Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to the hormone hub, your go-to source for the conversations every woman in her forties and fifties needs to have. I’m your host, Kylie Pinwill, your nutritionist helping you navigate your way through perimenopause, menopause and beyond. So you can say goodbye to the endless fatigue, unexplained weight gain, hot flushes, PMS, mood changes, and more that come on this hormonal roller coaster. If you missed the memo or think this is only for women of a certain age ladies, it’s time to think again. Now sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Don’t forget to hit subscribe so you don’t miss any of my latest episodes, which are released every week. Share it with your friends, your sweaty sisters.

The more we talk, the more we help each other.

And welcome back to the hormone hub. It’s so exciting to have you here. Today I want to share a bit with you about my own hormonal struggles and how I [00:01:00] became such an advocate for women’s health and hormones. We are quite complex creatures and never in my experience of working with hundreds of women, have two women ever had the same story.

And the great shame of this is this one fixes all approach, or one size fits all, or one diet fixes all comes to women’s hormonal health and the medical profession quite often doesn’t know what to do with us. You know, we, aren’t sick and it’s not a condition. There’s no medical test. But we know within ourselves that something quite right, and too often, women are dismissed because there’s nothing technically or medically wrong.

So they’re left thinking that they’re going crazy, or they just have to put up with feeling this way, because it’s just a part of getting older. Well, ladies, I’m here to tell you it is not a normal part of getting older and you don’t have to put up with it. Okay. So [00:02:00] today I’m going to share about where my hormones went haywire.

Okay. So everything was fine. I always had normal periods. Nothing was really an issue until I was pregnant with my second son. I was having a facial. I was lying there. I was about six months pregnant and the beauty therapist said to me, she goes Oh what’s that big lump in the middle of your throat? She said, I think that’s where your thyroid is. Now to be honest, at this point, I had no idea even what my thyroid was, let alone why it was a big deal.

She said, you should mention it to your doctor next time you see him. So I did. I sort of said, can you have a look I’ve got this big lump in my throat. And you know, at this stage, I was like, why has no-one noticed this? Why hasn’t my husband noticed this. You know, why is it the beauty therapist who noticed it?

And as soon as I mentioned it to my obstetrician, it was action stations. So I had all the blood tests. I had fine needle [00:03:00] biopsies. I had ultrasounds, you know, you name it. I had it done. Turned out. I had a tumor in my thyroid. So they didn’t know at that point, if it was cancerous or not. So this big question mark over my head for the pregnancy, which pretty traumatic, I think to go through the rest of your pregnancy with that hanging over your head.

So, you know, story short four weeks after my middle son, Lucas was, I had the thyroid surgery and all things were well, there was no cancer. but I was just left with half a thyroid. I was you know, patted on the back going, oh, good. No cancer, off you go. So no one kind of ever explained what life was going to look like with only half a thyroid.

Now if thyroid is sort of a mystery to you as well. Thyroid controls our metabolism. So our ability to regulate our body temperature, [00:04:00] our overall digestion, our metabolism, you know, it affects basically every single cell in our body. So it’s kind of a big deal. The last few months, you know, I was exhausted.

I had a baby and I had a toddler. So, you know, really at that point, what’s tired and what’s baby and toddler mum tired. I had no idea. And then, you know, obviously they were keeping an eye on my blood levels, so, you know, they just popped me on medication, but they didn’t really tell me what it was or how long I was going to need it for, you know, and this is 15 years ago.

I’m still on it by the way. So, over the years I’ve had bouts of sort of debilitating fatigue. Um, you know, even though I was eating fairly well, I’ve always been quite active a nd, you know, this was the worst part, the most confusing part to me was because I kept, you know, I was training really hard. I was pushing myself through, but I was constantly sluggish, I was, you know, bloated. Um, and I thought that [00:05:00] this was my normal because you know, I’ve been back to the doctor several times, I’m so tired and he’s like, oh, everything’s normal. You know, it’s fine. So, you know, I did think that it was in my head and, I was going crazy. And then this was just the way that it had to be.

So it funnily sort of came to a head a few years later. I recognized that, you know, I was burnt out and you know, this sort of over the time I had r estudied retrained. You know, had been seeing a lot of women in clinic and fatigue. And what they were describing to me was exactly how I felt.

But I was great at hiding it. Getting through and just pushing it to the side. So, you know, to keep my weight in check, I was running, I was doing a high intensity exercise. I was doing, you know, workout similar to sort of CrossFit type workouts. And I wa s just getting bigger and I was just getting more sluggish.

Until, you know, I [00:06:00] reached a point sort of my sort of early forties where I was just dying. Like I needed a sleep after lunch. I could not get through that afternoon. Now what I had in hindsight, was adrenal fatigue or adrenal insufficiency, as it’s also known now, again, this isn’t a medically diagnosed condition and this is sort of one of the biggest reasons I think that women aren’t heard when they go to their doctor and they say, you know, they’re at their point of exhaustion and they’re like, I’m so tired. And anyone who’s hit this point of exhaustion will tell you how real and how debilitating it is. So all of the blood tests will come up normal, but they won’t be in that optimal range.

And I do have more of what your blood tests and what your blood results mean in an upcoming episodes. So, if you’re curious or relate to this, some of the signs of adrenal fatigue or burnout or exhaustion. You know, really doesn’t [00:07:00] matter what we call it. Are sugar and carb cravings because you’re depleted, you’re looking for that pick me up.

You’ve got salt cravings as well. So, you know, you want that salty because your adrenals are craving, you know, they need that sodium. Uh, any brain fog, um, you know, just that inability to concentrate. You know, it literally feels like your brain is sludging through mud. Um, you can have trouble sleeping at night, you know, no matter how tired you are and you know, your body will be under stress. Okay. So you are operating in survival mode.

So once you’ve experienced adrenal fatigue, you’re more susceptible to go through it again. And I always liken it to a dance. So it’s always there on the sidelines. So you need to, you know, managing it just takes an awareness and a willingness to acknowledge the signs and look after yourself. So to nourish [00:08:00] your body. So this is not the time for cutting carbs or doing crazy long fasts. You want to, you know, still exercise, but move your body in a way that feels good for you.

You want to go to bed early, you know, d on’t wait for that second wind to kick in because that just makes it all worse. Catch up with a friend, you know, laugh have a good time. You know, it’s amazing how that can just reduce all of those stress hormones. And another one is avoiding caffeine and alcohol. You know, we tend to reach for those. And so many women, you know, are on that survival, that coffee in the morning, they’re having wine at night, they’re having sugar in the afternoons and they’re just doing this just to get through.

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Okay. So once I sort of realized what was going on and I was able to put the pieces together. It’s funny how I can see it in clients a mile away so much harder to recognize in myself. Um, I really decided to clean up my act. I had had a mirena for about eight years. Um, but I just felt that it wasn’t right for me at the time. So my GP who was amazing, she listened.

And she was [00:10:00] willing to look at the tests that I had had run. So, uh, you know, doctors will do blood tests and then, you know, nutritionists saliva have and cortisol tests. And, you know, my GP was on board and she said, you know, blood tests when we’re looking at hormones, because our hormones fluctuate all the time, you know, are pretty much pointless. So as a result of this salivary hormone and cortisol testing. We both agreed that my estrogen levels were way too high.

My cortisol levels, you know, had been, and they were now completely depleted. My progesterone and testosterones were also, you know, pretty much down the toilet. Hence my absolute lack of sex drive. My thyroid was hanging in there by a thread. So it wasn’t an ideal situation and we both agreed that something needed to change, you know, before it became a medically diagnosed condition. [00:11:00]

So the first step was the mirena coming out. So GP didn’t actually take mirenas out that wasn’t in her job sort of scope. But the owner did. So I booked in with him and man. Well, yeah, you know, this guy was from a different century. I went in there told him what I wanted to do, he didn’t look at any of my files. And he just sort of said to me, he goes, well the mirena works for everyone. You’ll be begging me to put it back in. Now me being me, I’ve looked at this guy going, I don’t think I’m going to be begging you to do anything. All right. Because picture this, like, he’s sort of like early sixties, not a picture of health, you know, so his credentials in my eyes were questionable at best. Then he told me that I should go onto HRT. So, you know, because [00:12:00] hundreds of women had begged him for HRT. And I was like, yeah, well, that’s not, I’m just here to get the mirena out. I don’t want a conversation. You. You know, anything.

So he took the mirena out luckily he was good at that part of his job. But he and I never had a conversation about how I was feeling and what I wanted. He didn’t acknowledge what my GP and I had already discussed. And he’d given me a script for synthetic based estrogen when my estrogen levels were already sky high. Okay. It was my progesterone and testosterone that was low. All right. So, you know, really nothing wrong with HRT per se, but it needs to be the right sort of HRT so when I’m in peri-menopause, I’ve got high estrogen and low progesterone. The last thing that, you know, I would have needed would be a synthetic estrogen to just top up my already high [00:13:00] levels. So what this did, it really made me wonder, and I was actually in shock to be honest at how women are coerced into treatments that aren’t right for them.

Because a, we don’t know, which is why we go to the doctor in the first place. And b, are prescribed treatments that just aren’t right. But you know them for them at the time and potentially, you know, could make things worse and you know, this is all because the GP hasn’t taken the time to listen.

Now this is not to say that there aren’t good GPs out there. There definitely are. And you know, my GP, she was amazing, but it was just this guy who came in with this sort of old fashioned tutorials sort of attitude, ” Oh, hundreds of women are begging me for this,” and, you know, “Everyone. They all love the HRT.” And I’m just like, Yeah, no, because I knew enough about my own body. I knew where I was at in my peri-menopause kind of journey.

And ladies, if you are not happy with [00:14:00] what your treatment plan is, you don’t have to accept that. Keep going until you find a good GP. Or a good natural therapy practitioner such as myself. Um, you know, and this is my whole aim with the hormone hub podcast, to empower you with the knowledge of how your body works, where you’re at, so you can be your own health warrior.

Know the difference between what’s normal and what’s not, so you can have a confident, educated conversation. Not just to be told that, oh yeah. Hundreds of thousands of women have begged for it. Crock. I mean, needless to say, I never went again. So I’m on this hormonal journey with you ladies with half a thyroid, my own experience of adrenal fatigue means that I get it.

Not that my experience is going to be the same as yours, but I understand the frustrations of trying to figure out what’s going on and not being heard by medical professions because you know, you don’t fit into a particular box. [00:15:00] And I’m pleased to say at 50, my energy is fantastic, I’m back to the same weight I was at forty, my thyroid’s manageable and while my adrenals can get a little cranky from time to time. I recognize the signs. Know to listen to those whispers, because ladies, if you don’t listen to the whispers, eventually they will turn into screams.

 

Thank you for taking the time to listen today. You can head on over to the show notes at kyliepinwill.com/podcast where you’ll find all the links. And I have a little bonus surprise waiting for you. Before we go, it would mean the world to me if you head on over to your favorite podcast channel, subscribe and leave a review.

Make sure to screenshot it, DM it to me so I can thank you personally. Then stay tuned for next week’s episode can’t wait to see you then.