Dear friends,

I have been invited to attend the A4M (American Academy on Anti-Aging Medicine) conference in Las Vegas this weekend! Yeah!

A4M is hosting this international event, the 16th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine & Regenerative Biomedical Technologies, that connects over 3,000 influential physicians, scientists, educators, and other professionals to one another to share the latest anti-aging information and technologies; bioidentical hormone therapy being a big one.  Together, these companies and individuals work to spread the knowledge AGING IS NOT INEVITABLE (this works well for my age denial).  My mission will be to learn all I can about preventative medicine and natural hormone replacement therapy (my new passion) and pass along to all of you my new insights.

It is not my place to tell any women to take bioidentical hormones, this is a personal choice.  I do however feel compelled to tell any women suffering from menopause symptoms that we do have choices available.  I encourage all women to take charge of their health, find a trained BodyLogicMD physician, get the appropriate testing and make an informed decision.  I know that menopause is not classified as a DISEASE, but it sure feels like one.  Any medical condition that can cause so many symptoms warrants some kind of treatment, don’t you think?

That’s all for now, wish me luck in the casino! 

Happy hormones,

Judyb

Hello to all my friends!

A few weeks ago I introduced you to my friend Ellen who was through the roof with perimenopause symptoms.  In the interest of our friendship I took her to see Dr. Lee to mellow her ass out!  She’s been on the bioidentical hormone replacement therapy for about five weeks now and she can’t thank me enough for referring her (I’m enjoying this Goddess-like pedestal she’s put me on!).

Anyways, I’ll let Ellen tell you in her own words how she’s feeling.  Enjoy!

JudyB

Hello to my fellow Menopause Maniacs,

I have to share with you a true maniac moment that happened just a couple days before Thanksgiving- this one is going on my records list.

After a long day of running errands I went to Publix to shop for Thanksgiving dinner.  I make this broccoli dish every year.  So, I run in, get what I need, go to the checkout and I can’t believe it- no one in line, what luck! (Or so I thought) The cashier starts to ring me up and there is no price on the foil pan, I say to her “well, I knew that was too good to be true,” she laughs and asks me “what are you making?”  I give her my recipe for my famous broccoli and Ritz cracker dish, I swipe my card, they bag my food and off I go. 

As I put the food in my trunk I see the bag boy running toward me and he says “excuse me but you have to come back in the store, you are not in trouble or anything we just need you back.”  I say “what the hell are you talking about?”  Then the cashier is at my car saying “hey, you didn’t pay for your groceries.”  I said “I most certainly did! I swiped my card.”  “Yeah but I didn’t finish the transaction” she says, so now they remove my bags, put them back in the cart and we walk back into the store, all 3 of us.  I feel like a crook.  Talk about the walk of shame!  The manager is waiting for us, I wanted to die!  So now they admit it’s not my fault. “Ok, whatever” I say “just ring me up I want to go home.”  He rings me up, I swipe again, and off I go. 

After I load my car for the second time, close the trunk, and get in, I look at the receipt and it says $87.00 for broccoli!!  So, I unload my car, go back in with my cart full of food, and go to the counter.  Now I’m pissed big time!  I say to the manager “look at this! $87.00! This is wrong!”  He goes in the office comes out and says its right. 

So I shove the receipt in his hand and start yelling, “Look at this! Do you see a turkey or soda? How about ice cream? Do you see any of those items in my cart? I have broccoli! Broccoli” I scream!  “You know what?” I yell, “Give me a refund and I will find a Publix that knows what they are doing!”  He is trying to calm me down but it is not working.  I now have the attention of the whole store as I scream “I just want to go home!  Its 4pm, I’ve been in the car all day! Do you know I haven’t even peed since 8am?!  Just give me my money back please I need to leave!”  He begs me to listen, “I just want to give you a gift card for your trouble that’s all,” he says, I tell him I don’t want it!  “Please let me go home” I repeated over and over. 

Finally a women manager comes over, takes control and re-rings the food again.  She gives me $87.00 in cash, my refund and now the male manager, the one that knows I need to use the bathroom really bad, hands me a $25.00 gift card and says “I am so sorry for your trouble.”  I say “I know you are. Me too!” 

The moral of the story is I didn’t flip out the first time thanks to my natural progesterone, but I had missed lunch and 2 snacks.  My blood sugar, no doubt, was low.  This is full blown proof that the BodyLogicMD nutrition program that I talked about last blog really makes sense.  I think any reasonable person would have been pissed.  But when you mix menopause with low blood sugar what a cocktail!  Dr. Lee told me not to leave the house without a snack in my purse and I never will again. 

Oh by the way, I will give the gift card to a needy family.  I feel guilty using it.

I hope you had a great turkey day!

JudyB

Hi BIHS’s! (bioidentical hormone sisters)

When I first went to see Dr. Lee to start bioidentical hormone therapy, and he uttered the words “you’ll need to change your eating habits,” I felt the word ‘diet’ coming like the Jaws theme song.  Seriously, I felt like he was going to try to rip away from me (not with any ease I might add) one of the only things Menopause couldn’t take away from me- sweet, delicious food.  If feeling better meant celery juice, wheat grass, and another failed diet, I was going to hang a ‘Welcome Home!’ sign for my menopause symptoms and my ass would be on its merry way.

But thankfully (for his safety) that ‘diet’ word never came.  Instead Dr. Lee said that it would be a lifestyle change.  He said that I would still be able to eat a lot of the same foods I eat now, with the exception of “anything in a bag or a can.”  And since chocolate wasn’t one of those, it was a parting that I could live with.

Still, my menopausal stubbornness wasn’t sure it was willing to part with comfort food just to lose a few pounds.  That’s when Dr. Lee said it wasn’t about losing weight (though it is one hell of an added benefit, 15 pounds and counting!), but instead it was about maintaining a hormonal balance and finally having relief from the menopausal hell I’d been living in.

The deal is this, it’s really important to keep sugars out of your system because it can make your old symptoms come back… as Dr. Lee likes to say, “there is a connection between mood and food.”   So, I needed a lifestyle change for this natural hormone therapy to work; a much better motivator than weight loss.

And, unlike some doctors I could name *ahem*, Dr. Lee didn’t just hand me a paper of demands for me to figure out by myself.  He worked with me, describing a BodyLogicMD nutrition plan, customized just for me (exactly how I like things), with the main purpose of avoiding foods that cause inflammation and other interactions in my system. 

I will say that it was a definite change from how I was eating before, but I always feel satisfied and full. I get to eat frequently because it’s important to avoid blood sugar spikes (ha! now I have an excuse!), and I am never STARVING like I used to be whenever I would go on some random diet. I’m losing weight and feeling better, I can definitely stick with this.

On that note, I think it’s time for some chocolate, doctor’s orders!

Hello friends!

For almost 2 months now I have been going on and on about getting “tested” and it occurred to me that I have never shared my results with you.  Well, here they are.

Let me explain as best I can.

These are the results of my saliva tests.  Yes I know it sounds gross, but I HAD to do it (and it wasn’t really that bad at all)!  There were 4 separate samples taken throughout the day.  This is because our hormone levels naturally fluctuate from morning to night so multiple tests are necessary to get the most accurate results.  The hormone testing measured my cortisol, progesterone, testosterone, and estrogen levels. 

Remember way back, when I confessed that I was doubling my dose of estrogen in an attempt to stop my hot flashes, look at my level 29. YIKES!  WAY too high!  No wonder I was the queen of puke.  And look at my progesterone, it’s virtually nonexistent.  I remember stopping Dr. Lee and asking him why my progesterone was so low, he gazed at me almost puzzled and said “Judy, you are in menopause.”   My only response was “oh.”  I knew it, but no one, not any of my past ‘doctors,’ had ever said the word. 

Anyways, this is what I have been talking about when I said that it is so important to know your actual hormone levels, so your bioidentical hormone doctor can treat you properly.  It’s that simple, you’ll get immediate relief from those horrible menopause symptoms.  That’s right, no more hot flashes, insomnia, mood swings, and low sex drive (*wink wink*)!  Those ‘one size fits all’ medications just don’t work; you need to know where your hormones are before you can start balancing them- it seems pretty logical to me!  So, I cut back my estrogen and started taking natural progesterone; you know the hormone every Doc said I DID NOT need.  It seems it is the one I needed most. 

So pucker up ladies and get spitting.

JudyB

Hello to all my BIHS’s (bioidentical hormone sisters)!

I know I haven’t written in a while but my schedule has been jam-packed! I’ve been feeling great lately thanks to my bioidentical hormone therapy with Dr. Lee and have been able to pick up some extra shifts.

So until I can give you a more complete update on myself, I want you to check out this video of my bioidentical hormone therapy sister Pam H. Just wait until you hear Pam’s stories about her menopause madness, they’re crazy enough to compete with mine, well almost! She was on the same sinking boat as the rest of us, struggling to deal with menopause symptoms until she found Arizona’s BodyLogicMD Dr. Eric Honing. Since then, she has gone from menopause maniac to, as she puts it, “feeling like I am 19 again instead of 46!”

I know you’re going to love her as much as I do!

Judy B

Hey Everyone! So, I promised that you would meet my friend Ellen, who I took to see Dr. Lee. Ellen was feeling awful, experiencing tons of menopause symptoms, so I dragged her grouchy ass to BodyLogicMD!

Enjoy!

Judy B.

Hi All! So, I am past this point by a few more weeks, but here is a video of me detailing how I felt after five weeks on bioidentical hormone therapy. I went to Dr. Lee’s office to take my friend Ellen to see him (you’ll meet her later this week!) and while I was waiting for her I discussed how things were going for me.

When I watch this, I can tell a huge difference in my general mood and even in my appearance! It’s amazing how menopause symptoms can make a girl look and feel so tired.

Anyway, this should give some of you the extra push you need to find your local BodyLogicMD physician! If I can feel better, so can you.

Xoxo
Judy B

Hey all you Menopause Maniacs! I hope everyone is doing well, and hasn’t robbed their local gas station for all the Snickers and BBQ Lays… I know I wanted to from time to time.

A lot of you have been asking about insurance issues lately, so I went straight to the source at BodyLogicMD and got some answers for you. The main questions you’ve asked are why doesn’t BodyLogicMD bill our bioidentical hormone therapy treatments directly to insurance and what are the overall costs involved in treating menopause and andropause.

So here’s the gist, in the simplest way possible.

Most of us have insurance, and most of us have a co-pay with that insurance. In addition to that co-pay, we all have deductibles. When it comes to lab work your deductible most likely applies, meaning you pay the full price until your deductible is met. If you see the doctor as well, your usual co-pay applies also.

Secondly, a lot of the time lab work isn’t covered at all because it’s outside of your “standard lab allowance” – or what-the-hell-ever!  We find out, after we’ve had these labs taken, of course, that they aren’t covered and we pay out of pocket.

Additionally, the lab charges your insurance company an inflated price, which can be three times what they would charge if you didn’t file with insurance – so it’s rip off going through them in the first place!

What BodyLogicMD has done is negotiate a cash price for the same labs that your primary hospital or doctor use. Basically, the female hormone test panel that BodyLogicMD uses would cost $2,000 at your regular doctor. At a 20 percent co-pay  (that’s assuming you paid your deductible already) that’s $400.00 – that’s if your insurance company decides to cover the test! If you haven’t paid your lab deductible for the year, you could potentially pay the full $2,000. Scary.

Too often insurance companies pull some archaic rule out of some big book and decide to apply it to you randomly – leaving you frustrated AND with a big bill for the “uncovered test.”

BodyLogicMD’s price is $450. It is what it is – no funny business.  So, in my mind, hormone therapy at BodyLogicMD is worth it.

So, while it might seem intimidating to bypass insurance for these tests, financially speaking, BodyLogicMD’s prices are a much better value without any of the “unknowns” that your insurance provider is famous for.

Hope this helps!

Judy B.

Hello All!

Here is the last video from my first month with Dr. Lee. I was only a week into treatment and I was still experiencing full-on menopause symptoms! You can definitely tell.

There is just something about the F*!# off look in my eyes that gives it away, don’t you think? LOL!

Viva hormone therapy!

Xoxo
Judy