Dr. Tabitha Barber, an OB/GYN, describes how a sudden drop in estrogen triggered severe depression, which she treated with a transdermal estrogen patch. She argues for individualized hormone care that addresses root causes like gut health and sleep, not dismissive conventional medicine.
Questions this video answers
47 (almost 48) years old.
Triple board certified; OB/GYN and Functional Medicine physician.
Approximately over a year.
Started with a 0.05 mg patch cut in half (0.025 mg), then used 0.05 mg, and later increased to 0.075 mg (by adding another half).
Yes — she was on antidepressants in her 20s and 30s.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Dr. Tabitha, 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 gyne health and your overall health. 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, welcome back, ladies. Oh my goodness. This episode is super important to me. So I just want to explain what the heck happened to me last week because this might happen to you or maybe it's already happened and you're like, what's going on with me? So I want to share my personal story of what's been going on. So you know, I am 47. I'm almost 48 years old. I used to have estrogen dominance quite bad. When I was still working as an ob gyn, I was sleep deprived, I was extremely stressed out. I was living on junk food and garbage and I had estrogen dominance. So I cleaned all that up over time with functional medicine. I cleaned up my diet, I started sleeping and just prioritizing good sleep habits. Giving up obstetrics definitely helped with the sleep and the stress management of it all. So fast forward, you know, eight years later, I have been having more symptoms of progesterone deficiency. And I've been on oral progesterone at bedtime for probably over a year now. That really helped not only balance my estrogen dominance, but help me sleep again at night because I was waking up in the middle of the night and my mind was racing or I couldn't fall asleep at the beginning of the night because my mind was racing and I was starting to feel anxious and overwhelmed by things that normally wouldn't. And progesterone helped get rid of all of that. And so I've been on progesterone at bedtime for, like I said, I don't know, over a year maybe. But the past three or four months, I have had severe bouts of sadness where I am crying very easily. And I'm just feeling defeated with life and wanting to give up and not having any interest and in things and it lasts a couple days. And mind you, I was on antidepressants in my 20s and 30s when I had crazy irritable bowel syndrome and untreated Hashimoto's. I don't know if I ever had clinical depression or if I was just vitamin and mineral deficient and had other issues and gut dysbiosis. That is what I suspect because I was able to come off of my antidepressant once I healed my gut, got my hormones balanced, got my vitamins and minerals up to par, all of that. So here I am thinking, oh my gosh, am I depressed? What's going on? And I know that hormones play a significant role when it comes to mood and feelings. And so I was suspicious that I was having huge drops in estrogen and these low periods of estrogen episodes were causing this sadness and depression and just no motivation for life and whatever. So I had my hormone levels tested and in fact, that was what was going on. I thought, okay, I'm just stressing my system too much. I started running again. That's a physical stressor that can imbalance your hormones and rub your hormones. So I've been trying to manage it just with lifestyle changes. And last week I had a meltdown. I was crying. I did not want to continue my job, my career, any of this stuff that I was doing. I didn't want to be married to my husband anymore, and I didn't see a future for myself. And mind you, I'm a very driven person. I'm almost done writing my second book. I do this podcast every week. I'm always on other podcasts. I have a successful one on one private practice. I have children that I take care of and I'm raising. Like, I'm doing a lot of stuff. And I'm very driven and motivated. I have big goals and big dreams. But literally last week it was all gone. That was really scary. So I want to share this with you because it's so important for you to realize how important hormones are to our health. And I was having an episode of my estrogen just tanking to the ground. No estrogen. So we always tell women low estrogen is just hot flashes and night sweats and a little bit of mood swings. But I'm here to tell you it can be severe mood swings to the point where any doctor would hand you an antidepressant prescription, and that is not what you need. So it was amazing to me that I got myself some estrogen. I got an estrogen patch,.05 milligrams. I cut it in half because I'm still nervous about my history of estrogen dominance. And I took 025 milligram patch and within that same day of putting it on, I stopped hitting my life. I wanted to talk to my husband again. I got off the couch, I added the other half of the patch. So I was up to point zero five milligrams and, and I started to feel like myself again. I wasn't depressed. I was talking again. I was interested in life. And I bumped it up again. I added another half of a patch to 0.075 milligrams and I feel like myself again. It was the most eye opening experience that I have had and it, I just needed to share it with all of you because it is clear to me that our hormones are what drive us and keep us healthy and happy and who we are. And the fact that mine just tanked overnight and I didn't recognize myself as a person and didn't recognize wanting the life that I had, like, that was really scary. And so I want you to know, if you have had those feelings, if you're currently going through those feelings, you are not alone, you are not depressed, you are not crazy, you have a hormone issue. And so please, please, please, please don't let conventional medicine disregard you, blow you off, tell you it's just menopause, and get over it. You're just getting older. Get over it. You deserve to feel, deserve to be able to function like you always, you know, did in the past. And so I just, I can't advocate for women any harder than I am. We need our hormones and we need to make sure that we're being heard. So I hear you, I feel you. I promise. You know, I, I'm going through this with you, so I know what's up and I know that there's a good and a safe way to replace hormones. And then there is a not so safe way to, to replace hormones. So find a practitioner who knows what they're doing and can help you feel better because I promise you can, you can feel like your amazing self. I literally went from literally, I didn't want my life, like, I didn't want to do anything last week and here I am, like, excited to share this with you and keep going on this journey of everything that I'm doing. So I'm a testament to how important your hormones are and how important it is to get them balanced. So if you know anybody who needs to hear this message, please share it with them. I promise you, you might be saving their life or their marriage or their job, their career, their relationships and themselves. So that's it. Go have an amazing kick ass week, ladies. I love ya.
