Perimenopause Was Ruining My Life (Until I Started HRT)

For years, Jeni and Amy did not know they were in perimenopause.
They thought my bodies were falling apart, that they were just aging.
Stiff hands. Rage. Hip pain. Shoulder pain. Rage. Dry skin. Itchy ears. Weird periods. Rage.  Bloating. Inflammation. Rage. Insomnia.
No one told us these were perimenopause symptoms.
In this episode, Jeni and Amy share what actually happened when they finally started hormone replacement therapy (HRT), including using the estrogen patch, combo patches, progesterone pills at night, and even vaginal estrogen.
Jeni and Amy talk about:
• The early perimenopause symptoms
 • How doctors dismissed us
 • How the Women’s Health Initiative scared a generation of women
 • The difference between a combo patch (estradiol + progestin) vs estrogen patch + bioidentical progesterone
 • Why HRT treatment is symptom‑based, not blood‑test based
 • How progesterone helped my sleep (and when it didn’t)
 • What happened when my progesterone dose was wrong
 • The online menopause care experience that finally helped me feel like myself again
Dr. Burki from GynoInfo! joins us to break down how hormone replacement therapy actually works, why some doctors still avoid prescribing it, and what women need to know about HRT safety today.
If you’re in your 40s/50s/60s and thinking:
“Why am I so angry?”
 “Why can’t I sleep?”
 “Why do my joints hurt?”
 “Why does my skin feel different?”
This episode is for you.
Perimenopause doesn’t have to mean suffering in silence.
Welcome to midlife. Don’t worry we are here for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Hi, I'm Jenny, and I'm Amy, and this is dismissed. We are former stay-at-home moms who quit our careers to raise our only children. Now we've been dismissed from our duties as carpoolers, dance moms, and birthday party throwers.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

And we're trying to figure out our empty nest lives.

SPEAKER_04 0:19

Each week, we're having unserious but raw conversations about what is going on with our bodies, minds, and lives. Okay. So let's talk about it. Okay. Welcome back to Dismissed the Podcast. I'm Jenny. And I'm Amy. We're so excited to have you back. We're going to be talking about a very exciting, very, uh, very topical for our age group, which is hormone replacement therapy and the patch. Sort of talking about like what led us there. Um, if it's helped, if it hasn't helped, um, you know, from just two former stay-at-home moms, you know, not doctors. Maybe we'll do that later, bring in a doctor, but definitely not doctors. So now we're gonna start talking about the patch. Okay, we're ready to get into like dismissed hormone replacement therapy. I was just going to say a couple of things about how long it took me. Oh, yeah, do because I feel like it took me long too. You too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Okay, but but how talk about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:27

This is I had to write some of this down because over the years I've sort of forgotten, and I mean years. I've sort of forgotten what some of my symptoms were. Okay. So in my like mid to late 40s, these are my symptoms. I had stiff hands in the morning. Uh-huh. I couldn't, I'd be. Wait, did they hurt? Yeah, they were like, wait, am I opening my legs? What's wrong? Did I sleep on my hands? Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

As you're thinking in your head, you're always thinking, I hurt something. Yeah. I hurt it accidentally. I did something. Totally. Totally.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

Just from working out. No. Um, again, didn't know. Dry skin. Now I normally have dry skin, but it was like flaking off everywhere. Didn't know. Itchy ears. Oh, me too. You had itchy ears.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Oh, so bad. So bad. Oh my God. I would wake up and like Yes. Okay. And nothing, not no Q-tip would help the itch. No, and I'd have to like with my tongue.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

Yes. Uh-huh. On the inside of my cheek to sort of weird periods, of course. Yeah. At the time. But that made more sense. Yeah. Um, I am a huge um sweater and sweater. Like I sweat a lot. Yeah. And I stopped sweating. Wait, totally? I just like for the first time in my life, wasn't like freaking out.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

Like, not no, really. Like, not at all. Nope. Oh, I've never seen it.

SPEAKER_04 2:47

I started using deodorant versus anaperspirant for the first time in my life. What? Yeah. So, okay. I also had um, at first I wrote severe mood swings, and then I went back and wrote more severe rage.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

Mood swings. It's rage. I'm telling you, it is rage. It's rage.

SPEAKER_04 3:03

What's that thing Taylor Swift said? Um, female rage, the musical. Yes, yes. So, um, and then I also became um clearer in my mind. Here's my positive. Um, much clearer in my mind about it. What do you mean by like I'm not gonna give my time to people who aren't giving their time to me. Um, some things that my husband was doing that was that were a little annoying, I'd be like, nope, not not gonna do it that anymore.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um you let it go, you let it go.

SPEAKER_04 3:38

Then I also um would take a long time to recover from my workouts, which again was why I sort of thought about my hands.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

But it was like, like, what do you mean? Like you're I think maybe more joint things. Yes, oh joints for sure.

SPEAKER_04 3:49

Um, maybe that. Okay, so that was my sort of list of symptoms I could remember. Um, and do you think now is a good time to talk about the patch and like take this off? Yeah. I actually am going to replace my patch on air. But I have an issue, but I'll tell you that once I'm replacing. Okay, so this is what I do. I have this patch. Yes, I've got my patch here, too. You have your patch too. Are you gonna change yours? No, I just I I just changed mine. Okay. Oh that's okay. So um, we'll try not to get too um inappropriate.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Yours is big. Is this big? Mine is small. Like, Mike, but mine is a big round one.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

All right. I kind of love it. Oh, I'm gonna show my stomach. Why would I do that?

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Oh, it's because we don't care no more.

SPEAKER_04 4:41

Okay, we don't care.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Um are you putting it really low? Oh, you're putting it really low. I put this really low. Okay. I am and it's it's hard to come just so you know the benefit of these things is they do not come off very easily. I I remember being really nervous when I put it on. I was like, oh no, if I shower, if I sweat, you know, if I do something, it will come off. Mm-mm. Nope. It doesn't peel.

SPEAKER_04 5:04

Yeah, it's peeling. I don't know if you can like showing my good girl. That actually sort of hurt and it normally does not hurt. Good girl. Probably because I took way too much time. Now they have mine is in the refrigerator.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

I know, which uh mine is not. Mine is just room temperature. It sits on my my dresser.

SPEAKER_04 5:19

All right, mine's um combo patch 0.05 milligrams, 0.14 milligrams day patch.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Trans okay but I think yours is um progesterone, progesterone and it's oh it's free. It's not both.

unknown 5:35

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Yeah, you're right. Well, you put yours in the fridge. I didn't we do not put this guy in the fridge.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

All right, now I'm gonna put it on me, but my so you have to switch. You can't just put it on the same thing. So I'm gonna go on the other side for next week. And then my problem is I basically have a whole, and that's it. I basically have a whole rim because I put them around my back and my front of these circles of like sticker. Yeah, so I can't really get it off. It's adhesive. I have a resolution for you.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

I have to like I have a resolution for you. You know how to get it off. Yes. Okay. Okay, so first of all, you you put it around, you put it around your abdominal area. Yeah. I do I just switch, I don't put it on my back be or on my back, higher buttocks, because I can't see it. So I just rotate side to side. Oh like every week. Okay. No, I never have tried. And I feel like I don't know. I feel like because I can't see it, I don't know that I would trust it. But I mean, I know. Okay, so here's Okay, so what do I do to get it off? So it's it won't take the alcohol, like an alcohol um or um peroxide, none of that stuff will work with the adhesive. So you use lemon essential oil. So does it have to be lemon? Yes. All right, because so it what it is is that it um it takes away the adhesive part of it. And the only reason I do that is because when the essential oils were super big, wait, hold on. That was um that was a big thing. So you rub it on there and kind of use your fingernail or something to kind of scrape it off, and it comes off really, really easily. And oh, it is coming off. I know. And I think it's because the citrus in it, like it totally helps. So I used to use this if there was a sticker on something that I couldn't get off. Um, I would use this to like if there was some a sticker on a cup or something like that that you couldn't get off, you always use this. So, yes, girl, use your lemon essential oil, and then you'll smell very lemon. It doesn't smell really good, actually. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah. I know, and then I also you do you don't take progesterone? So this is my progesterone um that I take. I take them 100 milligrams. And this, I don't know if you just it's like a little, I say it's like a little round sweet tart. You just take one of them and at night. I take one because I take a hundred milligrams.

SPEAKER_04 7:50

Okay, just one, just one. Okay, so let's take a step back for one second. Um, interested to hear from you guys who are watching this, listening to this. Um, what were your symptoms? When did you know you were in perimenopause? Uh what did you have? Did you were you not able to sleep? Did you have itchy ears? Seems like that's one we both had. What do you have? Put it down in the comments or talk to us on social media, whatever you want.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:19

Um, the other part of this, do you want to talk about your symptoms?

SPEAKER_02 8:22

Oh, yeah. Okay. I mean, my symptoms were pretty. I didn't really notice anything until it was like I was 46-ish. It was like 2020 pandemic. So I blamed a lot of stuff on the pandemic. Um, just I like my first thing that happened is my hips started hurting really bad and they were really tight, which both of them, which is very strange. Um, and then um my right shoulder went completely, like I ended up having a rotator cuff injury, which I don't play tennis, I don't do any of that stuff. But come to find out, and I worked through it with my physical therapist, and it's totally fine now. But come to find out that is one of the most common things is shoulder injuries, frozen shoulder, rotator cuff, all that stuff. That is the start of like perimenopause because we have so many estrogen receptors in our whole entire body. So that was the start. I have wicked insomnia. Um, really, really bad. Like I would sleep maybe an hour a night. Um, and I'm already like a not a big like I don't I I go to bed late and I'll wake up semi-early. Like I wake up, like I go to bed like midnight-ish. And I wake up.

SPEAKER_04 9:31

One of the things we're gonna talk about coming up, actually, in an episode pretty soon is what our nighttime routines are. Cause they're very ours are very different. Very different from what I can tell. And our menopause, paramenopause symptoms are very different. Very different. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Yeah. So insomnia. So insomnia, really bad insomnia. That was the worst part of it, I think. Um, and very, very like bloated and inflamed, which I feel like that was like the biggest thing that bothered me the most that I felt the most. It's just always this fullness and this like heaviness in my body. So I went through that for probably five years. Like five years of like second guess saying I needed to change something in my diet, saying I needed to figure out something in my workout that I wasn't doing right, saying, you know, like I wasn't sleeping. I was trying to take um melatonin, which didn't always work. It makes me feel kind of funky. Um, in the next day. Like I was trying all of these things, but never really did it hit that it was that it was perimenopause until much later. Okay, started educating myself. This is what PMOs me. Nope.

SPEAKER_04 10:40

Not you know, we'll talk about another one that's you know lighter. Yeah, but what PMOs you is PMO means piss piss me off. You had to figure out yourself. First of all, blaming yourself. Oh, I'm not working out right. I'm not doing something to calm myself down before bed. And nobody saying, hey, meaning somebody professional or a one-stop shop where we could hear that this is what we're going through. Let's talk about, let's get our hormone levels checked. Yep, sort of making that up. But I think you can do that, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:11

You can, but they don't really go by your um hormone. So basically they treat perimenopause uh by your symptoms only. So because they know if they give you a blood test, your your blood, your blood test, your hormone levels can look totally normal, but on that day it could have like balanced out because your perimenopause symptoms go so crazy. It could be a day-to-day issue. It 100% is so that's why they treat on symptoms instead of anything else. And I feel like nobody told us that. Nobody told me that. Nobody told you that. You're telling me this right now. Yeah, they literally treat on symptoms. That's what they do.

SPEAKER_04 11:45

Okay, which they should do. Let us know. We I right now wanna, I think we need to bring in an expert. Yeah. What do you think? I agreed. We are so honored to welcome Dr. Berkey from her podcast, Gyno Info, to our podcast, Dismissed. She is going to answer a couple of questions that we've had and that the viewers have had. So let's get into it. Well, hello. We have a special segment on the Dismissed podcast today. We've had so many listeners asking, we want a doctor's point of view on some of this stuff, because it's great to hear a couple of you talking about it and your experience, but we want to get a doctor's point of view. So I am so honored to have Gyno Info, Dr. Berkey, and her amazing podcast on today to ask a question about HRT. Welcome. Thank you. I'm so excited. I'm very excited to meet you and to ask you. Um, a lot of us in our 40s, 50s, and 60s are wondering about HRT, and my co-host Amy and I figured out that we're both on different HRT. I'm on a COMBA patch, and she's on a, I guess, an estrogen patch, and then takes progesterone at night. And we are wondering if there's a very specific reason, or is it just because a doctor's preference, or I don't know. What do you what's what do you think?

SPEAKER_03 13:11

What do you know?

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Well, I think it oh yeah, I have all sorts of answers. You know, doctors know everything. Right? No, there's definitely the most probable reason is probably your doctor's preference, but I can just tell you briefly what the difference is. The combo patches have natural, bioidentical, species-specific, like I like to say, estradiol. And they have a second component, which is a progestin, that is an artificial progesterone, not a natural progesterone, but it's very comfortable because you just have a patch that you that has everything you need. You slap it on, you may get a little bit of a ring from the glue that you can get off with baby oil or whatever, but you don't have to think about it for most of the week. You just have to set an alarm or whatever system you use to make you change patches, and that's all. And it's not a dangerous progesterone, it's just not the completely natural progesterone, like your body makes it, but it's a uh slightly different one, a more artificial progesterone. But overall, it protects your uterine lining. That's why you do have a progesterone component, and it's just fine. Um, and it's easy, no-brain, a no-brainer to just deal with that. Now, there are women who are, and doctors who are very interested in having everything as natural as possibly can be done. And so what you're what Amy is taking is an absolutely completely natural patch in the most natural way of taking it, because if you take a pill, that can be the not natural bioidentical estrogen, but it will first go through the stomach and then the intestinal tract and then to the liver, and then be given to the to the rest of the body where you really want it, where it goes to the brain, controls your hop flash, it goes to the vagina, keeps it from being dry, etc. etc. You know, the muscle aches and all that. It controls that. But if you give it as a patch or as a gel, then it's even more natural because it's the same way the ovaries are doing it, because the ovaries are not sending stuff to the stomach. The ovaries are sending your hormones directly to the blood. So it goes, if you go through the skin or through the vagina, or through um, yeah, basically skin and vagina are the two options. Also, an injection could go also directly to the blood, then it's more ovary-like. So Amy is taking a patch that gives stuff directly to the blood with through the skin, through that patch. And then she has the second hormone, she's getting bioidentical progesterone, exactly the same as the ovaries make it. Which again she can take as a capsule that gets then absorbed through the stomach, intestinal tract, liver, and then to the blood, or she could also take that capsule directly in the vagina. She can have natural progesterone and these are uh they have a gelatin capsule that actually can be dissolved in the vagina, and she could put it in the vagina as well. But then the progesterone capsule is not completely dissolved, and so she might be spitting little pieces of gelatin from her vagina and find them in her underpants, which is a big deal, but once you know that it's gonna happen, you're not gonna worry about it, and there's nothing to worry about it. But this is one of the side effects or of taking it vaginally. There is did you understand everything so far?

SPEAKER_04 17:21

I did. So so really you're thinking that it's a doctor's preference based on symptoms or just based on, oh, I like this company, or based on ease of use?

SPEAKER_00 17:34

No, I think it's a doctor's preference based on do we want to be practical and slap on a patch once or twice a week and not worry about it, or do we want to be giving up the the advantage of taking of having a patch where you only have to take it once or twice, you know, change it once or twice a week, depending on the brand. And then in addition, take a pill every day or two or two weeks out of the month, which is the but it is the completely natural bioidentical progesterone. And so you kind of give up the advantage of the patch by having to take a pill then anyway, anyways. But it is going to be a natural pill, a natural progesterone. Now, sometimes with these natural progesterones, um, one reason to take natural progesterone is that it really helps with sleep in some women. Some women just stopping all the hop flashes, that's enough. Uh, but some people will actually need that progesterone component uh to really get a good night's sleep. Uh, progesterone makes you sleepy and it relaxes your brain and all these sort of nice things. That's why pregnant women are sleepy because they have lots of progesterone during that time. And uh so it it does help with sleep, but sometimes if you take it as a pill, you may be too sleepy in the morning and you might be a little bit, you know, drowsy or have a hard time waking up. And for those women, that side effect is is much better if you take it vaginally for some reason. I I don't know why, but it's just it just is. You know, those are goes on to the art of medicine, not the science of medicine.

SPEAKER_04 19:33

Well, that makes sense because Amy was having trouble sleeping and I wasn't. That's not one of my symptoms. And she said that her progesterone pill did help her sleep, and my patch has not disturbed my sleep. So I guess that's that makes total sense to me. I understand.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

It shouldn't be disturbing or be disturbing your sleep because it stops your hop flashes, your night sweats, and all that stuff. Uh so it does help with sleep, but it may just not be enough for for Amy. She needs a little bit extra, and she needs that progesterone component. And we're only learning more about progesterone for and in its role in sleep now. Uh, you you know, you used to be told uh, well, your your hot flashes in control are controlled, now you can sleep. And uh and yeah, you're supposed to sleep, but you're not. And then then women start doing some other stuff. But progesterone, you know, has is its role, for instance, in breast cancer and all these other things, that that's still a little bit up in the air, and we don't have all that sure information. So right now it's the darling of the internet, is progesterone, but that will change. You know, sometimes progesterone is is the villain, and some but sometimes it's the darling, it changes every decade. So we don't know right now. But but if anything can sleep, then it's cool and it's totally natural.

SPEAKER_04 21:05

And so just to alleviate everybody who's listening to this or watching this, HRT is safe, and if it helps us, we should be taking it right now.

SPEAKER_03 21:17

Yes or no? Absolutely. That's huge because a lot of us are have been scared of it. So that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Yeah, and it's you know, it's it's a study that came out 25 years ago that totally freaked out everybody, and it was very badly reported. And you know, bad news is much more news than good news. Good news is no news, and so a generation of women, but also a generation of doctors got really freaked out and disturbed, and now we're getting back to science, and uh yeah, I even was at a conference when one of the authors of that original Women's Health. So it is, yeah, it was a real political thing, and it's but it was another way of terrorizing women, as far as I'm concerned. That study was really a horror story. We can talk about that.

SPEAKER_04 22:24

I would love that. And you were there for the formal apology. I love that. I so appreciate this. You made me feel better. And I feel like I have a better understanding. And Amy always wanted to have something more natural, so she's going to be thrilled to hear that hers is the most natural option.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Yeah, she cannot go any more natural than she does. She is perfectly natural.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

Well, hopefully we get to talk to you again, Dr. Berkey, or a wealth of information. I feel very secure talking to you. Like I'm getting the right thing. Don't joke. I will take you up on that. That would make me really happy. We have we have a couple of questions about testosterone and some other stuff too. So our viewers have a lot of questions.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:12

Sold. Dr. Berkey, thank you so much. See you next time. You're dismissed. Okay, so let's talk about our journey to get on HRT. Yeah. Get on the patch. Let's do it. Um, I, after years of having symptoms, I had friends. How long do you think yours were? Five, six years. Yeah, same for here. Okay. Okay. And I was resistant to going on the patch because of that research study that said women end up with heart issues. They end up with cancer. And this has been, you know, rattling around for a while for all of us. I'm sure we've all heard it and we're scared of it too. But you know that the study was uh Well, no, I didn't know because it didn't start coming out until like a year ago, at least to my hearing. Okay. Correct. That people were like pushing back. No, it actually is so much more beneficial to you, and that the study actually showed that you were the higher risk was because of the age of participants. Because they were all much older.

SPEAKER_02 24:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 24:14

So anyway, I didn't listen to my friend from the UK who told me she was on it. She uses two.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

Oh, oh, stop. Yeah. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_04 24:23

They like had managed her. I'm not saying it's better there, but she found out a lot earlier than I did. I love that. She was pushing me. People were saying, watch this person on TikTok. Watch this person. And I was like, just resistant. No, I can I can get through with HRT. I'm doing great. I'm sleeping. Like you were just gonna power through. You're gonna power through. Meanwhile, my face is flaking off. My joints are super stiff, my mood sucks. Yeah. Okay. So finally I let somebody here in my Mahjong group convince me to go to Menopause RX, which is this online. You call them, told them my age, my symptoms. Within 10 minutes, they prescribed me um cream for down there. Um and your bottom. My no down there, Venus. So I went to Menopause RX, which is a an online company. We did a, I don't even think we did, I think we just did a voice, we just did a voice call.

SPEAKER_05 25:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:15

They prescribed vaginal cream for down there and a pill of progesterone. I think it's actually what you had. No, I had no trouble sleeping.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

Yeah, you didn't. I don't know why this. I think that's amazing. I am always jealous of people that didn't have any trouble. But they um didn't give me the patch, which is sort of weird.

SPEAKER_04 25:34

Anyway, oh that's interesting. So I the cream changed everything down there. Um, the pill of progesterone kept me up, going from no sleeping to the second night sleep having sleep problems. So I stopped doing that after like five nights on my own, and then I kept doing the badge cream.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

So the progesterone, it's funny you said that because I started with on 100 milligrams and then she upped me because I was still waking up a little bit like at three, so she upped me to 200, and literally it kept me wide awake, super anxious. Like I was like up all night long. So it's like you have to get that perfect switch for you. And I think progesterone is one of those things that it is a sleep hormone, but if you take too much of it or your body doesn't need it, like you know, certain p different bodies do, like it has an opposite effect.

SPEAKER_04 26:28

I mean, all this information.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

I mean, I'm looking at you going, How do you know all that, Dr. Amy? Oh, yeah, right. And because I've done so much research, because we have to. Because we have to. There is nothing that I haven't done. I I didn't get any of this guy, I got guidance. There's an amazing like um doctor on Instagram that I love it. She's also an author, Dr. Mary Claire Haver. She's amazing. She's like a menopause specialist, and I got a lot of information from her. I've read all of her books. She just has a new book coming out for Ontario and Menopause. And I feel like she was like my guy, like she was like literally where I learned so much stuff, but because I learned it on my own, not because somebody was telling me. Right.

SPEAKER_04 27:10

That's the annoying part. Yeah. Okay. So if anybody is having issues with down there, losing the moistness, painful sex, get the vag cream. It is unbelievable. It is life-changing, literally. That's how I feel now. And it hasn't gone back. And it worked within a week. Okay. So after I went to uh menopause RX and did had success with the vag cream, but not the other stuff. I decided to go to this vitality doctor, somebody who's looking to take care of uh you as you age. Okay. Like do the best you can with your age. Yeah. I can't think of what the word is right now. Shocking in this age. Um, but like somebody to maximize your next 50 years.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

I love that she's called a vitality doctor. It's kind of pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 27:59

I want to have her own. They took all this blood work, blah, blah, blah. She did a lot of stuff we can talk about in another episode, but she did give me the patch. This is the patch.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Did you did you request it or did she?

SPEAKER_04 28:12

Well, I went in and said, here's my issue. I went to this menopause RX. This is what happened. Blue, blue, blue. She looked at all of my stuff. She listened. It was like an hour. She actually liked listened and looked at me. And they're they specialize in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. So they're listening for women. They're not worried about us having kids. They're not worried about anything in the younger decades. So she gave me a patch. Within a week, my face had changed in terms of dryness. It was moist. I was sweating again. Not a good thing, but relieved, like a little bit of a relief.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Right.

SPEAKER_04 28:46

Um my mood was up. My joints didn't hurt in the morning. Yeah. Or like of course I still hurt after working out, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

Like it solved everything. And it's crazy that that's what estrogen does for your body. Like, I don't think, I mean, nobody told me growing up like how important estrogen was. Like, not one bit. Like, I didn't realize that it had an effect on our like joints and our muscles and stuff like that. It's crazy. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 29:18

So really go talk to your doctor right now about HRT. Now, everybody may not want it. That's fine. Doesn't matter. If you're having any symptoms, go see if it's an option for you.

SPEAKER_02 29:27

Yeah, because there's lots of different, there's lots of different options out there. And I think everybody's different. I know when I went to my um general practitioner and I talked to him about it, he was like, Oh yeah, you're it's just you're just gonna have to suck it up and go through it, wouldn't do one thing.

SPEAKER_04 29:44

So then I just I'm just go. He's a man.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

He's a man. Okay, checking. And then also went to my um OBGYN man who um I adore, who delivered my daughter, who I have gone to forever. He put me on the birth control pill. And that should have never happened because that just that completely that's artificial hormones going in, and it completely made me kind of depressed and sad, and it changed my mood that way, but it didn't help anything. And I powered through that for one year. One whole year of your life. I wasted a year that I could have been on HRT. And he told me I could not be having perimentaus. When I went in for the year checkup, he said I could not be having perimenopause symptoms because I was on the birth control pill. And I said to him, that is incorrect. I know from all of my research that's incorrect, sir. And he said, and I won't put you on HRT until you are off the pill and we see if you still have your period, because you can't be on HRT, HRT if you still have your period. And I was like, that is incorrect.

SPEAKER_04 30:48

Okay, wait, can we just talk about how he put you on the pill but won't put you on HR? Okay, correct vicious circle.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

Which is funny because I get it. He's a he's a um, you know, he's at OBGYN, so he delivers babies, so he's so used. I know I like that you're kidding me. Um he's he it's a vicious circle. They're giving you um, he was giving me birth control because that's what he knows, but he is not educated at all in HRT and perimenopause and menopause. So I came home so upset, crying. I didn't know what to do. And my sweet husband was like, Okay, you know what? My company just um paired up with this other company called MIDI Health, and it is strictly for perimenopause and menopause women. He's like, I'm gonna call the head nurse there, and we're going to get a hookup. We called the head nurse, got a hookup, and I'm not kidding you. I talked to the lady just like you talked to your vitality doctor, and you know what I mean? You feel back to yourself, and that's the difference.

SPEAKER_04 31:46

I remember going to lunch right before you went on the patch. I remember that too. And every night, because I knew how quickly it worked for me, I wanted to text you, but I didn't want to be too intrusive and be like, how you feeling? Yeah, it's are you feeling better? Yes. And I don't remember how many days I waited, but by the time it was only a few days, you were like, I'm back, baby. You feel that's what you feel like.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

You feel like you're back, you feel like you're back to where you where you were, you know? It's huge, it's a huge difference. And I know HRT isn't for everybody, I know that, but there are a lot of things that people can do, and I don't know all of them, like which was why I'd be interested to talk to, you know, some sort of doctor specializes in the can talk to all these people listening.

SPEAKER_04 32:30

We we will come back again and talk about perimenopause and menopause because it's an ongoing thing. Yes. Um, we do have to wrap up our podcast. We are so glad you joined us. And as we are wrapping up today, we, as you know, like to do a segment called PMO. It's my favorite segment. Piss me off, but just PMO. Thank you to my daughter for the term. And I am going to talk about the incredibly annoying. Do you want to leave a tip at the end of every transaction? And why do I get enraged? I'm on HRT. I know that's being handled, some of the female rage. Do you want a tip? Oh, I'm sorry, you just take my order. So they take your order and then then she says, Do you want to? Or sometimes they like turn the screen. Would you like to add a tip? Oh. And they're looking you in the face. Yes. And yes, sometimes my guilt wins. Yes. I'm like, uh-huh. Yeah. Here's 25% for taking my order and doing your job. Yes. And sometimes I'm like, no. No. But I my best friend in the world, and I've been arguing about this since Starbucks, Starbucks was founded and they had a tip jar. Okay, okay. She always tipped, and I would be like, I'm not tipping them. They're doing their job. Because back in the day, no one really asked for a tip. Yeah. No. Now everybody does. Okay. So I'm just saying, PMO. I understand. Don't ask me for money after I just spent $20 on two coffees. And all you did was put the order in.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

But you, and that's part, I guess that's a normal part of like you have to take someone's order in order for you to for this business to run. So I feel like that is not a typical, like you're not getting service of any kind. It's not like they're serving you something at a table or, you know, doing something like that. They're basically just taking your order. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 34:23

So I want to know do you tip or not tip at a coffee shop? Let's just keep it simple. We know, you know, we tip people who are serving us at a restaurant. Of course. We tip a lot. Do you tip people if they take your order in a coffee shop and somebody else hands you a coffee? Yeah, let us know. Yeah. Do you tip or not tip? Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

Do you tip? At the coffee shop, not if they just take my order. If they serve me, if I'm sitting down and they bring me or whatever, I absolutely will. But if I'm in just getting coffee, no, I don't. No tip. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 34:53

So we're both no tippers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:55

Let us in that case.

SPEAKER_04 34:56

In that case, see, then there's a little guilt. When I just said we're both no tippers, I'm like, no, I feel so bad.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

No, but we do tip in like restaurants and stuff like that. All right. Well, this is just female. That's a guilt. You know what? That's a whole nother thing. It's guilt and also the tipping scenario. Because we discovered a whole new tipping scenario at in Chicago that they had post-pandemic. Oh, yeah. Right. Which that's a whole nother thing.

SPEAKER_04 35:21

Okay. So for now, please let us know what you want to talk about. Did you like talking about perimenopause? Are you on the patch? We have so many questions for you guys. We want to hear what you want to talk about. If you're going through the same things we're going through, we just want to know. We want this to be a two-way conversation. So please subscribe. That would make us really, really happy. So we can continue the conversation. And then also shoot, shoot us an email at thedismissed podcast at gmail.com or reach us on any socials.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

All the socials. You can um see us on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube at the Dismiss Podcast.

SPEAKER_04 35:56

And we look forward to hearing from you. And until the next time, you're dismissed. You're dismissed. The best part of building this community is connecting and engaging with you, the listeners and viewers. We want this to be a conversation. So we want to hear from you. You can reach us on all the socials at the dismiss podcast. That's Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. And if you want to email us, send it to thedesmisspodcast at gmail.com. We hope to hear from you. You're dismissed.