Let's Talk Hormones- TMI

Took a lot for me not to put a (W) at the front of that.

Here's a little of my story. I have had endometriosis since I "became a woman." For me, this meant incapacitating pain every month. I would miss school, I was miserable. The only solution was to give me hormonal birth control at a very early age. This is still often the solution. I don't have anything against people doing whatever they deem best for their bodies...but I would love to avoid putting my daughter on hormones.

In my 20's, the pain became so bad that I was nearly hospitalized when a specialist decided we needed to do surgery. At that point, I had my first of 4 surgeries to address my endometriosis.

Did you know:

Statistics show that 80 percent of women suffer from hormonal imbalances. Some women live with these imbalances without even realizing it; in fact, 70 percent are unaware of conditions like PCOS that may have manifested due to hormonal irregularities.

These numbers aren't exactly shocking to me, I'm not sure I've met many women who have said that they don't suffer from some form of hormonal issue. The pain wasn't my only problem, I would get horrible cystic acne. I had to be put on Accutane, yet another drug I will want my children to avoid at all costs.

After my second surgery, I was put through chemically induced Menopause for six months. I was 25. Hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, all the things. When it's chemical, it comes at you hard, with no gradual increase of symptoms. Following that treatment, we decided it was time to get pregnant, Brian and I were in love and committed, and this was my doctor's last possible solution. I was told to get pregnant, nurse for as long as possible, then rinse and repeat until I was done nursing my last baby, at which point the plan was to get a hysterectomy.

We got pregnant immediately and then suffered an early miscarriage. This was followed by unexplained infertility, fertility drugs, and 18 months of persistent pain, disappointment, and confusion. I don't know how much was due to my hormones, but hormones are affected by so many things, stress, gut health, lifestyle, nearly everything.

I opted out of the hysterectomy and was put on a hormonal IUD along with hormone replacement via Estrogen patches. I was not too fond of the patches. A few years ago, I decided I was done and would simply deal with it all. My cystic acne came back with force; this is one of those things that, unless you'