My Warrior Mama: The Journey from Hormone Chaos to Thriving in Menopause

I remember the night my mom finally reached out for help. The phone rang late at night, waking me up and startling me. 

I could hear the fear in her voice, a tone I rarely ever heard from her my entire life up to this point.

As a single mother, my mom, Jody, battled in the trenches to raise my sister Cynthia and me.  

We struggled for years to get by in a small apartment, though we didn’t recognize how much our mom endured until years later. The stress and exhaustion of single-motherhood took their toll, but she always persevered. She showed up for us day after day and inspired us to have incredible goals.

Graduating college at age 27, she built an amazing career to show us how to succeed. She fought for us constantly, and I always admired her polished look, her determined demeanor, and the intentional way she approached every day. 

She made the impossible seem possible from the start.

But, as is common when we neglect ourselves, my mom began to show signs of falling apart. She continually drove herself into the ground, the constant go-go-go mentality wearing her down day by day until someone we didn’t recognize began to show up. 

In a Jekyll-and-Hyde-type switch, she would turn into a woman who flew off the handle, causing us to hide in another room until the bubbly, giggling, empowered mama that we loved surfaced from the darkness again. With the benefit of my medical training, I now know that she was struggling with intense hormonal imbalances.     

Her hormonal fluxes only worsened with age. Shocked and overwhelmed by the intensity of her anger, she still went nuclear over minor inconveniences until one day at age 39 she let loose on a stranger who had blocked her driveway. 

She could feel that stress, irritability, and the I’m-gonna-snap-if-one-more-thing-happens feeling building up inside, but she charged on thinking if she could just get home and have a glass of wine it would all go away and she’d be able to “get over it.”

She shocked herself that day, and she knew something wasn’t right inside of her and that she needed help. 

But can you guess what happened?

Even after mustering up the courage to make a doctor’s appointment, to go in and confess all the embarrassing symptoms, and to be so openly vulnerable as to ask, “Is it normal to want to kill everyone during your period?” she got the usual response. 

The doctor responded, “Yes, it can be.”  Which is an utter lie. Nothing about what my mom was experiencing should be considered normal.

The doctor did one good thing for my mom; she validated her symptoms. But in letting her know she wasn’t alone, she also committed the giant mistake of normalizing her symptoms. There is nothing normal about them. 

And she didn’t understand that there were root causes driving all of her intense symptoms. 

Normalizing our symptoms doesn’t create hormone balance. It might make us feel a little less alone, but it does nothing to help us find true, lasting healing.

This encounter gave my mama the bump she needed to soldier on until her late forties when her hormones took a severe nosedive. Every single day she was facing erratic sleep, inexplicable weight gain, severe fatigue, and exhaustion by 4 pm. She pushed through, accepting this as her new normal based on what her doctor had told her. 

Then the irregular periods began, followed by severe heavy bleeding and totally disruptive hot flashes leaving her drenched in sweat in the middle of her workplace.

“It must be menopause,” she reasoned. And she charged on… 

Until hot flashes lit her up multiple times a week…
And her thin frame carried 25 extra pounds…
And insomnia and fatigue pulled her into a tired-and-wired cycle…
And the worry crept back in again.

What’s a Woman in Perimenopause to Do?

Without consulting me (because she didn’t want me to be concerned), my mom reached out to a women’s hormone practice in search of solutions. She knew enough to request blood work on her reproductive, stress, and thyroid hormones, but this doctor told her those tests weren’t reliable and so they didn’t even run them. (**MAJOR RED FLAG**) 

Instead of digging deeper into root causes, the doctor pulled out a prescription pad and offered her an “easy fix”: a bioidentical estrogen patch and progesterone cream. Mom was so desperate for relief that she was willing to try anything.

The hormone therapy worked for a couple of weeks. She did get a little break from her hot flashes during her workday. But the rest of her symptoms persisted and new, scarier ones began to appear that she had never, ever experienced before. 

In two months’ time, she suffered from more weight gain, chronic headaches, and intense insomnia coupled with bone-crushing fatigue. This “easy fix” dropped her into a circle of hormone hell and kept pushing her in deeper and deeper. 

Then it got worse. 

Depression began to impact her motivation and drive. She withdrew from life, with zero motivation to work or hang out with friends—and eventually to even function.

My mom was scared of these new symptoms and didn’t know where to turn.

And that is when she called me, embarrassed, desperate, and incredibly freaked out.  

The fear in her voice pulsed as she told me the details. The last thing she said was in a whisper: “I’m starting to have scary thoughts…”

Despite my immediate fear and concern for my mom, I got her to a safe place and, after a long conversation, assured her that she would be okay. That I would not rest until we figured this out. 

Over the next weeks, I worked with her (and her doctors) to slowly wean her off the bioidentical hormone therapy and then ran a full panel of hormone tests to check thyroid hormones, stress hormones, all reproductive hormones, plus DHEA, insulin, and other important markers (you can get the full rundown of tests that I recommend in The Essential Oils Menopause Solution). 

She also immediately started my Hormone Makeover Protocol, the basis of the 21-Day Hormone Makeover Program that you will also find in part III of The Essential Oils Menopause Solution. 

I also recommended key essential oils and supplements to help support her hot flashes, insomnia, fatigue, and depressed feelings. She carried these powerful, simple solutions on her at all times, especially when she needed an instant pick me up.

Within thirty days, my mom’s depression lifted, she lost 13 pounds, and she was waking up early with the energy to work and play tennis. 

Emotionally, she began to feel like herself again. 

By day 60, she called to tell me that she felt like a younger version of herself. “I honestly didn’t think I could feel this way again! It’s like I was given my body back and I feel on top of the world. If this is what midlife actually feels like, sign me up!” she gushed. “I’ve lost 25 pounds. I am not tired in the afternoon anymore. I don’t have crazy soda cravings anymore, and I feel so much happier. My motivation is in full swing and my hair and skin feel and look healthier. I honestly feel like myself at 37 years old, especially without the hot flashes. I am ready for life to bring it on.”

And there she was again, my Warrior Mama. 

I allowed myself to exhale for a minute before the warrior woman inside of me became supercharged with determination. 

I knew it was time to empower other women and get them all back on track. 

To get you back on track. Because THIS IS POSSIBLE for anyone who is ready to take back control over her health.

If my mom could turn back time to get her body and life back, I knew every woman could too by tapping into the healing potential inside her. 

This is exactly why I began writing this book.

NOT YOUR AVERAGE MENOPAUSE BOOK

You won’t find a bland, one-size-fits-all explanation for your symptoms in this book. Instead, I go deep into the biggest root cause drivers of hormone chaos and its related symptoms so you can apply them to your unique body and situation.

This approach is what made all the difference for my mom, and really—it is the only way to get the relief that lasts.

You see, hormone replacement acts as a band-aid. Yes, it may help you feel better short-term, but it does nothing to actually solve the problem that’s making you so miserable, to begin with.

Your hormones are supposed to change in perimenopause and menopause. Your body was made to go through this transition. But there are things in your life and diet that may be making it WAY harder than it has to be.

In order to get free from stubborn weight, hot flashes, insomnia, mood swings, etc., you need to get back to the root.

And often, this can take a little digging. But don’t worry—I’ll be here to guide you every step of the way.

The Essential Oils Menopause Solution walks you through all stages of your healing: from page 1 (showing you that you DO deserve to feel good during menopause) all the way through the all-inclusive 21-day Hormone Makeover Program (with practical, daily steps you can implement).

I leverage the power of targeted nutrition (where you still get to eat filling, delicious foods), supplements to optimize your liver, thyroid, and adrenals, a movement that actually WORKS with your body (and doesn’t stress you out even more), along with powerful stress-reducing practices incorporating essential oils to help you create a plan to live a vibrant, healthy life for decades to come.

This book can be a reference to turn to for your biggest symptoms, a guide to show you what you can expect to happen in the months and years ahead, and encouragement that you are NOT alone—and that there is a way to feel amazing, even though perimenopause, menopause, and beyond.

While I was helping my mom heal, I KNEW that other women needed to get these solutions, too. And I am SO EXCITED to get this book into your hands!

Get The Essential Oils Menopause Solution TODAY and unlock a BONUS Menopause Toolkit ($500 value) FREE! >>

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