Latest / Cortisol Coach / Perimenopause, Menopause, and Root Cause Medicine | Hormone Health, Weight Wellness, and Longevity with Dr. Hart and Dr. Fashho of Eviva
Transcript
- 0:03Welcome to the Cortisol Coach Podcast. If you're exhausted, gaining weight,
- 0:08losing your hair, your anxiety is through the roof, or the depression and emotional
- 0:12overwhelm have completely consumed your life, or maybe you're not showing up
- 0:16as the wife and mom you want to be.
- 0:17You've spent years never feeling
- 0:20good enough, taking care of everyone else while you quietly fell apart.
- 0:24And your body has been keeping score of every single bit of it.
- 0:28The chronic stress, hormonal shifts, perimenopause, menopause,
- 0:32whatever season you're in, cortisol is making all of it worse.
- 0:35And until you heal the root, nothing changes. But this show here is about to change that.
- 0:41I'm your host, Christine Marie, Holy Spirit-led Biblical Mindset Coach,
- 0:45and I have helped thousands of women heal their hormones and cortisol levels.
- 0:49Every week, I bring you leading experts, doctors, and coaches who will help
- 0:54you heal your body, mind, emotions, and your spirit so that you can step into
- 0:58every kingdom purpose that God has planned for your life.
- 1:01So go grab your cup of coffee and let's jump in.
- 1:05My guests today are the founders of Aviva, a practice built for the woman who
- 1:09always knew there had to be more.
- 1:12Dr. Abigail Hart and Dr. Sharice Fasho are both double board certified physicians
- 1:18in obstetrics and gynecology and obesity medicine.
- 1:22Dr. Fascio holds additional certifications as a menopause society certified practitioner.
- 1:28Together they bring decades of clinical excellence spanning gynecological surgery,
- 1:35metabolic medicine, hormone therapy, and longevity focused care.
- 1:39But what makes these two women extraordinary is not just their credentials.
- 1:43It's their stories. Dr. Hart was a chief resident, a gynecologic oncology surgeon,
- 1:49a lifelong athlete, and then came her own breast cancer diagnosis.
- 1:54That experience cracked open an entirely new understanding of chronic stress,
- 1:59inflammation, and what it actually takes for a woman's body to heal and thrive.
- 2:04Dr. Fasho built her career across some of the most demanding clinical environments
- 2:09in this country, from Tulane Medical School to Ochner Medical Center to the
- 2:14University of Pittsburgh.
- 2:15And it was motherhood and witnessing burnout firsthand that shifted everything.
- 2:20She stopped treating symptoms and started asking that question of why.
- 2:25Together, they founded Aviva Total Wellness with one single mission,
- 2:29to serve the woman who has been told she's fine, handed a prescription,
- 2:34and sent home. The woman who knows in her bones that something is off.
- 2:39The woman who always knew there had to be more.
- 2:43Dr. Hart and Dr. Fasho, welcome to the Cortisol Coach Podcast.
- 2:48Thank you so much for having us. And that introduction was like five out of five. Yes, thank you.
- 2:55You made me smile from ear to ear. I was just like, oh my gosh,
- 2:57I'm so over the moon right now to be here on this podcast with you.
- 3:03I knew once you and I, the three of us, had that first conversation,
- 3:06I knew that my audience had to hear from you because just like you both,
- 3:12I spent years and years and years looking for a solution.
- 3:16Handed prescriptions, and
- 3:18but never being asked the right questions or truly looking at why or what could
- 3:25be causing this. So what led you here?
- 3:27Honestly, truly deep in my heart, I think what led me down this path was my diagnosis in 2023.
- 3:35And I had so many questions. Why did this happen? I work out. I'm fit. I drink water.
- 3:41I don't drink alcohol. I don't smoke.
- 3:44I had so many why questions. And I think just as I progressed,
- 3:49I realized just the traditional medicine route did not teach us about root cause, more holistic care,
- 3:56more about cellular metabolic medicine.
- 3:59And I realized no matter how much I worked out, I mean, I went paleo,
- 4:05I cut out gluten, I did so many different things.
- 4:07I didn't feel any better and I still had no answers.
- 4:11And that's what started me, I think, exploring other facets of information,
- 4:18not just the traditional route and branching out and seeing, well, what else works?
- 4:25Because traditional medicine isn't helping. Just by looking into all these different outlets,
- 4:31whether it was research papers or anecdotal evidence or going on forums and
- 4:36listening to other women and men with their complaints and their lifestyles
- 4:40and how nothing's getting addressed, I realized like this is such a common problem.
- 4:44And I'm one where if there's a problem, I'd like to figure it out.
- 4:47I'm a puzzle solver. So it's really exciting that I'm able to finally do this
- 4:51and dedicate my life to this. And we're always learning. And the field of medicine is always changing.
- 4:56Yesterday, I was looking at
- 4:58research papers from this year that just came out. That was very exciting.
- 5:02So it's really, it's a privilege.
- 5:06Yes. And, you know, Dr. Hart and I, just taking it further back,
- 5:10like we met on the labor wards, you know, both working as, you know,
- 5:15pretty intense jobs as OB hospitalists. And that's where we connected.
- 5:19We really found, I think, a beautiful friendship in the fact that we both try
- 5:25to live, we try to take away our stress by living lives outside of work as mothers,
- 5:30you know, trying to find ways to connect through our friendship.
- 5:33We started doing exercise together.
- 5:36We found, you know, different types of exercise, whether that be a bar class,
- 5:40we were getting into the mega former type classes with Tremble,
- 5:44a local kind of chain that we really found joy in like doing things together
- 5:49outside of work and just kind of
- 5:50Learning from each other, I think it was really a beautiful thing.
- 5:54And so the idea of like giving something more to the community or to ourselves
- 5:58and to our families is really where this all kind of came together.
- 6:02And then just a plug for our logo, if you look at it, the bird of paradise.
- 6:05We knew that that was the flower we wanted to represent what we're bringing to our patients.
- 6:10It's a tropical plant and it really does thrive in harsh environments and hurricane
- 6:16storms and soil that's not necessarily the most fulfilling.
- 6:21Just like our work when we were working, you know, night shifts.
- 6:2524-hour shifts at the hospital, really found ourselves kind of struggling with
- 6:30how can we sustain doing this forever for ourselves, for our family?
- 6:34Is it affecting our health? But then the bigger picture is I think we can teach
- 6:38ourselves things and we can teach our patients more things.
- 6:41Say it was like a synergy of coming together because, you know,
- 6:46I feel like even then, like we were still at that point in the throes of traditional
- 6:51medicine, but then we're like, hey, I have this crazy idea.
- 6:55Let's, you know, what if we did try this holistic thing? Or we started doing red light.
- 6:59Dr. Fasher was already doing sauna. She introduced me to sauna because I'd never
- 7:03done that before, but it does have so many benefits.
- 7:06You know, whenever we had these ideas to explore these different outlets and
- 7:10branch out and do a little bit more root cause.
- 7:13Like we never told each other, hey, that idea is too crazy.
- 7:15It's too far fetched. Like we just support each other along the way.
- 7:19And we feel like both of our health journeys, the really the ultimate,
- 7:24I think one of the purposes of our lives is to give back, to live wholly and purposefully.
- 7:30And why not share the fruits of our research and the things that we have found,
- 7:34even by treating ourselves with these methods that we were not taught.
- 7:39We had to be the experiment the last few years. We understand life is stressful.
- 7:44You know, sleep, our environment, it's not as clean as what it used to be.
- 7:49Lifestyles are not what they used to be. So our bodies are constantly on the defense.
- 7:53So how can we prime our bodies, you know, not even just from nutrition and exercise
- 7:57and activity, but even on the cellular level. And that's where our interest
- 8:01lies, like to prime people for, you know, just everyday life,
- 8:05make them feel better, make them feel heard.
- 8:08There are so many women, just like myself included, that went to the doctors
- 8:12as we're walking through perimenopause.
- 8:15I'm now in menopause, but I asked for labs. I asked for tests,
- 8:19and the results would come back, and they would be fine, but I didn't feel fine.
- 8:24So can you talk more about that piece? Why would a woman's labs come back normal
- 8:29versus what is it that you guys do differently?
- 8:32So it's interesting. I was reading about lab values the other day.
- 8:35When some of these labs figured out their lab values, they weren't tested on women, number one.
- 8:41Some of them have, but also what one person's level is and they feel right,
- 8:46it's not going to be consistent with the other person.
- 8:50And then it's more complicated than that. How much is actually getting into
- 8:53the cell if everything looks normal?
- 8:56Like, is that even getting into the cell, you know, to cause an effect, to make you feel better?
- 9:01There's more layers to just a lab, which is why we don't treat levels.
- 9:05We get it. It's important to track. Our patients love to see data,
- 9:09but it's not going to be the end-all be-all at all in the.
- 9:14Just to kind of reiterate what Dr. Hart is saying, you know,
- 9:17most normal lab values are based on a statistical bell curve, right?
- 9:21You have a median and, you know, the 95%, 5% confidence interval,
- 9:26and like not everyone falls into that.
- 9:28You know, how you're feeling doesn't always correlate to lab values.
- 9:33And I think in our hard work in the hospital, we kind of realized that,
- 9:37you know, maybe it is a little bit of the hospital's goal to keep patients sick.
- 9:42And like some of the things we're like hearing and the meetings we would go to.
- 9:45And so I feel like when we realize like maybe there is something more to the
- 9:49non-traditional medicine, right?
- 9:51We're both allopathically trained physicians, which are why we have the letters MD after our name.
- 9:56There's also an osteopathic school of thought, which is also very similar.
- 10:00They do a little bit more naturopathic techniques and like adjustment techniques
- 10:03that they learn in their medical training. But as far as the traditional allopathic
- 10:07training, we were both realizing that, you know, they're not teaching us everything.
- 10:12We're just kind of following what those before us did, and we're learning how
- 10:16to, you know, just this standard of care, which has been great for most people, but.
- 10:21I don't know, is the end goal really just to keep people sick and in the hospital?
- 10:25Because that's not what we want to do.
- 10:27That's not what we want for our children. And so we kind of looked more into
- 10:31the functional side of medicine, which a lot of, you know, big cities,
- 10:35we're not really in a big city, we're in a large town.
- 10:37And so a lot of big cities have functional medicine specialists,
- 10:41and there really aren't any around us, maybe some physicians that are getting into it.
- 10:45And so kind of learning and educating ourselves with our own research,
- 10:48with going to conferences.
- 10:50You're just leaving our comfort zone in order to acquire more knowledge,
- 10:54I think that's something that is lifelong for both of us and is why we kind
- 10:59of looked into the non-traditional type of workup testing or root cause analysis,
- 11:04which is really not how most physicians, if you're seeing a standard trained
- 11:09physician in hospital or center in our country are trained.
- 11:12Right. So talk to us a little bit more about what does a holistic approach to
- 11:16women's healthcare look like in your practice?
- 11:18So when I say the word holistic, I mean whole, tip to tail.
- 11:23I want to know about lifestyle. I want to know about like any major life events,
- 11:27sleep habits, cravings, what type of foods do they like?
- 11:32Obviously going through a medication list, which may or may not be fairly extensive
- 11:36and any and all supplements as well, because the body is really good at telling
- 11:40us when something's wrong.
- 11:42Like our hormones are off. Okay, well, why are they off?
- 11:46Because it was just kind of like, okay, we're giving everybody estrogen,
- 11:49progesterone, testosterone.
- 11:50That's the end result of something else though.
- 11:53So we need a treat.
- 11:55Up the tree. Like, we need to treat, why are those hormones off?
- 11:59And you have to do a deep dive.
- 12:01And what our patients need to understand, and really your listeners in general,
- 12:05when we're trying to fix cellular health, metabolic health to fix the hormones,
- 12:10it is never going to be an overnight thing.
- 12:13It's not going to take just 24 hours. There's no magic pill.
- 12:16Because it's a deep dive with lifestyle and, you know, other medications and,
- 12:21you know, do you have anxiety?
- 12:22It's so many things that we address, and it takes many months.
- 12:26But if you've been feeling bad for six or seven years, and when I say bad,
- 12:31just like not yourself, your energy's low, you can't sleep, you're wired but tired, etc.
- 12:36Then if we work on you for a year, and you feel that much better,
- 12:41you have all these years ahead of you to feel better and feel like yourself
- 12:45and feel like you want to feel. So it's worth the time investment.
- 12:49Yes. And you know, to reiterate, Dr. Hart, holistic women's health care means
- 12:53understanding that the body does not operate just on one isolated compartment, right?
- 12:58As an OBGYN, it's like we were only trained to pay attention to the ovaries.
- 13:01But really, the hormones affect sleep, sleep affects your metabolism,
- 13:06stress affects inflammation, inflammation affects everything.
- 13:09And so a holistic approach asks not only what symptom are we treating,
- 13:13but it also asks what is the body trying to communicate?
- 13:16And so that's what we're trying to help our patients understand how are these,
- 13:21you know, communication pathways in your body, how are they off?
- 13:24And it's not going to take just one thing.
- 13:26It's not going to be just a little prescription on a pad, like what you're used to getting.
- 13:30It's going to be, hey, how can we work through some of your psychological trauma
- 13:34or stress? How can we optimize your physical well-being with physical therapy, with exercise?
- 13:39You know, there are foundations, but also other specialties in our community
- 13:43that can help you just as much as your physician.
- 13:46One other thing that you both specialize in is obesity medicine.
- 13:49And I would love for you to talk about obesity medicine. How does that
- 13:53even fit into the hormone conversation. Obesity medicine has anything and everything
- 13:58to do with hormone balance.
- 14:00Your adipocytes, which are your fat cells, are hormonally active.
- 14:03Inflammation is basically going to dictate anything else downstream.
- 14:07If I prescribe you estrogen and send you out the door without addressing anything
- 14:13else, you're still going to have that degree of inflammation.
- 14:17And there's inflammation all over the body, even in the brain.
- 14:21So then I'm not treating you to the fullest extent and in fact if I could treat
- 14:25your inflammation I might actually treat your hormones without you having to be on hormones.
- 14:30And just from having taken the obesity medicine specialization exam and the
- 14:36NAM certification, I mean, the obesity medicine exam was so hard.
- 14:40That was probably harder than our OBGYN boards.
- 14:43You know, obesity medicine is not just about weight loss. You know,
- 14:46it's understanding the complex physiology that surrounds metabolism.
- 14:50Appetite, inflammation, hormones, insulin resistance, like muscle mass.
- 14:53We learned a lot about that on the exam, sleep and longevity.
- 14:56So it really was kind of our first steps to getting into this.
- 15:00Like we wanted to help our patients.
- 15:01You know, we're located in Louisiana. It's one of the most obese states statistically in the country.
- 15:06And so our patient population, you know, even in the hospital pregnancy wise,
- 15:11you know, we have obesity is kind of the norm, the average here.
- 15:14And so we kind of wanted, we knew we wanted to help our community in a root cause way.
- 15:18And I think getting involved in learning the obesity medicine applications to,
- 15:22you know, optimize our knowledge, I think was essential.
- 15:26The body just is so complex and it's not just, you know, one thing seeing a
- 15:31doctor that specializes in the kidney or the brain, you know,
- 15:35it's like you need a doctor to really synthesize everything.
- 15:38And can put it all together without you having to go to four or five different offices.
- 15:43Like, yes, like she said, it's almost crucial for someone to be able to have
- 15:48this depth of understanding.
- 15:50And even counseling patients, I say, you know, the GLP-1 medications,
- 15:53they didn't come out as weight loss drugs initially. These were type 2 diabetes
- 15:56treatments that were aimed to, you know, fix insulin resistance.
- 16:01You know, help with diabetes management.
- 16:03And then now we are applying them to not only weight loss, but even greater things now.
- 16:07You know, opioid addiction, alcoholism, hormones and menopause.
- 16:12I mean, there are so many anti-inflammatory pathways that we're finding with
- 16:15just the GLP-1 receptor.
- 16:17And there are more and more coming out. And so I think we're really on to something.
- 16:21And I think we just love learning. I feel like a lot of women over 40,
- 16:25the first thing that we notice is the weight gain as we step into perimenopause or menopause.
- 16:31But if you truly sit there and think about, well, how do my knees feel? How do my ankles feel?
- 16:37How does my brain feel? How is my memory?
- 16:40There's so many other pieces.
- 16:42But I think because we're looking at ourselves in the mirror,
- 16:45that's the first thing we notice. And so I love your full body approach.
- 16:50And gosh, I wish I had it so many years ago.
- 16:53We do too. We wish we would have done this years ago. Yeah, somebody would have told me about like.
- 16:59We didn't meet each other. It's funny, just another little side story that I
- 17:02always find so interesting is that Dr. Hart and I, we probably were supposed
- 17:06to do residency together.
- 17:07We both, you have like this rank list when you're like in medical school to
- 17:11like match to a program. And I think had we met then, would we have started
- 17:15this early? I don't know. We can't like...
- 17:18But, you know, here we are. We met in our late 30s, early 40s,
- 17:21and we're doing this now. Yes.
- 17:24Good things come in time. A hundred percent. Well, and let me ask you a question.
- 17:29What are some of the most common symptoms that women are dismissing that are
- 17:34actually pretty serious hormonal signs?
- 17:37I feel like in the media, number one, you would say hot flashes.
- 17:41But I think really it's feeling down.
- 17:44Like people forget because it'll just kind of be this lingering,
- 17:47you know, almost like apathy and then it forms, you know, becomes depression
- 17:53and then that interferes with the sleep cycle.
- 17:56I think women don't realize how bad they feel because of how busy they are.
- 18:01But when they actually take the time to sit down, they're like,
- 18:04oh my gosh, I don't feel like myself.
- 18:06It can be corrected, you know, as long as we're addressing the symptoms.
- 18:09And maybe many of us, you know, most a lot of us these days have delayed our
- 18:13childbearing years to around this age.
- 18:15And so it's like the sleep disruption, like, you know, your kids aren't really sleeping well.
- 18:19At least my daughter isn't. And so it's like, oh, yeah, getting up at this time
- 18:22of night, like you don't notice it maybe.
- 18:24Also the increased anxiety. I think that's an overlooked symptom.
- 18:28You know, people feeling on edge. I think Oprah talked about like she didn't
- 18:32realize her heart palpitations was actually this transition and not something more.
- 18:36And so, you know, we always, they say women are just, you know,
- 18:40we're always taking care of others. And we just really sometimes need to listen
- 18:43to our own bodies in order to take care of the others.
- 18:46But, you know, we just kind of dismiss things often just because we're trying
- 18:50to make our children's doctor's appointments and not our own.
- 18:53Yeah. And that's the other thing. Like, we're a big proponent of self-care.
- 18:56You've got to take care of yourself in order to take care of others.
- 19:00And it's so easy to get caught up. Like, in the day, your entire schedule's
- 19:04blocked off and day to day to day.
- 19:06And then, you know, you're feeling bad for years and you don't realize it because
- 19:10you haven't made the time when we can address all these things, you know, and we can...
- 19:16Cry me. I'm not saying you're going to be 100%, but we're going to get you to a better place.
- 19:20We meet patients where they are, of course, and we discuss goals.
- 19:24It's just those lingering little symptoms that may or may not actually be a big deal.
- 19:29How does somebody work with both of you? Because this sounds like a dream,
- 19:34but do they need to be local to you?
- 19:36How do you offer patient services?
- 19:39So currently, you know, we have an office that will be opening very, very soon.
- 19:44We redid the interior of the office to our specifications. So we're very excited about that.
- 19:50We think the patient experience, it's going to be unlike anything else.
- 19:53So we'll probably open our schedules.
- 19:55Currently, we have a few state licensures. We're probably going to just see
- 20:00patients in Louisiana to start locally in our town of Lafayette, Louisiana.
- 20:04But we would, we likely will set up telemedicine in the near or semi-near future.
- 20:09So that potentially could be something to reach a larger audience.
- 20:13We're just kind of getting started. It's such a beautiful thing.
- 20:16And so, yeah, we've been kind of like slowed down by construction,
- 20:19but I think there is beauty in slowing down.
- 20:21And I just have to say, we do love your podcast.
- 20:24I mean, cortisol isn't an enemy, right? It's a survival hormone.
- 20:28Like it's helped us stay alive for so many years. But in our modern life,
- 20:32we're just living in a constant state of go. Our sleep is poor.
- 20:36The two of us are still doing the shift work until we transition this practice over.
- 20:41I mean, these blood sugar swings, inflammation, we're under eating,
- 20:44we're stressed, we're going through a change that is essentially natural,
- 20:48but we have constant stimulation. The body could only adapt so much.
- 20:52And so I really love what you're doing and putting out there,
- 20:54but we'd love to reach a larger audience.
- 20:56I think there are other practitioners out there who are listening to us and
- 21:00that they might be thinking the same thing.
- 21:02And so OBGYNs out there, you can do it.
- 21:05It's not all about just grinding away, seeing 50 patients a day.
- 21:09I mean, I do believe our field.
- 21:11I was underserved. There were more women joining OBGYN medical specialty,
- 21:15but I think working night shift does serve a time and a place.
- 21:19It can't be forever. I don't think our health is worth just that kind of sacrifice.
- 21:24And I think our patients would understand too.
- 21:26They want healthy doctors. I want my doctor to live forever.
- 21:30And I did want to add to what I think is unique about our practice is,
- 21:34so this is Dr. Hart speaking, Dr. Faschel and I, we discuss every patient.
- 21:39The practice patients, they're both of our patients. So if one is out or,
- 21:43you know, there's a time slot for one or the other, you're a member of our practice,
- 21:49of our lifestyle, of our Aviva, you know, our brand, our vibe.
- 21:53We don't want anyone to feel like, oh my gosh, like this doesn't work with my schedule.
- 21:58No, we're, that's what we think is very unique about the practice.
- 22:01So we can work with your schedules and it's like having a team of physicians treating your case and.
- 22:10If we have to do trial and error, because remember, everybody responds differently
- 22:14to different methods. Like we're all different.
- 22:18And I think that's what the beauty of it is. And then, you know,
- 22:21we have our close connections with, you know, physical therapy,
- 22:25some movement teachers, different things.
- 22:27So we all know who our referral spaces are. We have their phone numbers. We text each other.
- 22:32So it's a very close knit sort of clinic where we know everything that's going
- 22:39on and we're offering services that, you know, if we were the patient,
- 22:43this is the exact experience that we would want.
- 22:46Yes. It's like we're calling it a health club, a vibe. And so,
- 22:50yes, Dr. Hart and I are both interchangeable.
- 22:53We both are treating each patient together. And I think, yeah,
- 22:58a spot open on the schedule would mean just book with either of us.
- 23:02Go to the availability of your schedule because we are
- 23:05treating you the same and we're very
- 23:09excited this is so amazing let's give the listeners a first step so let's talk
- 23:15to the woman who is exhausted she's been dismissed she's ready to do something
- 23:20different what is one thing that she could do today that would help impact where she's at.
- 23:29I think the first step in looking back at Dr. Hart and Dr.
- 23:33Fasho, that's me, our journey, I think the first step is take a look at your tribe, at your network.
- 23:40And I think that the stress and the overwhelm that we were having at work allowed us to connect.
- 23:48And so I think starting with that, starting with a friend, a resource,
- 23:52see if anyone around you, maybe a coworker is going through the same thing and
- 23:57see what resources they have tried.
- 24:00If you've tried the internet search, functional medicine is a good word to search for.
- 24:05You can look at the NAMS, which is the North American Metapause Society's website
- 24:11to look for certified practitioners. But I will give you the caveat that not
- 24:16all of them think this way.
- 24:19I mean, a lot of the training, the allopathic training again is very much prescription based.
- 24:24And so I do think those that are maybe studying this or certified in it might
- 24:28be more willing to listen to your complaints and offer some treatment.
- 24:32But if you're still cycling through a treatment, I mean, for example, myself, I'm 41.
- 24:38I'll be 42 in a few months. Sorry, I'm jumping ahead. But I'm 41 now.
- 24:42And I just last year was really experiencing brain fog, hip pain, discomfort in my hips.
- 24:49Of course, sleep has always been an issue, but I attribute that to my job,
- 24:53of course, working nights and shift work, delivering babies in the hospital.
- 24:57And so, yeah, I kind of ignored that one maybe, but just like recognizing that something feels off.
- 25:01The brain fog is a little bit more. I'm a little bit more forgetful.
- 25:04So, of course, I talked to my GYN.
- 25:06We started estrogen patch. I already take progesterone, contraception, IUD form.
- 25:11And so we started it. And for six months, nothing had changed. And I'm like, this isn't.
- 25:16Great. I had the negative, right? If you have too much or too little,
- 25:19I was having breast pain now because I had too much estrogen. And like, why?
- 25:23Like, it's not fixing this. So it's really, that's not really the answer.
- 25:27So let me just do a deeper dive. And of course, Dr. Hart and I were going to
- 25:30conferences for longevity medicine for, you know, learning more of this like
- 25:35deep dive into the functional medicine space. And so we were like,
- 25:39let's do some saliva testing.
- 25:40And so, I mean, that's another good keyword search, who offers saliva testing near you.
- 25:45So we understand that the saliva is a better representation of our tissues than
- 25:52the bloodstream, right? If the hormones are in your blood, it's not really doing anything.
- 25:55We need a representation of what the hormones in the tissue are doing.
- 25:58And so we did some of that.
- 25:59We met with one of our local longevity medicine specialists, Dr.
- 26:03Chu, shout out. She kind of did some of this genetic testing,
- 26:06and we did metabolite urinary excretion testing called the Dutch test,
- 26:10which is pretty informational.
- 26:12You know, I was able to figure out like, am I clearing out my estrogen well?
- 26:16And so synthesizing all of this information and getting ourselves tested,
- 26:20I figured out my problem is actually, it's a buzzword, but estrogen dominance
- 26:24is the only way to explain what was going on.
- 26:27I actually have too much estrogen and your progesterone goes first.
- 26:30And so, yeah, as an OBGYN, I can honestly say I don't.
- 26:34Knew that, but I didn't recognize it, right? You're not like,
- 26:37oh, yeah, your progesterone's gone because I think we were just truly trained
- 26:40to just, this is a fact of life and you can live with it or,
- 26:44you know, but truly starting an oral progesterone bioidentical would not only
- 26:50help my sleep issue, it probably would give me what I'm losing.
- 26:53It would bring that ratio of estrogen to progesterone back to where it needs to be.
- 26:57And so, yeah, I also did more testing and realized I don't metabolize vitamins well.
- 27:03I have the MTHFR mutation. I mean, all of these things are probably not making
- 27:07sense to the average user.
- 27:09But what we're saying is that it was more than just what I was essentially normally
- 27:14trained to recognize in my own patients as an OBGYN.
- 27:17And I think there's so much to learn. I think right now is a critical moment
- 27:22in women's history that we are the experiment.
- 27:25I think we are figuring things out for ourselves because we not only want to,
- 27:29We want to better our children, our neighbors, ourselves.
- 27:33And I think now that I've kind of figured things out for myself,
- 27:36that's why. That's what's motivating me to figure things out better for the patients.
- 27:41That's what I did my whole life. I feel like even as I have a certification
- 27:44in the International Breastfeeding Lactation Consultant, I did that when I was struggling.
- 27:49Like I've really struggled with breastfeeding with my son and I just didn't
- 27:52want that to happen for my daughter.
- 27:53So yeah, I got certified and it was almost a hard exam as well.
- 27:56And I think I just always want to learn the best and the most factual knowledge.
- 28:01And I just don't think...
- 28:03That traditional medicine or modern American medicine is training us the best for women's health.
- 28:09I love that you brought up all these different tests because I'm saying,
- 28:13yes, yes, I've done that. I've done that.
- 28:16But I had to go to so many different doctors and specialists for them to run these different tests.
- 28:22And so I love that you're bringing up all these things. For example,
- 28:25I'll just throw this out there.
- 28:27I was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder in 2007, But it wasn't until I
- 28:32had my genetic testing done that I found out that I have two serotonin mutations
- 28:38and the double MTHFR variant as well.
- 28:42So it wasn't necessarily that I had social anxiety disorder.
- 28:45It's that I have a serotonin deficiency.
- 28:48And so it's truly the more you know, the more testing you can get done, the better.
- 28:54Because then you can even figure out, you know, I know I'm a rapid metabolizer.
- 28:58There's all these different pieces of information you can gather with more testing.
- 29:03So I love that you brought all of those pieces up. Yes, this is where modern
- 29:07technology is helping us.
- 29:09But, you know, I think, I don't know why traditional physicians are not.
- 29:14And understanding this, I think it has a lot to do, I think,
- 29:17with insurance and just not to go off the total rocker, but they're not going
- 29:20to cover it, right? You're going to have to pay out of pocket for these tests.
- 29:23At the end of the day, it's probably worth it to find out some information that
- 29:27you can actually get helped with. If you strip everything away,
- 29:30all you have is your health left.
- 29:32And I've also been trending out
- 29:34wellness trends and just seeing the transitions over the last few years.
- 29:39And, you know, they say health is the new handbag.
- 29:41But I'm totally all here for it. When you're healthy, your skin quality is better.
- 29:46Like your hair is thicker.
- 29:48Like your body just gets happy. And then you have that beauty that kind of,
- 29:52you know, it shines out from within. I am just so thankful that both of you
- 29:57were on the podcast today.
- 29:59I cannot wait for our audience to connect with both of you. Where can they find you on social media?
- 30:07So it's at aviva.md. So at- V-I-V-A dot md.
- 30:14And we have a link tree and our website is just about finished.
- 30:19We've put a lot of heart and soul into it.
- 30:22And again, good things take time. So we're not rushing this out.
- 30:26We're making sure everything is to our standards and everything we want it to
- 30:31be. We want to be proud of what our name is on.
- 30:35So I would say get on our Instagram and keep watching.
- 30:39And your Instagram is so fun. You guys have so much personality. I love it.
- 30:43A huge thank you to both of you for being on today's episode.
- 30:48And you can find all of the information in the show notes so that you can connect with both of them.
- 30:53And I will see you guys next time.
- 30:57Thank you. Thank you.
- 31:02Friend, I am so thankful that you are here today. I pray this episode blessed you big time.
- 31:06And if it did, would you do me a favor and leave me a review on Apple Podcasts?
- 31:10It helps more women just like you find the show.
- 31:12And it may be the very reason that somebody else gets the answers that they need.
- 31:16I would also love to connect with you personally on Instagram.
- 31:19You can find me by searching cortisol underscore coach. That's where I show up every single day.
- 31:24And send me a DM. I would love to connect with you. I'll see you next time. We'll see you next time.