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Welcome to Her Health Code, the podcast that helps women in midlife feel better in their bodies without the confusion or overwhelm. We’re two health coaches sharing real talk, personal stories, and our best coaching tips that help you reconnect with your body’s wisdom. Think of us as your health-savvy girlfriends, here to help you crack the code to feeling vibrant and strong again.
Jess & Michele (00:00)
Welcome back to Her Health Code, I'm Jess. And I'm Michelle. Thank you so much for joining us. We are so happy that you're here. We're building a community to support, empower, and inspire women to feel their best in midlife. And if you are liking our episodes, which I hope you are, please subscribe and follow. We would really appreciate it. And if you are listening on a podcast platform, please take a few extra couple minutes just to leave us a review. It'll really, really, really help us out.
Really, really, really, It truly will. And another thing that would help us, if you're thinking that this would be a wonderful thing for one of your friends, please take a moment to share it Michelle has a story about when she started taking HRT that when I heard it, I literally had to pick my mouth up off the floor because I couldn't believe what she was telling me.
and what she went through and that her doctors, two different doctors, had no idea what was happening, put her through all these crazy tests. And in the end, you ended up having to figure it all out on your own by just doing what we do. Just decoding it, digging through it, down the rabbit hole and doing our own research.
I feel like this can help so many women who are either like me still like on the other side of the fence thinking about it. but maybe someone is even going through this right now.
Jess & Michele (01:25)
Welcome back to Her Health Code, I'm Jess. And I'm Michelle. Thank you so much for joining us. We're so happy that you're here. We're building a community to support, empower, and inspire women to feel their best in midlife. Yes, we are. What is happening? I don't know. It's getting a little... It's like frozen. Yeah. Is it glitching? Eh, it might have...
Jess & Michele (01:45)
Welcome back to Her Health Code. I'm Jess. And I'm Michelle. Thank you so much for joining us. We're so happy that you're here. We're building a community to support, empower, and inspire women to feel their best in midlife. Yes, we are. are. And if you're enjoying our episodes, please take a moment to subscribe or follow. We'd greatly appreciate it. And if you're listening on a podcast platform, please take a couple minutes, just a couple minutes, and leave us a review. It'll really, really, really help us out.
It really will. And especially if you feel like any of our episodes are helping you, there's definitely a friend that could also benefit from this. So please don't forget to share it with them. This is going to help us grow and hopefully help so many more women because this is a time where I feel like people are just kind of lost. And today's episode is all about something that happened to Michelle.
when she started HRT and she definitely felt lost and I can't even believe that this happened. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor when she was telling me this story because she had to figure it all out on her own in the end. So Michelle, tell us about what happened a couple of months, I guess, after you started taking HRT, which is almost a year ago, right? Yes, about, well, it happened, I started estrogen, estradiol patch and progesterone, oral progesterone about a year ago.
And two months into it, I started having some stomach problems and I thought it was just digestive upset. So I started altering my diet, making sure I was getting enough fiber and my stomach problems just kept getting worse and worse. I just couldn't figure out what was happening. So I messaged my doctor and I was like, I'm not sure what's happening. And at the moment, because this was the only medication I was on, I was like, it has to be this.
And so I asked her, there anything, you know, is there anything I should be aware of? Is there any side effects or something that might be happening because I'm not on any other medication? And she's like, no, no, no, you're fine. And so I just continue but my stomach problems kept getting worse and worse. And so they got so bad that I actually felt like I was having some like a mass in my stomach. And so I decided because she wasn't helping me, ⁓ you know, with any kind of information on what I could do to make it better.
I decided to go to Urgent Care. And so at Urgent Care, they run all these tests and ultrasound and everything. And they were just like, they come in and they're like, you're fine. You're absolutely fine. they actually had the audacity. They said, well, maybe you just need to go to the bathroom. And I was like, what? Like, I know what it feels like. And this is not it. my stomach. I have to ask, was one of the symptoms that you were having trouble eliminating?
Was it just the feeling it was just the feeling it felt like I had a rock like a rock in my stomach like I felt like your stomach Not necessarily like yeah in my colon. Yeah, you're having issues there was like in your stomach it just felt like was something yeah, not not emptying out into your okay It just felt like something was wrong something was off and so they ran all these tests nothing came out You know like anything was wrong and so I went
left that place feeling like I was a little bit like what is wrong? I was more confused I'm not imagining that this is feeling this way and so I went home and did a deep dive on more side effects that can happen with doing HRT Now tell us about the timeline, like how long before you.
Started feeling this happening to then you spoke with a doctor was it your OB or was it the prescribing doctor? it I waited about a week when the first it was about a week before I even messaged my doctor because I was trying
I thought it was just digestion. thought I needed to alter my diet, which I did with more greens, more vegetables, more fruits and less any process. Maybe like not eating so late at night. Yeah, maybe kind of try that. Yeah, I did. did dinner time. All of those things. All the things that you're supposed to do when you're having some digestive upset increase my probiotics and you know, I was just really watching everything. Nothing was helping. And so after
the doctor not helping and after going to urgent care and nothing helping there and I was still having problems. I was really confused and so of course what do we do? We go to Google and started doing a deep dive on what potential things could happen ⁓ with stomach issues when you're on estrogen and progesterone on HRT. So what led you to believe that it was that and not...
something else that was causing it. Was it because you were so new on it? Because it had been a couple months. it was, you know, so what I wasn't on anything else. Yeah. So I immediately knew it either had to be what I was eating or- Which you had already- Or the prescription because those were the only two influences. I didn't have any additional stress in my life. I didn't have anything else new that was happening Wasn't on vacation. there was no other new-
influences that could potentially be, happening. And so I, then waited more days and then went to the urgent care of again, nothing. And then again, like I said, went to Google and started researching what are some things that can happen when you're on HRT. And one of the things I came up with, which I really didn't know, and I don't know if a lot of you know out there, but progesterone itself, it slows the emptying out of your stomach. And so
I was like, huh, that's interesting. So progesterone is slowing the emptying of my stomach. That means it's slowing down my digestion, but having estradiol with it is supposed to balance everything out so things don't get stuck basically. And so you have the two, they balance each other out. Just like before you had HRT, your hormones balance each other out so you don't have any problems.
Well, I was like, well, that doesn't make sense because I'm on an estradiol patch that should be balancing me out. And then I started thinking about if I maybe I wasn't putting on the patch correctly, if maybe there was, you know, some influences there. And then I came across a woman that was talking about living in California, which I live in California and swimming with the patch and.
having all kinds of mood disorders and things and being confused at why she was having all these side effects still from menopause because she was on the patch and then she realized it was because she was swimming and you cannot so here's the PSA people you cannot have a patch on and not cover it with a waterproof bandage if you are on HRT you have to have a waterproof bandage
on your patch in order to be submerged in water. I didn't know that I was going in the pool, I was going in the hot tub. And why is that? So because the estradiol on the patch disperses when it's submerged in water, which totally makes sense now. And after after I thought about it, like, yeah, that makes total sense. But because nobody ever told me like, hey, if you're going to take a bath, or if you're going to go swimming, and you have this patch on,
make sure it is covered with a waterproof bandage. So it took me weeks to figure this out. So I, you know, I am so glad that I know that and I never leave home without my waterproof bandages now that cover my patch. And I've never had a problem since. So ladies, if you're on HRT or if you're getting on HRT, buy some waterproof bandages for that patch and you will not run into the same problem that I had. cannot believe you went through your doctor.
your prescribing doctor and somebody in an ER. Yeah, and so that's the frustrating part, think, Jess. neither one of them connected the back to that as being a possible cause, nor did your prescribing doctor or your OB tell you that as a precaution on the front end. On the front end. And how much does this cost you? All these tests, like later, like...
two months later, here you are getting the bill for all this and it literally could have just been that they were aware of it in the first place. And this is just, this is just what's happening. You know, this is not the first story I've heard. is so frustrating that we as women going on HRT right now have to be your own health detective. And that goes even beyond HRT. If you are, yes.
You just need to learn how to decode what is happening in your body, what is happening in your mind, what's happening in our digestion. Because if you don't, you are missing out on a lot of tools that you can then share with your doctor because they only have certain knowledge, but they don't have the knowledge of what is going on in your body. And so those missing pieces,
I had to utilize to figure out for myself on how to fix my own problem. It is sad really that a lot of medical professionals aren't connecting the dots for women, especially when you're only on one prescription, that they're not helping you connect the dots because we've always trusted them to be there for us to help connect the dots. But I have found during my HRT year, I've had to connect
a lot of dots for myself. And that's kind of why what really led us to starting to do something like this is because, we don't want other women to struggle or suffer without, the information and be there on their own. And so we're trying to provide help and maybe just, assistance and stories to maybe make your process going through this a little bit easier. Yeah. These antidotes that we can share with you.
through our own stories and trials and tribulations. We're not your doctor, obviously, so please do continue to have that professional relationship with your doctor. Yes. but raising awareness and having it now top of mind,
connecting all of the dots. Michelle had to think about something she was doing differently, ⁓ which was kind of an outside root cause to this problem. It wasn't something internal.
it was something that she was just a new part of her daily routine was that she was hopping in the pool or the hot tub to enjoy summer. exactly. Yeah, so thank you Michelle for sharing that with us because I know that so many people are going to have aha moments or be able to avoid this happening completely like me.
Well, hopefully this information has helped someone out there and until next time, be well.