Fibroids, Infertility & Hormones: What Doctors Aren’t Telling You

So, y'all, your body matters. We know this. We know this. And we also know that if we don't pay attention to our bodies, our bodies will demand that we pay attention to them. So today's episode is aimed at making sure that you are being proactive instead of reactive and paying attention to your body because your body is the house that you live in. And when you care for it, you are caring not only for your physicality, but also for the life God wants you to live because you got to live that life in this body. And I am joined today by my friend Coach Jessie, who is all about the combination of our Soulz and the Soulz House, the house that the soul lives in. And you're going to learn so much from her today. If you didn't know who she was already, oh, you will after this. Be sure to follow her because she wants you to live well in your skin. Thank you so much for joining me, Coach Jessie. I'm so glad to have you, girl.

Thank you for having me, girl.

We met years ago when Priscilla used to have a talk show called The Chat. I'll never forget when Priscilla was like, I'm kind of done with that. I was like, why? She said, I don't know, I'm kind of done.

Like, what do you mean?

What do you mean?

It's so good.

It's so good. And you get the opportunity to, you know, enjoy and connect with some amazing people. But I remember getting to know you then, and I started following you on social media then and since then have sent a lot of people your way.

Amen.

I know that you are bigger than female issues. Yeah, but a lot of your journey started with female issues.

Absolutely.

So go ahead and give us a quick tutorial on how you got going to what you're doing today. But where did we start?

So it started with being happily married, 30 years old, 4 years into a marriage, and deciding, hey, let's have children. And that was— started, you know, the fertility journey. 6 months in, we're not conceiving. And I went to the GYN to find out what was going on, being proactive, right? And I heard the word that literally changed my life. It was fibroids. You have fibroids. Whoa, what does that mean? You know, that precipitated what I call my million-dollar baby journey, right? And a lifetime of chronic disease, right? Because it didn't just stop at the baby. Yeah. It included everything from, you know, 14 years battling fibroids, 10 years battling infertility caused by the fibroids. And 5 IVF cycles, which are very expensive, and a miscarriage, a devastating miscarriage, as well as 15 surgeries altogether at this point. So it was 5 surgeries for the fibroids and then 5 surgeries for complications from the fibroid surgeries.

Yes.

Not fibroids.

People don't talk about that part.

From the fibroid surgeries, right? And, you know, over 120-something days combined recovery time in the hospital between the surgeries. And even my heart stopping on the delivery table. But thank God for the rainbow that came after the storm in our miracle baby, Nia. She was born 2.5 pounds. 14 inches. And, you know, she literally changed my life. I like to say that, you know, I had no idea that what I was going through was a really public health issue. Essence Magazine did a profile of my story shortly after, because, you know, when you have a miracle baby child, you telling everybody.

Yes, that's right. That's right.

Look, you know, this is what God has done in my life. And I was asked if they could share my story in Essence. And it went viral. And I mean, I was like, do they think I'm a celebrity or something? Like, it was just, and they, but they were clearly connected to the story 'cause they're like, oh my God, I'm 2 fibroid surgeries in. I'm 3 IVF. Your story is hitting a nerve.

You hit a nerve because people share the pain point.

It gave them permission. Exactly. And that is really the moment in time where I became awakened that it was a public health issue. Before that, I thought it was just my own personal hell. I just, nobody was talking about it. I just thought this is what I went through. But then I learned, oh, up to 70% of women at large are dealing with this, right? It disproportionately affects women of color. Up to 90% of Black women are dealing with it. And that is when the Lord really called me forth to do first advocacy work. And then I remember a prayer, I was like, God, traditional medicine has failed me. You know, I would love to be a part of the cure. And really just started to, unfortunately, like I said, after I had my daughter, my journey continued. I had more, I had a hysterectomy and a UFE before that. The fibroids still kept coming back. And I just was like, what is it that, you know, it's never being solved, right? And I remember after the hysterectomy, I was 44 years old and I ended up in full-blown menopause, even though they left my ovaries. And that was not supposed to happen.

I was going to say, they didn't talk to you about that part. Yeah.

Well, they said that if they leave your ovaries, you shouldn't. Correct. But I did.

But statistically, I'm sure there's a group of women who still— Right.

And because of all of the surgical complications, there was more risk, especially with the UFE procedure, which changes the blood flow to the uterus and all that. So now I'm having severe symptoms. Like I'm dealing with crazy, you know, the flashes, like outta nowhere, you feel like you're crazy emotionally. It was interrupting my intimacy with my husband. It was painful. I'll just put excruciating. And I was like, this, I can't live like this. They wanted to put me on hormone replacement therapy. And I know that there's been a lot of research around it now and it's, you know, a lot more acceptable. But I had also been through 5 IVF cycles. So all of those hormones being pumped in my body, I didn't, I wasn't willing to increase the risk of what that could mean. And I was like, I was not gonna go from fighting fibroids to fighting cancer, right? So I started to look for natural solutions. And that is when the Lord really started me on this journey of root cause focus. You know, I'll never forget, At 21 weeks after we conceived, the doctor said to me, "Mrs. Thompson, the baby's not growing the way it should. The fibroids are back." And I had just had a myomectomy less than 6 months prior, right? Where I like cut open vertically, removed, like major surgery. And every time they actually cut me open since the second fibroid surgery, they had to remove feet of my small intestine, right? Now, this is really important because it affects so many women.

Yes.

So you're talking about having major surgery, 10 days later they have to cut me back open because I can't keep water, I can't keep my own bodily fluids down, right? And it was because of a risk that every abdominal surgery comes with.

Right.

That we're never told.

Right.

Right. Which is that you can, because of the scar tissue that your body needs to heal, right? It also can grow abnormally where it forms adhesions.

Adhesions.

Yep. Right? And they wrap around vital organs. So it wrapped around my small intestine and they had to cut out, the first time was almost 2 feet. And then every surgery after that, they had to cut out more of my small intestine.

Right?

So to the point where now I'm left with less than 3 feet and you're born with 25.

Yes.

So God says you need 25. He brought you to the planet with 25. I have less than 3, right? So think about the implications when you say a lifetime of chronic illness that you navigate is that your 80% of your immune system is in your gut. Yeah.

Right? Yeah.

Your second brain. Is your gut. And so it affects your brain health neurologically as well as your immune system, which literally drives everything, right? So because of that, I was like, why is nobody talking about these things? So going back to 21 weeks, I'm here now, doctor's saying baby's not growing, the fibroids have come back, and the fibroids are actually interrupting the blood flow to the baby. Right?

Because they want to grow too.

Right. And the hormones are feeding them.

That's right.

Right? So they said at that, I'll never forget those words. The doctor said, "Mrs. Thompson, your womb is about to become a hostile environment for you and the baby. You might want to consider terminating your pregnancy." And this is 10 years in. 10.

—And after a miscarriage.

—And after a miscarriage. 5 IVF cycles. And you're how old at this point? I am— what am I? 40. 39, because I turned 40 in the hospital.

So the clock is there too.

Yeah. And I said, you know what? I said, I believe in miracles. I'm not going to give up on this baby because it was a wrestle fight just to get here. And 5 weeks later, the condition worsens. Because now there's not just a gap in the blood flow, but there is a reversal of blood flow. Now the fibroid is actually pulling the blood flow away from the baby, right? And they said, "Okay, Mrs. Thompson, we have to admit you to the hospital now." Like, from the doctor, they took me right there. They said that, um, "We are really just hoping that you make it another 72 hours, that you stay pregnant." Right, because they know that at that point you really only have 72 hours. Right, right, right. And they're bringing in neonatal, they're bringing in, you know, the gastro people. You're that case at the hospital. Yeah, at that time, it's trauma. All the people, yep. And at that point, now they're telling me how this baby's not viable. It's gonna have bleeding on the brain, necrotic gut, which is a dead digestive system. And all I could say, I said, you know, the Lord had given me a word through my godmother before for this, which was that I would be holding the baby in my arms a year from the time she was at— she stood in the gap for me at a prayer meeting. And she didn't know I was literally— I was, at that point, I had come after my 4th IVF cycle. I hit a wall and I was like, "Lord, I wanna adopt now. So Lord, you say it so I can hear you say adopt." You know, you wanna put words in God's mouth, right? I was like praying and praying. I was like, "Okay, I believe in adoption.", but the Lord never gave me that release, and he made it very clear to me that this was the path he had chosen for me, right? Not— adoption is a wonderful thing, it just wasn't the path he chose for me. Yeah. And he confirmed it with this word from my godmother. She didn't know about all the inner workings of like my faith around like what I was believing God for, but that word, is what kept me because when those doctors were telling me, "This baby's not gonna make it," right? I said, the vision, the word he gave me was healthy baby, healthy mommy, you're gonna be standing at that altar with your baby. And that is literally what I kept before me, healthy baby, healthy mommy, every time. So they admitted me to the hospital, I'm living in the hospital, right? And they're testing me 3 times, no, 5 times a day from 5 o'clock in the morning And every day I've got prayer warriors everywhere standing in the gap, believing and praying with us. Every day they say, "Okay, we have another sunrise." Those are the words the doctor said. He would say, "We have another sunrise. Baby's doing well. Baby's not ready to come out yet. Baby's doing well." For 8 weeks it was a, "I have another sunrise." Wow. And then—

Living in the hospital for 8 weeks.

Living in the hospital. And at 30 weeks the doctor said, You know, Mrs. Thompson, it was one of my morning visits. He said, I didn't, we have to apologize to you because we weren't trying to scare you. You have to understand textbook. Yeah. You shouldn't be. We've never seen this before. Yeah. Textbook, you had 72 hours before You had to have an emergency C-section. And I said to him, I said, it's okay. I didn't expect you to know my God, right? I didn't expect— that's not your pay grade. Right, right. And they scheduled for the C-section between 32 and 33 weeks. And again, so this whole experience, I was like, wow, God did a Red Sea for me. You know, this was my, you know, God did it and you can never question it. Every doctor said that this was not gonna, she wasn't supposed to be here. So when that became, you know, my experience and I shared it, that's what opened the door for me to share my story. And literally God birthed this. I always say when I birthed my daughter, he birthed me into this work. 'Cause I had no idea.

It wasn't on my vision board. Well, often his vision for us rarely is. Yeah. On our vision board.

But I went to school for music business 'cause I was supposed to be working for music business 'cause I was in tune with, you know, Dr. Miles Monroe changed my life. What would you do for free? Ministry and music. And I knew that this is working in, that was the work I was supposed to be doing. So when he shifted my gears, I was like, God, you know, and it's funny, when the Essence magazine story was coming out, he clearly told me, he said, this is going to shift everything, right? Like, this is, he was showing me, like, this is gonna be a whole, like, pivot for you. I was like, I said, really? I said, okay. I was like, I said to God, I said, God, am I gonna be talking to women about fibroids? I don't know what to say to them about, I don't know nothing about that. That's what I said. And I laughed. I said, okay, but God, Be it unto me, if that's what you say. I was, at least I was silly enough to be like, you know what, God?

That's what you say. Hey. It's like Abraham going up on the mountain. Yeah. I'm silly enough to believe. Yeah. I don't know how you're gonna work it out. Right. But I'm gonna do what you say. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it isn't just about fibroids. It's so much more than that. Can you talk, can we fast forward and can you talk a little bit about the organization that I know that you have that I believe you co-founded with someone else and it's much bigger than just—

No, my company. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's called Detox Now. But I did partner with different natural, naturopaths along the way in founding it. So what happened is, when I started to become more awakened to root cause focus, I started to realize the role of hormonal imbalance, of estrogen dominance. Because as I was a patient advocate and talking on panels, like after this happened, people are asking me to speak, they're asking me to do interviews and all of this. And I'm now alongside physicians, GYNs, and they keep saying the same thing. We don't know what causes it, but we know that that estrogen causes it to grow. So it was like a running theme. I was like, so y'all, why y'all won't just say estrogen is a problem for it, right? And then I realized, oh, there's like a billion-dollar industry connected to hormone treatments and things like that, birth control pills, which are huge, that actually would undermine if you said, oh, that this is an issue connected to it.

And it also assumes that I mean, I don't know if this is the case or not, but you hear a lot about— I mean, I'm a little crunchy. You hear a lot about what is taught in medical school. Yes. Versus what someone would have to on their own, even with all that education, do their own homework for. Yes. And so sometimes it's like they won't say it because they know it, but it's maybe not scientifically supported, white papered and all that. And sometimes it's just not known. It just wasn't a part of that formal education.

But there's also— so, so, okay, so that really started me on a journey of first it was It's because of my own menopause journey also, because I was like, I need a solution. And then when I started to see, oh, wait a minute, hormonal imbalance is a major thing because if I can come back from not dealing with any of these symptoms anymore, then it's connected to the same issue. That's right. That's right. So then I started, and I had also really honed in on the role of emotional, spiritual stress and started really working with women coaching because I was a trained life coach, right? So coaching them specifically around the spiritual aspects, right? The stress, the worry, the fear, all of that, the trauma that was coming to the table and playing a role, right? And then I started to learn around nutrition and herbs and the things that we can use to actually take control of our health by targeting the root issues. 'Cause that was the big thing. It was like, oh my goodness. And once I started to actually, work and do these, specifically focus around nutrition that targeted hormonal imbalance, right? Work with the stress and hormonal imbalance, those two things. Was able to see women eliminate, one of our clients eliminated 50 fibroids naturally. 5-0. Meaning they just shrunk. Meaning they shrunk and passed, right? 50 naturally. I didn't know they did that.

I just thought they got re-shrunk and reabsorbed. You're saying they go somewhere.

No, some of it does. Some of it reabsorbs into blood. Some of it actually passes as tissue clots. Wow. Right? Like you feel like you're like passing something and it's meaty. It's more meaty. It doesn't just like fall apart in your hands.

And this is documented because she had MRIs before and MRIs after.

Yeah. Okay. Wow. And then we had a woman, in fact, a woman who lives in here in Dallas who she was trying to conceive for 10 years, she and her husband, and she had fibroids. She was on birth control for cystic acne and horrible periods. And then we were like, okay, well, part of the reason they continued after after she got off birth control, she realized she had developed fibroids. She didn't even know that. First, she just had bad periods. But because she was on those birth control pills for so long, she didn't know it was masking the symptoms, wreaking havoc in the background because of the hormone, the estrogen dominance. It was fueling in her body.

Let me ask you a question. How— so I know a lot of women will either know that they have fibroids because there's a symptom associated with it. And/or I'm trying to get pregnant, trying to figure out why I'm not getting pregnant. Is there any, like before it's a problem where I'm going to the doctor to seek help, is there any way for me to know that this is an issue?

Absolutely. So what I focus on educating women around is the very first warning signs are the things that you pass all the time and they tell you are normal. Heavy bleeding is not normal ever. Ever. So anything medically, according to the National Institute of Health, normal is 3 to 5 tablespoons of blood for your whole cycle. Oh, really? Yes. And it should be no more than— She's over there like, "That's not my story." No more than 5 to 7 days, ideally 3 to 5 days duration of a cycle. Pain, not normal. Some discomfort. So when you— Oh, please.

So when you go to the doctor, you to a gynecologist and they ask you, you know, how long are your periods? They're kind of getting— and then they just say, okay, so you have heavy periods, right? Like, that's it.

That's exactly the problem. They say, oh, you have heavy periods, when no, that's actually— and that's what I've been trying to reframe— no, hey, that's a warning sign. It's not normal, okay? That, oh, that's the point at which I need to start focusing on other root issues that can be playing a role which are vitamin D deficiency, huge. I mean, there's so many papers on that.

And so many of us are vitamin D deficient.

Yes, absolutely. There's so much science now connected to the role of vitamin D. And it's actually 6 major functions, brain health, immune health, bone health. We knew that. We knew that growing up. Vitamin D, get your strong bones, right?

Even though that's inflammatory too, but anyway, go ahead.

Not the milk is, but the vitamin D. And the vitamin D is not in the milk. It's by D. Fortified. Okay. That's just hilarious, right? So we got brain, immune, bone, right? Then there's also cardiovascular protection. Okay. And then hormonal balance, chronic inflammation, right? Those are huge. Okay. And so now the number one hormone that your body uses to fight inflammation and tumor is D3, right? So let's just trace that. Wouldn't it make sense that is one of the key reasons why Black women are disproportionately affected? Because our melanin blocks the absorption of the sun that your body uses to, through the photosynthesis process—

There's both sides. Create. It also makes it harder for us to crack. Yes.

No, no. I was just— It protects you.

Yes. But also— It also limits you.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So because of that, we have to supplement. We have to. Unless you live in like close to the equator and you are— and not just that, because I have plenty of clients who live close to the equator, but they're not outside between 10 and 2 when the sun's altitude is emitting UVB rays.

Especially if you're close to the equator. Right.

It has to be when the sun is at its altitude of 50 and above where it's actually the UVB rays are being emitted. That's what the body uses and converts. Into D3 hormone.

Hard left turn. Have you always been nerdy about the things that you—

I've always been nerdy. Okay. Yeah, I was talking about that last night. I've very been nerdy. And then it's like when I'm on something, it's like a dog with a bone.

You're on one. Yes. It's like my dog with the squirrel. Yes. Girl, we not— Did I say my dog? I did not mean to say my dog.

You just did.

You claimed it as your dog. No, no, no, no, no. Anyway. Shut up. I understand.

So science has really shown scientifically now the root cause of many of these inflammatory conditions, especially reproductive health issues, is vitamin D deficiency, stress. Number one, stress. Let's be clear. Number one. And that is like stress is connected to more than— it's 80% of inflammatory health conditions. Okay.

So another pause, because when we talk about the impact of of, you know, our life on our health. I, like, I can feel it in my body right now, somebody who's watching, where we can understand that, but it can be very depressing if so many of the stressors that are in my life I don't have control over, you know. I, I, or I don't know how I can get over that. So if I say, okay, I've got 4 kids, I never meant to be a single parent, but I am, this is stressful. Yes. Um, you know what I mean? Like, I had some major things happen in my life, maybe health-wise or unexpected, and so there's financial stress, like That would be nice if I could live a stress-free life. Well, I guess I'm destined to have poor health at some point because there are stressors I cannot control.

So there's always stress that you can't control, but there's always stress you can control. Okay? Because there are many things that we say yes to because we don't know how to say no. Okay. Right? There are plenty of them. Okay. Even in a life that is is full of have-tos, there are many choose-tos. Okay. And a lot of it is connected to our own trauma, our own inability or imposter syndrome, inability to say no, right? People pleasing, a lot of things.

That's why you need a life coach or a therapist. Exactly. To help you see what you actually have control or—

Absolutely. Where your opportunities are, right? Autonomy. And then there's also strengthening your— there's nervous system regulation. There are things that, like for instance, our protocol helps also to balance your hormones, including your cortisol hormones. So there are things that you can do in addition to, okay, I can't remove these things, but I can support myself in a myriad of ways, right? So for instance, you know, one of the things we are not aware of is how the nervous system itself of strengthening the parasympathetic nervous system versus allowing the sympathetic nervous system to dominate, to dominate our lives. So there's always, even if it's— What does that mean again? Para and sympa? So your autonomic nervous system is split into two different sides, right? Your parasympathetic nervous system is the rest, digest, heal side, right? Fruitfulness slide. Your sympathetic nervous system is the fight or flight And too much of our lives is dominated by fight or flight. And that's everything from, it hinders our ability to heal because everything's being controlled by that sympathetic nervous system side. So when we look at, there are exercises you can do specifically just to strengthen. It's part of, there's exercise, there's breathing. So there's functional things you can do in addition to detoxing relationships in addition to getting proper food that affects your nervous system as well, right? Getting proper sleep. And there's always, it's not an all or nothing. It's not a, I have to be in this zen. Nobody's living a zen life every day, right? But by saying, hey, one of the coaching exercises I do with my clients is, what I call make room for healing, right? So the make room for healing is, all right, look at my roles and my responsibilities in my life, right? And write down all of them. And what specifically do I need to, in order to fuel my healing, because so this is the, with the goal of fueling my healing, what do I need to Pause, right? So it's good, but it's not for now, right? So that doesn't mean that it's something that has no place in your life, right? It's just that I need to pause it for now, right? Yeah, everything needs boundaries. Yep. Then what do I need to stop? It's toxic. It's actually driving me away. I'm not coming back to this. I'm not coming back to this, right? It's driving me away from my— it's actually what is part of what is making you sick. And the thing is, usually when you say that, people come to mind. 'Cause you need to cut them out your life, certain people, right? Who you can cut out. 'Cause they're the ones that are harder to cut out. But so there's the stop. And it also is like, it was, there are things that it was great for you to do for a season in your life.

Right, right. But that chapter is over.

But it no longer is part of your moving forward chapter, right? And that is so that you can start. So what do you need to pause? What do you need to stop so you can start doing the things that you actually need to do for yourself, right? And part of how we get there is the yes, no, is learning. So what I teach my clients is, you know, before you say yes, 'cause we're so quick to say yes and we burden our backs, we just keep adding on. Yes, yes, yes, right? I say, before you say yes, only say yes if you're willing to say no to something you're already committed to. 'Cause we have limited capacity. That's correct. But we don't live like we have limited capacity. We live as if we have unlimited until it breaks us down, and then we have no capacity, right? So if you make an agreement with yourself that, okay, you know what? So the first thing is instead of— because we feel a lot of pressure in the moment somebody asks something of you. You know what? Let me get back to you. So right away I've given myself a moment to pull away and evaluate. To process. Yeah. So I can evaluate and say, all right, you know what? What on my plate am I willing to— am I willing to stop being on that board, stop playing this role, stop— take— or even like at work when you're speaking to your manager, hey, this is what's on my plate. I know you want me— where is this in the level of priority? What should I table or what maybe should we assign to someone else so that I can prioritize that? And we never think about that. We just think, and people will do it. They'll just keep giving you if you'll take it.

Correct. Because it's your job to know when to down the road.

It is your job. Yes, absolutely. It is our job to say, you know what? This is what's on my plate. Where does this rank? Yeah. So it's whether it's work, life, relationships, all of it, it is saying this is part of what releases stress. One of the key stressors in our lives is not having breathing room. I'm going from one thing to another to another to another. No guardrails, no breathing room. So if I have no breathing room, I'm suffocating, right? Yeah. But if I just say, you know what, if I'm going to take that appointment, what am I going to shift? What am I going to move in order to do that? Yeah. So good. Yeah. So good. Those simple things create breathing room. Breathing room releases the pressure. Think about it as, you know, the way I think about it as is like the pressure cooker. If there was no release valve on the top of the pressure cooker, it would explode. That is how we live all the time. And our bodies are under this pressure cooker because we don't create these release valves.

What was, what was at work in— now you know all these things, you're living with margin, I'll get back with you, you're taking your supplements, you're eating well. We know that there were a lot of surgeries and medical intervention in the middle, but what was happening in your 20s and 30s that, like, of the things that we're describing or discussing, what was in action in your life that set you on this trajectory in the first place? Like when you look at your tendencies, your struggles, your deficits.

Yep, a lot of trauma. Okay. Emotional childhood trauma. Okay. I grew up and, you know, that is why when I talk to a client in our consultation, we go to where did this start? Because it's not, the fibroids just didn't develop.

This has been forming. So as a Black woman, I should not just expect that fibroids are a part of my journey. No. 'Cause I've met people who just figured, absolutely. Everybody in my family had fibroids.

That's part of the narrative. Yes. And it's not. And they're not hereditary.

Women get more. Yeah, but that's a mindset. I've heard women say, oh, yeah, I know I'm probably going to have a fibroid issue because my mom—

they say it's on my mom's side. No, no. So what is hereditary is the lifestyle choices. Right. And the lifestyle environment that feeds them is that what we pass on. Right. So for instance, now there is a gene that if a variation of a gene that makes your body upregulate the processing of estrogen. Okay. So what that looks like. So you can, for instance, you can be more reactive to dairy. Yeah. Right. You can be, the food will, it will cause more of an inflammatory response in you than it does in me. Right.

But it's not a death sentence and it's not automatic.

Absolutely not. Right. So that is the closest gene, you know what I mean, in terms of how your body responds to it. It makes you more prone to developing that inflam— having that inflammatory response, right? But when I look, and it was so clear, like looking back, oh, I was raised, first of all, I had an emotionally abusive father, right? Sometimes physically abusive, but definitely emotionally abusive. And I had a mother who was very permissive. Passive, right? Like, she allowed, um, so she was a co-conspirator to me, you know what I mean? Because like, okay, you weren't trying to do these things, but you didn't stop them, right? Right. And, um, and then there was also— I come from a Haitian family background, right? And, um, it was very, um, perfection-focused, right? And there was a focus— West Indian culture. Yeah, that West Indian culture. And then there was also the my like high-strung, very emotive, highly reactive, right? So a lot of yellers, a lot of, "No, no, no, don't do this." You leaving the house, "Okay, don't get hit by a car." Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like, "Oh, oh, make sure when you— careful when you crossing the street." You know what I mean? So it builds this tighter fight. So you had big T's and little t's in your life.

Yeah.

A lot of fight or flight, right? And I was— it also, I was inclined to be a go-getter, you know, just got it from my dad. By nurture and nature. Right, by nurture and nature, right? And that meant that because of the abuse, I also had a drive to be approved. Yeah. Right? That was a huge— Are you an only child or what's your birth order?

Only child. Okay, yeah.

And had this drive to— I couldn't be wrong. And that was really my father's spiritual manipulation. It was a whole deal.

You had to be perfect. Which has taken you decades to be able to succinctly and clearly articulate.

Girl been putting in the work. You know what I mean?

Because we have to put in the work.

I have to put in the work. So when I trace it back, ooh, I was a factory for inflammatory responses because of just all that I was. And I never had heavy cycles, but I did learn that the, um, there's a genetic kidney disease on my father's side that when I learned I had fibroids, I had cysts, hundreds and hundreds of cysts all over my kidneys, right? It's genetic, but that's the way it was manifesting.

Yeah, but the origin was the same and it was manifesting in multiple ways.

The origin was the same. Exactly. So that every time they cut me, my body created a whole bunch of scar tissue. After that first surgery, I'll never forget, my GYN said, "I never want to operate on you again." Yeah. He said, "You make so much scar tissue, it's scary," right? After the first surgery. And I had to beg him to do the second one, you know, the third one actually at that point. But it's— overproduction, you know, overproduction. And then I had to like trace that. So whenever I look at, and I'm talking to a client, okay, let's look at what started this. I noticed that they started to grow during this. What was going on in your life? Oh, I was going through a divorce, or my mom died, or, you know, I was going through a very stressful time on my job. So whatever was already present in your life, let's say it was bad, like if you look at the 4 main triggers, stress, vitamin D deficiency, chronic inflammation, right? And hormonal imbalance. Those are the 4 major levers, the 4 pillars, right? In terms of root drivers, right? And their root driver is definitely for reproductive health issues, but also everything from, I mean, inflammatory health issues, diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer are rooted in these things, right? And I say, okay, So your diet being the same, 'cause hormonal imbalance comes from your diet and the products that you use, right? Hormone disruptors that are found in our hair products. Like 80% of the products that are marketing to women are contaminated with ingredients that lead to hormone imbalance, to reproductive damage and carcinogens. It's so overwhelming.

Let's just say this. If it wasn't overwhelming— it is— to try to figure out all of my soul stuff, and if it's not overwhelming to figure out what the heck I need to be taking for supplementary stuff, now it's overwhelming because I can't even wash my hair. You know what I mean? Like, every—

well, there are tools. They're like— I don't know if you use the Yuka app. I'm not sponsoring them or anything like that, but it's changed my shopping experience. That and the EWG Healthy Living app, right? Scan the barcode. Oh, boom, boom, no longer part of my life. That has made it easy because there are so many toxins that are hidden in the names that you don't even know what they are. And but they got natural and organic on the label. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like, I remember I did an exercise once. I was like, I have all these. I had stopped relaxing my hair for years and I was like, oh, this, this must be good stuff. It's natural products, child. I went, I said, let me just see.

And I was like, that was a good suck, by the way. I said, that was a good suck, by the way. I could hear it. Your mother's from Guyana, so I hear that stuff.

Oh, girl. And I start scanning my shelf. I was mortified. I said, I use these things on my baby. My miracle baby. Oh my God. You know? And I literally threw one of those reusable shopping bags. It was this big.

Full of things we can't use.

But then the good thing is I found things I could use. Yeah. And I found products that, and I was like, okay, so I build my own, you know, you know, go-to products now. Right. My foods are easier to find. All of that.

Because the truth is, even if you have a bathroom full of products or a kitchen full of things, you go back to the same things over and over again. Yeah.

That's why I'm saying you just get the product that you're gonna use. Yeah. Yeah. So that became really easy. Right. And then when you look at, So you're using the same products, your diet is pretty much the same, right? Your D3 deficiency is what it was. It's not drastically different, but that stress was the thing that changed whether it was just growing incrementally or exponentially. And that came very— was on full display in 2014 in my life. Essence story came out, and it was at that same time, a lot of good things, but then also challenging things were happening at the same time. So good stress versus challenging stress, your body still processes it as stress. You still have to have the release valve. There's no door checker.

Oh, this is good. Let it in. This is bad. It's all right. It just registers it all as stress. Yes, exactly.

So that year, the fibroids tripled in size. They were just growing marginally incrementally. But then that year, a 3-centimeter went to a 9-centimeter, right? And that showed how stress on top of anything— you remember the, "This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs." Right. That tells the age here. That right there is literally how stress is. It upregulates the impact of anything. That's why I say, okay, let's look where you are on your journey, what was going on so that we can trace it because we have to deal with root issues. You know, it's not going to be, you know, that's why you feel like, oh, if I've gone vegan and I'm still— okay, but what else is going on in your life? Potato chips are vegan.

They can be vegan.

I mean, vegan is not the life. It's not healthy. Are you eating whole foods that are actually real food or are they chemicals? Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. So once we started to look at, okay, you know— And I want to pause here.

So vitamin D. Chronic inflammation, stress, and what's the other one? Hormonal imbalance. Hormonal imbalance.

Okay. So everything from the, so that's, it's the diet and the products that you use that drives the hormonal imbalance, right? Because the foods that are ridden with dyes and all, it is literally disrupting your hormones and driving chronic inflammation at the same time, right? Chronic inflammation is highly driven by stress and your body, like your body going through fight or flight, right? And then there's the vitamin D deficiency that is It's so fixable. Yeah. Like that is my— It's easy to fix. That one's so easy. So because also it also is connected to the others. Right.

Because it helps with absorption.

It helps with, and it also helps reduce chronic inflammation. Balance your hormones. So those are two key things if we will achieve high healthy D3 levels. But there's so much miseducation around D3. So can we dig in on D3 a little bit? Okay. So number one, one of the first things that we are told about D3 that we're not told, like when you're dealing with heavy cycles or we're dealing with painful periods or you're dealing with a lot of fatigue, hair loss, all these things, I can't sleep right. Well, what are your D3 levels? That is not— You know how many women they tell me, oh, I had fibroids. What did your doctor say about your D3 levels? Nothing. They just said I was deficient, but they didn't connect it to why I'm dealing with fibroids. Right, right, right. When And there's so much research around it. So first thing is it's not being even addressed as a root issue. It's just like, oh, you're deficient, you need to take D3. So then we're not told, oh, what— the other thing is they'll say, oh, your number's normal when the range of normal is 30 to 100. Now in that range, 30 to 45, 30 to like 45 is struggle bus. Right. Okay. Struggle bus.

So you pass, but you weren't a star student.

You're like this. You're like, oh, I'm just making it over the threshold. You know what I mean? Over the threshold is not going to— Not the goal of life.

No. We're not shooting for basically over.

Struggle bus. So struggle bus is normalized as normal, right? And then the other thing is they're told, oh, just take D3, but they're not told Oh, how much D3? I take D3 every day, but it never changes. I hear this all the time.

How many IUs are we getting in?

How many IUs are you getting in? Oh, I'm taking 400. It's in my multivitamin. Come on into the thousands, sweetie. You baby girl. 2,000 to 3,000 maintains your number, right? Right. You want to do 5 to 10 to increase depending on how deficient you are and how quickly you wanna raise it, right? That's the second thing. So they're told, "Take D3," but not how much. And then, then— Then they'll be like, "I don't really need it 'cause the D is in my multivitamin. I don't even need a D." No. Then they're not told to take the D3 with K2, which is vital because D3 helps your body absorb the calcium, right? But what happens to the calcium without K2? K2 actually directs the calcium to your bones where it's needed, keeps it out of your arteries where it can cause heart damage or tissue damage, right? It's vital, vital. So if you're taking D3 without K2—

You're just leaching calcium into your system, right?

Yes. So that's a problem, right? So it has to be that. And then they're not told, of course, take it with a healthy fat. Right. So what I've learned is if we just focus on education around that, we can address so many preventable health issues, right? It's not a silver bullet, but if you literally don't have any health issues, start with D3. Start with D3 and a good multivitamin. That's our preventer kit. Our preventer kit is our multivitamin and our D3, right? You have that, that's now getting you on the road to helping prevent these issues by supporting your body. I always say, I always say is like not having healthy D3 levels. The therapeutic level for D3 is between 60 and 90. Therapeutic is where we wanna be. Right. Because we're dealing with the stressors. Right, right. Right? It actually helps. You wanna be ready. It helps with mood regulation. Yes. It helps with, it's actually been scientifically connected to mental health, depression. Like D3 is a superstar. I call it the superstar, right? Yeah. And if we will do that, 60, between 60 and 90, 80 is the sweet spot we reach for. I say it's like if you're in the struggle bus or deficient, it's like going to war with no gun in your ammunition. No ammunition in your gun. There you go. Yeah. No ammunition in your gun. Yeah.

So you're out there fighting. You fighting.

You like, I don't know why I'm getting beat up. I don't know why I'm getting thrown off.

You got no artillery.

I got a gun. Yeah. You shooting blanks. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's great. But the thing that gets me is that it's not normalized as part of the education.

Well, that's why you have a whole job and a whole company and a whole supplemental product line.

Like, but I wish it was common, you know what I mean? Like, because so much can be affected by it. So many things can be better if we were educated. I was at the Capitol in July for Five Words Awareness month. And, um, we were, um, part of an announcement around 3 bills for uterine health. And, um, it was being announced by Congresswoman Yvette Clark and leading the charge for, um, you know, 3 major, um, legislative pieces. And it was like 90-ish plus. It was during the heat wave. And one of the things that I deal with chronically for me, a chronic issue because of the loss of so much small intestine is easily getting dehydrated, right? Not like, "Oh, I'm dehydrated." No, dehydrated as in fall out. Yeah. Okay. Dangerous, right? Yeah. So I'm standing here in front of the videos in my feed. You have to watch it. It's like pinned at the top of my feed. And I'm standing in front of, you know, this is a real press conference. Yeah. So it's, you know, videographer, press is all in front of us. We're at the podium with her with signs. And I didn't have my water bottle with me because I was like, it was gonna look weird me standing here with a water bottle, you know, and everybody else is holding their signs. And like a few minutes in, Chrystal, I'm starting to see like flashes, right? I'm like, oh God. Here it comes. And then I start to feel black. Like, oh, I said, okay, you have a choice right now, Jess. You're gonna walk and go get your water or you're going to pass out in front of these people and cause a whole other commotion. Yeah. Right? So I just gently walked away, went to get my water, and I had to go sit over in the benches because drinking alone did not strengthen me. Yeah. Yeah. I needed to do breathing exercises. I needed to slow my heart rate. The team came over to me and they were like, "What can we do?" I was like, "No, I'm just trying to not pass out right now." Just the fanning was good because it was cooling my body down. And then I hear her say, "Where's Coach Jessie?" Because she's calling me to speak in that moment. And I said, she said, "Coach Jessie, where's Coach Jessie?" "Coach Jessie?" She said, "What's going on?" I said, "Oh God, Father, you got to give me right now. I need your grace." grace. She's given me an opportunity to speak right now. I got up, I'm coming. And in that moment, and I just said, Holy Spirit was just like, tell them what happened. This is literally evidence of complications from the fibroid surgeries. Like, you couldn't have made this up, right? Take the opportunity. And I said, you know, I have to tell you what just happened. I said, what you said, it wasn't because of the fibroids, it was because of the fibroid surgeries, the complications from the surgery. And I said, "And I'm so tired of hearing all the awareness around, yes, we know it affects this many. Yes, we know the symptoms, but then no advocacy, no real education around the things that we can do." I said, "There's so much research around D3 therapy. Why aren't we hearing this from our doctors? Why aren't we hearing about the hormone disruptors and the PFAS and the chemicals that will help if we reduce our exposure? Why aren't we talking about the chronic?" And it's to our detriment, right? So for me, it's the system is— they'll say, well, we don't have the research. Oh, there is, but there's research that for some reason you're not popularizing and centering that research. We know it's a billion-dollar industry.

It's always money. It's always money. You know? So you said that if somebody today is like, okay, what do I do? Like, this is overwhelming. There's all these changes I'm supposed to make. I'm supposed to destress. How am I supposed to— but you're— What I clearly heard you say is D3 is a starting point.

Absolutely. D3 is a starting point. A good multivitamin. And the reason I say multivitamin is 'cause you need your micronutrients, right? Right. Yes. Uh-huh. Right. That's, yeah. So we have a Preventer multivitamin and a D3 K2. Your D3 needs to be with K2. Most D3 people will take D3 without it, right? Okay. So yes, having a good multivitamin and the D3 is a great place to start. If you don't have fibroids, you just like, you know what?

You don't even wanna know that you have them.

Right. But again, if you have a heavy cycle. That's an indicator. That's not just an indicator of fibroids, it's an indicator of the root cause that down the road, I'm not going to wait for fibroids to develop. Right, right, right. Right? It's like I always say, disease is an oncoming train. You don't have to wait until it's right in front of you.

Reroute while it's in process. Lay new tracks. Versus a crisis. Yeah. So much information. And I know that we have just touched the tip. So much.

If you let me, it would be too long.

But tell everybody where they can find you so that they can continue along your journey.

Oh, wait, you asked me something earlier I did not answer. So you said outside of reproductive health issues. So what happened is that as, you know, I created a framework called the Detox Now lifestyle, which is detox, balance, and prevent, the interlocking circles that we should be doing all three at the same time, right? Because when you realize your body has been been burdened, overburdened by toxins from your diet, from the products, etc., you need to reset your body's detox functions, right? Your body naturally detoxes. So in our, um, Fibroids Program, our Women's Hormone Protocol, we started saying, you know what, we need to help them reset because their body, their detox functions are so burdened that the healing process is impeded, right? So we said, okay, so we started with a fast. So a lot of them did a water fast, right? Which was fasting is time tested. I mean, like ancient centuries, the power of fasting.

We try to do it all other kind of ways. I'm going to do a juice fast. Right, right, right. It's not terrible, but it's not the same as a water fast.

No, it's not the same. No, water fast is, and our water fast comes with nutrients to support detoxification, overall body detoxification. Detoxification, as well as electrolytes to help make sure you're retaining your hydration. Because we're a celery plant. Very important.

You need stuff to keep you upright. You need it. Exactly.

And what we started finding is that after they did the fast, high blood pressure was regulated, cholesterol was being regulated, chronic pain, allergies gone, things that they just learned to live with. Were no longer an issue. And that's because a lot of times the women would do it with their families, like, oh, we need solidarity. Because if mama's not eating chocolate, none of us are eating chocolate. So when the husband did it, in fact, husband did it with the wife, oh, they conceived after, again, she started eliminating fibroids and then they conceived. Why? Because they together were resetting their detox functions, right? We recently had a couple, they did it together and I love them. And they were like, she had had 3 kids and she had the belly weight that just for her, she was used to being trim and fit, right? And she was like, but after this 3rd baby, it's just like, it just, I was also dealing with perimenopause setting in and it just wasn't moving. And she did the water fast with her husband. They both lost 15 pounds each in 7 days and she lost 3.5 inches. She lost 5 inches and then they started to now do the intermittent fast, which is also part of the fast kit. They started doing the intermittent fast as part of a lifestyle. And she dropped another 2 inches, so she's down another jean size. She sent me pictures. I was like, "You girl look like you back in college. This is crazy." But she was like, "It's more than the look. It's how you feel, the energy, the strength." So we started realizing, oh wait. If we can target the inflammation at the root here, it's not just going to affect reproductive health issues, right? And then women who were dealing with perimenopause symptoms, like one of our clients, she was like, "Yeah, I'm still in perimenopause. I'm just not dealing with the symptoms anymore." And perimenopause is a natural phase. It's a natural process. You're supposed to go through it. You're just not supposed to suffer. And I think that's so important because we've been told just grit and bear it. You've been conditioned that it comes with suffering and it's Yes. Or you have to do hormone and some people are not candidates for it. Some people just don't want it. And you don't have to deal with those symptoms if you balance your hormones and you elevate your D3 and get the micronutrients you need from your multivitamin as well as magnesium.

So I know you talk about all this on your social, on your website, all that. Yeah. Because I already know somebody's already Googling and they're trying to figure it out. So tell everybody where they can find you online for social. And on for your website.

Follow me, I'm Coach G. I know you wanted to say Jessie with a J. I know you probably already wrote it with a J, but it's Coach G-E-S-S-I-E, right? That's Coach Jessie on socials. And our website is thedetoxnow.com. So the detox— if you just go to detox now, it's going to somebody else, not me. Thedetoxnow.com. And I invite you to take our free symptom quiz to help you discover how you can support your health in simple ways, right? Things that you can do. And what I love about our formulas, number one, they are manufactured at FDA and NSF GMP certified labs, which was very important to us, right? They are really one a day. Like that was really important that it was like, I felt like women having to take something 2 to 3 times, it ain't going to happen. If you get one, you're doing good. I have moved mountains, right? So we really combined, like our balancer formula works for whether you're in PMS, fibroids, endometriosis, cysts, perimenopause, it supports the hormonal function, right? So it's not, oh, I got to take that. I'm dealing with this too. I got to take this and this and this and this, right? And then for the D3, please, we have, a download, you'll find it if you take the quiz. That is specifically to educate you around it because—

Because this is a journey. It's a journey of education, of change, of opening your brain to what the power that you have to participating with your body to set your body up for success. Yeah.

And not just your body, because what I love is once you impact a woman, you change the whole community. That's right. Like, girl, did you hear? Yeah. Oh, no, baby. Let me push you on. Yeah. Let me push you on. So the Detox Now.com.

Y'all, please go. Please go find out more about Coach Jessie. Follow. She's constantly educating on her social media. She has done the work years in the making, like she said earlier. And for many of us, our pain propels us into our purpose. Absolutely. And her purpose, a large part of it, apart from chasing your daughter around with her own situation, is making sure that you have the information that you need and the support you need.

That's what I was going to say, the support we also offer. Offer free group consults, private coaching, because some people, they need— you know, there are people who no matter what, there's some people, you just give me a routine, I've got it. Right.

And there are other people that give me the routine, but I need friends.

I need hand. I need support. I need community.

We need to go along the way. I need guidance.

And I need somebody who's going to keep me accountable to prioritizing myself.

You don't have to do this alone. No. You're not out there on your own. This has been so You did so great. This is just, I feel like, part 1, because part 2, so many questions loading that I know that, you know.

And we should do a Zoom with them.

We should do a Zoom with them. Yeah, to answer questions. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for being here. I'm glad I reached out. I'm glad you were able to stop by, sit on the couch with me, and passionately, passionately share the knowledge and the experience and the journey that you've been on. Thank you for doing that. It's an honor. Because some people get their healing and then they take it for themselves, and other people make sure everybody else knows. So thank you for including us.

Yes, my husband always says, "You tell everything." I'm like, "Bae, you know what? It'll set somebody free." Yeah, yeah. He's like, that's not my ministry. It's like, all right.

Yeah, well, that's probably why y'all attracted each other. Two opposites attract. Y'all, Coach Jessie, thanks for being here. Love you. If that content was a blessing to you, listen, I don't want you to just get this once every now and again. I'd love to mentor you every Monday. You can join me in the Inner Circle at the club level to join me Mondays, or to get the replay of the whole shebang that I do I'd love to see you in the room. TheSisterCircle.com/InnerCircle. Join the club today.