Hormones, HRT, and the Missing Hormone Most Women Don't Know About - Why Testosterone Is the Key to Feeling Like Yourself Again

MARY It's scary. Like, how many women come to me that are on an antidepressant, that are on anxiety medications? And it's really it's their hormones. So I'm lucky I said no to all my doctors. So most women will see six providers before they actually get a diagnosis. I saw five.

MELISSA Health and wellness is confusing. There's a new trend every week. Everyone's got an opinion and half the time you can't tell what's legit and what's just good marketing. And we get it. We're in it too. Welcome to Dialed in Health I'm Melissa Goodwin. Every episode we bring in the people who actually do this work. Providers, practitioners. The experts who see clients and patients every day.

MELISSA We ask the questions you'd ask if you were sitting across from them, so you can find the right people, make better decisions, and feel confident about what's out there. Whether it's peptides, gut health, water quality, ADHD, biohacking, or something you've never heard of. We're covering it. So let's get into it. Let's get dialed in.

MELISSA Hormones drive nearly every system in our body, and when they get out of balance, everything suffers. And yet most of us don't really know if our hormones are in balance or if they're out of balance. It might be causing things like fatigue or, you know, mood disorders, swings, weight gain, brain fog, all kinds of things that are underneath the hormone imbalance.

MELISSA So today we are here at Encompass Wellness and Esthetics. Talking to Mary Jordan, a nurse practitioner and a former ICU nurse. So welcome to the show, Mary. Thank you. So great to have you here. We're going to be talking to specifically about hormones today. You do hormones and some other things as well. So tell us a little bit about what encompass wellness and esthetics does.

MARY So we are a wellness center here in Sioux Falls. And we have a location, Dakota Dunes. But we specialize in hormone replacement. We also do GLP ones. Love my GOP ones. 50 pounds on it. But then once you feel better, you start wanting to look better. So we got into esthetics. So I've been doing Botox and filler.

MARY We have our BBL machine, we have our Morpheus eight. So, we also do a lot of thyroid management hypothyroidism right here. So we do a lot of thyroid management because we treat the whole patient. So we make you feel good and look good. So that's.

MELISSA Amazing. So tell us a little bit about your story. What brought you into treating patients and into this whole world of hormones and hormone replacement therapy?

MARY Yeah, I've seen behind the curtain working in the hospital for 12 years at Saint Luke's in Sioux City, and I worked oncology surgery for seven and a half and an ICU for five years. And seeing all the chronic issues that come as we age, especially watching, doing like CRT is 24 hour dialysis, continue renewing renal replacement. You're really focusing on labs and watching labs because if they get off, if you're studying gets low, your brain swells.

MARY If you're tossing it's high or low, you're going to go into a life threatening arrhythmia. So really saw how important having your electrolytes are in line. And it's the same thing with hormones. You really feel it when they get low. All the side effects that come with not having your hormones in line. And that's what really drove me into my passion, because working at a six figure job, I was happy where I was.

MARY But when I learned about hormones and got my hormones, that was it. I was started my own clinic. And that is our main focus is to get women back. They're missing hormone. We see a lot of women that come to us that are on just estrogen or some don't even get started on progesterone or a lower dose of adjustment.

MARY But the missing hormone testosterone we lose at first.

MELISSA So tell me a little bit about fast. What might a woman experience if your hormones are out of balance and and we'll we'll talk about testosterone in a second. But what might be some symptoms that like, hey, I should get my hormones checked.

MARY Oh, gosh. The main thing I will see is the vaginal bleeding. Okay. Your cycle gets heavy. Some people, it gets lighter, it comes early, it comes late, and a lot of people will be like, oh, I'm starting menopause. But really, you're starting and you're losing your testosterone. You will start having headaches, anxiety gets worse, heart palpitations, joint and muscle pain.

MARY Your testosterone is a natural anti-inflammatory. So we need our testosterone. So when you lose testosterone, that's when you start losing muscle too. So when you lose your muscle, then you lose all that metabolism. So you start gaining body fat. So it gets really hard to lose. The belly fat is what me mainly women will come in and be like.

MARY I work out six days a week. I can't get this belly gone.

MELISSA So you mentioned a word and or a pause. I've never heard that word before. What is. What is anthropos?

MARY Yeah, it's the loss of testosterone. We use it a lot for men. They don't use it for women because there is no FDA approved testosterone for women. Although that's the main thing we lose. We start losing. And 30s. All us humans, we peak in our 20s, then we start losing our hormones in our 30s. And that's when you start to feel like, oh, I slept wrong.

MARY My back hurts.

MELISSA It's like, yes.

MARY No, honey, that's your testosterone talking to you. It's low. That's what you're feeling is those joints and muscle pains. That is your testosterone. That is the first sign.

MELISSA So you you have low testosterone or how you know why. Why do I need testosterone as a as a hormone replacement then? Is that usually the first one that I need?

MARY Yeah. So we'll do a whole comprehensive lab panel. Our consults are 90 minutes. So we sit down and explain each lab to you so you understand why we're treating you this way and what is out of whack. And, so testosterone, we do three different ways we can do pellets, injections or creams. Okay. I prefer the pellets. They're bioidentical.

MARY But us women, we have three times more testosterone in us than we do estrogen and progesterone. So you really need your testosterone. That is what really gets you feeling better. Get your energy back. Because people will eat and be like, oh, I fall asleep or I'm tired after I eat or 3:00, you're hitting a wall and you're reaching for caffeine.

MARY 5:00 you're off work and you're like, I'm ready, go home. Go to bed. Yeah, that is your testosterone.

MELISSA So my 3:00 coffee, that could be a signal. I mean, I do. I drink coffee like a tire pot, and then I get to a point where I get overdose on caffeine. I have to go to green tea, and I get so sad. But I'm curious on the on the testosterone side, you know, one of the things that, we worry about is if somebody says you need you need testosterone.

MELISSA Like, am I going to get, like, you know, facial hair or like, what's going to happen if I start taking testosterone?

MARY Yeah, I get asked a lot as women think they're going to grow a beard. I've been on testosterone six years now. No beard. It's not going to happen. Okay. I've had other providers say, oh, my OB told me I'm going to grow a penis by doing testosterone. Honey, if I could grow penises here, there'd be a line out that door.

MARY Like, it's not going to happen. And you, we keep you at levels that are where women should be, where you're optimal in your 20s. So my oldest woman, she's 84, and I can tell you she does not have a penis. She does not have a beard.

MELISSA Well, I have a little bit of a beard. And Nick is coming in a little bit as I get older. Like the little hairs.

MARY My grandma, she never did hormone replacement. She's 93, had a full on mustache like it doesn't matter. You're going to get it as you age. The facial hair just comes. I don't know why I wish I could explain, but we offer laser hair removal. Okay, so yeah, you can zap it off like that's amazing. The least of our worries.

MARY Because when you lose your hormones, you're slowly opening that door to chronic health issues, which is all the health issues I saw when I was in the hospital. And I'm like, there's got to be a better way. Like, I did not want to get old. Yeah, just because of everything I saw in the hospital. I'm like, oh my gosh.

MARY Like, I'm going to get hit retirement and then you're going to fall over. Yeah, you're going to get cancer, you're going to need a hip replacement. And most people who have a hip fall and break a hip, you do not make it back home. Most people end up either passed away from throwing a blood clot or they're in a rehabilitation center.

MARY Never get back home. So I was like, gosh, I'll look after after 65 is not pretty. But yeah, if you can get your hormones in line and you usually you want to get them looked at in your 30s, get a baseline, okay. Ten years before hitting perimenopause I don't like to call it menopause. You should be getting your hormones going.

MARY Because that is going to keep that door shut to chronic health issues. You don't want it open.

MELISSA Quick break. This episode is brought to you by Vitality Growth Labs. If you're a health or wellness practice and you're wondering why your phone isn't ringing the way it should be, Vitality Growth Labs builds the systems to fix that. Get found, build trust, fill your calendar I authority stacking videos that connect with your clients real tools, strategy and execution that results in real revenue.

MELISSA Visit Vitality Growth labs.com or check the provider directory at Vitality Growth labs.com. Slash the directory to find a trusted wellness provider near you. All right, back to the show. What is Andrea's perimenopause menopause like? What or when do these things happen. How does it how does this all work?

MARY Yeah the classifications I feel like are not even classified. They're calling it pre Perry and menopause.

MELISSA Okay I call.

MARY It and reports perimenopause and menopause because we lose our testosterone just like that. And that is a pause. And then we go into perimenopause which is a loss of your estrogen and progesterone. And it's so gradual you will live 10 to 15 years in perimenopause. So that's when you start having difficulty sleeping, vaginal dryness, night sweats, night sweats, hot flashes.

MARY That is perimenopause. Menopause is classified as a year of no cycle okay. So you're kind of out there after that. So but your hormones are so important for your health because chronic health issues start because of inflammation. It's a root of all evil. It causes, you know, the metabolic disorders that we get as we age. There's so many health issues we can prevent by simple blood draw.

MELISSA Before we go into talking a little bit about men, tell me how the bioidentical hormones help prevent some of the things that you saw in the ICU.

MARY Yeah. So bioidentical hormones, they're going to help so you don't get dimension Alzheimer's. So. Okay. The confusion. Yeah. You don't remember to drink your water, you don't take your meds.

MELISSA Right.

MARY And just all those issues and then also with women, we get urinary tract infections, recurrent recurrent urinary tract infections because you're losing those hormones. And the strength in that sphincter starts letting bacteria up there.

MELISSA Okay.

MARY So recurrent I see your old sepsis all the time in ICU, and it's, it's really sad that it's not preventable. So, I mean, you can do your hormones bioidentical. So biotechnologies, it's identical to what your body makes. So it indentified that as its own. But yeah, just the sepsis, the dementia. It's cardiovascular protective. Oh my gosh.

MARY Like 1 in 6 women will die of a heart attack. And your first symptom of a heart attack is death. Like you will die from that heart attack. 40% do. That's scary. Statistics. It's a simple blood draw. Yeah. Just getting your hormones checked is just because I started having heart palpitations at 38. And that is when they sent me to Cardiology.

MARY I wore a halter monitor for a week. They were like, oh, you're having PVCs? PVCs. Everybody gets them. You're going to live. It's not life threatening. But then I was like, why am I having these? Why is my cycle? Have you why am I having heart palpitations? And all they said is, oh, you probably have anxiety. We can give you a pill for that.

MARY I didn't want a pill and feeling tired all the time. I went to my PCP and they were like, oh yeah, you probably just have depression. We can give you this pill for that, right? So many women are mis diagnosed, right? It's scary. Like how many women come to me that are on an antidepressant, that are on anxiety medications.

MARY And it's really it's their hormones. So I'm lucky I said no to all my doctors. So most women will see six providers before they actually get a diagnosis I saw five.

MELISSA What's so crazy is, you know, I, I remember it in my early 40s. I started what I thought was panic attacks. Like, my heart would race. Yeah. And I thought, well, maybe it must be my high pressure job, you know, or like, and my partner would say, like, you seem like you're tired all the time. Well, well, it must be my job.

MELISSA Must be that I have kids. No one ever suggested. Maybe you should have your hormones checked. Yeah. And so if you're out there and you feel any of those things, and if you're late 30s or 40s and maybe what you thought was anxiety or thought was, you know, just a lot of high pressure stuff. Yeah. I did get your hormones checked.

MARY Because I have four kids. I was a nurse working nights of the hospital, and I was like, oh, maybe it's my my job, right? I'm just getting older and I have to live like this. Yeah, it's kind of how I made, like the doctors made me feel, right. I was like, this is normal. You're you're probably just need a pill for that.

MARY And really, it you just need a simple blood test and just finding the right provider is really important, too. Because some people will want to, give you more pills, but doing patches and creams are fine. That, I mean, there are some creams that are bioidentical, but 40% of women don't absorb them. So I see a lot of women on, on the cleans or the patches and then they're like, oh yeah, I've been on this patch for ten years and like, oh, great, let's see what your labs look like.

MARY What was your last labs? And are like, I haven't had labs done. Oh. And I'm just mind blowing. I'm like, okay, how do you know you're getting the right dose to actually prevent the cardiovascular problems that are going to come, right? Like you're not they're not testing them too. So again, finding the right provider.

MELISSA So how often should you get your hormones checked. How often, you know, do you need to make sure that you're optimizing whatever your body is because you're going up and down in different, you know, phases of life? I would imagine they change.

MARY Yeah. So I would say 30s, you should start getting your hormones checked with your annual physical because then you're going to catch it. You're going to see each year okay, this has gotten worse. And then you'll start seeing we have an assessment forming, have you fill out. And I can tell you before I even look at the assessment form, looking at labs, I'm like, oh, she's gotta be filling like hell right now.

MARY And then I'll see the assessment form after she comes in and fills it out and I'm like, oh yeah, that's exactly how I thought she would be feeling. But yeah, at least annually in your 30s, but in your 40s, like you're really feeling it. And then the, the lack of estrogen, it also makes you lose your, a college in the last.

MARY And so then we start having saggy skin, which is so sad that everybody that comes to me, they're like, oh, I'm taking college, I'm taking college. And like, you didn't suddenly stop eating collagen like you don't need more collagen, your amino acids and your estrogen. That's what we need. It's the building blocks like for our skin for college and elastin.

MARY And so yeah, there's a lot of health benefits. Not just, for our bodies, but esthetically too.

MELISSA You mentioned a couple things that were interesting. So topical. I've seen ads for like topical estrogen creams and, you know, like you said, collagen, like what is real? What do I need to be doing to make sure that I my skin is looking as good as it possibly can and that I'm getting the right form of the hormone.

MARY Yeah. So bioidentical. I myself prefer the pellets consistency of doe of getting it because it's your pellets are going to absorb based off your heart rate. So the more you move and do, you'll activate those pellets and absorb them. The creams you have to put on every day, and you have to be careful you don't get them on pets or kids or a scratch and get on a doorknob and give it to everybody.

MARY So the pellets are really nice because women, we just get them every three months. You just have set them and it goes under the subcu fat of your upper buttocks. They're tiny, like size of a grain of rice or so little. Okay. But your body absorbs and based off your heart rate. So consistency is key with getting your hormones, especially esthetic wise.

MARY So like I said, 40% of women don't absorb the cream. So doing creams and then just getting your labs checked every six weeks is really important to making sure they're actually working well.

MELISSA Let's talk about men a little bit. So you see men here too. What are some of the things that, men come in to talk to you about? You know, they, they there's a lot of, testosterone is that you can get testosterone. Men can go everywhere. Yeah. So tell me, why did they come here? What kind of issues do they have when they come to see you?

MARY Well, it's funny that you say it because I had a woman come in for her hormone consult, and her husband sat in on it, and he was, like, blown away. He's like, how many labs did you check on her? I'm like, well, he did it for eight. She we did. I listed them all out. And he goes, they did these three labs on me, and I just went to that male clinic down the street.

MARY He goes, can I come here? Do you do men? I'm like, oh, absolutely, we can. And I was really curious to see what labs they do. So after I looked at, I was like, it's basic labs just to get you started on testosterone, it's not really looking at thyroid function, your vitamins, if their vitamin D is low, if only one was low, your whole body needs to be balanced, just like I saw in the ICU.

MARY If you do not have everything in line, you're not going to feel the best. Your body's not going to function the way it needs to. So it was really interesting when he brought me that, I was like, oh my goodness. So that's what's happening over at the Mayo Clinic.

MELISSA So yeah. So tell me, from that perspective, when when men come to you, what are some of the things do they find, do you find that often they have high inflammation or other things too, that you have to treat?

MARY Yeah, low vitamin D and that puts you at higher risk of autoimmune disorders, cancers, osteoporosis as you age. Thyroid disorders. We catch Hashimoto's, we catch graves disease because we're doing the antibodies for your thyroid as well. Not just a TSH, not just a T4. You have to do a full thyroid panel. So we're catching those.

MARY But B12, that helps a lot with your neurological function, your energy, your metabolism. So we're checking a full panel. It's not just a total testosterone. You got to see a free testosterone. That is what's bioavailable. Circulating your blood. That's what's actually functioning. So a lot of the labs that are done there I saw were just basic. It was just.

MARY Yeah, yeah, knock my socks off.

MELISSA I'm curious because you mentioned I've never think about cortisol as a hormone because everything is stress. Cortisol, you know, spikes. Yeah. So do men have high cortisol as well. Do you find that men's stress levels are also high?

MARY Women's are mainly the ones that are off. Okay. Men not so much. But I think because our testosterone, we have so little when we lose it. Okay. Because they have, oh my gosh, like a hundred times more testosterone than we do. Okay. Also, we are the caretakers. So that's the other thing is I have a lot of women that come to me and then they bring their husbands so they get feeling better.

MARY The husbands see them getting better, and they're like, what is this you're doing? So yeah, we get them going on the hormones too. Like, got to have your libidos match.

MELISSA That's true. It doesn't work if one's.

MARY Looking at the other women. Come back and say, you have to turn this down. My husband, she can't keep up with me. I'm like, oh, bring me your husband. I need to talk to him. Like, if he's telling, you know, oh, my.

MELISSA That's amazing. So if you if you have some, if you've got mismatched libidos, another another reason to get your hormones, check.

MARY It that it's so funny because that was as a primary care provider, many of my men's annual festivals, they were like, my wife doesn't want to sleep with me. So I do turn into, like, a sex therapist. Yeah. Which I don't mind. Like, I mean, hormones are not just sex hormones. I mean, they are chemical messengers. Like, they have thousands of functions in our body, but having good relationships, I've had women tell me like, oh my gosh, after I got my hormones in line, I can't believe I left my husband.

MARY Like they got divorced. And she's like, he's coming around doing the housework, like the yard work, still fixing the the leaf troughs and oh my gosh. And she's like, I can't believe I divorced. And I'm just like, oh, oh wow. I mean, your hormones do play a key role in your relationships.

MELISSA Like, yeah, well what's so crazy is you go to, you know, traditional medicine, they take your labs, you're like, oh, you have a back, you know, do you have a virus or a bacterial infection, you know, and then there's like, you know, growing up and I might be a just in a certain phase, but when I was growing up, like hormones were something you went through when you're young and then when you're old, you know, like you, you, you have this crazy period of hormones when you're 15 and 12 and then no one ever talks about it again until you go through perimenopause at the time is menopause.

MELISSA Perimenopause is like feels like it's a new word. Yeah. So just understanding that they have such an impact over your entire body. Yeah. And we've never really tested or talked about that is crazy to me.

MARY I know, and I love talking about hormones because it really did. It changed my whole life. Like I would not be doing what I'm doing today. I would be home sleeping. Yeah, because I was so tired. My testosterone number was seven. Wow. For women it should be 80 to 150 like I was on E and I felt like it too.

MARY Yeah, I felt like death. Every morning. My knees hurt, headaches. I didn't realize how bad my headaches were until my got my hormones. And I was like, oh my gosh, I was living like that. So I mean, growing old. I did not look forward to it because I felt horrible. Like, what's the use of getting older if you're just going to feel like poo, like, so once I got my hormones in line, I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm up at 430 in the morning.

MARY I'm going till like eight, 9:00 at night, like my days are busy. I have energy, my focus and clarity. The brain fog was huge when that lifted. Oh my gosh. It was like somebody turn the lights on. It was amazing. I was just like, wow. Like sometimes at the hospital I would chart at 8:00 am and then at noon I was looking at my noon chart and I was like, do I really chart that?

MARY I am with my brain even on like three times you did things, you're like, was that really me? Wow. Yeah.

MELISSA So game changer. Well, I wanted to do a little bit of a MythBusters section with you. If you're if you're up for.

MARY It, let's do.

MELISSA So the first one, that I have a question around, or that's you can tell me if this is true or false. But if taking will take taking testosterone make a woman look like a man. It will.

MARY Not. Oh we do not get your levels like men get up to 900 again. Women a 80 to 150. We do not put you at a man's level.

MELISSA Okay. Yeah. Does hormone replacement therapy cause cancer?

MARY It does not. The FDA lifted that black box warning because there was a horrible study done back in. Gosh, what was it to the 1990s where all the women were taking off their hormones. So that was lifted in January. So it is not it does not call blood clots. It does cause it does not cause, strokes, which is nice because now we have patients coming back to me that listen to their primaries and get off their hormones.

MARY And they're like, I saw that on the news, and I couldn't wait to come back and see you and feel better again. So it does not cause cancer.

MELISSA Can you adjust testosterone pellets?

MARY Of course. Yes. We always start with the lowest dose. You're going to get the lowest dose to get you to your numbers. And then if we need to go up, we go up. But we don't want the numbers going to high because then you can have oily skin, acne, might have some hair thinning. And then that tells me, because I ask you every appointment, are you having any side effects?

MARY They say no and their labs match how they feel. Then we keep the dose the same or step down or they want more libido. We turn it up.

MELISSA All right. Okay. Menopause happens typically in your 40s.

MARY Your menopause happens in your 50s. You'll hit that. That's when you start having the hot flashes, night sweats, perimenopause again. That starts in your late 30s, early 40s. That's when you're starting to lose your estrogen progesterone. But Andropov is that's going to start in your early 30s.

MELISSA That's so crazy. Yeah. If you eat well, you get enough vitamins and minerals.

MARY No. I look I see iron deficiency. That's another lab. We do. We check for iron deficiency. I see so many women that are iron deficient. You're just not getting enough nutrients from your food. But we have to supplement because you have to eat more than your grandparents did to get enough iron in your diet. So cooking with cast iron skillet, that helps.

MARY That's amazing. But nobody will eat the beef liver. I tell them they eat or. Yeah, nobody's going to eat the sardines. So yeah, we do have iron that has vitamin C already in the capsule because that helps with absorption. So that's what we, we recommend. But eating your higher iron foods or leafy greens, your kale, your spinach, throw citrus on it.

MARY It helps it absorb. So your mandarin oranges gotta go okay. There to help absorb.

MELISSA Good to know. Yeah. All of these things. So, you if you had a billboard and you wanted to let everybody know something about hormones, you know what they need to know about their hormones. What would your billboard say? We were able to put that on the highway.

MARY Oh, my gosh, the missing hormone. You need your testosterone. Men and women. Because I mean, really, again, like, I said, you're going to start seeing chronic health issues. Just want everybody that is my patient. I want to see them thriving. I want to empower them so that when they get to retirement, you're traveling, you're getting out there enjoying your grandkids.

MARY I don't want them in a nursing home. Sitting there like that is my biggest fear. I just want everybody healthy. Yeah. So we achieve. We achieve here. If you know one of my patients, they've always. You'll know they're healthy. Yeah.

MELISSA So where can someone get Ahold of you? How do they find you or what was your website in your location? Yes.

MARY Yep. I'm in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I'm in Dakota Dunes, South Dakota. And then our website is encompass-wellness.com. Or you can call us. We're at (605) 740-0414.

MELISSA Wonderful. So if you want to connect with Mary and her team, we'll we'll put those links in the show notes below. And if you have any other questions, you can find them on, on all the social channels. I would imagine you're on.

MARY Facebook and stuff.

MELISSA Yeah. All the, all the places. So thank you so much for being on the show, Mary. Thanks for educating us around hormones and all the things we should be looking out for to make sure that we're living our healthiest lives.

MARY Look at facts over fear. Yes.

MELISSA All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hey, that's our show. If someone came to mind while you were listening to this, if you thought, hey, my sister needs to hear this, or I should send this to my mom, or my buddy would get a lot out of this. Please share it with them. Just hit the share button and send it their way.

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MELISSA And if you're a health or wellness provider and you want to be on the show, we'd love to hear from you. There's a link in the show notes to get in touch. We're always looking for people doing interesting work. We want to share what they know. And one last thing I get asked all the time about the products and brands.

MELISSA I actually use. So I put together a list of sponsors and favorite products that have worked for me and my family. If you're curious, that link is in the show notes to thank you for being here. And I really mean that. I'm Melissa Goodwin. The line is open. See you next time.