Estrogen replacement therapy success story

In case you’re wondering how my hormonal journey has gone, here is my estrogen replacement therapy success story.  You will be amazed at the results and how easy it was.

Health issues I faced

Over the past several years, I dealt with numerous ‘female’ issues including:

• Unusually heavy periods
• Period flooding
• Fibroids
• Migraines
• Severe menstrual cramps
• Acne
• Bloating
• PMS
• Mood swings

With each of these symptoms, it got increasingly difficult for me to live a normal life and depression was setting in.  At different times, it was hard or impossible to leave the house.  It got to a point that I knew I needed to do something.  I was a little skeptical that I could have an estrogen replacement therapy success story.

Of course, I did go to the doctor but rather than going back on hormonal birth control pills (i.e. synthetic medications), I decided to make some lifestyle changes.  While it took some time, I also knew that I didn’t want to go back on the ‘pill’ because a lot of the issues I was dealing with actually were a consequence of being on the synthetic hormones earlier in my life.  Not everyone will agree with this but after much research, I decided to make these changes to see what would happen.  Could I really have an estrogen replacement therapy success story?

Learning about my body

Before I did anything, I started to learn about the body and how various medications, foods, and toxins could affect the endocrine system.   This is when I realized I couldn’t go back on the pill – that would basically be saying I would go back on the pill to fix something that the pill caused.  Wasn’t going to happen.

So, here are the changes I made to for my estrogen replacement therapy success story:

1. Stress control.  Life was getting too hectic and it just wasn’t for me.  I wasn’t happy with the progression of my life or the direction it was going.  Enough was enough for me and I decided to make a change.  Please know that this didn’t happen overnight.  It took a long time for me to control the stress but I made incremental changes over the course of a year that, in the end, made a huge difference.
2. Meditation – one of the direct ways I tried to combat the stress was through regular meditation.  I had tried meditation at other times (and it didn’t work) but this time, I was more compassionate.  I realized that I didn’t have to be perfect and there was no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to meditate.  So, I meditated and each time I did it, I celebrated the fact that I did it.  It may have been a good meditation or I may have felt it could have been better.  But, at the end of the day, I did it and I was glad I did.  Understand that life is still happening while I committed to this so there were times I couldn’t meditate.  Again, I stayed compassionate but committed and would just start right back with it – not letting the disruption impact my progress.
3. Eating nutritious foods.  I have always eaten relatively healthy foods but occasionally, I’d slip into some bad habits.  I now pay more attention.  We all know intellectually what we should eat but we don’t always do it.  This was the same for me so each day, I consciously review what I’ve eaten and where I need to up my game.  I plan my meals to the best of my ability for the week and I incorporate more nutritious foods.  That includes having to eliminate some foods that aren’t so healthy for you.   I knew I needed to do more to have an estrogen replacement therapy success story so I kept going.
4. Maintaining my blood sugar.  I have always had low blood sugar and generally knew how to maintain it.  But, this was still an area that needed improvement.  I started to watch my carb and sugar intake and eating at more regular intervals.  This helped me to maintain my blood sugar levels that were more appropriate.
5. Fixing my leaky gut.  Since our guts have a huge impact on our hormonal health, I decided I needed to make some adjustments.  A lot of this was related to the nutritious eating and maintaining the blood sugar.  But, in addition to that, I decreased my caffeine intake.  I never drank a lot of caffeine, compared to some other people I knew, but I understood that too much caffeine was having an adverse effect on my gut.  See information on probiotics here for gut health.
6. Personal care products.  Even though my Nutt So Ruff bars do not contain the BPA’s and the other toxins that are bad for you, I still needed to make changes to other personal care products like the shampoo I was using, some of the household cleaners I was purchasing, as well as the feminine hygiene products I was using.  I also made some changes to the number of packaged foods I was buying and ensuring that the water I was drinking was toxin free.
7. Upping my thyroid game.  I started to incorporate more zinc and selenium in my diet.  For example, I started eating Brazil nuts for the added selenium.  Did you know that you only need to eat one or two Brazil nuts in order to get the extra selenium your body needs?  So easy to do, yet it took me so long to do this.
8. Exercise – I made it more of a point to exercise on a regular basis – even if it meant that I only had time to do a 10 minute walk.  Getting your body moving is important for it to function properly.  Obviously, doing more than ten minutes is what you should shoot for – more like 30 minutes.  Sweating is good so that the toxins are removed from your body.  Plus, I started a stretching program for every other day.

Was that enough to have an estrogen replacement therapy success story?  Let’s find out the results:

Results

You’re probably wondering how it all turned out.  Is my estrogen replacement therapy a success?  I can tell you that I am elated because now I have much lighter periods that last less than 5 days.  This was a huge thing for me, especially with the excessive bleeding I was having.  This meant less tampons and pads that I needed to use.  It also meant that I could have a better quality of life since I could leave the house whenever I darn well pleased!  If you’ve ever experienced this type of ‘lifestyle restriction’ you know what it means and how it feels.  It is awful – purely awful.

In addition to all this, I started to have less intense cramps and my migraines have lessened from multiple times in one month to only once a month.  My hope is that my recent changes will continue to have a positive effect and that these migraines will be gone forever!  (Here’s hoping!)  And, I am hopeful because who would have thought making these simple changes could have such a drastic effect?  My skin feels and looks even better than before and my gut feels great too!

Bottom line, I feel great!

Conclusion

That’s my estrogen replacement therapy success story!  You may have considered an alternative therapy (i.e. birth control pills or other hormones) but as you can see, making changes like these could actually do your body better.  Let me know about yours!  I’d love to hear from you.  Or, if you are struggling with your hormonal journey, I’m here to listen.