Speaker 1: In my family at least, there is a lot of
Speaker 1: hormone imbalance and my mom her hormones were very off
Speaker 1: before she passed. So I started hormone therapy a couple
Speaker 1: of years back. Hair loss, fatigue, difficulty with losing weight,
Speaker 1: That's all the stuff that I was going through. So
Speaker 1: when I started it, it just it has changed my life.
Speaker 2: As latinas and as our moms were older, like, we
Speaker 2: didn't talk about colors or komeson. So now that we
Speaker 2: know what we need, more people are going to realize
Speaker 2: that we need to have this treatment.
Speaker 1: Hello and happy Monday to all my lovely listeners. I
Speaker 1: am so happy you're tuning into another episode of Cheeky's
Speaker 1: and Chill. Thank you so much for being here today.
Speaker 1: I'm going to share my experience with hormone therapy. This
Speaker 1: is a topic I've spoken about before, but it's always
Speaker 1: been a pretty brief conversation and I want to dive
Speaker 1: into it a little deeper because I keep getting asked
Speaker 1: about it. And after my experience, we'll dive into a
Speaker 1: Q and A with an obgyn. She'll tell us all
Speaker 1: about the pros and cons and everything in between. So
Speaker 1: be sure to stay tuned for that. All right, Without
Speaker 1: further ado, let's get into this week's episode of Cheeky's
Speaker 1: and Chill. First things first, I'm not a doctor. I'm
Speaker 1: just sharing my experience with hormone therapy. If this is
Speaker 1: something you think you'd benefit from, you should absolutely consult
Speaker 1: with your doctor to see if it's right for you.
Speaker 1: All I can say is hormone therapy has been a
Speaker 1: game changer for me, and so I wanted to come
Speaker 1: on here and share my journey with you guys. That's it.
Speaker 1: It's important to note that there are different kinds of
Speaker 1: hormones and different types of treatments. Some women use hormone
Speaker 1: therapy for menopausal symptoms like hot flashes, night sweats, and
Speaker 1: mood swings, and others like me, use it for well.
Speaker 1: I went in for weight loss, to be honest, but
Speaker 1: also because I felt very tired. I was feeling so exhausted,
Speaker 1: I was achy. It was just the weirdest thing. It
Speaker 1: almost felt like I was in menopause, but without the
Speaker 1: hot flashes. So that's why I went in. And I
Speaker 1: was just frustrated, you guys, because I wasn't able to
Speaker 1: lose weight, and I was like, I'm on this keto diet,
Speaker 1: I am working out very hard and I'm not losing
Speaker 1: as much weight as i'd like. So when I went in,
Speaker 1: sure enough, they drew my blood and yep, there it was.
Speaker 1: I had a hormone imbalance. And also one of the
Speaker 1: reasons that I went was because my mom. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I've ever shared this with you guys, but
Speaker 1: my mother the last few months of her life, was
Speaker 1: also on hormone therapy and that's how she lost a
Speaker 1: lot of weight. Mind you, she was also doing this
Speaker 1: like very vigorous, crazy ass diet, which I don't know
Speaker 1: which one it is, but I know that the hormone
Speaker 1: therapy helped her so much. So anyways, she went into
Speaker 1: the doctor and they drew her blood, and her doctor
Speaker 1: told her that she had the hormones of an eighty
Speaker 1: something year old woman, and mind you, she was forty something.
Speaker 1: So it runs in our family. And not only did
Speaker 1: I find out that I had very high estrogen and
Speaker 1: very low testosterrone, but my thyroid was at a whack.
Speaker 1: That's something else that runs in my family. But I
Speaker 1: didn't get it into like a few years ago, like
Speaker 1: in my early thirties. You guys. So it's important, in
Speaker 1: my opinion that you guys see your doctor and take
Speaker 1: this very seriously. Some of the signs of having a
Speaker 1: hormone imbalance is hair loss, fatigue, difficulty with losing weight,
Speaker 1: your your body aches, especially like your knees and your
Speaker 1: feet and things like that. Those are all signs and
Speaker 1: that's all the stuff that I was going through. So
Speaker 1: when I started it, it just it has changed my life,
Speaker 1: you guys, Like I just felt instantly better. Like I
Speaker 1: was doing the little drops. It gave me drops. There's
Speaker 1: creams up toostosterone and like little drops. I would just
Speaker 1: put it in my innert wrist and rub it every
Speaker 1: morning and it would just give me energy and it
Speaker 1: would give me strength. And not only that, but even
Speaker 1: like my sex drive, you guys changed completely. Like the
Speaker 1: doctor told me, Okay, how do you feel, are you
Speaker 1: like ready to like get it on, and you know,
Speaker 1: are you moist down there? I'm like, well, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: pretty moist, Like I'm pretty yeah, and we're good down there.
Speaker 1: He's like, okay, cool. I was like, well, I'm young,
Speaker 1: it's not like you know, I'm dry. But it was
Speaker 1: just kind of like okay, well yeah, it's not like
Speaker 1: I'm all like, yeah, ready, you know. So he's like,
Speaker 1: oh okay, it's because a good thing is that it's
Speaker 1: not like, you know, you're not too bad because you're
Speaker 1: not dry. You know, your your juices are still flowing.
Speaker 1: But once you start this hormone therapy, you're gonna just
Speaker 1: be more excited about it. And I'm like, okay, perfect,
Speaker 1: And I was more excited about it about sex sea time,
Speaker 1: you know. So anyways, that's another sign you guys, especially
Speaker 1: for women even men, even like men start losing to
Speaker 1: soostrone at a certain age. And again, like with everything
Speaker 1: in our food, you guys, even the air that we breathe,
Speaker 1: sometimes it just really like gets us out of balance.
Speaker 1: So it's important that you get it checked out. It's
Speaker 1: all just blood work, and they will tell you where
Speaker 1: you're at. And dudes too, Like sometimes dudes get to
Speaker 1: a point where it's like damn, and go to the
Speaker 1: gym and my muscles aren't growing as fast as I'd like,
Speaker 1: or you know, my penis is happy but not that happy,
Speaker 1: and those are signs of maybe you need a little
Speaker 1: bit more to stosstroone. So it's nothing bad. It's nothing
Speaker 1: like to be embarrassed about. I think a lot of women,
Speaker 1: especially feel like, oh shit, like if I it's gonna
Speaker 1: make me less of a woman if I do this,
Speaker 1: or if I admit that I have a hormone imbalance,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, no, it's changed my life. It's helped
Speaker 1: me lose weight. My hair is growing more now, I
Speaker 1: have a lot more energy. When I work out, I'm
Speaker 1: lifting a little bit heavier. Now I feel good, like
Speaker 1: my muscle mass, like my legs are looking good again.
Speaker 1: That's another thing. My cellulate, you guys, was out of
Speaker 1: fucking control. Like I was like, what is happening? I
Speaker 1: work out so much, and it was because I had
Speaker 1: so much damn estrogen. Granted, you know cellulite, it's hereditary.
Speaker 1: I even see it on very thin girls. You know
Speaker 1: that if you just if it runs in your family,
Speaker 1: you can't get around it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I do massages and everything. But it's gotten a lot better,
Speaker 1: you guys, where I don't feel as shy to be
Speaker 1: in like, you know, a two piece, or to show
Speaker 1: my nagas at the beach. You know. Now I'm like whatever,
Speaker 1: because it's gotten a lot better. So it all has
Speaker 1: to do with like hormone therapy. And this is something
Speaker 1: that a lot of women don't even know, don't even
Speaker 1: think about when they're thinking, like why am I so
Speaker 1: damn tired? Why is my hair falling? Why can't I
Speaker 1: lose weight? Like, yes, it has a lot to do,
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to like the weight loss part
Speaker 1: of it. You have to make a lifestyle change, you guys,
Speaker 1: Like you have to know, Okay, Monday through Friday, I'm
Speaker 1: going to eat as healthy as I possibly can, and
Speaker 1: on the weekends I'm going to indulge. I'm going I'm
Speaker 1: not going to deprive myself. All of that has and
Speaker 1: place apart, you know, working out, sweating every day, you guys,
Speaker 1: as much as you can twenty thirty minutes a day.
Speaker 1: If you can't do every day, to be at the gym,
Speaker 1: do twice a week, do three times a week, whatever
Speaker 1: it is you can do, but get those toxins out
Speaker 1: of your body. So, yes, all of that has a
Speaker 1: lot to do with weight loss, absolutely, nutrition and working out.
Speaker 1: But also I was doing all of that, you guys.
Speaker 1: I had a trainer. I would train five times a week,
Speaker 1: and shit was just not happening for me. And it
Speaker 1: had to do with my hormone. So this is why
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, maybe that's why you're not feeling motivated
Speaker 1: to go to the gym. You just feel so exhausted,
Speaker 1: and it's probably because you're a low into stostroone. So
Speaker 1: in my experience, I just kind of felt it in
Speaker 1: my heart of hearts, like I had remembered my mom
Speaker 1: mentioning her hormone imbalance, so I thought, well, maybe that's
Speaker 1: what's happening with me, like maybe I need to get
Speaker 1: that checked out. So it was like a six cent
Speaker 1: sort of thing, and I just went for it, and
Speaker 1: I just googled, and I found this doctor and he
Speaker 1: you can't go to like your primary doctor and then
Speaker 1: they can tell you, Okay, i'm gonna recommend you this specialist,
Speaker 1: but it does have to be a hormone specialist, someone
Speaker 1: that does this day in and day out. And that's
Speaker 1: what I did. I googled and I found two. I
Speaker 1: actually was through a zoom a zoom meeting, a zoom appointment,
Speaker 1: and then I went in person because I'm more of
Speaker 1: like a in person type of person, So I did
Speaker 1: interview too doctors and the one that i'm with now,
Speaker 1: I'm very happy with and he's an irvine and he's great.
Speaker 2: And what I.
Speaker 1: Really loved about my doctor in particular was he was
Speaker 1: very honest. He's very straight up. He takes to sawstrone.
Speaker 1: He's on hormone therapy. He said he had been on
Speaker 1: it for like more than ten years, and his wife
Speaker 1: as well. He's like, it's very common, and it's so
Speaker 1: common and it's so sad that a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't know about it. So I felt like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: what's wrong with me? I like felt like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: my body, you know what I mean. And during that time,
Speaker 1: I was also kind of going through like my cists
Speaker 1: and my ovaries, and I'm like, oh my god. But
Speaker 1: he also told me, oh my god, this is another thing.
Speaker 1: Before I forget, He's like, you're producing so much estrogen
Speaker 1: that that's probably why you're getting so many cysts and
Speaker 1: your ovaries, and it's your ovaries really saying like hello,
Speaker 1: like you are ready to be a mother, but also
Speaker 1: it's the estrogen that's going on in your body that
Speaker 1: you should be more fertile. But because you have these cysts,
Speaker 1: it's not helping you get pregnant. That's another thing you guys,
Speaker 1: oh my god. Now if I'm ready to get pregnant,
Speaker 1: then I would have to lay off the disosterone. So
Speaker 1: it's all important to be informed completely with your doctor
Speaker 1: where you're at in your life. If you're done having kids,
Speaker 1: you got to let him know that. If you want
Speaker 1: to have kids, you got to let them know that.
Speaker 1: If it's just for weight loss, you got to let
Speaker 1: them know that, like be completely honest. Like when I
Speaker 1: started hormone therapy, I was like, no, I'm good. I
Speaker 1: just want to get myself leveled out. I want to
Speaker 1: get myself balanced. I'm not trying to have kids right now,
Speaker 1: which is why I think he gave me like the
Speaker 1: dose that he gave me a disosterone. But now if
Speaker 1: I want to start having a baby towards the end
Speaker 1: of the year, then he's going to have to like
Speaker 1: really completely take me off or lower it. That's something
Speaker 1: that I have to figure out with him. But it
Speaker 1: was very very clear about how common this is you guys,
Speaker 1: And it's not that something's wrong with us, although kind
Speaker 1: of because it's like, Okay, what's happening. It has a
Speaker 1: lot to do with our food, you guys, A lot
Speaker 1: to do with our food nowadays our food is injected
Speaker 1: with preservatives and additives and crazy things and hormones. This
Speaker 1: is why I'm always one to like especially my poultry,
Speaker 1: my meat, my chicken, all that. I try to get
Speaker 1: it organic, grass fed, all that stuff, just because a
Speaker 1: lot of chicken, especially you guys, is injected with hormones
Speaker 1: to make them grow faster, because it's all like in demand,
Speaker 1: especially chicken. So for a long time I stayed away
Speaker 1: from chicken. My doctor also told me to stay away
Speaker 1: from soy because a lot of it is GMO, which
Speaker 1: means genetically modified organism, and that's why it's like all
Speaker 1: this like gluten free and you know, non GMO. I
Speaker 1: personally follow that because it really messed me up. You
Speaker 1: can have meat, but like be try to do a
Speaker 1: little bit more clean and organic if you can, and
Speaker 1: vegetarian if possible. Not telling you to be completely vegetarian,
Speaker 1: but it is best to add more fruits and veggies
Speaker 1: so that you're not in taking so much hormone, especially
Speaker 1: like at restaurants and stuff like that. You know, if
Speaker 1: you can cook at home, cook at home, like these
Speaker 1: are all things that he suggests. Didn't of course with
Speaker 1: my lifestyle. It's a little hard, but with the hormones
Speaker 1: and everything, like, I feel like it hasn't really affected me,
Speaker 1: even like when I'm out traveling, like it hasn't really
Speaker 1: affected me as much. So make sure you ask all
Speaker 1: the questions when you go see your doctor and tell
Speaker 1: them where you're atting your life, if you're done having
Speaker 1: kids and all that stuff. You know, it is very
Speaker 1: important to know that when going into to see your
Speaker 1: hormone specialist. So going back to the whole low into
Speaker 1: stosterone thing, there are women that are high into stosterone
Speaker 1: and very low in estrogen, which means that's sometimes why
Speaker 1: you know, some women grow more facial hair than others,
Speaker 1: or they have like a stronger body odor. Those are
Speaker 1: signs of like imbalanced hormones. So that's why it's important
Speaker 1: to go just check it out. And I just googled,
Speaker 1: you guys. I googled, and I was like, I need
Speaker 1: to find a hormone specialist, and there are plenty, you
Speaker 1: just have to research in your area. And my doctor
Speaker 1: he's out here in Irvine and he's amazing. So gave
Speaker 1: me to stosterroone drops. Because you're supposed to lift weights
Speaker 1: so that your muscle grows so that you have less fat.
Speaker 1: So I was working out really hard and I just
Speaker 1: felt like I just was not retaining my muscle mass,
Speaker 1: which in turn, I wasn't burning a lot of fat,
Speaker 1: you guys, So that I had to do with. I
Speaker 1: was low into stostroone and estrogen. Also, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of estrogen in SOI, which is another reason why my
Speaker 1: doctor said stay away from SOY because when you're producing
Speaker 1: too much estrogen, you hold on to a lot of fat.
Speaker 1: Especially that's for women, you know, to like take care
Speaker 1: of the baby, like to nourish the baby, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So it's like your mind in a
Speaker 1: way feels like you're pregnant, so you got to hold
Speaker 1: onto that. Anyways, I had a lot of estrogen and
Speaker 1: I was holding onto my fat like no other you guys.
Speaker 1: But I do suggest highly suggest women and gentlemen get
Speaker 1: it checked out. It's not that expensive and it's definitely
Speaker 1: a great investment and completely worth it. Alrighty guys, So
Speaker 1: sitting here with me is doctor Erica Montes. She's a
Speaker 1: board certified opgyn based in Arizona, and she's also the
Speaker 1: creator of the bilingual health blog The Modern Mucher Doctor Montess.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being on.
Speaker 2: How are you? Thank you honey so much. I'm doing great.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to be talking to you today. So
Speaker 2: that way we can get evidence based information out there
Speaker 2: to your community. And I appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1: Of course, of course, absolutely, I'm very excited because I mean,
Speaker 1: I just shared my experience with hormone therapy. But of
Speaker 1: course I'm not a doctor, so I was like, I
Speaker 1: need to get someone here that knows and is going
Speaker 1: to give people solid information. So I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: we can start with what exactly is hormone therapy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so hormone therapy or menopausal hormone therapy is essentially
Speaker 2: medication or treatment that we give people who are going
Speaker 2: through menopause. What does menopause mean? Menopause essentially is defined
Speaker 2: as when you no longer have a period for one
Speaker 2: full year. But even though we're talking about periods, you
Speaker 2: still can actually start having some menopausal symptoms even prior
Speaker 2: to no longer having a period.
Speaker 1: Okay, yes, because I started hormone therapy a couple years back,
Speaker 1: and I feel like I'm still fairly young, but I
Speaker 1: know that there is in my family at least a
Speaker 1: lot of hormone imbalance, and my mom was her hormones
Speaker 1: were very off before she passed, so she was on
Speaker 1: hormone therapy. So that's what made me go because I
Speaker 1: started feeling a certain way, and I started feeling tired
Speaker 1: and my hair started thinking just so many things. So
Speaker 1: someone told me, go get your hormones checked. So it
Speaker 1: could be menopausal. But you can, like you just said,
Speaker 1: like you could start as early as how old.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think that average age when patients starts
Speaker 2: seeing more symptoms that were used to like when we
Speaker 2: think of menopause symptoms such as like hot flashes, night sweats,
Speaker 2: inability to lead, irritability, difficulty concentrating, you know, just a
Speaker 2: change in your quality of life that typically happens we
Speaker 2: would say between like forty five and fifty five, but
Speaker 2: we do tend to see that women even as young
Speaker 2: as forty can be experiencing these symptoms. So it is important,
Speaker 2: like you said, I need to go get evaluated, Go
Speaker 2: get your hormones check, because it definitely can can change
Speaker 2: your quality of life and we want women who now
Speaker 2: that we know, are living longer. We kind of go
Speaker 2: through this like forty to fifty year old change and
Speaker 2: we still possibly have twenty or thirty more years of
Speaker 2: life left, so we definitely want to make sure that
Speaker 2: we can have a good quality of life.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And do you think that maybe a lot more
Speaker 1: women and even men are having hormone imbalances because of
Speaker 1: what's in our food or is that like a completely
Speaker 1: different conversation.
Speaker 2: You know, I think that definitely has something to do
Speaker 2: with it, right, Like our society is like quick, quick, quick, fast,
Speaker 2: fast fast in terms of, like you know, we can
Speaker 2: go down the street and get food that obviously isn't
Speaker 2: the highest quality. It's obviously most of the time ultra processed.
Speaker 2: So I think our food, which in turn has different
Speaker 2: chemicals and possibly hormones as well, can affect right. And
Speaker 2: then also we kind of tend to have also more
Speaker 2: of like a sedentary lifestyle where people are becoming morabese,
Speaker 2: and that's also leading to hormone and balances. So I
Speaker 2: think it's kind of like our society in general. But then,
Speaker 2: like I mentioned before, women are living longer, they're wanting
Speaker 2: to lead similar lifestyles to what they had in their
Speaker 2: earlier decades, and then that also contributes to women seeking
Speaker 2: out care and wanting to not feel the way that
Speaker 2: they're feeling, Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: And what are things that people can that you can
Speaker 1: tell them like Okay, there's something going on, Like what
Speaker 1: are you know knowing like okay, my hormones might be off?
Speaker 1: Like what are some simple dumbs or signs?
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, I mean, I think most complaints that I
Speaker 2: get from patients, if it's not going to be the
Speaker 2: more common like hot flashes and night sweats, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: see that patients are like you know what, I just
Speaker 2: am so irritable, like or I cry at the drop
Speaker 2: of a hat. I can't sleep anymore, Like I used
Speaker 2: to be able to sleep all night and now I'm
Speaker 2: waking up at one am and I can't go back
Speaker 2: to sleep. I feel like I have some brain fog.
Speaker 2: I feel like I can't concentrate those kinds of things.
Speaker 2: So hormones are so important, and not only our female
Speaker 2: hormones or our sex hormones, but also hormones such as
Speaker 2: the thyroid and things like that. So when you are
Speaker 2: going to get evaluated for these symptoms, you also want
Speaker 2: to make sure that they're checking other hormones such as thyroid,
Speaker 2: which can sometimes overlap in symptoms.
Speaker 1: Now that you mentioned the thyroid, that's something that I've
Speaker 1: been taking medication for that and now that I've lost weight,
Speaker 1: can you go back or like stop your medication for thyroid?
Speaker 1: Is it something that you have to take forever?
Speaker 2: For instance, I would say most of the time, hypothyroidism
Speaker 2: or a thyroid disorder is going to be a lifelong
Speaker 2: medication because I know because whenever your thyroid is underfunctioning
Speaker 2: or overproducing it's it can be from various things. But
Speaker 2: a lot of times hypothyroidism can be from an autoimmune
Speaker 2: disorderat like how SHEI motives disease, something along those lines.
Speaker 2: So those antibodies are always going to be in your
Speaker 2: system regardless of what you can, unfortunately do. So most
Speaker 2: of the time, I would say this is going to
Speaker 2: be a lifetime medication.
Speaker 1: Oh I was hoping to hear something different, but I
Speaker 1: mean it's hereditary.
Speaker 2: I feel just because.
Speaker 1: My grandma just got her thyroid gland removed, and I
Speaker 1: have a couple of family members that are on thyroid
Speaker 1: medication as well. So oh well, okay, that was a
Speaker 1: question that I just had a little side question for myself.
Speaker 1: But is this something that insurance covers like hormone therapy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so overall insurance does cover the more what I
Speaker 2: call traditional hormone therapy. And so what that means is
Speaker 2: like hormones that are quote unquote like technically FDA approved,
Speaker 2: So that would be like the oral preparations, the patches.
Speaker 2: There's some topicals like gels, those are all covered under insurance.
Speaker 2: Now there's other hormones that are in a different class
Speaker 2: called bioidentical hormones, and those essentially, for the most part,
Speaker 2: I would say more than ninety percent ninety five percent
Speaker 2: are not covered by insurance.
Speaker 1: Okay, And how much can someone expect to pay for
Speaker 1: this type of treatment?
Speaker 2: Roughly, you know, I would say on average, most patients
Speaker 2: are paying between thirty to fifty dollars a month. The
Speaker 2: different types of hormone therapies are going to be just
Speaker 2: generalized like estrogen therapy, progesterone therapy, and then there's bad
Speaker 2: general estrogen therapy or localized therapy for the vagina or
Speaker 2: the genital area. Estrogen and progesterone therapy go hand in
Speaker 2: hand if a woman still has a uterus, But if
Speaker 2: you don't have a uterus, you can use what we
Speaker 2: call unopposed estrogen where we don't have to give you
Speaker 2: progesterone necessarily because you don't have a uterus that could
Speaker 2: start having thickening of the endometrium or the uterine lining.
Speaker 2: And then some women use the vaginal estrogen therapy just
Speaker 2: for what we call genital ural syndrome amenopause, which essentially
Speaker 2: is like vaginal dryness, painful intercourse, those types of things.
Speaker 2: So you can be using all three or you can
Speaker 2: use a combination of those.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. Okay, all right, well now that explains it.
Speaker 1: Because I have endometriosis and I was producing a lot
Speaker 1: of estrogen, so my hormone doctor put me onto stostrone,
Speaker 1: which was weird because I'm like, okay, I feel like
Speaker 1: I I did this in like my early thirties, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, what's going on with my body? But now
Speaker 1: that you're saying that, I didn't know that one had
Speaker 1: to do with the other endometriosis with like overproducing estrogen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's good you brought up testosterone because testosterone
Speaker 2: technically is more that would be more in one of
Speaker 2: those bioidentical hormones because technically there's not a treatment that
Speaker 2: is FDA approved for testosterone therapy for women. But essentially
Speaker 2: what happens is is when you we know that, and
Speaker 2: especially now that I'm focusing more on hormones in my
Speaker 2: new practice, you know, I do tend to see that
Speaker 2: as women kind of go into that menopausal realm, those
Speaker 2: that testosterone level goes down and sometimes some of the
Speaker 2: symptoms that I mentioned before, they actually can be due
Speaker 2: to a lack or a deficiency and testosterone. So with endometriosis,
Speaker 2: it's it's kind of different because we want to avoid
Speaker 2: estrogen because we know that estrogen feeds intometriosis, and that's
Speaker 2: kind of like something that we want to avoid if
Speaker 2: we can. But progesterone can be a treatment for endometriosis,
Speaker 2: So you have to kind of do have a fine
Speaker 2: balance between what you're giving these patients, especially when they're
Speaker 2: kind of having those menopause symptoms.
Speaker 1: I need to take a trip to Arizona. I need
Speaker 1: you to check me out please, because now I'm like, oh, guys,
Speaker 1: I need you to check all this all this bulba
Speaker 1: and everything.
Speaker 2: Fine, we can do it. Yeah, we could do it
Speaker 2: in person, telement visit. It's fine, heading it's perfect.
Speaker 1: Yes, I think I'm going to take a little flight
Speaker 1: over there. It's only forty five minutes or now or
Speaker 1: something like that. So your hormones eventually self regulate or
Speaker 1: is it something that like I'm going to have to
Speaker 1: do for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2: So this is what happens when you when you start
Speaker 2: going through menopause or kind of your body is showing
Speaker 2: signs of mentomal pause. We know that your ovaries produce
Speaker 2: all three of the hormones estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. As we
Speaker 2: get older, those cells don't function appropriately, and in the end,
Speaker 2: our ovaries almost become they essentially almost disappear, like if
Speaker 2: we do surgery on patients who are like menopausal, like
Speaker 2: their ovaries are tiny, tiny little little balls like that
Speaker 2: you almost like don't see them. They're what we call
Speaker 2: they become a trophic is what we call them in
Speaker 2: like medical terms. So essentially what happens is is though
Speaker 2: when you get when you go through that change, you
Speaker 2: do need replacement obviously, if you don't have any severe contraindications,
Speaker 2: like you don't have a history of blood clouds, you
Speaker 2: don't have a history of liver disease, you don't have
Speaker 2: a estrogen or progesterone, dominant cancer things like that. Then
Speaker 2: giving you back those hormones is definitely something that will
Speaker 2: help you during that time. The societies essentially say, you know,
Speaker 2: give the lowest dose for the shortest amount of time,
Speaker 2: and of course, obviously what does that mean, Like that's
Speaker 2: kind of like vague and it's different for every individual. Right,
Speaker 2: most menopausal symptoms do last on average. They did a
Speaker 2: study and it's at about seven point four years, So
Speaker 2: if you need hormone therapy during that time, I think
Speaker 2: that less than ten years is very safe. But one
Speaker 2: thing that I tell patients is there's a difference between
Speaker 2: the systemic hormones that we talked about, which is the
Speaker 2: estrogen and progesterone or testosterone, and then there's that other
Speaker 2: vaginal estrogen therapy, which I think honestly people need to
Speaker 2: be on that their whole life because that kind of
Speaker 2: helps with a lot of other different things, like I said,
Speaker 2: painful intercourse, vaginal dryness, It can decrease your risk of UTIs,
Speaker 2: decrease your risk of vaginal infections. So you know, in
Speaker 2: a way, it doesn't mean that you're going to necessarily
Speaker 2: be on like systemic hormones the rest of your life.
Speaker 2: I mean, have I had paid to her in their
Speaker 2: eighties and they're like, you better not take away my hormones,
Speaker 2: doctor Montus, And I'm like, okay, lady, we're gonna keep
Speaker 2: them going. But because they you know, they don't want that.
Speaker 2: But vaginal estrogen therapy is something that probably could be
Speaker 2: a lifetime hormone that you may need. Yes, I mean,
Speaker 2: once you stop them, you may feel some symptoms, and
Speaker 2: some of the symptoms can return, but by the time
Speaker 2: that the majority of the symptoms are gone, I think
Speaker 2: it's gonna you won't feel as bad.
Speaker 1: And see, that's something I had never heard of. So
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that I'm speaking to you because I
Speaker 1: didn't know about, you know, the vagina hormonal because will
Speaker 1: it make me like more aroused for the lack of
Speaker 1: a better word, like corni or yeah.
Speaker 2: So okay. So we know that that vaginal estrogen therapy
Speaker 2: and sometimes we even give a little bit of testosterone
Speaker 2: with it. We know that that can increase arousal to
Speaker 2: a certain extent. But you know, I you can just
Speaker 2: tell the difference like between like if I see a
Speaker 2: sixty year old woman and I and she's on vaginal
Speaker 2: estrogen therapy versus not being I mean, it's the difference
Speaker 2: between me even being able to do like a speculum
Speaker 2: exam on them, like they're so uncomfortable if they're not
Speaker 2: on therapy. I see an increase in infections, an increase
Speaker 2: in like symptoms. There's even a condition called a trophic
Speaker 2: vaginitis where just because of the lack of estrogen you're
Speaker 2: having symptoms that you think are infections, but it's actually
Speaker 2: just because you don't have estrogen. And so there's so
Speaker 2: many conditions and there's so many things, and unfortunately, you know,
Speaker 2: as Latinas and as our moms were older, like they
Speaker 2: didn't they would just think it was normal, like they
Speaker 2: didn't bring it up, or we didn't talk about like
Speaker 2: you know, the lotus or comes on like things like that.
Speaker 2: So I think I think overall it's one of those
Speaker 2: things where like now that we know what we need
Speaker 2: as we continue to age, and we are bringing it
Speaker 2: out there to the forefront for our communities to know. Now,
Speaker 2: more people are going to start talking about it. More
Speaker 2: people are going to realize that it is necessary and
Speaker 2: we need to have this treatment.
Speaker 1: Yes, you guys, And that's what I'm here for and
Speaker 1: we're here for, and I just want It's something it's
Speaker 1: very taboo in our culture. So get your cookie, your flour,
Speaker 1: you're goncta whatever you want to call it. You guys
Speaker 1: got to take care of it. And you know, anyways, Okay,
Speaker 1: and this is the last question, doctor amant this. Are
Speaker 1: there any risks or side effects that we need to
Speaker 1: worry about? And that's something I didn't even ask my
Speaker 1: own doctor my hormone therapy. Uh, doctor, like, is there
Speaker 1: is there a site like anything I gotta worry about?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question. So let me just do
Speaker 2: a quick little history of hormone therapy. So in the
Speaker 2: eighties and nineties, like everyone was like, oh wooh, hormone therapy.
Speaker 2: We need to give them to patients. It's helping their
Speaker 2: quality of life. It's decreasing osteoporosis, it's decreasing their incidence
Speaker 2: of like cardiovascular disease. Everyone gets hormones when they're going
Speaker 2: through menopausa. And then in two thousand and two, this
Speaker 2: major landmark study came out that included twenty seven thousand
Speaker 2: postmenopausal women, and it shut hormone therapy down because what
Speaker 2: happened was is they basically saw they showed that there
Speaker 2: was adverse outcomes which included like an increase of cardiovascular disease, stroke,
Speaker 2: blood clots, and breast cancer, and all the doctors and
Speaker 2: all the patients were like, heck, no, we're not taking
Speaker 2: hormones anymore. Unfortunately, what happened from that study is that
Speaker 2: two things happened. It basically caused an impact in the
Speaker 2: health and even in the economy, and for these women
Speaker 2: because they were getting so bad that their quality of
Speaker 2: life wasn't good and they actually couldn't work and there
Speaker 2: was all these things happening kind of like in that realm.
Speaker 2: And then also it essentially made these women like just
Speaker 2: scared right like, hey, we're not going to take hormones
Speaker 2: because of this new study. And what they found though,
Speaker 2: is that after a few years they kind of analyzed
Speaker 2: the data and they said, you know what these patients
Speaker 2: that were in this study, yeah, twenty seven thousand, but
Speaker 2: the average age was actually sixty three. So remember we
Speaker 2: talked about the average age that we tend to see
Speaker 2: patients that are symptomatic or with these symptoms, it's like
Speaker 2: forty five to fifty five. So these patients were a
Speaker 2: good like almost ten years older than what we would
Speaker 2: typically consider menopausal. So yes, what they found was that
Speaker 2: this study, because of the age of the women in
Speaker 2: the study, it was showing the increased risk of cardiovascular disease,
Speaker 2: the increased risk of breast cancer and blood clots. So
Speaker 2: it kind of changed the way that people thought of hormones.
Speaker 2: I mean, yes, with anything that we give patients, of
Speaker 2: course there are risks, but I think if you take
Speaker 2: it with what are your risk factors, like an individualized approach,
Speaker 2: What are your risk factors, what's your family history, how
Speaker 2: good are you about getting your annual screenings? You know,
Speaker 2: all that plays a role or a factor in what
Speaker 2: your risk can be for these hormones. And like I
Speaker 2: mentioned before, if you need them for a few years,
Speaker 2: like the systemic hormones, and then you ultimately are just
Speaker 2: on the vaginal estrogen therapy, you're still gonna do great.
Speaker 2: You're still gonna do fine. But what we do know
Speaker 2: is that hormone therapy overall, for women that initiate it,
Speaker 2: like either within ten years of menopause or less than
Speaker 2: sixty decreases the risk of mortality of cardiovascular disease. It
Speaker 2: also decreased Its undeniable that it decreases the risk of
Speaker 2: osteoporosis or fractures. We don't want to give this therapy
Speaker 2: as a treatment for osteoporosis, but it can be a prevention.
Speaker 2: And then obviously it decreases all the menopause symptoms and
Speaker 2: improves quality of life.
Speaker 1: Well, you guys, there you have it. And doctor Monte, honestly,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Thank you for your insight, like
Speaker 1: for everything, for your professionalism, for I just honestly, I'm
Speaker 1: really grateful. And you guys just go as you as
Speaker 1: you heard it here. You know, go to your gynocologists,
Speaker 1: your doctor, ask questions. I always want to say, ask
Speaker 1: and just go do your check ups. You know, your
Speaker 1: pap smears, all that good stuff. Ladies and gentlemen too. Okay,
Speaker 1: so what's your social real quick? If you could just
Speaker 1: plug in your your social media.
Speaker 2: It's at the dot modern dot mohead because where modern
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Speaker 2: about our health.
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