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THIS IS TO GUINEA PIGS EVERYWHERE!!!! August 17, 2010

Posted by Lyn in : Case Studies In Natural Compounded Hormone Therapy, Hormone Therapy Joy, Menopause , 1 comment so far

I just had yet another phone call from one of our clients, who will be meeting with me later today to get started on her natural customized hormone replacement therapy. She has been to the cottage for her consultation, has had her saliva tested to check her hormone levels at the tissue level of cells; had our team at the Piqua Medicine Shoppe craft a treatment strategy specifically for her; and went to her practitioner to get our strategy approved via a prescription. We compounded her therapy in our state-of-the-art compounding lab and are now meeting with her today to get her started. When she called to confirm our appointment, she was practically quivering with excitement!  “I can’t wait to get started,” she says.  “I have been telling EVERYONE what I am doing because I am SO excited!! They are all waiting for me to get better before they come in to see you.”  SO ANOTHER GUINEA PIG!!
We love guinea pigs. Do you know why?  Ever since we opened one year ago, we have had a plethora of guinea pigs come to the cottage. These are those
brave women who:
-have done the research on hormone replacement therapy
-think outside the box
-have a voice with their doctor in the strategies for their care
-won’t settle for drug therapy for a hormone imbalance
-don’t blindly accept standard of care in this area just because it has always been done that way
-prefer holistic health options over drug therapy that just band-aids the issues
-are assertive in the anti-aging process and have great respect for aging healthfully
-understand that DISEASE HAPPENS BEFORE SYMPTOMS OCCUR, so are being proactive with their health
Do you know what has happened over this past year? OUR GUINEA PIGS HAVE GOTTEN BETTER! So they are sending in their guinea pig friends;
who are sending in their guinea pig friends and we have exploded! They have even sent in their husbands for treatment of male menopause (andropause).
It has been an amazing adventure! We are so excited to be in the business of educating our women on hormone imbalance, so they will know they have options!
Get tested, get treated, get better!!

“LET ME CHECK WITH MY DOCTOR!” July 8, 2010

Posted by admin in : Hot BHRT Topics, Natural Hormone Compounding Doctors, Uneducated doctors , add a comment

I love when I hear this…..”I just want to check with my doctor before I sign up for customized natural hormone therapy.” I always think to myself, “WHY??”  I know women love their doctors. I also have a great one, Dr. Paul, whom I enjoy, actually get a kick out of, and I KNOW he has my best health as his goal. But when I took in all of my studies and literature on natural hormone therapy AND I told him this is not only my philosophy BUT MY PASSION (!), he looked at me like I had grown two heads!! He had really never heard about it; most certainly had NOT learned anything about it in medical school, so really couldn’t add much to the conversation. Trust me when I tell you that doctors are NOT learning this in medical school! They ARE learning how to diagnose and treat illnesses with drug therapy. This is just what they do. And that’s not a bad thing! I know when I’m sick, I go to my doctor, he diagnoses my illness, prescribes my medication and I get better. That is his job and I appreciate that. BUT IN THIS AREA OF WOMEN’S HEALTH-HORMONE IMBALANCE-HE IS PRETTY MUCH OUT OF THE LOOP! Identifying a hormone imbalance involves checking hormone levels, preferably through saliva testing, which measures the hormones at the tissue level of cells; and then creating a specific strategy customized for THAT individual to best replace those hormones with customized, compounded hormones that bioidentically match the hormones that are no longer being produced in your body. Pretty simple! It is a matter of determining the CAUSE of the imbalance and fixing that; not just drugging you as a band-aid to alleviate the symptoms. See the difference? One method determines the cause and fixes that. The other simply ignores the cause and just drugs to help alleviate the symptoms.  I discovered that most women in my age group were all on anti-depressants for their hormone imbalance because that is really all their doctor knew how to do. That is why I opened my Happy Hormone Cottage. I just couldn’t take one more woman being put on an antidepressant or worse, a synthetic drug masking as a hormone, where there are serious health risks associated with them. And to have this method as THE standard of care just boggles my mind! How did we let this happen?? I think it is exactly because women say, “Let me check with my doctor.” Why NOT say, “Let me do some research. I know there is information out there….let me find it. I want to become informed and empowered in THIS area of my life!” Because the truth is that if YOU don’t do that and you JUST rely on the opinion of others-probably most especially the opinion of those who have gone to medical school, your hormone imbalance issues: weight gain, fatigue, low libido, memory issues, brain fog, low energy and no joy-will simply be band-aided with drug therapy and you will never really find the cause to fix that. This is why I do what I do. We have to get the word out there. Just because natural hormone balance isn’t taught in medical schools does not make it a bad thing. It just makes it something WE have to learn about and teach our doctors! So the next time I hear, “Let me check with my doctor,” I’m going to say, “Why don’t you go teach your doctor what YOU know.  YOU could be the one to change lives!”

I FEEL THE LOVE!! (not) June 8, 2010

Posted by Lyn in : Case Studies In Natural Compounded Hormone Therapy, Hot BHRT Topics, Uneducated doctors , 2comments

I have never been one to blog unless I felt I had something significant to say. Boy, do I have something to say now! You will never believe what happened today! We had a client come through our cottage a few weeks ago for her free consultation. We listened to her and together, developed a strategy to deal with her hormone imbalance. In essence she was on board to “get tested, get treated and get better.” At least that was our game plan! Unfortunately, when we got her lab results back and sent our recommendation for her hormone balance to her practitioner to sign off on it, and fax it back so we could make her customized therapy, there was a glitch! This client went to a practitioner who we advise against because she is non-supportive of customized therapy. She would rather slap an estrogen patch on you or presribe a one-size-fits-most progesterone capsule based on your symptoms and be done with it. We strongly, passionately disagree! We feel women deserve to be respected enough to actually check their hormone levels. How is this difficult or even controversial?? Don’t doctors check every other level known to man (and woman)?? Again I beg the answer to “WHY NOT HORMONE LEVELS?”
Why NOT check hormone levels and then plan a strategy for restoring hormone balance via natural options? Why not just customize the therapy for that client?? How hard can this be really?? You guessed it! This practitioner talked our client out of customized hormone therapy that we recommended based on HER body’s levels, and instead prescribed the commercially available prometrium capsule. Although both are bioidentical progesterone, we get far greater success with our compounded progesterone cream because we can make necessary dosage adjustments during the process of balancing your hormones. From our point of view, using progesterone cream is a superior way to treat progesterone deficiency. Being able to adjust therapy is the key to success. I fully expect to hear from this client in the future when she isn’t experiencing the success she was promised. And we have no options to adjust her dosage when she is taking prometrium capsules. OUR focus is helping women get better with strategies that are customized for them.
In this case, this client loses.

I’m forever and always excited!! Customized hormone replacement therapy at its best!! June 3, 2010

Posted by Lyn in : Case Studies In Natural Compounded Hormone Therapy, Hormone Therapy Joy , 3comments

You’ve heard of the “aha” moments??? I always get the “whoopie!!” moments every time I read an email from one of my clients who is experiencing life-changing moments on our therapy. Dawn, who began her natural hormone therapy 3 weeks ago just emailed me this morning. She says, “Thanks. I have to tell you I know it has only been a few weeks, but I totally feel like I have my life back and if it keeps getting better I can’t imagine what I will be able to do! I am so excited about this. I have been able to do more in a few weeks than I have in months and I actually have the desire to do things I didn’t have before! I feel like I am coming back to life!!” What’s not to LOVE about that??!!! My response is always the same. “I’m so happy for you, but I am not surprised. This “bio-cream” is doing exactly what it is meant to do: replace your hormone levels that your body needs to function correctly! By actually checking your levels first so we have the necessary data to make informed decisions, we can then customize the proper therapy for YOU!”
It works! Again, I say….”it’s not rocket science!!” So why the big deal? Why aren’t all the doctors on board yet?? I think a big reason and one that I hear practically daily from my clients is that their doctors tell them that “compounded hormone therapy is not FDA approved so buyer beware!” My response to this is simple. The FDA approves drugs that are manufactured. Compounding is customizing a therapy for just one person. So the FDA can’t approve it. That doesn’t mean we are free to run rampant and not follow any rules or regulations. Quite the contrary! Compounding labs are under the strict jurisdiction of state boards of pharmacy, so our Piqua Medicine Shoppe is strictly regulated by The Ohio State Board of Pharmacy. So when practitioners try to scare their patients away from what we do based on THAT argument, it’s just silly. It makes no sense. It’s like saying, “you know…you can’t make lemonade from apples.” Yes, and your point is?????? Again I urge everyone with a hormone imbalance issue to do the research and take charge of YOUR journey. The research IS out there in favor of what we do. You just have to look for it!

WOMEN ARE HAPPY! April 20, 2010

Posted by Lyn in : Case Studies In Natural Compounded Hormone Therapy, Hormone Therapy Joy , 1 comment so far

Happy Spring! Nothing makes me happier than seeing the women who come to me to get tested, treated and finally get better! It is just life-changing! I want to share a part of an email my husband, Jeff Hogrefe R.Ph., wrote to one of our clients. She is married to a wonderful man, who also happens to be a family practitioner and owns his own practice, so this email is also from one small business owner to another. I think it will give you insight into the daily struggle we wage every day in our fight to save women from being drugged for a hormone imbalance. If we can just save one woman every day from this fate, then our day is worthwhile!

“Just wanted to drop you a line to see how your consultation with Lyn went. My wife has great energy and she really has a passion for helping women who are suffering with hormonal imbalances. Our high-touch model and our involvement in our “women” is just what is needed in this area of women’s health.

I did read about the 21% reduction in Medicare reimbursements to MD’s in our new health care reform package. I think this is beyond sad, when 1/2 of all medical expenses are to providers and the other 1/2 goes to administrative and insurance issues.  We have a problem and that problem won’t be solved by cutting payment to providers. It just makes the system worse. And while we are at it, let’s cut the drug companies profits 21% also! Sounds completely fair to me. I spent 20 years working as a pharmacist in a very traditional setting until I discovered our business model: that of compounding, consulting, and customized BHRT therapy. Taking time to consult with women, monitor their therapy, and be available to walk them through the transitions and their journey to good health does require resources. If we stayed with dispensing FDA-approved commercially available products, not only would our flexibility in modifying dose/therapy be gone, but also the paltry insurance reimbursement we receive from the “system” would not make it economically possible for us to continue our high-touch model. And that would truly, truly be a sad thing. Women need us and what we do. Health care is not paint-by-numbers. It is real people and every woman is unique and needs to be treated as a unique being.”

Here is an email from one of our younger clients, Terri, who is in her early 30’s. When I read this, I just laughed out loud:

“Hi, Lyn! I just wanted to let you know how great I’m feeling already. I swear I popped out of bed SO much easier this morning after I started the progesterone! It’s been WONDERFUL this week being able to wake up and my brain works instantly! Not to mention my son had had a couple of rough nights this week because of his tonsil surgery and I still haven’t taken ONE nap this week! Normally I am so exhausted I just sit around all day and then lay down with the boys at nap time. I’ve gotten so much done this week! Along with my energy, my head just feels so much clearer and I feel like my eyes are open wider. I can’t believe it! Oh….and I’m pooping normally and regularly! Ha ha! That alone makes me feel a lot better! I’m just so excited I can’t stand it!!! Thank you so much, Lyn!!!!”

Finally, here is a testimonial from one of our middle-years clients, Cheryl. She has been on her therapy now for several months:

“After going through menopause, I felt like someone had just wrung me out; that is, I had no energy, I hurt with a myriad of aches and pains, and I either couldn’t get to sleep or I woke up in the middle of the night and had problems getting back to sleep. I went to my general practitioner, and he suggested I start taking Aleve in the mornings. I did, and it helped the pains some… but not much.

One day while reading the Dayton Daily News online, I found an article about the opening of the Happy Hormone Cottage. I was very interested, because I had previously read about natural hormones but wasn’t sure where to get help in this area.  One of my “side jobs” is being the director of fundraising and promotion for the Our Mims Retirement Haven, a retired thoroughbred broodmare rescue based in Kentucky. I knew, no matter what, I would not/could not ever take Premarin. The use of pregnant mare urine in the manufacturing of Premarin results in the birth of many foals that either must be taken care of or slaughtered. I knew I could never be part of that process.

I filled out the online survey then called to make an appointment at the Cottage. I went through the saliva test and sent it in. While waiting for the results, I made an appointment with Dr. Pawloski, a gynecologist on the recommendation list on the Cottage’s web site. It had been quite a while (cough — years — cough) since I had had a regular gynecology visit, and I was eager to work with a doctor familiar with bio-identical hormones.

After a consult between the doctor and the specialists at the Piqua Medicine Shoppe, I was put on a progesterone regiment, very simple, supplemented with the Adrenal Support. Within days, I felt better. Not much longer after that, I was sleeping through the night. Although I still have little aches and pains from time to time (I am almost 51 years of age), I feel younger and able to do things I have not felt capable of for quite some time.

For example: I have always had a problem with my weight. With the added aches and pains, no energy, and sleepless nights, I had all but given up on the idea of taking up even the simplest exercise routine. Now, I regularly exercise with the help of some DVDs (I especially love the Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds series). I am able to walk up to four miles in one routine. (I’m working on getting through the five mile workout.) I am losing weight, but I am more impressed with my stamina and alertness. I no longer drag myself through the day then collapse on the couch when I get home.

I feel so good now, and I owe it to Lyn and those at the Happy Hormone Cottage, the Piqua Medicine Shoppe, and Dr. Pawloski. I am so grateful that these people have studied about bio-identical hormones and are promoting it. I shudder to think where I would be if I hadn’t read that article in the DDN a few months ago.

Thank you so much! Cheryl”

There you have it! Women are happy and so can you be, as well! Take charge of your journey! Get educated and informed. Talk to other women. Call and schedule a consultation. Whatever you do, do NOT let an uninformed practitioner talk you out of what you know is best for you! Stand up for YOU! Get your levels checked (we like saliva tests the best) and then demand that your treatment be customized. You deserve better than a one-size-fits-most therapy that is used, based on your symptoms alone. But even this approach is better than being offered an antidepressant. Why would you need an antidepressant for a hormone imbalance?? Why not just check your hormone levels and then replace them with customized bioidentical hormones to replace those levels?? THIS is NOT rocket science. It just makes sense!!

Warmly,
Lyn

The Happy Hormone Cottage is Bursting at the Seams! March 7, 2010

Posted by Lyn in : Hormone Therapy Joy , add a comment

It looks like we made it through another grueling winter! Luckily, at the cottage, we have been so busy, we haven’t really noticed the winter! AND, with our female population of women stopping by who are having hot flashes, who notices the cold?? We actually sit around and glow! :)


We just celebrated our 6-month anniversary at our little Happy Hormone Cottage and I am just amazed at our growth. I really had no idea when we began our free resource center for women at the end of August, that we would experience this much growth this quickly! It just goes to show we must simply dream bigger! Since opening, we have established relationships with 30 area practitioners in the greater Dayton area, who partner with us in this area of compounded natural hormone replacement therapy. Since we launched our website in August, 744 women receive our monthly email Wellness Updates AND we have gone from 6 free consultations a week to 23 consultations a week. Even more interesting to me is that fact that now that our clients are feeling better, have more energy, and are sleeping better, they are bringing their husbands into the cottage for their male menopause (andropause) issues!! Luckily, my husband Jeff Hogrefe RPh, works with these men on Saturday afternoons and takes them off-site to a nearby location for their meetings. It is just too much for the men to step into a “happy hormone cottage” with grace and dignity! They are much happier meeting at an alternative location and talking over health issues with another guy, who has compassion for men in this area.

Finally, we just finished a $200,000 renovation at our Piqua Medicine Shoppe and Compounding Lab that includes a brand new state-of-the-art compounding facility. We are proud of the fact that we are listed in Suzanne Somer’s last 3 books as THE compounding pharmacy of choice in Ohio and we are proud to stay at the top of our game! Our clients’ health and well-being is our greatest treasure!


Have a great month! I hope to see you soon at one of our Happy Hormone Coffee Hours on Wednesday mornings, a Happy Hormone Hour, or a local health event like the Miami Valley Hospital South free Women’s Health Seminar that is being held Tuesday evening, March 9, 5:30-7:30 p.m.  Check my website’s events page for information and updates!

By the way, you can now schedule a consultation online!  Visit

http://www.happyhormonecottage.com/begin_your_journey.htm and click on Make an Appointment!

Warmly,
Lyn