Women’s stories

Menopause “threw me for a loop”

Liz had always led a “charmed life medically,” she confided, until she hit menopause. That’s why severe symptoms of hormonal imbalance, she says, “really threw me for a loop.” After spiraling down for 16 months with worsening anxiety, depression, and sleeplessness, she threw up her hands and faced the prospect of synthetic HRT. But first, she told herself, she would look one more time for an alternative solution. And that’s when she found us...

“I put off getting some help for more than a year. I’ve kind of lived a charmed life, medically. I had no medical problems at all, and no history of medical problems. I finally figured out that it was menopause. I just wasn’t sure. For 16 months I went through not sleeping and feeling bad, with such depression and anxiety — which I had never suffered from before.

“My biggest problem probably was sleep. I’ve always been a person who needed quite a bit of sleep. I was going through terrible times when I couldn’t sleep, just exhausted during the day. I was not sleeping like I used to: I had trouble going to sleep, would wake up four to five times through the night, then had trouble going back to sleep. It was very disruptive. For months at a time I didn’t know if I could really plan to do something during the day, or if there was something I would have to leave town for. I would often take a nap in the afternoon.

“So I started looking for a natural solution. I was hoping to avoid HRT. I tried so many different things. Even twice I decided I would go ahead with HRT. There’s a pharmacy in our area that does the bioidentical HRT, but it was so much work to coordinate. I had to wait for a certain time in my cycle, but with my irregular periods, I’d end up having to wait over a month before I could even start it. And then there was all of the information I had to fill out and keep track of. So just that morning, I’d decided to give up and go on straight synthetic hormones. Then I thought No, I’ll look just one more time.

“We had moved from Kansas to Louisiana recently, when my mom was widowed. I’m a lot more involved in her life now than I normally would have been, having moved back home, and it might sound funny, but a lot of my decisions were made because Mom was worried about me. She said, ‘I can’t believe that’s just hormones — You’re so tired and depressed.’ I went to a doctor to rule out anything else, and he did a few blood tests. But he didn’t listen to me, and I think he was even a little peeved with me. I tried to tell him I’d never had any kind of health problem like that; I’ve delivered two children without any problems. Even mom was surprised — it really threw me for a loop!

“So when I found the Personal Program, I thought, What have I got to lose? I’ve tried so many other things. Mostly, you can’t find the kind of one-on-one help Women to Women’s Personal Program provides, without going on hormones, to guide you through it. But I put off that decision, too, and Mom was kind of concerned about something you’d find on the internet. I told her I would give it three months — that’s not even up yet! I noticed a difference by the second week, and I would say in about three weeks I could really tell.

“I feel like I’m myself again, after over a year, when I was NOT myself. After that long, you start to think, Oh, my goodness, is this the end game? Is this how I’ll be for the rest of my life? I’ll be 56 soon, in a couple of months. I’ve been on the Essential Nutrients and Herbal Equilibrium since January, as well as starting the dietary changes. It has not been really difficult. I’m pretty methodical, and I just made up a pattern for what a typical lunch looks like, or supper. It’s amazing!

“The times when I felt like I couldn’t function without taking a nap, that is gone. Best of all, it’s without the concern of What on earth am I going to be doing to my body later on, with hormones. But what’s really different about Women to Women is that there’s someone there to guide you through it. I’m very, very pleased, and I hope to stay on at least the nutrients and possibly the herbs, indefinitely.

“You would have thought, with all the conventional wisdom out there, all the government advice, this and that and everything, that we’d all be healthier. Well, my husband has just gone through gallbladder disease and gallbladder surgery, and he started on the diet itself, and has regained muscle mass and is feeling good again — he’s 70. I really, really am amazed. I would recommend it to anyone!”

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Original Publication Date:03/31/2008
Last Modified: 02/16/2010