn't really get any headaches, which I'm thankful for. But holy crap, breast tenderness during your period? Or like B P Mass. I only have it literally every day except for the week of my period. It was awful. Everything was swollen and it just that the pain would never go away.
SPEAKER_03I got the I got the migraines. The migraines were I was susceptible to those earlier in my life. So I think that that being a symptom of one, where that's where I bought those ice hats. Yeah. Because because what would happen is I'd get a headache or a migraine, which would be debilitating. It's like the only thing that you could do would be able to go to sleep to wake up in the morning feeling better. And then I'd get hot on my head. And so I'd have to put the ice ice hat on to get rid of the headache and the hot flashes. Cause that would, it would just bring one would bring on the other. You know what I mean? Yeah, she sent me the link hat yesterday. Those things look awesome. I think I'm gonna have to get one. Dude, I I travel with them. I think my mom has one at her house. I've I've have two at least in my freezer. But they they're just a gel and they they just work wonders. But yeah, I think everyone's different. What other what other kind of symptoms did you start dealing with?
SPEAKER_00I think that was you know what? I don't want to say it's sensitivity to alcohol, but goodness, you I can't drink at night anymore because that really screws up my sleep. Sure. Like percent. When I was at work the other day, we the girls talk about it because all of a sudden, like you want to enjoy, but I cannot drink. Not that I ever drink a lot a lot, but I don't like getting tipsy or just about over the verge of tipsy because then I know I'm not gonna sleep.
SPEAKER_03It's terrible. Well, like your s your metabolism slows down, like you were talking about. Like I I mean, I I gained so much weight, and that was, you know, could be some other factors as well. But I I suffered from, you know, I I don't want to say joint pain, but like my body just you started getting new aches and and pains and and issues that I'd never experienced before.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, the sleep was a hard one. Period was horrible. But now they're coming out with doctors are specifically who are dealing with menopause and perimenopause specifically, are coming out with documentaries. They're coming out with speaking engagements and things like that to start talking about it because it's not something that we need to be hiding and trying to like keep it secret. I mean, don't you think like the whole FDA with with taking the warnings off of HRT finally? I know people who I know people who are having a hard time getting patches, estrogen patches, because so many people are signing up for those things now that there's no shortage because everyone wants to be on it now that there's no breast cancer risk. Right.
SPEAKER_00Well, that was one of my myths that we have. I've heard of you know, the other thing I I noticed is libido, well, let's just call it the sex. That like there was no urgency. I don't know if that's a word. There was no like there was no mood for it. I was just I didn't I tried and it was hard. And I, you know, here I am dating somebody new, and I really hit after that last competition because everything was changing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I'm like, I'm not in the mood. What there's something I shouldn't be this young saying that I'm not in the mood. Yeah. And so I just felt terrible because it totally changed that libido. And think about it, you just feel like it's just something that's you.
SPEAKER_03And yeah, your body's just changing and that's what's happening. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You're just not in the mood. Right. And so I had gone to the doctors, and again, we'll go into these myths, but I remember going in and saying it was just a normal checkup. And telling her, my periods are terrible. They are like, they hurt. It's not like they used to be. I'm super tired. You know, can I just get some blood work just to kind of see where I'm at? And she's like, Well, you know, you're you're at that age. I'm sure we'll give you a we'll give you a blood panel. But you know, you're you're healthy. It's just this is what you have to deal with at, you know, your age. And I'm kind of rolled my eyes and I said, Whatever, can I just get a blood panel? Because that's really what I wanted.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, my blood panel was literally my lipids, the AC1, and just like heart stuff. It was nothing to do with hormones that I specifically asked her for then. And then when I asked her back, you know, asked her for it again, she said I didn't need it. What what do you what do you mean I didn't need it? Like I want to know what my testosterone level is like. Because as an athlete, I can tell that I don't have a lot of it. That's 100% not building the muscle that I'm supposed that I could have been building back in my 20s. Yeah. And so I get my panel back, my cholesterol's sky high, like literally it was like 270, I want to say, two something. And LDL is very hereditary in my family. So that was really high. And there wasn't any follow-up. So I had to follow up with her going, so my cholesterol is super high. And she's like, Yeah, just change your diet. Well, what else am I supposed to change? Because I don't already made those changes. And if LDL is high anyways, because it's heredit, like she that was it. And so that's when I really, you know, going through it. So when we talk about these myths, you know, like your friend, they gave her medication for antidepressant or stress because that's anxiety. That's what they say it is, instead of really paying attention to what it is.
SPEAKER_03I mean, the things that so many women go through. I'm I mean, obviously, I haven't gone through every single one of the issues that come with perimenopause and menopause, but I mean, the brain fog, the brain fog for me is a really big one. And memory, I used to pride myself on thinking that I had a very good memory. And just, I mean, sometimes I'm just like I walk into a room and go, what the freaking heck am I even here for? What did I do? Walk right back out and come back in. Retrace your steps. Okay, let's backtrack a little bit and think about what you were talking about. But yeah, the memory and the brain fog, the fog of just like feeling depleted and just not having enough energy mentally.
SPEAKER_00Well, my brain being I'll just say my brain fog is my uh brain injury, my traumatic brain injury that I had.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00I didn't have it.
SPEAKER_03I had a concussion. Still bad, but still. They did get it. I don't have that excuse.
SPEAKER_00I didn't have something with post, oh, what was it post concussion syndrome or something like that? Mm-hmm. I'm like, okay, whatever. So now anytime I forget something, I just tell Larry I it's my brain injury.
SPEAKER_03It's your brain injury. I need to I need to do something so that I can have that excuse. But no, I'm st my body's just changing and I'm just getting older and I'm starting to go through perimenopause. Oh, yippee, yay, yay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so let's talk about let's talk about our myths. Well, we talked about the stress that your friend Dr. Sanders was under. Yeah. Some of the other myths are if your periods are irregular, you're not in perimenopause yet. Well, that's not true because my periods are regular, like every 28 freaking days to the dot.
SPEAKER_03Well, my period was never regular. Not even when I was younger, so I couldn't even use that as an excuse. Right. Like my period was so irregular that I didn't think anything was wrong because it was always I didn't I never knew. I mean, I could have two a month. I could have it was all over the place, and they never thought that anything was wrong with me. It was just my body and my my situation is just awful.
SPEAKER_00And irregular cycles are a hallmark of perimenopause and often one of the earliest signs, but that doesn't necessarily mean that that's a sign of a sign or not a sign.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, I mean, I feel like the biggest myth that we should talk about really quickly is the whole thing with the FDA recently and the breast cancer issue that back when when did that start? I don't even know. Was it the 80s or the 90s where they said that hormones were so bad for women and women shouldn't go on them because they cause breast cancer? So no one wanted to take the drugs that would help you go through perimenopause and menopause. And I mean, if you thought you had a risk of breast cancer, would you have gone on it? No. Like, yeah. And then all of a sudden they take it off because it wasn't true, which is so crazy. So many years of people not getting the help and that they needed, that they could have had a better, you know, older adult life for women. And now it's just like, it's crazy. I mean, I had a person in my life ask me if I had any extra patches I would sell them because they couldn't get theirs. And it's no, it's true. It's like scary. It's like, what would you do if you didn't have your patch? It's like an addiction. Like for me, holy cow, as soon as you take one off, you have to put one back on. There's no way I'm risking the patch on.
SPEAKER_00Okay. You feel back to normal. Like it's you, we're not the crazy people think pe the doctors say that we are. Absolutely. It's the feeling of just being normal.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. You know, I I'm being so regimented on making sure that I'm taking because I'm on progesterone and the estrogen patch. And before I was on the estrogen cream and got switched over to the patch. Weren't you on DA? I was for a very short time at the very beginning. And then once I was diagnosed with all the stuff that was going on, they wanted to take me off of that because of surgery and the growth issues. And they didn't think that that was something that I needed at the moment.
SPEAKER_00Right. Yeah. So I ended up, you know, we have a lot of people who I work with who is typically, I mean, 99% of them are all the guys that do it, but they all started taking hormone replacement therapy for themselves because guys can do it too. Yeah. They would, there's a doctor, there's a bunch of places out in California you can actually go see doctors. And but it's just so, so expensive. And they do a full blood panel because insurance doesn't necessarily cover certain blood panels. Sometimes it, depending on your insurance, they might they might uh pay for it. But ideally, you're out of pocket for that and they do a total blood panel with everything. And then you know they were on their hormone growth, hormone growth. Oh my gosh, I can't think of the name of it. HGC is what it's called, and TRT and all of these other things. But for guys, it's different than us because the guys that were taking it at work were the ones that are bodybuilders or muscle, yeah. They're the ones that are and that changes your personality sometimes. Like it makes you a little angry, or yeah, and then there's guys that are not taking that type of dosage, but are taking other things and their testosterone at 39 years old, 38 years old was really, really low, and now that it's it's bumped back up. Yeah. I think when we as women think about testosterone, we're like, oh my gosh, those fitness competitors who have those DPS. Absolutely, right? And I'm like, I don't really want to do that. Like, I no one's there's no study. So one of the guys' wives, we had talked about the different things about HRT and tired and getting older. And so her husband finally got her to start with a doctor's appointment and going through, and she got her blood panel back and started with testosterone shots. I knew she started it, but I hadn't talked to her in probably like six or seven months. And when I talked to her, her voice wasn't different. That is the biggest thing for me. She was talking about how much better she was and that the weight gain that she had gained came off and you know, all these different things. So I'm like, well, my doctor isn't gonna budge on that. So now I have to go and look for different things. And being within the fitness aspect of all the stuff that I do, I found my gosh. Did you go through a telehealth company? Now I can't even think of it. Yeah. Did you go through MIDI? There's so many new ones. No, no, no, no, this one's a little different because this was through a lot of competitors that I knew that I trusted. And so I had called, did my you know, intake, and they talked about this is what this is how a telehealth works is that you pay. out of pocket for your blood work, which it was $199. That's not bad at all for the full panel. And I really don't for sure panel is at this time because I've only gotten just a couple little things.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then that blood work gets sent back to the doctor. The doctor reviews it and then goes over it with our case person, I guess. And then they call us and they go over every single line. So they schedule like a 15 to 20 minute phone call with with you. So when I get my blood work, I'm looking and they it's things are highlighted in red when it's a very concerning thing. And like half my shit was highlighted in red.
SPEAKER_03Oh goodness.
SPEAKER_00And I'm looking at the testosterone level at normal they say is anywhere from the range of 10 to 50 for women. And I'm like that's pretty low. Mine was 25. And I'm like, well there you go. I already knew because at 25 with the level of 25 and working out as hard as I do, that is why I wasn't seeing the results. Yeah. Cholesterol was still super high, progesterone was still low, my estrogen was off balance. By the time I had this inner phone meeting with the I'll call her a caseworker. I forget what the title is. She spent almost over an hour with me on the phone line by line explaining every little detail of that panel. I've never had such a thing. Yeah. My cholesterol is high and isn't budging is because my estrogen and progesterone are so imbalanced. You need some of that balance in order to help 100%. And I was like, well how come my doctor doesn't tell me that oh wait she didn't do a hormone panel like and then there was a couple other like red flag things. So they started me on I chose the shot because it was easy it's once a week and I chose it I didn't want to wear a patch and all that stuff. So I got one shot a week of progesterone I'm sorry testosterone. Testosterone and then testosterone because she says that that'll balance out whatever the because my estrogen wasn't terrible but it was making it was imbalanced. And then the D H E A pill. So I was taking two pills and a shot a week. So I got all that and I had to have a blood work blood work every four months. Larry started it too everything was pretty good for him. He's all his blood work came back pretty good. So he just did stuff to kind of enhance certain little things in his blood work. Yeah. So we both got a secondary blood work four months later and then Larry's hormones and all the things were pretty balanced. So then they went okay we don't need to do it every you know we don't have to pay 200 bucks every four months we can longer. With me things were working. So I went from a testosterone level of 27 to 100 I was feeling amazing. Sleep was great energy was high the weight that I had gained had cut came off.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I just felt overall better that first four months they redid my blood and my testosterone level was at 130, which isn't terrible. I think if you get 250s and more that's the voice starts changing. Yeah. So she lowered my dose even more and my cholesterol actually went down a lot without taking cholesterol medication.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Proof that everything was imbalanced. So for me it's just taking time they're just adjusting all of my medication to make sure that everything starts like some stuff comes down and some stuff is elevated because it's just they got to get the right dosage for me. But everything and libido holy moly.
SPEAKER_03I'm telling you I mean you were the one that told me so holy moly probably the worst time in my life to have a sex drive yeah or maybe the best who knows stay away from Tinder Yeah no that is not going to happen. But you know what was for me when they put me on the cream and a pedestrian pill and the DH when I saw my new specialist doctor when I started having all of the issues with my uterus they changed all of my all of my medication and for me it was covered all through insurance and then they were just gonna they're just gonna monitor me on the new patch and the new and the pill because they upped the dosage of my estrogen and my progesterone took me off the DAGA and testosterone and now that I've had surgery and they've upped my dosage now I'm just being monitored to see now that I don't have a uterus well speaking of that let's let's talk about your hysterectomy for a sec. How do you want after that? I feel great. I feel wonderful and I don't want to rub it in at all or anything but you know shut up I gave all my tampons away I don't want to keep them you know it really it I wasn't even sure like knowing I didn't have a uterus and knowing I didn't have a reproductive system but still thinking that it was still going to happen because it's something I've dealt with for 48 years knowing that I couldn't physically have a period any longer but just waiting for the day of when my app told me I was going to be starting and then started telling me oh you're late you're late and I was like this has been amazing. And I also don't suffer from all of the the pre-stuff the week before feeling you know the tired, the the aches the irritability the over like needing to snack and needing to to eat with no like end of like getting satisfaction of being full none of that happened. So I feel like now that this is out of my body that I'm a new person.
SPEAKER_00I know that hearing from other women having that hysterectomy because it's taking up part of your your your womanhood did you have any problems when they had mentioned that that was a possibility that they were going to have to do?
SPEAKER_03Did you have any of those moments like, oh no, I don't want to lose that I've since I've dealt with so many issues with my reproductive system my whole entire life about because I also suffered from endometriosis and PCOS along with all of those, you know, the fibroid issues and stuff like that. And with PCOS I experienced years and years and years ago I had a cyst on my ovary that burst and hit one of my blood vessels and I had internal bleeding and had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. And so after that and I had other things that had happened I've had appendicitis I've had hernias just all of these surgeries that I have dealt with my you know reproductive system in that area I I think for me when somebody said you know what Nancy and I think the best thing for you is to have a hysterectomy I was like okay when can we do it? When can we schedule it? Can we do it next week? Because I was just tired of dealing with the pain and suffering of my reproductive system that it brought me. I don't know for all the women out there who suffer from PCOS, which is another situation that just actually changed the terminology of it after so many years. It's like P M O S or something now to kind of encompass so much more. But I the pain that you suffer from PCOS in having a cyst burst there's nothing they can do for you. They'll give you pain meds. I've been rushed to the emergency room I've done MRIs I've done CAT scans. It's been like nope there's nothing I mean unfortunately it's just it's just what your system does. So I've been dealing with this kind of crap my whole entire life since I was able to get a period which was what fifth grade because I was an early bloomer. So I was gung-ho. I now have I do have friends though that have said that they don't want to get one done because they don't think that they'll be a woman afterwards. That's what I've heard too. And I I feel I have a friend who has fibroids and who continues to have fibroids. She's changed her whole diet every single time she gets more she has shrunk some fibroids in the past with her eating habits, but she doesn't want to do that. That's not something that's that's you know going to happen for her. But for me, I I want to have the next 50 years of my life after everything that I've gone through I want to have this best life and I feel like that was gonna help me. And how many fibroids do they remove from you? I think they did 15 to 18 I can't remember I have all the measurements and everything in my system. Yeah my uterus what was it my a normal uterus weighs 50 grams and mine weighed 1100 grams. So it's my life has changed. My stomach is squishy now instead of hard. My doctor said that I was measuring 22 weeks pregnant um when I first saw him and the pain that comes with that and the the weirdness and the growth it's just I know you've you've suffered from things like that in the past yourself. So you know what I'm talking about. But to be able to have to just not have to worry about periods cramping pain the headaches all of that kind of stuff and now I'm being monitored and if anything were to change with my with my perimenopause symptoms I can go to my specialist because I've had such great doctors and such amazing insurance after my divorce that I am being taken care of like amazingly like my all of my things are covered by my insurance all of my medications.
SPEAKER_00And it's crazy because we have the same we have the same yep. So it just goes to show you that there are people that care a lot and really want to look into it and people who are just doing the job to do the job.
SPEAKER_03Well I just I definitely feel like I got blessed yes immensely for how quickly it worked because what was that? It was like you told me to go to urgent care. I'm still patting myself on the back for that by the way yes you should because it all happened so fast. I was in my car you told me to go to urgent care that night I went to urgent care that night two days later I had my first appointment with my specialist OBGYN and from there on my medication was changed instantly that day my horn my my HRT was changed that day. And then from there I went to another specialist and had MRIs had all the testing done everything it went so fast and now I'm six months later and I don't have a uterus anymore. I'm glad you're healthy now. I did but you know what I will talk you know I want to mention this really fast that I did actually keep my ovaries and even as a sufferer of PCOS keeping my ovaries I know people are probably like what the heck why did you do that? And this is another thing that my doctor had a conversation with me about that I would be dealing with PCOS in perimenopause for maybe another two years of my life because PCOS would be gone once you start menopause. So I might still be dealing with the symptoms of PCOS keeping my ovaries for another two years. But keeping my ovaries for the health benefits for my heart and for my bones and for all of the things it's going to give me for the next seven to 10 years of keeping those ovaries was outweighed the negatives of PCOS. And I would never have known that if my doctor hadn't mentioned it to me. Because it was very flippant when she said to me hey do you want to keep your ovaries even though you have PCOS and I was like well wouldn't you take those out since I have PCOS and and that's a cause of so many of my problems and she said well listen going into menopause you're not gonna have those symptoms anymore. It's not going to be existent. So that's maybe maybe two years of maybe randomly a couple of issues and I was like well heck yes if it's gonna help my heart it's gonna help my bones all the things that I thought were going to be problems getting older I would I'm definitely going to keep my ovaries. So I did keep something since you're not having a period you have to wait 12 months for them to consider you on menopause? I mean that's what they've said but you know I just put my put it on my forehead that yeah you you're basically thrust into menopause once you your reproductive system is is out I'm not gonna call you that until you haven't had a period for 12 months it's only been I know I know you are but it's okay I'll still remind you every month that I don't get my period and you can flip me off if you want every single time. But it is freeing it's very freeing. Good. So Jen, how are you doing with your situation that you're going through with PRP and everything? Can you explain that a little bit to us? Well I'm not a doctor but I'm gonna try you can pretend to be one on our podcast.
SPEAKER_00So I was in a car accident in December and if you know me I had a Jeep that I absolutely loved. She was pretty I know she was lifted she was just pretty and honestly it was my dream car. But anyways I was stopped at a red light right by a school like literally that intersection was the school and it was at 9 30 in the morning no traffic all of a sudden actually I'm on the phone with Larry and so I'm not paying attention to the rear mirror I'm just waiting for the light to change and the next thing you know I probably said some funny choice words because Larry has said that I had some not so nice words come out of my mouth. And I hear this loud bang. I smacked the back of my head on the headrest and that's what I remember hurting like right away. And I didn't even think that I was in the middle of the intersection but I just kind of coasted and I knew to turn the steering wheel so that I would at least end on a curb somewhere so I wasn't blocking traffic. Don't ask me why I knew how to do that. I just did. And it took me a couple seconds to realize that I had just got hit. So I was literally the first line or the first car at the limit line or the crosswalk. Nobody else was there. I went through the intersection on a red light thank God no other cars were coming or people. Yeah well I would have killed a kid yeah and I sat there for a second and I look in my rear view window or mirror and I go okay well I don't see the driver of that car. Are you kidding me? Is this a hit and run? I was like getting pissed yeah she had a minivan it was all smashed up and I as I get out of the car I see the driver get out of her car. So I was like oh she didn't run. And then here comes this young girl and she's like oh my God are you okay and I was like oh how sweet this student is checking on me. Yeah. No, she just got hit by that same lady about three miles down the road. So they were following her she was following her to go get her insurance or whatever.
SPEAKER_03So anyway seriously the craziest situation.
SPEAKER_00I don't even I jeep was total and I was really sad about that. But with that I had four MRIs and I ended up having some bulging disc, whiplash, all kinds of stuff. So they sent me to a pain management doctor and I originally got a PRP treatment in my neck at first the first time. I've had one before on my foot and it was amazing it worked. So what they do pull your blood out of you out of your system and they take it and they put it into this machine they spin it and they remove all of the good like we'll just call them antibodies because I don't know what the medical term is. Remove that from your good blood or from the blood and then they go and inject that into the injury injured area to help it heal. It doesn't always work on everybody but my foot they actually put me under because they gave me I had 30 needles that they used. So he was like I'm not doing this while you're up so when I had the opportunity to get another one I was like yeah it worked the first time let's see if it works. So the neck one had lidocaine which burned and then oh they put in the the blood or re-entered my own blood and I think after like the first week I started noticing a difference because I had a a constant ache. It just was uncomfortable it was like you had a knob up and down my neck. It finally just started to ease and go away and then my range of motion became really good and then after it's been two months it's been great no issues. Yeah so I went back in yesterday for my lower back and let me tell you I was really nervous because if you've had an epidural before thank God the needles are not that big. Yeah I was laying down like I just got nervous like really really nervous because of the we're gonna go into the back and I remember reading on the form that there was two spots they were going to do it in. So he had to inject the lidocaine in two different spots on my right side and then I like my right side is a lot more tender anyway so I jump a little bit. Yeah and then I could start feeling it numbing and you can tell he was like poking to make sure I was all numbed up and then he did my you know he put the my own blood back in and then we went to the left side and I was like oh god we got to do this again. Oh my God. And I think because half of my back was already numb, the mitochondri on the other side wasn't as bad and because that's the word stings so bad. You can feel it you can feel it go into your into your skin on the left side and that was the end of it. So when I got up the first time from my neck one I was like a bobblehead because it was numb and so I almost fell twice. Oh my gosh. When I got it from my back I was fine like it didn't there wasn't any issues. I think on the drive home the lady case started to wear off a little bit so the numbness that I always got down my butt, it was coming back again. And then I was just really tired when I got home probably just from the stress of it all.
SPEAKER_03Yeah I wasn't I wasn't sure I was gonna hear from you again after the last I'm gonna take a nap. I think I should think she's going to sleep.
SPEAKER_00Yeah I and then I just just relaxed. So basically he says no strenuous activity for seven days I could slowly kind of go back to certain things but I'll be light duty with work because of everything I have to wear. Yeah and I don't want to risk hurting the back so it'll probably take a good two months or so for me to get the full effect of it. So I'm I'm super hopeful because it's worked in the past and I swear by these PRP treatments.
SPEAKER_03Yeah well now I mean you're getting some type of relief with it which is what you're looking for.
SPEAKER_00And it's my own you know my own bodily fluids basically so I don't have to stop any of my HRT treatments or anything. I just can't take anti-inflammatories for a week. Oh okay so yeah it's gonna be feeling better. Yeah that's awesome okay that's our blend for today messy honest and medically questionable in the best way and don't forget we are not doctors we play them on TV only on our podcast only.
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SPEAKER_03We need TikTok we'll start going live on TikTok that's what we need to do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah so yes follow us on all the socials at the bestie blend.
SPEAKER_03But you know we're not doctors obviously like you said Jennifer but listen if you're having any of these kind of symptoms or any of these kind of issues that we've talked about today definitely reach out to your healthcare provider for medical advice. We'll see you next time. See you next time same blend new chaos. Absolutely bye bestie bye bestie
