Dr Susan Hardwick-Smith

And really, I think that we learn how to be menopause doctors by going through menopause frequently, not always, but it becomes much more urgent when it's happening to you and all these symptoms that you've been taught are just hormonal or she'll get over it or whatever, or like, holy crap.

crap, this is really serious.

So just to give hope to your listeners, I know they've heard it from you too.

I felt absolutely horrible, like deadly awful.

And now I feel better than ever.

And the difference is just replacing those hormones and all of them.

Yes, estradiol, progesterone and testosterone.

Absolutely so important.

I couldn't agree more and I knew nothing about this.

So what I was taught, which was sort of nothing, it was less I was taught than it was just sort of this assumption that we go through our menstrual lives and then all of a sudden we go through menopause and all three hormones drop or maybe didn't even hear about the third one, testosterone.

But what happened in my case is I was still perimenopausal.

I was still ovulating and still making estrogen and progesterone, but my testosterone was almost zero.

And

All of the symptoms that I had initially or many of them were related to that particular hormone being low.

And I can't tell you the number of times I wish I could go back and apologize to the women that I misdiagnosed before this happened to me.

And I probably told them, you're fine.

You know, you're still having periods.

So maybe you just need an antidepressant or maybe you need some, you know, marriage counseling or all the other things.

Stupid stuff we say when we don't know.

But in my case, a little bit of testosterone replacement changed my life.