Bridget Anderson: “I Want Something Different”
Bridget Anderson had been in and out of doctors’ offices since her cycle started at age 13. With severe endometriosis, everyday life is painful which made it essential for her to do a lot of research. So, when Bridget walked into Our Lady of Hope Clinic for the first time, she already knew what she was looking for.
Bridget explains how she was “looking into doctors that would be able to potentially help with that (endometriosis) without using synthetic hormones, because I’ve tried that route before as well, and I want something different.” She continued to tell how she’d, “taken a progesterone supplement in the past that was synthetic, and I had to ask the doctor specifically for non-synthetic. She gave me synthetic anyway. So being able to not worry about that, it’s been great.”
Finally A Doctor That Listened
A big part of Our Lady of Hope Clinics' Women’s Health and Fertility Care is learning how to chart your fertility symptoms, but Bridget had already learned this method of charting and been doing it for many years. Despite this, she had never worked with an actual NaPro doctor before.
Bridget discussed how she tried a “…lot of different naturopath-type treatments before. I’ve tried diet, herbs, vitamins, lifestyle, to help with different symptoms.”
She appreciated that the clinic finally gave her the options she had been looking for.
“Dr. Mike also has been able to try different blood tests and look at different hormone levels in my blood, in ways that I always wanted and been curious about. I thought that blood tests of this kind would yield pretty interesting results. And I asked for these from doctors before, and they said, oh, we don’t do that. “
One of Bridget’s Favorite Things About Dr. Mike
After her first appointment, Bridget felt good about working with Dr. Mike.
“One thing that I really appreciated, that I also always really love when providers do this, is we talked about a lot of different options and different things to try right off the bat. We can try this to treat a symptom. We can try this if that treatment doesn’t work. We could try a variety of things and also do these different tests to try to find more answers. I love having options.”
She continues to explain how “He had a lot of suggestions for vitamin supplements right away that made a lot of sense to me when he laid them out. Just having a lot of options, a lot of information right away, and ideas of directions to go and things to try, made me really excited that I could find some relief.”
Labs Gave Her The Bigger Picture She Had Been Looking For
“We did a month-long blood draw where I was getting my blood drawn every other day for a full cycle to track my estrogen and progesterone. And that was really important because I’d always suspected I had low progesterone, but I don’t actually have low progesterone. I just have really high estrogen, which I had also suspected because I have a history of breast cancer and it’s estrogen positive. So I’ve been telling providers for years, I think I have an imbalance of estrogen and progesterone.”
Bridget was grateful to finally have a provider listen to her and complete the tests she had been looking for.
“That blood draw was really, really helpful, just to confirm things that I’d always suspected, just to provide more information about what’s actually going on in there. And then Dr. Mike was able to give me the supplements that were actually useful instead of just guessing. Because my estrogen was so high, higher than it should be, which rendered my progesterone low even though it wasn’t actually low. That was affecting my cycles as well. So my cycles were behaving as though I had low progesterone. The progesterone supplement that he started me on, I noticed immediate results just in the health of my cycle. I was having more healthy cycles, start to finish. Still pain, but healthier cycles and less pain.”
What She Would Say To a Woman Who is Tired of Band-Aid Solutions
When Bridget was asked what she would tell someone who is nervous about starting at the Clinic, you could hear the passion in her voice.
“I think there’s always lots of things to try. I think it’s important to treat the problem and not the symptoms. Find your root cause if you’re feeling bad. And so if you’re feeling bad because your hormones are unbalanced, then you should try to balance them instead of use birth control or something else as a Band-Aid. A solution is always more effective than a Band-Aid, even if a Band-Aid might
provide short-term relief.”
Bridget continues on to explain more on the subject, “I think a lot of medical practices are just focused on Band-Aids because of high turnover. They’re trying to treat a lot of people at once, and that’s understandable, but it’s not very helpful for women. Especially when you want to go through different life changes, and you want to get married and have children, or just live a more sustainable life without as much chronic pain.”
When asked what she wishes women knew, she ended our conversation with this advice.
“The attitude I always approach healthcare with, is nothing’s permanent. You can always visit a doctor and decide you don’t want to pursue treatment with them. You can always start something and then change your mind and stop taking whatever that is. You can always try new things. So, if you are unsure about a treatment, or you’re unsure about a provider, I think that you should still meet with them. You should give it a shot. And then if it doesn’t feel right, you can always walk away later. But trying in the first place is always worth it.”
If you are struggling with endometriosis, infertility, bad period cramps or hormone imbalances give us a call today to begin your journey of healing.
Call us at (608) 819-8544
Comments