by Rosie Brown

A nurse for 30 years, I knew nothing about saliva testing and natural hormone balancing 4 ½ years ago. I had had a hysterectomy and was placed on synthetic estrogen for two years. At my annual exam, I was terrorized when I learned that synthetic estrogen increases the incidence of stroke. My dad died of a stroke at age 53, and a brother had had two strokes at age 50. I immediately stopped taking the estrogen.

Long story short, I went through living hell…till one day I found a flyer in a health food store that forever changed my life: “Discover Wellness and Natural Hormone Balancing.” For the past 4 ½ years I have been conducting my own seminars so that women do not go through what I went through.

What’s happening in your life? Have you abandoned intimacy because of painful intercourse? Has anyone accused you of being bitchy or having PMS? Do headaches rob you of your day and your family? How long has it been since you could sleep all night? Do you experience foggy thinking, forgetfulness? Have you gotten used to feeling flat, old, and tired? Have you lost the joy in your life, just getting through the day? What about hot flashes and night sweats? Are you experiencing what I am describing? Do you know someone dear to you who is?

A fact that may surprise you is that hormone imbalance begins in our youth, not just during the “shameful” menopause part of our lives.

What if you were able to eliminate these problems from your life? How would your life change?

Know this . . . vibrant days await you.

This journey has been such a learning process for me. In my community I did not have access to health care practitioners knowledgeable about bioidentical hormone balancing, so I had to research information for myself. How grateful I am to have learned all that I learned . . . before it was too late. Passionate about getting the word out to other women, I began teaching countless seminars.

 In order to reach more women, this past year I decided to write a book containing all the golden nuggets I have learned from my research, from personal experience, and from the stories of men and women whom I have met through my seminars. The result, The Awakened Body, A Woman’s Guide to Feeling Biologically Vibrant…Naturally, is soon to be born. Perhaps it would be helpful if I share a little about my personal story.

On my first saliva test, my progesterone level was severely low, so when I supplemented with transdermal progesterone, my response was incredibly dramatic. I felt fantastic, and I set out on a mission to help others experience what I experienced.

Along the way, I began to learn about the relationship between the sex hormones (progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone), the adrenal glands, and the thyroid. Everything in the literature pointed to the significant interaction among the three. Thinking I was proactive, I would routinely have “a thyroid blood test” drawn at the time of my annual physical, but I really didn’t pay much attention to which thyroid test(s) I had.  My results were usually on the low end of normal, but “within normal limits” – another much misunderstood practice among the medical community.

This past year I became aware of the Canary Club and their home hormone test kits.  Since I was due for my annual saliva test, I decided I would like to evaluate their services myself, so I ordered the complete test kit: Estradiol, Progesterone, Progesterone/Estradiol Ratio, Testosterone, DHEA, Cortisol x 4, Free T4, Free T3, TSH, TPO, and Vitamin D…D2, D3, and Total. 

I had never had the four cortisol tests done before…morning, noon, evening, and night.  In fact, never before had I tested my sex hormones, adrenals, and thyroid all at the same time.  Most all my results came back low, the exception being the progesterone which was within normal limits. That is when it really hit me: progesterone is very important, but there is a whole lot more to hormone balancing besides progesterone.

 I launched into reading everything I could about the thyroid and the adrenals. Dr. Mark Starr’s words in Hypothyroidism Type 2 are profound, “. . . many patients were unaware of their hypothyroid symptoms. The symptoms had been present for years, and the patients assumed they were normal constituents of aging, or that was just the way they were.”

Once again, I found myself noticing all sorts of symptoms that I had discarded as just being “normal” for my age. Normal? No way! And now the light bulb started going off as the pieces of the puzzle began to fit together…so much more info to include in the book!

I feel I have been given another chance at life, and my purpose in writing a book is to awaken others so they can live the life they so richly deserve. This past year I also created a blog, www.awakenblog.wordpress.com, so that I can share information and, in turn, learn from others. I have met some amazing people through my blog, two of them being Judith and Lynn from the Canary Club. 

I am grateful for what Lynn and Judith have created on their Canary Club web site. Not only is there the opportunity for affordable hormone testing and medical advice from experts, Drs. Richard and Karilee Shames, but here is a forum where we can reach out to one another. We can share our stories and solutions with each other so that all of our lives can be joyous and vibrant, as they were meant to be.

One of the most beautiful parts of my book are all the stories shared by other women – each one of them sharing their personal experiences, reaching out to be of help to other women. When we join together, we can make such an impact on our lives and the lives of others.

Yes…vibrant days do await you!