#140: Wake Her Up with Marcella Hill

Hey beautiful, it's Dr. Tabatha.

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Hi, I'm Dr. Tabatha, the Gutsy Gynecologist. I'm a triple board-certified OB-GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. After caring for thousands of women, I've come to realize that your gut health determines your gyn health and your overall And it's a super gutsy thing for me to go against conventional gynecology practice to bring you the truth. No more Band-Aid medicine, ladies. We're talking root cause resolution on this show. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. And I want to be your gutsy gynecologist. So welcome. Oh my gosh, I'm super excited about this episode, you guys. So I was sent a TikTok video to watch from one of my friends. She said, you got to check out this girl or this woman. She is talking about her hormones and how she feels. And I went on there and she was telling her story of how miserable she felt and she couldn't get answers and nobody was figuring out what was going on with her. And she finally got her hormones tested and realized she was going through perimenopause. And I loved her vulnerability. I loved how she was speaking the truth. And now she's like on the same mission I am to help you guys be heard and acknowledge the fact that this shit is real. Like, it does not feel good when your hormones are messed up. And So her TikTok video went viral, which just reinforces my belief that you ladies want to hear this information because you are struggling with this. And so I got a hold of her on TikTok and I said, girl, I gotta have you on my podcast. We need to talk about what's going on with women. This conversation needs to happen. And she was super excited. She said, yeah, I am feeling the same way. I've had thousands of responses from my TikTok video and going on Instagram, and women are feeling the same things that I'm feeling. And what can we do about it? So I got this woman on my podcast. This is the conversation that we had. We taped it like last week. So I just want to share really quickly some backstory on her before we get into the interview, but it's really compelling. I hope that you'll listen all the way through, and I literally hope you send it to every woman you know. This is going to be a game changer for women, for us to get the message out that you don't have to struggle. Okay, so Marcella Hill is her name. She's 42 and she's from Utah and she has 4 kids. She's your average girl trying to make a difference in the world. She owns her own business called Love Woolies. She has her first book, Wake Her Up, launching in a few weeks. And recently she shared her story about hormone therapy on TikTok. Like I said, apparently it's up to 9 million views. Now she's become a voice for all those women who have gone to the doctor, asked for help, and have been told, that's just— you're getting old. She believes you're not done. You deserve to feel good. So please welcome Marcella Hill. So let's enjoy this conversation. Well, welcome, Marcella, to the Gutsy Gynecologist Show.

Hi, thanks for having me.

Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. This is like the first time I've had a regular patient/client/woman As my guest. And I should have done this sooner because I think this idea of just hearing your voice and your story is going to be so powerful for women. I think your TikTok blowing up says it all. So I would love for you to just share, like, how did you get to this point? What the heck was going on with you?

What is going on? It has been the craziest last about 6 weeks. So honestly, years ago, like 5 years ago, I just started noticing, just feeling meh. And somebody mentioned maybe it's your hormones. So I went to my gynecologist and I asked her about hormone imbalance. She said, well, we can test you if you want. And I said, yeah. And she's tested me, went back. She said all my labs looked normal. And I was like, well, what do I do about this zero sex drive situation? She's like, well, we could give you this. like a compound cream for testosterone that seems to help some people. And then she wrote me a prescription and the end. And I tried the cream, but it wasn't like anyone was managing it with me. No one was explaining it to me. I didn't know like where to put it, like how much, you know, I mean, it was just kind of a mess. So that didn't do anything. Um, And then I ended up getting— I, I just wanted to feel good. So I went on a medical journey to try to fix my body. I did lots of things. I got a hysterectomy because I had a prolapsed uterus. I, I had a weird, like, broken xiphoid process that no doctors had told me for 15 years. That was just like, that's just common with childbirth. Like, it will just go back. And for 15 years, it got worse. And then through Google, I was like, wait a minute, I can just get that out. So I had that surgery. So if anybody has a broken xiphoid process, you can just get it out. So I did that. And then after all of this work, all of this money, all of this recovery, giving myself a full, like, almost 2 years to recover, I felt worse.

Yeah.

Emotionally speaking. And then like, so tired, really annoyed, less sex drive. I mean, it was I just felt like there is no way I can go another 10 years, 5 years. I'm 42. I felt like an 80-year-old. My whole body hurt. I couldn't work out without putting myself out for a week.

Mm-hmm.

It was kind of this awful existence. And there was one like pivotal weekend. I'm a pretty motivated person. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a self-starter. But there was a particular weekend I could not get outta bed. I laid in bed just in the depths of despair like we do. Nothing was actually wrong, and it scared me. Honestly, it was very scary. And I thought, I can't afford to go lower than this. There's got to be something. So I started asking about depression medication. I started looking into doctors for maybe I'm depressed. And lo and behold, a friend said, you should get your hormones checked again by this type of clinic. And I called up this med spa clinic, which I was like, you're really like a med spa? Like, are they gonna like, you know, add in some Botox in there too? I would have never gone to a med spa, not ever. And, you know, I walked right in immediately. They were the first people that I felt like really heard me and that could actually provide a solution. I immediately got the bioidentical hormone therapy, which is like progesterone and the testosterone pellets. And within 2 days, I slept through the whole night. Within a week, my brain fog was gone. I had energy through the whole day. Not like a Monster drink energy, just like a generally happy human through the whole day. And I would say about 3 months in, my sex drive was like back like a 20-year-old.

I—

it literally saved my marriage. And I, I shared it on TikTok a couple weeks ago, just exactly this story. And now 8.8, I think 8.9 million people have seen me talking about my low sex drive, which Super fun. And yet, like, hundreds of— I mean, I just had no idea. Hundreds of thousands of women have been going to their gynecologist, telling them about— asking about a hormone imbalance and being told, looks normal, drink more wine, here's an antidepressant, or it's your husband's problem, go to therapy. I had no idea how far we are being dismissed. It is pretty insane to see it.

Wow. Yeah, I just, I couldn't believe it myself when I saw you and I saw the responses you were getting. I was like, this is so important. There's women all over this world who are suffering unnecessarily. We're doing them a huge disservice as physicians. And it like literally breaks my heart. And I just, I know that women are going to hear your story and just go, yeah, that makes so much sense. I didn't understand why I felt so miserable. Like, Literally, I put out an episode. I don't even know if it's out yet. I recorded it a couple of weeks ago because my estrogen tanked. Like, one weekend, I wanted to give up my career. I wanted to divorce my husband. I didn't want to talk to anybody. I couldn't get off the couch. And it took me 4 days, literally, to figure that out. And thank God I'm a hormone expert. I was like, oh my God, I need estrogen. But it just was so clear to me that there are women all over the place that are going through these feelings, and they have nowhere to go. They go to the gynecologist because we deem them the women's hormone experts. But I tell women all the time, like a gynecologist is a surgeon. I spent four years learning how to cut out organs and remove endometriosis and deliver babies and do stat. C-sections in under two minutes, and like I didn't study the intricacies of the endocrine system and all those hormone imbalances. I know as I knew as much as like the family practice doctor. Yet we go to them because hormones make up women, right? And so we're constantly frustrated that the gynecologist doesn't have the answer, but they really they really don't, and they they try to. They have the tools of giving you synthetic hormones. Here, take a birth control pill, which makes you feel like garbage. And it's just an absolutely broken system. And we need to wake up and retrain the gynecologists, for one thing, and teach them how to be hormone experts if that's really who we're going to rely on. But in the meantime, I'm just excited that you have found Someone to really help you with that. And now you're advocating and helping other women find hormone replacement specialists because it is our right to feel good and normal in our bodies. And I just, you know, if men went through this, this would never be put up with, not for a second. Like, it would—

No way.

You know, covered by insurance and all this other stuff, and it would just be standard of care. I see women get wiped out of their careers at the height because they're going through menopause and they can't think straight, they can't function, they're miserable. And it takes you out at the knees, right?

Yeah. I did a video. There's been several videos following up from this, but one of them specifically about— because I've had so many husbands, so many husbands say, This sounds like my wife. How do I help her? And so I've done a lot of videos to the husband saying, okay, let me explain to you, right? Like, it's not that women don't care. It's not that we don't care to be motivated or don't care to take care of ourselves or don't care to take care of our families or husbands. It's that we like physically can't— like the emotion is so gone. from a majority of us that like we're dead inside. And to make it worse, we have lived like that for so long. And our moms lived like that. And our grandmas lived like that, that it has become so normal that we don't even know what feeling good even looks like. We can't even imagine a day, a full day of just generally feeling good. Because we have been muted out by a hormone imbalance, but then on top of that, antidepressants.

Yeah.

And then just frankly disregarded by people that we completely trust. So when a doctor says to your face, your bloodwork looks normal, it's your relationship, what else are you supposed to do? Right? Like, now all these women are thinking, oh my gosh, like, I guess I don't love my husband because he doesn't turn my body on anymore. Or they're like scheduling sex And feeling like a hooker. I mean, I don't know. Yeah.

Or they just feel like there's something wrong with them, but nobody's helping them figure it out. And I will tell you, like, as a conventional gynecologist, when we are trained to look at blood work, to look at hormone levels, we are looking for disease. So we are looking for extremely elevated levels associated with a tumor. Or a complete absence of hormones and you're in menopause. We are— we were not trained how to look at hormones and understand their balance with each other and what an optimal level is at every day of the cycle of the month. So you're going to get that answer if you go to a conventional gynecologist. They're going to tell you you're normal unless you have an outright disease of polycystic ovarian syndrome, which causes elevated testosterone, Or menopause, or you have a tumor on your ovary. Otherwise, they're going to tell you you're fine. And so it breaks my heart because it makes women more confused. They think, okay, well, my hormones are normal, when really they're probably not. And so—

That's probably the biggest question that I get on the feed is you said that they were normal. Your doctor told you they were normal. So Why would you need to go fix them? Like, that's the biggest thing that I have to try to explain. Like, normal as in you look the same level of crazy and miserable as everybody else. Like, like when we hear from a doctor, your blood work looks normal, you're comparing that to like if you went in to get a cancer scan and they said you look normal, you're like celebrating. Yay, it's normal. But when they're testing your hormones, when they tell you normal, like you said, they're not even trained. And I always explain it like, it would be like you going to your doctor and saying, why do I have all these wrinkles on my face? And they're like, oh, that's normal. There's nothing we can do. But then you're like, but isn't there Botox? But we don't do that. We don't— we have nothing to do with that. That's not anything that we do. Too bad. Don't do that. That's bad. But it's available and everyone is doing it.

Nail on the head. Like, for 5 years, I asked the hospital system that I worked for to buy me a vaginal rejuvenation laser because it works. It helps vaginal tissue, it helps prolapse, it helps bladder leakage, it helps with painful intercourse. But they wouldn't do it because it wasn't an insurance-based situation. And so I had to tell my patients that wasn't an option. Or even worse, we didn't even talk about it as an option because I didn't do it, so therefore it wasn't an option. So that is pretty much the standard of care is you're going to get the options that your doctor is knowledgeable about and comfortable with. So that's why you don't talk about so many of these solutions because they don't know. You're not getting True informed consent, unfortunately. So I really want to touch upon— you mentioned like there was 3 highlights that people keep saying like that their doctor told them, and I'm really blown away. They were told to drink more wine.

Yeah. So I mean, hundreds of thousands of women have come and said like, me too, went to my gynecologist, told them I had low sex drive. And these are the— I have like top 5, but the very top one, and I haven't like sat down and quantified it. But just from like scanning through and responding to people, the most common one that I'm seeing is they're like, well, just drink wine, like basically get drunk enough to like just fool around with your husband.

Oh my God, Marcella, do you know how destructive wine is to your hormones? Like that is the absolute opposite of what is necessary. Like It causes a sluggish liver, so you don't metabolize your hormones properly. It causes elevated blood sugar, so you wake up at 2 AM and you can't sleep, and then you're tired and fatigued. And it causes depression if you drink it regularly. Like, there's so many—

now, and it's like one of the biggest risk factors for breast cancer development.

Like, I cannot believe there's gynecologists telling women that. That's killing me right now hearing this.

Oh, like, and Overwhelming amount. If you go to any of the videos, like, I couldn't believe it. Like, doctors are saying, go drink alcohol. Like, okay. And so then the next one is super fun. They will say, like, watch porn. Because, you know, that's not destructive to any relationship. Like, go, here's a steamy novel, Fifty Shades of Grey. Like, they're telling them, go watch some sexy, you know, sexy stuff to be able to get you in the mood. And probably one of the biggest ones is it's definitely your You probably just don't like your husband anymore.

Wow.

So one of the things that I think could be a pivotal moment is this conversation right here, right? Like a lot of us are— there's the whole Roe versus Wade, and it becomes very sticky with like morals and all of that. But if we could find some common ground, we're like, let's talk about men and women Or just not even men and women, just everyone wanting to have sex and receiving sex, everyone can come to the conclusion that like everyone would like to have that be enjoyable, right? Like, that's not really like on a moral, like, yes or no issue. That's like everyone should want to enjoy that. So if we tell men or inform them, hey, your partner is going to the doctor and you're the doctor because they are ill-informed about women are telling them that it's your fault. Like, maybe we should put some money and some effort and some real sincere care into women's health so that everybody can be happy, right? Like, oh my God.

I'm just like, I get angry right now. I mean, Because the research is clear. The research is there that bioidenticals are safe. They slow the aging process. They prevent disease. They prevent cardiovascular disease, dementia, bone loss, hair loss, wrinkly skin, like vaginal health. And yet American College of OB-GYNs, North American Menopause Society, all the standard societies that tell doctors how to practice medicine. won't get on board with it because they are literally in bed with Big Pharma. And so your antidepressants are the ones being pushed, your sleeping pills, Ambien, your anti-anxiety, Xanax, Valium, like all of these drugs are making their way into the standard of care algorithms. I mean, it is now general. If you come into me as a 48, 50-year-old woman, And you have complaints of hot flashes and night sweats, the standard is to start you on an antidepressant because there was one study that showed it was like 30% effective for hot flashes. Oh, it worked like a little teeny bit? How about the side effect of 15 to 20-pound weight gain? I'm pretty sure you're going to be a little bit more depressed when you gain another 10 or 20 pounds at menopause. There is no actual common sense being used in the standard of care algorithms that these doctors are following. And it's like just killing me.

So the only way is to have something like this happen where we have viral information directly dropping into the face of these women who have had this experience where they have gone They've gotten this crap care. They know for sure, individually, from self-experience, that it does not work and that it makes it worse. Like, they don't have to go and listen to someone, like, tell them that maybe kind of it makes it worse. Like, they're like, I know because I did that. And then all we can do is say, here's a solution that's working for a majority of women. We have thousands of women going and trying it. And it is going to work. I cannot tell you, I have thousands. We're past hundreds. Thousands in the last 4 weeks have ran to a functional wellness provider and gotten hormone therapy, bioidentical hormone therapy. And I am getting comments already like, I'm a week in, I feel more alive than ever. I'm 4 weeks in. Holy crap, where was this my whole life? I mean, this has the potential to change the face of the planet. I don't think we've ever seen a world where women feel good. I mean, we just not even feel good, but where women sleep on a regular basis. Imagine that, right? Put everything else aside. What if women just actually slept? I know. What would that be like?

We are trained to wake up to every little noise. And so then we have to try and counteract that the rest of our life. And as soon as our hormones tank, it's a nightmare. But I promise, Drinking alcohol in the evenings is going to keep you up at night. Eating before bed is going to wake you up. Like, all of those things. Oh my gosh, it's so frustrating. So, okay. Like, I've been on this mission for a while, and I'm just so excited that there's other people on this mission as well, because we really do need to band together and spread the word. Like, you can feel amazing. You don't have to be miserable. And I don't think a lot of women realize that up until 2002, most women did go on hormone replacement therapy. Like, it was super common. It came out in like the late 1920s, and women would go on hormones at menopause up until this stupid study came out in 2002, the Women's Health Initiative, and scared the bejesus out of everybody. And the data got misinterpreted and everybody panicked and Like, it ruined us as women. But you're right, like, it's just expected that we live these crazy lives and we multitask and we run the house, and now we have amazing jobs and careers and we do it all. And then we have to look good and hang out with our girlfriends. And, and to expect us to do that without hormones, that's insane. Like, it's just not possible, like you said, because you feel exhausted. You have no zest for life. There's like no drive. There's no motivation. You gain weight. You can't even think straight. You can't even remember why you walked into the room. And then you can't sleep at night. It's like absolute misery. Misery. And it doesn't have to be that way.

Well, and I could be wrong. We should fact-check this. But I heard that suicide for women in their middle age has gone up almost 70% in the last, I want to say, 9 years. If that— again, you'll have to fact-check that, but it was like an insane amount. And I was like, why aren't we talking about that? And then talking about, you know, we kind of listed all the things really quickly that hormones affect. But I've been reading more and more about dementia because my grandma has dementia. So I was afraid that my mom is going to get dementia. I'm afraid I'm going to get dementia. So I've been reading about the effects of hormone therapy on dementia. And it is like, Amazing. I mean, if all these women run out and start getting hormone therapy before we're even showing signs of dementia, we could obliterate—

Yes.

Like, in 10 years, when all these women are starting to get into the age of where dementia would be seen, we might not be seeing it. I mean, we're talking about, yay, like a sex drive today. But in 10 years, when you're not having dementia and you can remember your children, We will have changed the whole world because women decided to advocate for their own health. They decided to take a chance. They decided to listen to actual research instead of just a doctor who never even studied it in the first place. I just— I hope women listening to you, listening to all these other women's experiences, start being like, huh, maybe there is something else to this. You know, like, you don't have to take our word for it. Like, go talk to your friends, go talk to anybody. Call a doctor, call a pharmacist, ask your doctor, did you study hormone therapy? You are telling us that you went to med school and you did not. And you're not the only doctor that I've talked to who has shared that with me.

Yeah. And unfortunately, a lot of doctors stop learning once they come out of residency. We spend 4 years in undergrad, 4 years in medical school, around 4 years in residency, depending on the specialty. And then it's like you're thrown into practice and you're working 60+ hours a week. There's no time to like go and learn new literature and read the latest research. Like, I was in survival mode, you know. I was trying to raise my kids, deliver babies all night, see patients all day. Like, I couldn't even breathe, let alone— Pick up Reader's Digest or watch Dr. Oz. Like I didn't even know TV shows existed, essentially. Like I was literally in survival mode. And so patients would ask me, "What do you think about adrenal fatigue? What do you think about this and that?" And like I don't even know what that stuff is. I've never heard of it because I was in my little medical bubble of a broken system like all the other doctors. And what we come out of residency knowing is how we practice for the next 20 to 40 years. And so if you go see a guy. gynecologist who's been practicing for 20 or 30 years, you're going to get some antiquated treatment, that's for sure.

The worst comment. This makes so much sense now that you're explaining it, because the worst comment that I saw was a girl went and talked to her OB about her low— no libido. And he said, what's a libido? Oh my God. Run away, run away.

Yes. Like, oh my gosh, I did a podcast episode. I think it was like the top 5 signs you need a new doctor. Like, that, that kind of crap is up in the top 5. Like, if they are not a lifelong learner, they're not open to discussing and admitting that they don't know everything and that maybe there's new research that's showing that things should be shifted and changed. Like, You better run. You better find somebody else.

And yeah, like there's new research on antidepressants that just recently came out. I mean, how many doctors do you think are studying that?

So the only way that we really get all of that information to us is the drug reps come to our offices, they bring us lunch, and they teach us over lunch about their new drugs. That's literally how I would stay up to date. And all the research was driven by the drugs that were coming out for sale. I'm just being 100% honest. So if it wasn't related to a new drug, I wasn't hearing about it unless I went to like a yearly conference or that, which is all funded by the drug companies as well. So it's very much a biased, closed-minded opinion of like what they want you to know. And how they want you to practice.

So, so based on that, what you're saying is every person listening to this should grab my viral video and put it in their OB-GYN's face and say, read these comments. There's no way you're going to turn around after me telling you I have low sex drive and tell me any of these things. Like, look how many people are being dismissed. Like, That is the only way we are going to change the system is if every single individual person that's walking into a doctor's office is like, I don't think so. What about this?

Yes. Amen.

And makes them see it.

Yes. So it's time for us to take back our power. Like, the time of the doctor being in control is over. They honestly don't know what's best for women and our bodies. You know inside what's best for you. We're trained to Not listen to our gut, to get rid of our intuition, to to knock it down, suppress it. But we have to get back in tune with our bodies, listen to our gut because we do know what's best for us. Like you knew that you had to keep searching because this didn't make sense. It wasn't right, and good for you. And all women need to start doing that. And if it's like you can't have that conversation with your doctor, that's when you find somebody else. Or if you have it and they shut you down. But it is scary because we're trained like they know it all. And there are a lot of doctors who talk to you like that, like, no, I'm the expert. Here's what we're doing. And that's when you go find a functional doctor or integrative doctor, because they will actually listen to you and actually help you feel better. The healthcare system is focused on disease. They're not focused on making you feel better and Actually being vital and healthy and happy and joyful. That's not the goal. I didn't go to medical school to learn how to give you health. I learned how to prevent you from dying and to remove your disease or to manage it.

I mean, how many women are just taught our whole lives that just we give and we give and we give and we're selfless and we give, we keep giving until we're literally depleted of anything? I think women start to kind of have this awakening that, wait a minute, like, the world is kind of messed up. Something's missing here. I love this saying, if you think something's missing, it's probably you. And it is. The answer has always been, it's you. It's your joy. It's your life. We talked so much about how we would be willing to die for our children. But are you willing to actually live, right? And live in a way where you are giving back and you are sharing your passions and you are sharing your joys and you are sharing your talents and finding new ones and adding to the world and adding to their lives. Like, you're more than a dinner maker and a grocery shopper and a laundry doer. Like, you are more than that. And we need All of it. We need all of it.

Oh, my gosh. You're preaching my language. Like, women, we give to everybody else, and we don't give to ourselves to the point where we just don't even know who we are anymore. That's what I hear every day in my practice is I just don't want to do it anymore. I don't know why I'm doing it. It's because you've lost yourself along the way. When you don't take the time to take care of yourself and give your soul what it needs, at least on a semi-regular basis, you will— it will shrivel. You will forget who you are. You have to feed your soul. You have to nourish your body. You have to take care of all of that stuff.

Yeah. I would say 3 years ago, my oldest moved out. She was 15, and it was a bad situation. Pretty much took me out of existence. I mean, I just thought I have failed in every area of my life. If I fail my child, then I am nothing. And it, it just ripped me apart. And I had gone through, you know, a failed marriage. I've been through some stuff, you know, that kind of ripped my soul inside out. But that one I knew I couldn't fix. And, you know, you can go get remarried, but you can't just like go get a new kid, right? And that, that really made me dig deep into like, who am I? And that's where this all started, is that I knew I had to exist when people didn't like me, even my own children. I had to find a way that I could exist every day, all day, no matter if there was a pandemic, no matter if I lost my job, no matter if someone didn't like me, if my kids hated me, if they made bad decisions that I didn't like, I needed to exist. all of me. And it made me dive into finding, like, who am I if I have nothing? And I read A Man's Search for Meaning. I read Untethered Soul by Michael Singer. I read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. And I learned how to meditate. And I started feeding my body properly. I started taking care of myself, like, medically. And this really led to all of this. I wrote a book called Wake Her Up. And it is just my experiences on my personal awakenings, as to how I found the girl inside. And not just found her, but allowed her to get really loud and live on the outside. And I mean, you know, we all are human and got to figure that out every day, every hour. But what you're saying is, I think we've been fed for so long that one, you'll find yourself outside somewhere on Pinterest or Right, somewhere in a book, and you don't exist out there. You literally exist inside yourself. But it's really hard to be that person when your body isn't functioning properly. It's exhausting. You know, I had done all this work internally. I knew that inside I was really, really good. But I still couldn't get out of bed.

Yeah, right. Sometimes you can't even have Like real, true thoughts that are healthy because having depleted hormones and adrenal imbalance and thyroid issues or whatever other health problems, they literally do shift your mindset and you get stuck in these negative thought patterns and those lead to bad choices and bad behaviors and habits. And so all of that is such a vicious cycle. I'm just so proud of you for like Doing the work and figuring all of this out and not being afraid to share your story, because that is where the power is, is we women need to share our stories and learn from one another and lift each other up and just say, I want you to feel good. What can I do to help you? And you're going to do that in return for me. Like, there's— we got to end this judgment and bitchiness and Comparison. I mean, we grew up probably the same time, and it's like, I just remember, like, it was all about how much you weighed, how big your boobs were, how blonde your hair was, how big it was, like, all of that fake crap. And like, we really just lost ourselves. And if we can shift that and teach our kids how to not ever lose themselves, how amazing would that be?

I know. I just— don't you want to live in a world where we can just be cheering each other on? You know, I mean, there's a reason why we all love like the Olympics and sports. It's because these people have worked so freaking hard to go and do these amazing things. And we get to stand and cheer for them. Like, you are worth putting in the effort, you are worth getting to know. And you are worth loving yourself. If no one else loves you, you can— you have the capacity to love so big that you will be the only person that needs to love yourself. Like, you can be that full that you can just be like overflowing in love and not actually need anything. And we can just be giving because we're so full, not giving because we're just like, don't love ourselves, you know, not giving to the capacity where we're like, There's an analogy where if you had this glass pitcher and you kept filling up a tiny bit, but spilling it out and spilling it out and spilling it out, you'd never fill up and you'd eventually break. But if you stand still and you fill it all the way up to the top, eventually it's just going to overflow and you'll be full all the time and you'll never tip over to break. But as women, we just keep tipping and tipping and tipping and tipping. And then we wonder, like, why are we broken?

Oh my gosh. Such an important message. I'm so excited for your book. This is going to be awesome.

It's in like 3 weeks. I can't— it's been 3 years in the making. And it's so bizarre because I honestly thought, who is going to read this? I have a little company, I have a little following, nothing like this. And I kept telling my publisher, I just want the book to wake people up. I just want it to get to the women that are I don't know who I am anymore. I feel pretty muted out. Like, I just want to feel alive. And I didn't know where to find those people. And then, hello, TikTok land wants to share about hormone therapy. And it's funny because my book hasn't even come out yet. And I'm getting messages from women that say, thank you for waking me up.

Yes. Oh, so good.

Crazy. So join the awakening if you are feeling it, like jump in, you're not alone. Like, Here we are, you and me. We're feeling it. We didn't know each other until now. And you've got to believe there's like a million more ready to go.

And can I just point out, like, I reached out to you on TikTok because I was so moved. And I know that, like, I'm feeling your same struggle and I want to be a part of it. But it's like, literally, we're DMing back and forth. When can we make this interview happen? Let's connect. And life is in the way, and there's a million reasons to not do this kind of stuff, right? Like, you had to—

Yeah. Like, your dogs are going crazy.

I had to feed the dogs. I had to make dinner. You know, like, there's 1,000 reasons to settle and stay stuck in your life. And this is just, like, the perfect example of, like, you should always just seize the moment. And when something comes up that feels right, like, Get on board, do something different, get out of your comfort zone. Like, I didn't know what the heck I was going to ask Marcella. Like, how is this interview going to go? I've never done this before. But when you're feeling compelled to do something, like, just do it because it's amazing the magic that can come out of it, right?

So that's honestly where that video came from. A lot of people don't associate this, but that was the day that everyone was talking about Roe versus Wade. And I honestly just felt like I have to say something. And one of the big questions that I always ask myself when I don't know what to say or do, I ask myself, where can I be useful? And the first thing that came to my mind, I was sitting literally right here. I was right here sitting on my bed. And I thought, where could I actually be useful? Me, like, getting on and complaining and voicing a political opinion wasn't actually very useful to women to feel powerful. And I thought, you know what? I'm gonna share what has been powerful to me. And maybe it will help someone feel like, I see you, I hear you. And I can help you. Instead of being like, just angry.

Yeah.

And that's why that's literally what came out of my mouth. And I, I hardly even edited it. It just fell out. And I posted it not thinking anything, nothing of it. And the next morning woke up to 2 million views.

Love it. Oh my gosh.

So yes, girl, do whatever is in you to do.

Yes. Thank you so much. People need to read your book and they need to keep searching for answers if they know they don't feel well. You deserve a better life. Like, don't stop until you get it. Like, don't give up. That's the moral of the story, right?

Yes, you deserve to feel good. You are amazing. I just love that you've been doing this for so long. You are so knowledgeable, and I'm so excited for my audience to come and find you and hear all of the goodness that you have. We should definitely do a follow-up. We need to do something else because this is great. This has been such a joy. Thank you so much.

Oh my gosh, my pleasure. Love it. All right. I know that episode touched you. Even if you haven't gone through some crazy hormone imbalances, which I'd be shocked, you feel for her, right? You feel for me. You feel for all of the women that have gone through this because it's very dramatic and it's life-altering. So I want you to help me. I'm on a mission to spread the word Marcella is on the mission. Like, we need to help women be heard and acknowledged that what they're feeling is real. They're not crazy, and there's help out there. That's the biggest thing is that women are being told there's nothing they can that can be done, and there's so much that can be done. So I really hope you share this episode. Hit. Hit the like button, hit the subscribe button. iTunes and everybody need to know that this is important for women. Like, this is our livelihood. Hormones are everything to us. They define who we are, and it's really hard to live without them. So thank you, ladies. Thank you for accepting all the vulnerability and the realness. I hope that you can embrace that for yourself, um, and be honest with yourself how you're feeling and the struggles you're going through. And just know that there are answers, there are solutions. So let me know what you think, okay? And I'll see you very soon. Bye, guys.