Midlife Hormones: Finally, Some Answers

Hello, my beautiful midlife friend.

Welcome back to another episode of Midlife

Shenanigans with Tish. Today's episode

is one that I'm so excited to be sitting down to record.

And it seems so silly to be so excited

about this, but I got the lab work back

from the blood work that my doctor ordered a few weeks ago. And. And

I. I am not kidding you, when I,

like, freaking jumped for joy when

I saw that my hormone levels were abnormal

because suddenly everything just

made sense. And it, like,

explained and validated all

of this midlife freaking madness that I have been going through,

all of these symptoms and all this shit that has

going on in my body over the last several months that has

made me wonder if I was losing it, if

all of my sanity had just flew the coop

or where I have just been walking around in this freaking

state of what the actual hell

is happening to me? What the hell is

going on in my body? And then I get those lab

results back and I'm like, yes, yes,

yes, yes. Thank you. Because those lab

lab results, it was like this neon

flashing light that said, surprise,

it's not you, it's us. And honestly,

that is the best news that I have gotten in

months. Okay, maybe that's not the best news that

I've gotten in months. I'm being a little dramatic, but it was really

freaking great news. Before I jump into this week's

episode, I want to remind you, if you haven't picked up my

five midlife LOLs, no advice, just attitude.

A quick little PDF printable with five laughs about

midlife. You can grab that at tishleigh.com p

o-l o l that's

tishleigh.com pod

LOL. All right, so let me set the scene.

It's me logging into my patient portal with

one eye open. And there they were.

Hormone levels that finally made

everything click. That made everything

okay. In my world, in that moment,

there were multiple markers, you

know, basically saying, yeah, this is

why you are experiencing the things that, you

know, you have been experiencing the last several months. And

the relief that I felt immediately,

it was literally like I. I don't even know.

My shoulders dropped down, I smiled, I

cried, and suddenly it was

just like again. Everything just

made sense. And it was such

a good feeling. It was like I was being validated

for all these months of everything that my

freaking body has been doing, for all of the, you know,

emotional chaos that I have been in, and

to just see abnormal lab results. It was.

Oh, man. Ah, yeah. I

can't put it into words. Now hear me out.

I know that it seems weird to be saying how excited

and happy I was about abnormal, you

know, lab work, but you know, when you're

hormones and everything is just so out of whack

and then you finally get lab results that

are like physically there showing you that

you are not crazy, that it is not all in your head

and you're not questioning again,

what is going on? Why am I experiencing this? And

it was just

again, so validating knowing that there really

is something going on inside of my body that is

causing all this freaking midlife

madness. And yeah,

friends, that is just. Oh gosh.

And maybe you know exactly what I'm talking about

because maybe you have also, you know,

had your hormone levels checked and

your lab results came back and you know, they were quote, unquote

abnormal. And when I say abnormal, I'm talking about

extremely low. So, so we checked my

estrogen, my progesterone and

I don't remember there was three or four that we checked. Three

I think. So there's at least one more that we checked.

And we kind of figured that, you know, being 50

and everything that I've been experiencing, my doctor said she wouldn't

be surprised if my, you know,

levels were low because that's just, that's what

happens as women and we age. So

I guess maybe abnormal is not the correct word

to say when I'm describing this. My hormone levels are

extremely low and I

feel so hopeful. I feel relieved,

I feel hopeful. I feel I

am just emotional about it to have answers

and I, I just feel lighter about the

whole situation because

for so long I have just been in this

state of confusion. I can do all the Google research,

I can go on social media and have conversations with other middle

aged women and know that the things that I'm

experiencing are quote, unquote normal and

that there isn't really anything seriously

wrong with me. But to finally have

the results that show that there is

something wrong and in this case there's, you know,

having something wrong is a good thing.

So here's what happens now. I go and I see

my doctor for our follow up visit on December 1st.

So I, where I get my blood work done,

they send the lab results to both my doctor and

to my patient portal. So I

see my lab results like even before I go back in

to, you know, have that follow up appointment with my doctor.

But I see her on December 1st and we are

going to move forward with some HRT hormone

replacement therapy. I am,

I'M excited. I am

just looking for any little thing

that is going to give me like the tiniest little

thread of hope to hang on to. Hope in

the sense of maybe I can finally

freaking start feeling a little bit like myself

again and not like I'm walking around as a stranger

in my own damn body. So you know,

in my prior appointment with my doctor before we went in for the

blood work we had talked about there is like some

topical creams that we can start with.

Those were like more on the less expensive side. And as someone

that does not have medical insurance, unfortunately I often

have to go the route of least expensive.

So the fact that there are some things that we can start with that are

lower cost is a huge benefit for me.

I think there was a pill that she also talked to me about.

But again I will get all of the details about that

in my follow up appointment on December 1st.

And I didn't think that I would ever be so excited to

get started on some sort of, I don't even

know like what I would call this, I guess

an HRT journey. I don't know.

But yeah, I am just tickled freaking pink

again that my blood work came back,

you know, super low and

just knowing that there is a light

crossing my fingers that there is a light at the end of this

hormonal hell tunnel. And I

am so ready to just get started with

this, I guess treatment plan just to

see what kind of, you know, changes are going to happen in

my body. And again, hopefully I just start feeling

like a little bit of myself again because I feel like

my self has been just lost

for so long. And here's a little side

note. So I am 50, so I've been middle aged for a

while. And what really confuses me is up

until I turned 50 this past February,

middle age has been quote, unquote, smooth sailing. And what I

mean by that is I, I've had you

know, like hot flashes a few times

and like a couple other things. But when

I hit 50 I don't know what the hell happened.

But that is when everything just

became so compounded. It

literally feels like a wrecking ball since I turned

50 because yeah, I don't know, it just

makes no sense to me how severe things have

been the last several months when the years

prior to turning 50 and being middle aged I

didn't experience anything like this. So

yes, I'm so excited that we know

how low my levels are and we have something to work

with. So. So I will obviously share

the update on my HRT

journey because I

gotta just share because that's what I do.

Thank you for sticking with me to the end of this episode.

And I want you to know that you are not

alone in this midlife journey. We

midlife gals have to stick together. We have to

hold each other up. We have to empower one another. And you know,

if me sharing the things that I'm going through touches

just one other middle aged woman, then

it is so worth it that I am going through the things that I'm going

through.