And so it goes. We meet with women constantly, listen to their stories, gather information, educated them in the area of natural hormone balance, determine they do indeed have a hormone imbalance (as do most women over the age of about 35), give them a strategy for getting their hormone levels tested, write the recommendation for their hormone balance for their doctor or health care practitioner, which is then faxed to them for their visit with our client, and then the rest is out of our hands. Once we fax our recommendation for our client’s natural hormone balance to the client’s doctor, it is up to that doctor and our client what the outcome will be. Luckily, most of the time, the outcome is favorable. Our clients go to either one of the doctors we work with who are familiar with us and whose patients have experieced success OR they work with their own doctor who is open-minded enough to give our strategy a try. These are the women who are doing well, feeling better and reclaiming their lives from the awful exhaustion, sleeplessness, weight gain, brain fog, hot flashes or joy of life that have overtaken their lives. But this last week we had a couple of women who weren’t so lucky. They went to their own doctors and both women left with no prescription in their hand for our natural hormone balance. One of the women told us her doctor ordered more blood work and they will meet again for further discussion. The other client’s doctor doesn’t “do” natural hormone balance so will send her somewhere else. I’m not sure what this means. Will he send her to a doctor who specializes in hormone therapy? Will he send her to a clinic that implants pellets? (be still my heart!) The good news is that these 2 women were maybe luckier than a former client who went to her doctor to work with us on natural hormone balance and she left instead with a prescription for an anti-depressant. She did email me last week saying, “My anti-depressant isn’t working for my hormone imbalance issues (do tell!) so please refax my doctor your recommendation for my hormone balance.” My response was, “Absolutely! But do you want to consider going to a different doctor? One we know who does understand and agree with the benefits of bhrt?” She replied with, “No. Please fax them to this same doctor.” Of course we honored her request and that was the last we heard. I am not optimistic about the outcome. Here is where the rubber meets the road. Here is where YOUR education is critical in this area and where YOUR voice needs to be heard. I understand many of us have doctors we have been with over time; have established a good relationship with andhave a rapport with; and we ultimately put a lot of trust in. But when we have been struggling with the same issues for years and the “strategies” we have tried haven’t worked (doing nothing “you’re just getting older,” using sleeping aids and anti-depressants, using synthetic drugs masking as hormones, putting on an estrogen patch) I think we need to move on and find someone to work with us who listens to our body’s needs and works with us to meet us right where we are, and if the desire is to work with us at our cottage and pursue a more natural path, then I think that path needs to be considred and honored. What do we have to lose? The choice is pretty clear to me. We can either continue on the same path and feel no better OR we can find a different health care practitioner to work with us who is willing to give what we do at our Happy Hormone Cottage a shot. The bottom line is that our women ARE better. They have reclaimed their lives. Many are losing weight, sleeping great and regaining libido. Isn’t that the point? Our truth is that the only way to replace depleted hormone receptors that cause a hormone imbalance is with bioidentical hormones. Supplementation alone won’t do this; eating right and exercising won’t do this. One has to replace progesterone, for example, with progesterone. The fact that we check existing hormone levels before writing the recommendation for natural hormone balance and that we only dose physiologically that which our bodies need on a daily basis is also key. And so it goes…..we will continue to serve women, and educate them in this area of women’s health, but the bottom line is that each woman has to become empowered to make sure HER voice is heard when it really matters…..which is in that critical meeting with her doctor, for permission to pursue this path. And when her doctor is bombarded daily with misinformation about bioidentical hormones, so the waters are muddy and myths are perpetuated, education and assertiveness are critical. Our doctors need your help and information we provide you with, to learn more about hormone balance that isn’t determined by a pharmaceutical company. The books, studies and research IS out there. My website even has a special Practitioner’s Resources section that contains a wealth of information on bioidentical hormone balance. It just takes time and the desire to learn that about which their clients are demanding, that makes the difference.
Lyn
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