Journey Through Menopause Description
Drs. Williams, Guthrie, and Greene discuss menopause including what menopause is, symptoms, and more. They also discuss their personal menopausal experiences and how they helped themselves through this change.
Journey Through Menopause Transcription
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Welcome to Take Good Care podcast.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
An endeavor that grew out of our love for obstetrics and gynecology. Our aim and mission is to serve as a source of vital information for women of all races, ages, and walks in life.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
I am Dr. Mironda Williams.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I am Dr. Deanna Guthrie.
Dr. Karen Greene:
And I am Dr. Karen Greene.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Welcome to our show.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Welcome to this episode of Take Good Care podcast. I’m Dr. Mironda Williams.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I’m Dr. Deanna Guthrie.
Dr. Karen Greene:
And I am Dr. Karen Greene.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
So, what we’re going to be talking about today is something very near and dear to all of us.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I wouldn’t say, dear.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
It is what it is.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Yep.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
There’s been a lot of good conversation recently, at the time of this recording, of women really going into some candid conversations about menopause. What kinds of things that they in individually have experienced with some menopausal symptoms and changes? And then what interventions or what things have been helpful to alleviate some of the signs and symptoms as it relates to menopause? So, I am the Elder Stateswoman, and I’m Dr. Mironda Williams.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I’m Dr. Guthrie. I’m the middle child in this group here.
Dr. Karen Greene:
And I’m Dr. Karen Greene. I guess, I’m the baby.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
You’re the baby.
Dr. Karen Greene:
I’m the baby.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
You’re the baby. So, all of us are menopausal. And again, if you have followed us in any of our previous seasons or on our website, we have a lot of good information, clinical information, definitions about menopause. What clinically is, menopause? How do you know that you’re in menopause? All those kinds of things. So we didn’t want this conversation to be clinical, even though we may share some different clinical information as we talk about our own experiences in this menopause journey.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
But generally, menopause occurs for most patients late 40s, early 50s. It just means that those ovaries, the organs as part of the female reproductive system that produce the majority of our female hormones, that being estrogen, progesterone, as well as a little bit of testosterone, those suckers just turn off.
Dr. Karen Greene:
But they don’t turn off.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
But they slow down.
Dr. Karen Greene:
They slowly dim.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Yes, they dim.
Dr. Karen Greene:
They slowly dim.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
They make their slow exit.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
No, they off. They eventually-
Dr. Karen Greene:
[inaudible 00:02:53] off.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
… they get off, they turn off. So as a result of that, your hormone levels decrease and eventually become, not zero, but very close to it because we get other hormonal transformation. But that’s chemical [inaudible 00:03:10] to talk about that.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
So as a result of that, some women can have a lot of issues with menopause. There are some who are blessed who just stop that period. If they still have their uterus in place, when those Aries stop producing those hormones, they just stop that period. They going about their life. Good for them.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
I wasn’t so lucky. And I tell this story to patients again, I’m almost 61 at the time of this recording. And I am an OBGYN physician. I went to medical school, I completed a four-year residency program in obstetrics and gynecology. I read all about menopause. I talked to patients for years about menopause. But when I started having menopausal symptoms, I didn’t realize what I was going through.
Dr. Karen Greene:
‘Cause it wasn’t like in the books.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Well, it wasn’t just that, I thought I was just tired. Right? Because at the time, we were still doing obstetrics, so that means we’re up all night. We’re on call nights and weekends. So I’m thinking, I’m just sleep-deprived. I’m achy, I’m cranky, I’m foggy, flatulent, I’m all these things. And it’s because I’m just on call, I’m not getting no sleep, I’m not eating right. I’m not drinking enough water. No. I was menopausal as a gynecologist and I was suffering.
Dr. Karen Greene:
That part, that part.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
So before I talk about how I’d stopped my suffering, how did you all start the transition, if you can recall?
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
So it’s funny that you made the observation that, “I’m a gynecologist. I went through training.”, all those things. I don’t know if you remember from our previous broadcast, I had uterine fibroids. And so-
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Oh, I remember.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
… as part of the treatment, I was on a medication that medically puts the body in menopause. But now, as I think back, if I were not a gynecologist, if I hadn’t done that Lupron, that’s the name of the medication, before, if I had started those symptoms the way that I did when I was finally in menopause, I think I would’ve been-
Dr. Mironda Williams:
You thought you lost your mind.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
… it would’ve been. And it’s only because I had some knowledge of what was going on.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
For real experience.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Right.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
You knew what it was.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I can imagine the women who come in and they’re like, “Am I going crazy?”
Dr. Mironda Williams:
“Am I losing my mind?”
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
“Am I losing my mind?” So when I was in my late 30s, I was on a medication for six months that I had a little bit of practice with the hot flashes. So, those didn’t bother me so much. I had gone through those before.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
But as Dr. Williams said, it’s the other things. Oh, my gosh. Like you said, you just want to sit and do nothing. You could just sit on your sofa. And it’s not that you’re necessarily sleepy, it is just, you are just bone tired. Also, like you said, the lack of sleep, about OB-GYNs, we don’t sleep well throughout our lives anyway.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Work lives, yeah.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
But when you do have the chance to sleep, then you’re still not sleeping. So, like I said, I’m just thankful that I had a little bit of practice before I went through it. But yeah, it’s a life changer, that’s for sure.
Dr. Karen Greene:
It’s funny, I guess for me, I remember thinking that, “Well, we talk about it all the time. You think you’ll be prepared.” Just like pregnancy. You talk about it all the time, you think you’ll be prepared, then you get pregnant. You’re like, “Okay, that’s not [inaudible 00:07:13]. I mean, I was-
Dr. Mironda Williams:
It’s not like the book.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Not like the book. I was anemic in pregnancy and couldn’t figure out why I was so tired. I was exhausted, exhausted. And I thought, “Oh, it’s because I’m pregnant and delivering babies.” You check your blood count. No, you’re really an anemic. That’s why you’re tired.
Dr. Karen Greene:
And so it was the same thing with the hot flashes. I remember, I honestly remember my first one, because I was exercising. And this overwhelming sensation of anxiety and heat just rushed over me. And my thought was, “Well, that wasn’t due to what I was doing. What was that?” I mean, it was a horrible feeling of your heart just racing and that kind of… And then the heat. And I said, “Okay, I’m not sure why that happened.” And then it happened again. But the killer was the 4:00 AM hot flash that I had every single solitary night. I could set my clock by it. I’d wake up, again, and then I try to go back to sleep. And then two minutes later, the alarm goes off.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
It’s time to get up again.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Time to get up again.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Did you guys ever have the drenching ones where you’re-
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Oh, my God. See, I didn’t have the hot flashes. And so when Dr. Guthrie just casually mention her fibroids, oh yes. I remember all the things with Dr. Guthrie’s fibroids, because we had gone to an event. It was a fundraiser for something. Remember, it was out at some barn or something.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Oh-
Dr. Mironda Williams:
In Newnan.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
That was the airport. It was the airport.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
The airport, at the airport. That’s right. It was the hangar.
Dr. Karen Greene:
With a hangar.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
And we’re sitting… It’s in the summertime. We live in the south. We’re in Atlanta in the southern south metro part of Atlanta, Georgia. It was a summer event, so it’s hot. So we were at this event at an airport hangar, some fundraiser, and we’re sitting with a bunch, just a bunch of people. And Dr. Guthrie sitting to my right and I’m looking to my left at whatever was going on at the time.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
And then I happened to glance to my right to say something to her. And I was like, “Oh my God, what is wrong with you?” I mean, it was like someone had a water hose over her head and it was just pouring down. I was like, “Are you okay? Do we need to leave?” And you’re like, “Oh no, it’s just a hot flash.” And so then she just… I’m just like, “Oh, my God.” I was like, “Oh, you sure? We can go?”, ’cause we’re sitting outside. And you’re like, “No, no, it’ll be gone in a minute.” And I was like, “Oh my God.”
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Now I never had a hot flash, but I had the sweats. And so what would wake me up at… My time was 3:02. What would wake me up at 3:02 is I would wake up drenched. I mean, just soaked like again, someone had sprayed me with a water hose. And I’m sitting here awake. I’m just like, “What?” Everything is sticking to you? And I’m like, “What in the world?”
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
And you’re cold. You’re clammy.”
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Oh. Y’all.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Yeah.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Yes.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Yeah.
Dr. Karen Greene:
I can’t imagine going through those during the day. When I see patients and they suddenly break out in a sweat, I’m just-
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Oh, yeah.
Dr. Karen Greene:
… I’m a fanning them.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Okay.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Because I can relate to at night. And the thought of actually having them, patients will say, “I’m having them every 15 minutes.” And I’m thinking, “How?”
Dr. Mironda Williams:
I can’t imagine.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I have this story. So when I was on the Lupron, I couldn’t wear turtlenecks. I never wore a winter coat because I did it through the last half of the year. I never wore a winter coat. And what would happen would be, I’d have my lab coat on seeing a patient. And you can tell when it’s starting. And I would feel it slowly starting to build. And I’m sitting there trying to talk to the patient-
Dr. Karen Greene:
And it’s getting worse.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
… and I’m saying in my mind, “Okay, it’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay. This one’s not going to be so bad. This one’s not going to be so bad. I’m not going to do anything. I’m not going to do anything.” And all of a sudden, literally you can’t control yourself. I would all of a sudden just rip my lab coat off and they would go, “Are you okay?” I was like, “It’s going to be okay.” And again, drenched.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
And so like I said, again, if I didn’t know what it was, I could not imagine. I feel for those women who, like I said, who are learning about it. Because a lot of times too, and what’s sad too, is that we’re getting better because of now internet, information transfer, things like that.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Small conversation.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
But I was just having a conversation with my mom and she has a caretaker with her. And we mentioned menopause. She goes, “I don’t know anything about menopause. My mother didn’t tell me anything, my grandmother didn’t tell me anything.” They just kind of suffered in silence. And so, there’s still a lot of women nowadays who do not know.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Right.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Which is why we wanted to have this candid conversation. And we’ve talked about what we have experienced, not about what we read in the textbook. ‘Cause I did that for 20 years and then I said, “Oh no girlfriend, we need to have a talk.” So, it’s not just the hot flashes and the night sweats. Those are bad. But everyone doesn’t necessarily have hot flashes and, or night sweats.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
A lot of women will have the sleep disturbance, again, whether you’re waking up hot or waking up sweaty or just waking up. So there was a lot of things that I started, in hindsight, I realized, were connected to menopausal changes. But at the time that they were happening to me, as we were saying, we’re health professionals. Not only are we health professionals, we’re gynecologists. So even as it’s happening to us, and we may have some knowledge, and Dr. Guthrie had practice, it still is very disconcerting because you’re losing control. Right? Because you can’t stop it. You can’t say, “No, I can’t have hot flash right now.” You can’t stop that. You can’t stop the night sweats. You can’t stop the sleep disturbance. The other kinds of things. And that’s what I wanted to talk about a little bit more before we get into some of the things that we do to help ourselves.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
To this day, what lets me know when it’s time for me to get the treatment, the thing that I use to help with my menopausal symptoms, is that I start… every bone begins to ache. And it’s like bone that should not be aching. So it’s like I’ll get up and then my big toe is like, and I’m like, “What?” And it’s not gout, and I get up walking and as they say, walking a little old lady because my feet hurt. It’s like, “Why are my feet hurting?” Or my knee will do this, or my hip or my elbow.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Or getting out of bed in the morning.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Just getting… And so it was the muscle, not the muscle with me, it was the bone joint discomfort. What other kinds of things have you all experienced that’s maybe not as typical as a hot flash night sweat?
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
So, my clue that it’s time to do whatever we’re going to talk about, as Dr. Williams said, what we do to help ourselves, is the brain fog.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Oh, goodness. Yes.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
And so what I tell my patients is, when I get stupid, then I know it’s time. I’ll never forget, even before I started the treatment that I now use, I remember we were going to… there was a function in Newnan, the Power of the Purse. And Dr. Greene and I were going to leave the office. Dr. Williams was already at Newnan and Dr. Greene and I were going to leave the office to go to the [inaudible 00:14:32]. And so, I’m walking out.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
So, we had already made plans that we were going to go together. And so I walked, we were walking to the back of the office. And I said something, “So I’m going to ride in your car, right?” I’m sorry, it is so stupid. I was going to ride in the car and I kept going, “But let me get my keys.” She goes, “No, Deanna, you’re riding with me.” I said, “Well, let me go get…” She’s like, “Deanna, you were riding in the car with me.” I was like, “Oh yeah, that’s right.”
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
It just gets really bad. Like I said, and they describe it as brain fog. My concentration, I can’t read as well. I have to read a sentence two or three times. And it’s not that… I understand it when I read it, but then when I go to the next sentence to have to use the information from the prior sentence-
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Have to go back and read it again.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
… I have to go back and read the sentence again. It is truly… Like I said, you read these things and you think, “It really can’t be as bad as all that.” No-
Dr. Mironda Williams:
It is real.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
It is.
Dr. Karen Greene:
It really is.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
It’s real.
Dr. Karen Greene:
… [inaudible 00:15:28] all that.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
So that’s my little clue. The brain fog was…
Dr. Karen Greene:
And I probably have a combination of the joint pain and the brain fog. Definitely the concentration, I’m double thinking. It’s more of, “Why did I come in here again? Oh, let’s just go back to the kitchen and try it again. Oh, yeah.” And so, I’m making double trips to wherever to get whatever. And I used to think before the other stuff started, that one of the reasons women have that is because we try to do too many things at once.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
[inaudible 00:15:59].
Dr. Karen Greene:
And we do. But the inability to do that has a lot to do with the brain fog of menopause. I truly believe that.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Absolutely.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Multitasking, you can’t multitask.
Dr. Karen Greene:
You can’t.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
You have to make lists. If I don’t make a list, I’ll completely…
Dr. Karen Greene:
Yeah.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
And some of these things, people have, men have them, right? So it’s not necessarily related to menopause, it’s just aging. As we get older, we got so much going on in our minds, it’s just information overload. So, it’s hard to pull things down when you need it. Just the mere fact of walking over four decades, five decades, six decades, you’re going to have some joint issues. But definitely menopause accentuates these things. And what I tell a lot of my patients now is that today’s generation of menopausal woman is not a woman who’s sitting at home. Kids are out of the house and I’m just retired and I’m going to have to just suffer in silence like a lot of our parents did and generations before us.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
We are still working, we’re still vibrant. You still got kids in the house or these grown people that just don’t want to leave their adult, but they’re just like being at home. This generation of people, they like staying with the mom and dad, whatever. That’s cool. But my point is, our lifestyles are different. Our lifestyles are much more, I think, engaged and active. Physically, we talk about in all of our previous episodes and with our patients about motion is lotion, move it or lose it. You have to stay physically active. You have to stay engaged in life, in your community, as well as work, your relationships. And when you start to go through menopause, I understand my mother now, God rest her soul, so much better. Because some things that I now know, “Oh, she was going through some menopause stuff at the time.” She didn’t say it was menopause, I wouldn’t have known it was necessarily menopause, but it was menopausal.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
So to have, I think what we have now, which is the freedom to talk about it… I think Oprah Winfrey has pulled together a panel of prominent women and they’re just talking like we’re talking about menopause, what it is, what we’ve actually experienced, not just what the clinical definition is. But the biggest thing, and that’s what I want to spend the next few minutes talking about, is you don’t have to suffer in silence. You don’t have to suffer, period. There are options for things to do. Nothing substitutes for good, healthy behaviors, eating well, drinking lots of water, staying physically active, keeping your mind engaged in whatever activity. If you’re still working, yes. But there are other things you can do. All that is important.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
But there are some things that are related to that loss of the hormone in your system. Vaginal dryness, irritation. Some people have difficulty with having normal sexual activity because it hurts because the tissue is dry. And you don’t have to suffer. There are non-hormonal things that can be done in terms of vaginal moisturizers and different things like that, and herbal supplements and all of that. But they’re also very safe, hormonal alternatives.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
There’s been a lot of conversations about hormones and cancer, and can they cause cancer and will I get cancer? And again, we have a lot of other information on our platform’s, website, social media, and previous episodes that talks about the risk benefit analysis that you need to go through as an individual with your healthcare provider so that all of those things can be taken into account. But all I know is for me, when I finally said, “Oh, I think you’re going through menopause, you might need to go see about something.”
Dr. Mironda Williams:
So I tried the bioidentical hormone cream, which worked fine. I didn’t have a problem with the cream, but you have to do it every day.
Dr. Karen Greene:
So, why’d you start with that first?
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Well, because it was simple mainly.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Okay.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
And again, we were still taking call, doing all that. I’m just like, “Okay, I need something.” And the reason why Dr. Greene asked me, I said, “Karen, since you’re my gynecologist, can you please call me in a prescription? I want some biotin hormonal cream, because I’m about to lose my mind.” So I started with the cream, which worked fine, but we were so busy, we were still delivering and stuff. And just again, family, life, I could not remember to do it every day.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
And we still have our uterus. And so the thing about hormone treatment is if you’re not consistent with doing it the way that it should be done, you may have some bleeding issues. Then that became a problem. I’m like, “Oh, I can’t be dealing with this. I’m having all this.” So we started to investigate other forms of hormone replacement therapy. Again, we’re not going to get too clinical with this, but when it relates to hot flashes, nights sweats, vaginal drying, some of those things, because we know as menopausal women we’re experiencing those because mainly of a deficiency of estrogen as well as testosterone, [inaudible 00:21:33] progesterone, replacing that in safe forms can relieve those symptoms.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
So because of just lifestyle, work, life schedule, I then investigated pellet therapy, and eventually starting getting the pellets. And I tell my patients, it was like somebody flipped a switch on. I was like, “Oh, I feel like myself again.” And again, we’re not taking hormone therapy to be 20 again. I don’t even want to be 20 again, but I need to be able to function. I got to think, I need to feel better. And I just felt better.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Now I wasn’t having the hot flashes like Dr. Guthrie, I was sweating like a pig at night or during the day. ‘Cause I would be out with my dad sometimes. And all of a sudden he be like, “What’s wrong with you?” I mean because I’m just-
Dr. Karen Greene:
Drenched in sweat.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
… drenched in sweat. “Just give me a minute, daddy, I’ll be fine.” So I was having that, but it was mainly I felt better and I could think. Because I’m here taking care of patients, I’m in the hospital operating, delivering babies. I’m like, “I got to be able to think.” And I really… And this why I’m saying this, not to be funny, but I do a little comic relief, but to let patients know we’ve been there. Even as a physician, I said, “Oh my God, I got a brain tumor.” I mean, I went-
Dr. Karen Greene:
It’s got to be something wrong.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
I went straight to, “Something’s going on in my head because I’m losing my mind.” So when I started hormone therapy, I felt like I got myself back. I don’t know what you guys want to share with that.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
So, I’m bad about taking medication. So anything that has to be done, even just a week’s worth for any kind of short term thing, by the end of the week, I’m like, “Okay.” So what happened was Dr. Williams, she had already investigated the pellets and then herself got trained to do them. And so when I started… And so like I said, I’d had hot flashes, night sweats, but then those kind of tapered off for me. Like I said, it was the fatigue, the brain fog, and the lack of sleep. And so, I knew myself. I knew that I would not be able to do something every day. So, that’s why I tried the pellets.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
And then she says, it literally is a switch. I remember when I first got the pellets. And it usually takes about two to three weeks to get into your system. And so the first two to three weeks I was like, “Eh, I don’t know. I don’t know if anything’s happening. Eh” And then one night I went to bed-
Dr. Mironda Williams:
And you slept.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
… and I woke up eight hours later. I went-
Dr. Mironda Williams:
“What happened?”
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
… “What just happened?” It scared me. I had not slept eight hours straight and I had not had a dream in probably about 10 to 15 years because I was never in REM sleep.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Yeah. You weren’t getting restful sleep.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I was not getting restful sleep. And so now I even started having dreams again. So, that’s why. So like I said, for me, it’s the convenience of the pellets where you don’t have to do anything every day. But like I said, and to let women know, it doesn’t have to be hormonal therapy. You want to pick the choice that’s right for you.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
So, they’re herbal supplements that may help you. And when you go in to see your provider, they can give you a list of those things. And then they’re also non-hormonal medications, as Dr. William said, that can also help. But the important thing is you feeling better and [inaudible 00:25:05].
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Feeling like feeling yourself.
Dr. Karen Greene:
And I think that women living longer and we want to live longer and not be just sitting on the couch and not moving. And I think that for some people, me specifically, that’s kind of how I felt. I was like, “Okay, I’m really starting to slow down. I still got kids in the house. And they’re going to leave and I’m just going to be sitting on the porch.”
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Can’t me. We’re just stuck.
Dr. Karen Greene:
I can’t move. And I’ve always been a great sleeper, meaning that I could sleep with the drop of a dime. So for me, not being able to sleep because I’m having hot flashes, that wasn’t working. Because I’m already tired because I don’t get a lot of sleep anyway. But if I sit here in the chair for a few minutes, I can go to sleep.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
And we’re witnesses to that.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Yeah, it’s very easy. But when things start disturbing my sleep, I wasn’t a nice person, I was irritable, I was having hot flashes. So I tried the I creams, mainly because I wasn’t convinced that that would work because people were coming in and they used creams everywhere. And I’m like, “It’s just lotion. How is that going to work?” But it did. But because I was sleeping better, I would go to sleep and forget to put it on. And so I was like, “Okay, this is not working, this is not convenient.” So after Dr. Guthrie and I were trained as my patient said to me, “So it’s like the hairdresser. Can you do me today?” So the pellets really, for me, it was definitely a convenience factor. It was a convenience factor in knowing that, “Okay, I don’t think about this every day and I feel more myself.”
Dr. Karen Greene:
And I think that it really relaxed me so that I didn’t feel so anxious. Because I do think there’s a lot of anxiety associated with menopause. And I can understand why women in my mom’s generation kind of, people thought they were a little crazy. And like you said, I can appreciate… My mom used to have these little fans. She’d be fanning all the time. I had no idea what she was because she didn’t talk about it.
Dr. Karen Greene:
We talk about it. I have a bunch of girlfriends, we’re all the same age. We talk about that. And I think that the more you talk about, the more you realize, number one, you’re not alone. Number two, you’re not crazy.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
No, you’re not.
Dr. Karen Greene:
And number three, there is treatment. It doesn’t have to be what we are doing, but there is options. And so talking to your provider, even talking to your girlfriends to see what they’re doing. Most women don’t mind having this kind conversation.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Oh, no. They’ll talk about it.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Because it’s like, “Really? That’s going on?” Because you think that there’s something wrong with you.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Exactly.
Dr. Karen Greene:
And it’s not. But you really believe there’s… Okay, I don’t know if I thought the brain tumor, but I knew that this wasn’t right.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Oh, you know me. I go straight to-
Dr. Karen Greene:
This wasn’t right.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
… crazy. I’m like, “I need to go see a neurosurgeon ’cause something’s in my head.” I’m like, “There’s something growing in my head.”
Dr. Karen Greene:
I’d already been through that with a migraine. I decided there was a tumor growing in there when I had migraines.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Oh, my goodness. So yes, to Dr. Greene’s point, and again, again, I will say this again, we’re not advocating for any form of treatment for anyone. We are having a conversation among physician partners, colleagues, and just girlfriends who are all going through the same thing, in terms of this menopausal journey that we’re on. And what we experienced, what we felt, so that if you’re listening to this and you are like, “Oh my God, I could be Dr. Williams or I could have been Dr. Guthrie or Dr. Greene. That’s me.”, we want you to understand that we get it right. But don’t suffer in silence. That hurts my heart that someone in this day and time is saying, “I don’t know anything about this. I’ve never heard anyone talk about this. I don’t know who to talk to.”
Dr. Mironda Williams:
So we want to thank you, Oprah, for encouraging all of us to have candid conversations with our girlfriends and then with medical professionals. Because we can talk about our symptoms and what we’re experiencing so that we know that we’re not alone. And that, yes, other people are experiencing this too. But the next step to that is to then go in and talk with your healthcare provider. If it’s to the level where you feel like you need something done.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Again, there’s a whole gamut of things that can be done to help you manage. You don’t have to go on a pellet therapy or any other type of hormonal therapy. For me, it’s what has helped me to remain active and engaged in life, and working and doing the things, feeling like myself, feeling like I can think. Now, I’m going to be forgetful because we just all still got a lot of things that we’re processing. So, I’m not saying it turns you into Einstein or anything like that. But it does help to get you back to whatever your baseline is so you can function. And that’s what we’re trying to do, is to find a healthy way, a sustainable way, and a safe way that you can continue to function in your life and work and all the things that, as women, we have to do.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
And for a lot of women, sometimes it’s just understanding what’s going on. Like when all these things are happening, like I said, you don’t necessarily have to start any treatment at all, but just knowing what it is. There are also tools and tips that can get you through hot flashes there things that you can do to help some of those other symptoms. And it’s not just medication.
Dr. Karen Greene:
And I would also say talk to your partner, because I think it is important for them if you have a partner, he or she, to understand what you’re going through. Because I think that suffering in silence with someone who’s close to you, not knowing what you’re going through, only adds to it. If they think, “Well, what’s wrong with them?” And you’re not saying anything, it’s better to have actually said something. Because they may have watched this podcast, they may have talked to people. You’re at least letting someone know that, “I just don’t feel right and I don’t know why. Can you help me? Can you point me in the right direction?”
Dr. Mironda Williams:
That’s such a good point.
Dr. Karen Greene:
I talked to a patient this morning and she said, “I can only imagine people in the dark ages what they went through.” Because menopause isn’t new.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
No.
Dr. Karen Greene:
The symptoms aren’t new.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
That’s exactly right.
Dr. Karen Greene:
And she said, “Yeah, they ified while they burned women at the stake.” They thought that they were crazy.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Demon possessed.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Demon possessed.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
She was just menopausal.
Dr. Karen Greene:
She was just menopausal. And I thought about that and I chuckled. I was like, “She’s probably right, because we know more now.”
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
And it’s funny, you talk about partners too. But poor men, especially like you said, if you’re not communicating and things are changing. So this sweet, beautiful woman that you’ve spent 25 years with all of a sudden, turns into-
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Attila the Hun.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
Thank you. And a lot of times, men don’t understand. And I had one-
Dr. Mironda Williams:
‘Cause they don’t experience it.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
They don’t experience it the way that women do that we do.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
They have their-
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
And so I’ve had men come in with their wives-
Dr. Mironda Williams:
… transition.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
… to say, “I don’t know who…” I had one person, these are his exact words, “This is my ride or die. I love this woman.” He goes, “But I don’t know who this is.” And so again, just them hearing it. So also too, I encourage women, bring your partners to the visit. We as doctors, should never mind talking to both partners together to give information. And then it’s not just word of mouth. “What did your doctor say? Did she really say that?” That you’re hearing it firsthand also. And then you get an opportunity also to ask questions.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Thank you both of you for bringing that out. That’s an extremely important point, is that you’re not in this life alone. We move through relationship. And so whoever your partner is, male, female, your partner is an important factor in your coping and how you manage life in general. So, this is just another part of that. So bringing that person into the conversation as well as into the visit if necessary, to get the information and ask their questions. Because generally, they love you and they want you to be back to the person that they know and love. And what can they do to help assist that or not trigger the other person to come out? Would be helpful.
Dr. Karen Greene:
[inaudible 00:33:12] leave the house every time.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Exactly. So, those are excellent. Thank you so much for bringing that in. So, we hope you have enjoyed listening to our conversation about our time now as menopausal women, but-
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I can’t believe up saying that.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Well, the thing of it is-
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
It is what it is.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
… it is what it is. And I hope that we represent women who, it ain’t the end of the world, people.
Dr. Karen Greene:
No, it’s not.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
I mean, I’m better now in a lot of respects, than I was in my 20s and my 30s. I definitely know a lot more and I think I’m smarter on what’s important. And I’m smarter about keeping the main thing, the main thing. And back in our 30s and 40s when we were trying to do everything for everybody at the same time, at this point in life, I’m like, “You know what? That’s a no. I can’t do it. I can’t do that right now.”
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
No is a complete sentence.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
No, it’s a complete sentence.
Dr. Karen Greene:
Yes.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
So we hope that we are, again, encouraging conversation. It’s okay to talk about it. And you can be menopause and have a great life. So-
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
It doesn’t mean it’s not… The grim reaper isn’t behind you.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
It’s not behind you. No, no. I think we hopefully represent that.
Dr. Karen Greene:
We are flourishing menopause.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
Excuse me. If you have to bleep that. If you have to bleep. Sorry, sound man. But on that note, I’m going to sign off for today’s episode of Take Good Care podcast. Please check us out on all of our social media platforms and our website at ptcobgyn.com. I’m Dr. Mironda Williams.
Dr. Deanna Guthrie:
I’m Dr. Deanna Guthrie.
Dr. Mironda Williams:
And I am Dr. Karen Greene. Take good care.