Hormone Heroes
Testimonials from real people who have experienced bio-identical hormone therapy. Men and women share the symptoms they have experienced and the difference proper hormone replacement has made. Men discuss the advantages of testosterone and women discuss the benefits of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone therapy. The roles of thyroid, adrenal health, insulin resistance, intermittent fasting, and micronutrients are also discussed.
Hormone Heroes
Marcia's Story of Overcoming Loss and Finding Health with Bioidentical Hormones
Ever wondered if there’s a secret to reclaiming your vitality? Meet Marcia Batterton, the dynamic COO from Arkansas, who shares her compelling journey through the world of bioidentical hormone therapy. Her life was once dominated by severe menstrual issues, fibroid cysts, and anemia, leading her on a challenging path of traditional medical treatments with daunting side effects. Marcia’s candid testimony reveals how her discovery of hormone pellets, recommended by her sister, revolutionized her health and well-being, especially after a total hysterectomy. Her story underscores the immense power of personalized hormone solutions and finding the right medical support to truly change one's life.
Marcia’s narrative doesn’t end there. She opens up about the profound personal struggles she faced after the loss of her husband and how hormone therapy played a pivotal role in her recovery. Emphasizing the importance of genetic methylation testing and personalized supplements, Marcia shares how these changes not only eliminated her need for blood pressure medication but also enhanced her overall well-being. Listen to the heartfelt chronicles of her life’s ups and downs, and glean insights into how hormone therapy might be a game-changer for you too. Don’t forget to subscribe to hear more inspiring stories and reach out if you’re considering this life-changing journey.
Welcome to Hormone Heroes, where I share testimonials from real people who have experienced bioidentical hormone therapy. Men and women share the symptoms they have experienced and the difference proper hormone replacement has made. I'm your host, dr Kelly Hopkins, and I have been in the functional medicine space for over 30 years, with a focus on hormones for 20 years. Please keep in mind this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Please consult with your physician or practitioner for medical advice. Let's get started with today's guest. Hello and welcome to the podcast. Today we have Marha Batterton. She is a 59-year-old female. She currently lives in Hot Springs, arkansas, but she was born in Hopewell, virginia, and she is a COO of Sigma Business Essentials LLC. Welcome, marsha, thank you. As we get started here, just tell us a little bit more about yourself, like what you do for work, grandchildren, children, all that good stuff.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I work for Sigma Business Essentials. They are a packaging distributing company. I've been working over there for about eight or nine years. I have two children King over there for about eight or nine years. I have two children and one of them lives in England and the other one, my youngest one, brian. He lives here and he has two beautiful grandbabies and I have the two most amazing daughter-in-laws in the world. I'm very blessed with my family. Unfortunately, my husband passed away in 2015, so he's not here, but anyway, loving my grandbabies, loving my kids, having a good time with my family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it sounds like you are a very, very busy businesswoman as well. The OO is a big deal. How did you achieve that?
Speaker 1:Well, I met a lady named Lydia Work and she is a woman, owned, minority owned businesswoman and she wanted to have a distributing company to distribute her product. She has American Paper Converting and they are in Washington state and then she has another manufacturing plant in Virginia and we're in the middle. So it kind of connected the whole thing together and I was fortunate enough to meet her and was able to get into that kind of opportunity.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic, so we'll just jump right in. When did you start to notice symptoms of hormone deficiency and what were your symptoms?
Speaker 1:I have always really had problems with my cycle, and when I hit my early 30s I was having a lot more issues. My cycles were longer and heavier and more painful. The physician who delivered both my kids I had two C-sections he got an opportunity and left the state. So I was also trying to find a new physician. You know, going through this and when you're a new patient, people don't really you know, if they don't know your history, you know they just don't really give you the time you need. And everybody kept telling me I was fine, and I knew I was not fine. I had one physician tell me oh, I bet you'll be glad when you hit menopause and I'm like I'm in my early 40s. That's not quite on my to-do list right now.
Speaker 1:You know, I kept researching and I found a physician at UAMS and she listened to me. She's like we're a research hospital, we listen, you know. And so she ran a whole bunch of tests. They kept testing me for cancer and just different things, and they found out that I had fibroid cysts. So by the time I had gotten to her, though, I was like bleeding every day. I hardly ever had a day I got a break and I was very anemic and very sickly. So she put me on a medicine called Megase which was great for controlling the bleeding. But one of the side effects was that they gave that to cancer patients to make them hungry. And I'm going to tell you, I was gnawing on my keyboard while I was sitting at my desk working. You did not leave food laying around me. I was going to eat it. I was hungry all the time. So that helped me with my anemia.
Speaker 1:I became where I was an anemic, but I gained an unbelievable amount of weight. I started having symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. I couldn't make a fist and I also you know that estrogen band. You get that spare tire around your belly. Well, that's another side effect. I got that. I got it all.
Speaker 1:And my sister Barbie, she was doing hormone therapy and she was like Marsha, listen, I've done the research, listen to me. And it's hard to get me to do things because that's great, that works for you. But you know, you got to prove to me it's going to work for me. But I came in and we did blood tests and my hormones were very low and we started doing the pellets and I saw night and day difference, almost immediate, and I was like I wish I'd done this earlier, you know.
Speaker 1:And then, when I went back to my physician to tell her, I didn't see her, I saw the nurse practitioner. She was livid with me that I had started doing hormone therapy and she said you're reversing everything we're doing. I'm like, well, what are we doing? Cause I feel like I'm dying over here. You know, this is hard. So, anyway, I ended up having a total hysterectomy. I did that because everybody I talked to that didn't do it the first time. They ended up having to go back in again. And I'm here to tell you I'm done with all this. I don't want to mess with it anymore.
Speaker 2:So, so total hysterectomy. I do the hormone pellets. I love it. I wish I had done it a long time ago. I went from being anemic sickly to way overweight and sickly to. Hey, I feel good. You know, and I'm still workingtrack a little bit to the reason you've had fibroid tumors. After we don't ovulate regularly, our production of progesterone decreases immensely. And what progesterone does for us is it kind of cleans up any cells and tissue that estrogen has created. Estrogen creates cells and tissue indiscriminately and progesterone causes appropriate cell death or apoptosis. And so when a female has gone without ovulating for months and months and years and years, you don't have enough progesterone. So that allows some of those fibroid tumors, ovarian cysts, even problems with the breast tissue to occur. So I just wanted to backtrack on the reason you were probably dealing with fibroid cysts and tumors. So, other than bleeding, did you have any other symptoms? Hot flashes, night sweats, any of that kind of stuff?
Speaker 1:I really didn't. The main problem, other than that it just felt awful. You know, no energy, I didn't feel like doing anything, you know, and it was pretty difficult.
Speaker 2:So did you have sleep issues or mental clarity issues?
Speaker 1:The sleep issues. I've never had a problem. You get me still for two minutes and I'm out. Even now I'll go right to sleep. That's a black thing. Yeah, I know my husband would go. I've never made anybody fall asleep like you do. I'll be talking to you and go right to sleep. In the middle of the sentence I'm out, I'm done. Don't get me still. But I have had brain fog and had, you know, difficulty with that and I still have some form of that. And I don't think that that's just also hormones, I think that's diet and other things that play into it. I mean I would leave my keys in the front door.
Speaker 2:You know, get up the next morning looking everywhere for my keys, open the front door and there they are, yeah, about the world to come in, you know, while I'm sleeping, so did you go straight to pellet therapy or did you try creams or anything else before that?
Speaker 1:No, we went straight to pellets, okay. And then I do progesterone cream, but the pellets I do those every four months, okay.
Speaker 2:And in your pellets it'll be testosterone and estrogen. Correct, yes, okay. And then do you take your progesterone every day, or do you?
Speaker 1:Every day? Okay, I do it every night or bed.
Speaker 2:Okay, very good, and you do like the cream. Yes.
Speaker 1:I do it on my forearms, like I'm putting perfume on.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, it's a good idea to always put creams on where your skin is nice and thin so it can get absorbed quicker. Okay, so what benefits did you notice once you got pellets? How many years have you been getting pellets? I?
Speaker 1:want to say that it's been four years. Maybe you think we've been doing it that long, because I want to say I had my hysterectomy in 21. Yeah, and I think I came to you before and we measure everything by COVID now, but I think I had started this before COVID.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like we've known you a long time. So right after pellet therapy, that first time especially, did you notice an increase in energy.
Speaker 1:Yes, I think the first day I got it. The next day I was up at like four o'clock in the morning cleaning house. You know I was up and around and going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, any change in libido, or we've already mentioned sleep. You're a good sleeper, so for you mostly it was probably an energy thing, correct? Just?
Speaker 1:feeling better. I hurt all over before I started doing hormones. I just I hurt all over and part of that I believe it was the Megase. But when I had my total hysterectomy it was like the best scenario you could think of. You know, I went through it and I think that was because I contribute that she is a great physician, I love my OBGYN, but I also contribute that to the hormones that I had started taking, that my body was starting to heal and get better. I've heard all kinds of horror stories and I didn't have any horror story. I just overall, health wise, I feel way better than I ever have.
Speaker 2:You know one thing about a woman that's had a hysterectomy you really are free to just give them back the hormones that they need. When a woman still has her uterus and you give that woman estrogen, there's a potential for that endometrium to build back up and need to be shed. So that's why a woman on estrogen might spot or bleed if she is on estrogen therapy. It's actually a very youthful response to estrogen. But a lot of females that have had years and years of no period or have been in menopause, they don't really like the idea of bleeding again.
Speaker 1:You know, I used to smoke when I was younger and when I quit I carried a lighter with me for two years because I had to have a lighter, right. Well, I got on Megase. I carried supplies with me everywhere I went for a couple of years because I was scared to death of it.
Speaker 2:You know, you just don't want to be caught unprepared.
Speaker 1:Well, and after I had the hysterectomy they tested and I did have some form of endometriosis in the lining of my uterus. And she told me that they would have never found it until after the surgery and I thought you know hindsight's 20-20. I just wish I'd done it a long time ago, because I have felt so much better since I'm doing hormone therapy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, that's so good. So have you had any side effects, marcia?
Speaker 1:So have you had any side effects, marcia? Listen, let's talk about that. The stuff that I went through before hormone therapy. I don't care what side effects are, but the main thing, like the procedure. When I go in and have the pellet procedure it does not hurt. The week after hurts my bottom sore because I do it in my bottom. So I try to get it on Friday. So I have the weekend because I sit at a desk all day Right and I bruise. But that and the chin hair, which is not really that bad, but I will. I shave my legs every day, so like if I'm late in the morning I'll skip that, but I'm not skipping the chin hair. I got to, I got to do that maintenance.
Speaker 2:I can relate, marscia, I really can.
Speaker 1:But you're going to do that anyway. You know, when you get older you're still going to have that problem. So side effects, in my opinion that are not worth it.
Speaker 2:So when you first get hormone pellets, especially testosterone, if you've gone from a very low level or you know, a non-existent testosterone level to a very useful testosterone level, sometimes that extra hair growth on the face or maybe even acne can pop up. But I'm like you. I think the benefits far outweigh the minor inconveniences and, honestly, the minor inconveniences and honestly, once you've been pelleted once or twice, your body kind of adapts and that hair growth and the acne isn't really that significant.
Speaker 1:The acne. You know, I kind of forgot about that because when I first started I did have a little bit of issue with acne. But I've been doing it for a while. I don't every once in a while something might happen, but I don't have near the trouble I used to have.
Speaker 2:Good, it's kind of leveled out, so I wanted to back up. You mentioned losing your husband. Was that an extremely stressful few years after that happened, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, he was my best friend. We were together 34 years before he passed. So I kind of felt like my whole world had just fallen apart. Yeah, I felt like I was walking beside myself everywhere I went and it took me probably, I want to say, three or four years before I felt normal and whatever that is you know that I went on blood pressure medicine, thyroid medicine, lexapro for an antidepressant and I have addictive behavior.
Speaker 1:So I was like I don't want anything that I'm going to be addicted to, and I've watched a lot of people get addicted to pills and that's just something I didn't want to have anything to do with. But my oldest son and his wife called and said, hey, we need to live with you for a little bit because we're making some changes. And I was like, yeah, sure, come on. And they walked in and we got everything in the house and they sat down and they said, mom, we didn't need to move in with you. We came to do an intervention and I was like intervention, I'm fine, no, but I wasn't.
Speaker 1:And they helped me with like diet, you know, and just making life, because I had a very unhealthy lifestyle. I used to drink three, two liters of Diet Coke a day. Oh wow, very unhealthy, you know. And they helped me, you know, make those changes. And I know this is about hormones, but I also do in research. I did that genetic methylation test yeah, do that at your place and found out what in my body I was lacking. And since I did that and you helped me set up the supplements and things that I need. I haven't had any blood pressure medicine in two months. Oh, that's fantastic. My blood pressure is better now than it was when I was on blood pressure medicine.
Speaker 2:Oh, Marsha, that's huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah so and the genetic methylation test that we do. It's just that you know we test over I think it was 100 different genetic characteristics. But methylation is a big deal, and for someone that has high blood pressure, it typically means that you need some trimethylglycine, which is something that we did put you on. And another big methylation were you MTHFR positive as well. So that means Marsha doesn't methylate folic acid into folate, and so we got her on all the correct supplements, and it really is just a cumulative effect of everything.
Speaker 2:I wanted to mention the stress in your life, because you said it took three or four years to kind of to get over the hump of that, and I know you never, truly ever, get over it, but that would have been 2019. And then you said you know you had all this hormonal stuff going on as well. So when a female has no female hormones and her adrenals are stressed from you know a big life event like that you really do have an empty gas tank, and so it's no wonder you were searching for, you know, caffeine and Diet Coke, or you know if you were craving sugar or whatever it was. It's just the body is going to survive at any cost, yes, and you end up looking for those quick fixes like that. But that's precious that your son and daughter-in-law moved in and took care of you and they put me on the path.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to fix myself, and it speaks well of the type of mom you are and I know you're a good sister and friend and all that good stuff. You've certainly been a good patient for us. So, marsha, how would you say hormone therapy has changed your life?
Speaker 1:Oh, well, I would say it is everything. You know, when Greg passed and I was struggling, the hormones gave me the want to to try to make things better, cause I really just didn't care. You know, and when you're stressed like that and that depressed and things are going wrong, it's like you don't even try to make things better. And getting on the hormones, I was like, hey, I can feel better, you know, and just started that process of changing my life around to where. You know. I'm just not sitting around feeling sorry for myself and waiting for the next day to go, you know.
Speaker 2:Sure, and I certainly think you wouldn't have the high position you have at work as well. It would have been hard for you to accomplish all that. So, marsha, as a hormone hero, what would you like our audience to know?
Speaker 1:I would like to say that I personally do not feel like the medical industry is not trying to help us. I don't think that they're educated to help us. I think they try to just treat the symptom that there are so many things out there available to us to make us better. We don't have to be sick, and if you are having trouble with your hormones, I highly encourage you to go get tested and find out exactly what you need and what procedure. You know you don't have to do pellets. If you don't want to. You can do something different. It works for me, so I like it. That's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there are other options for bioidentical hormone replacement. Creams are available. Even some orals are good options. Even some orals are good options. And you know, for our male patients we will try to use bioidentical testosterone, meaning pellets or creams. But we do have a few men that we will do injections for, and injections are a little bit harder on the liver. You have to cleave off the cypionate salts away from the testosterone, which can raise cholesterol a little bit. But we will do that for a few of our men as well. So there are other options, absolutely so. Ms Marsha, would you like to give your physician or practitioner a shout out?
Speaker 1:Well, my physician, dr Dora Smith at UMS. I love her, she's amazing, but you guys at Restoration Healthcare are amazing. Any questions I have, anything I'm looking at. I just call you and go hey, do y'all do this? You know. So I have a lot of things to offer at your place and I tell everybody and I don't get offended if they're like, because I was like that too I was like no, that's good for you, but don't push it on me. Don't push it on me. Yeah, I wish I'd done it a lot sooner.
Speaker 2:I know, I know I hear that every day. Well, thank you so much, marsha, for being on the podcast today, and we look forward to seeing you again soon. I'll be there. Friday Matter of fact. Oh well, is it time for pellets already?
Speaker 1:We're a little behind because I had to go out of town and stuff, so it kind of put me behind. But it's time again.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, we will see you Friday and thanks again. Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you Thanks for listening to Hormone Heroes. Take a moment to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode. While you are there, help us spread the word by leaving a rating and a review. If you would like to share your bioidentical hormone story or need help finding a physician in your area, please email us at drkelly at hormoneheroesorg that's D-R-K-E-L-L-Y. At H-O-R-M-O-N-E-H-E-R-O-E-S dot org. We want you to be a hormone hero.
