Women’s stories

“In one month I turned my system around.”

Darlene thought she knew a lot about health and medicine, in part because her husband is a pharmacist. But she couldn’t have been more surprised to discover that her body was through menopause at the age of 44. The mother of five kids aged 10-22, Darlene still felt pretty good.

Nevertheless, her doctor put Darlene on HRT — just in case, he told her. But she read more on the risks of HRT and decided to get off Prempro cold turkey.

While she had little to no symptoms before, taking herself off HRT put her body into a tailspin. To top that off, her stress levels kept mounting. She and her family moved to Alaska, her father passed away, she built and moved into a new house, and her eldest son got married, all in the span of two years.

Darlene felt worse and worse and began experimenting with natural remedies like black cohosh and adding soy to her diet. But nothing worked for her and what’s more, she began to gain weight. So she went to her new doctor, who put her on Estradiol. The first week was awful: “I thought I would throw myself into the ocean. I was a bear. I told my husband, ’I can’t do this — I have to find something else.’”

“I was getting so achy I couldn’t sleep and I just felt bad. So, one night I went to your website,” she told us “and I took your survey. I thought, ’That’s ME!’. I began to read all your articles. So much of it made sense to me that I decided to give the Personal Program a try.”

Darlene began her Program a month ago and couldn’t be more thrilled. “In one month I turned my system around. I admit I’ve been very diligent about the dietary guidelines. When my kids have pizza, I only eat the cheese. I used to turn so red when I drank that people thought I had a sunburn. I’ve only had a glass or two of wine this month, but when I drank it I didn’t turn red. And I don’t crave sweets anymore. I even bypassed my son’s birthday cake!”

“I feel more normal when I wake up in the morning. When I heard that I’d get my energy back I couldn’t believe it. I’ve been on a roller coaster for four years. Now, I tell everyone how good I feel. I’m completely off Estradiol. I’ve even lost eight pounds and I feel great. When your body feels this strong, you can do just about anything!”

Darlene’s mom visited recently and she got on the Program too. “I told her what I do every day. I’m not kidding, in five days her skin already looked better.” Darlene adds, “Now I’m telling so many of my friends up here-you’ll have to open up another clinic!”

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Last Modified: 02/16/2010