Part 1: Solving the Mystery of Low Libido and Adrenal Fatigue with Dr. Renee Wellenstein

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March 16, 2022 - Episode #92 - Part 1: Solving the Mystery of Low Libido and Adrenal Fatigue with Dr. Renee Wellenstein

So, I have a question…How often do you struggle with your health while simply wearing a mask that everything is just fine?  How often do you dismiss signs and symptoms that your body is telling you that something is remiss? Today begins a two-part series with Dr. Renee Wellenstein.  You will hear her story of struggle, how an accident led to a dependence on pain meds, depression and a whole series of health problems and how doctors gave up on her.   She came to accept the cravings, fatigue, chronic pain, low libido, brain fog and low self-esteem as her norm and felt hopeless.  
It wasn’t until she met with a Functional Medicine doc that she finally felt hope as this doctor helped a fellow doctor get to the root of her health issues.

In this podcast you will hear how to solve the mystery of low libido and adrenal fatigue.  It’s not normal to be tired every day and struggle with cravings, and not have a sex drive.  Let’s take off the mask and get to the real problem today on Healthy Harmony. 

Before I introduce our guest today, I wanted to highlight a recent review of the Healthy Harmony podcast…..from Green Mama of 3 ….she writes “I enjoy each episode so so much.  Always the most practical tips in my effort to live a healthier and happier lifestyle.  I literally leave each episode with notes on something new to try.  I look forward to new episodes each week!

Thank you Green Mama of 3! 

I would love to hear from you! So please leave a rating and a review and maybe your review will be featured on the podcast.  Don’t forget to click subscribe on your favorite podcast platform of choice so you don’t miss a thing.

Today's amazing guest is Dr. Renee Wellenstein.  She is double board certified as a Ob/Gyn and an Anti-Aging physician.  She has also completed her fellowship as a Functional Medicine doctor.  She runs a successful virtual practice helping busy, professional women up-level their health and wellness through personalized functional medicine consulting. And she is the host of The Real Heal podcast. Dr. Renee is known as the Libidologist.  But before you go thinking this podcast is just about this hot, sexy topic...think again.  Dr. Renee is all about helping women address the root issue and take control of their health so they have more energy and feel amazing! To check out Dr. Renee, go to https://www.drreneewellenstein.com/ or on social media @drreneewellenstein. 

Enjoy and be sure and tune in next time for Part 2!!
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Read Full Transcript below

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

March 16, 2022 - Episode #92 - Part 1: Solving the Mystery of Low Libido and Adrenal Fatigue with Dr. Renee Wellenstein

Speaker 1:
Just a little heads up, although today's podcast is not too graphic, it is certainly not one that is meant for little ears. So if you're a mama, you might wanna listen to this one alone. Now I have a question for you. How often do you struggle with your health while simply wearing a mask? That everything is just fine. How often do you dismiss signs and symptoms that your body is telling you that something is remiss? Today begins a two-part series with Dr. Renee Wellenstein. You will hear her story of struggle. How an accident led to a dependence on pain, meds, depression, and a whole series of health problems, and how doctors gave up on her. She came to accept the cravings, the fatigue, the chronic pain, the low libido brain fog and low self-esteem as her norm. And she felt hopeless. It wasn't until she met with a functional medicine doctor that she finally felt hope as this doctor helped Dr. Renee get to the root of her health issues. In this podcast, you will hear how to solve the mystery of low libido and adrenal fatigue. It is not normal to be tired every day and struggle with cravings and not have a sex drive. Let's take off the mask and get to the real problem today on Healthy Harmony.

Speaker 1:
Welcome. This is the Healthy Harmony podcast. I'm Jennifer Pickett Dietitian turned functional medicine, health coach. I help spiraling moms overcome the overwhelm through functional wellness coaching for the body, mind, and soul so they can transform their health and live a deeply fulfilled life of freedom and harmony. Okay, let's get real. When it comes to your health, you know what to do, I help you make this shift from knowing to actually doing the last 25 years of experience have taught me that the absolute last thing a woman needs is a lecture about self-care and another unrealistic diet plan. I recognize the importance of compassionate and intentional health practices. So you can feel good because guess what, when you feel good, you are more likely to make better decisions for your health. If you're ready to take control of your complete health address, the obstacles standing in way and live a life of freedom and harmony, my friend, you're in the right place.

Speaker 1:
Before I introduce our guest today, I wanted to highlight a recent review of the Healthy Harmony podcast from Green Mama of Three. She writes, I enjoy each episode. So, so much always the most practical tips in my effort to live a healthier and happier lifestyle. I literally leave each episode with notes and something new to tribe. I look forward to new episode each week. Thank you. Green mama of three. I appreciate you leaving that five star rating and review and Hey listen, guys, I would love to hear from you. So please leave a rating and a review, and maybe your review will be featured on this podcast. Don't forget to click subscribe on your favorite podcast platform of choice. So you don't miss anything. You're gonna absolutely love the hot topics and the expert guests that I have lined up. So don't miss a thing.

Speaker 1:
Dr. Renee Wellenstein is a double board certified doctor. Who's been working with women for over 20 years and to her own personal health challenges, she stepped outside of the box of conventional medicine to take a radically different approach to heal herself from the deep depth of burnout. About a decade ago, Dr. Renee was living what she thought was her dream life. She was an extremely busy OB GYN, married to a doctor with toddler twins and, and had moved to a quaint quiet town in the country. One day in may, 2012, Dr. Renee fell off of a horse during a ride and lesson and broke her back. She not only struggled with severe back pain, but with fatigue and the inability to focus, her doctor diagnosed her with depression, but her symptoms did not improve even after trying two different antidepressants. Two years after her injury, Dr. Renee was still struggling with unexplained symptoms after exhausting, all of her options in the conventional healthcare Sy system, she was putting with the doctor who is a quote unquote anti-aging practitioner. She finally received the appropriate diagnosis, her symptoms resolved, and she got back on her feet. And guess what she did. She joined the world of functional medicine.
Dr. Renee is double board certified in functional medicine. And as an OB GYN, it is her struggles that makes her as passionate as she is. She sees her clients online and she has an amazing podcast called the real hill, which I will confess has become one of my absolute favorite podcast. I love her approach. I love her style and all the experts that she has on her show. So I am really excited that she's here today. You will love how encouraging she is and relatable. She is. So please welcome Dr. Renee. We have a doozy of a podcast today with a functional medicine doctor who is a gynecologist and her name is Dr. Renee. Wellenstein so this is a different podcast. So I'm gonna give a warning. If you little ones around, we might be talking about some subjects that you don't want their little ears to hear. So today we are talking about libido, a very taboo subject. So Dr. Renee, I am so excited. You're here with me and I I've been waiting for this podcast. Thank you for joining me.

Speaker 2:
I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1:
This is going to be fantastic. Now, you know, I think people would look at you and say she has it all together. She's a functional medicine doctor, and she's got this beautiful family. And like, she, I mean, she has all of this success and like, she's got it all together, but I know there is a story of struggle there, tremendous struggle. So I wanna hear your story.

Speaker 2:
Absolutely. You know, that's the thing on the outside. I looked this one way and I've looked at for many years and on the inside and what I was personally going through was a different story. And I'd like to start, you know, prior to 2012, which is where my story really starts. But prior to then I was a conventionally trained OB GYN. I had been the living in a suburb of New York city. I married a fellow doctor. I had twins. So here, I thought I was living the dream life. And when my kids were a couple months old, we realized, ah, we gotta get out of the city life. Let's move to the country. So about a year later, they were just shy of one. We moved to a rural area in central new, and I got another job of course, easily. And again, dream life, right on top of that, I was the daughter of a dairy farmer.
 
So to cap off and icing on the cake for my dream life, I decided to get that, that horse that I had wanted since I was seven. I remember being a little girl and asked my dad, come on, come on, daddy, I'm on my horse. I wanna ride. We have a farm and no, no, no. So at the age of 39, I got my horse and I fell off that horse shortly after getting him and broke my back. And this was in 2012. And this is really where my story began. Because up until this point, I, I was going 150 miles an hour up every other night, delivering baby is doing all the things that a, an OB GYN does as well as a mom to at this point, you know, infant toddler twins. And I was forced to go from about 150 miles an hour to stop.

I would, I had a wheelchair or not a wheelchair, a Walker, a shower chair a brace, all the things and completely to work for six months. And in that six months, I had a lot of time to do some thinking. But my thinking at that point was I gotta get back to work, gotta get back to work, gotta back, get back to work. I felt guilt. I just felt shame. And you know, honestly in that six months I was getting given a prognosis while in the hospital of a six week recovery. And there was no surgery required, which was back then, I thought, great, get me back to work. But at that six week mark, I was still high, highly dependent on narcotics for pain management. I was still, you know, utilizing my brace and Walker at, at sometimes. And, you know, at that point was really when there was a shift because I was always an overachiever. I always succeeded. And when you give me a six week goal and I don't reach that goal, I feel like a failure. So that was the first of a series of failures that I felt over couple years. So I ultimately had a procedure got back to work at six months, but my scope of practice was very limited. I could no longer deliver babies or operate. And I really went into OB GYN for the variety. I really enjoyed delivering those babies, you know, operating and being in the office.

Speaker 1:
I bet that was devastating to you to not be able to deliver babies or do surgeries anymore. That was a bulk of your practice, right?

Speaker 2:
Yep. Yep. And even though it was the more stressful part of my practice, it was what brought me greatest joy and sure. You know, to sit in the office every day, day in, day out doing pap smears, really, in my opinion, not transforming women's lives anymore. I was put on this earth to make a difference. And when I would come home at night, I was like, gosh, I am just not making a difference. Like, why do I even show up for work? Which kind of led to the like, why even get outta bed in the morning? You know, and I really, at that point in my life saw that sense of purpose dwindling, like, and I realized the importance of purpose in your life. I had really taken it for granted up until that point. And then over the next, I would say year, year and a half started struggling little by little with these other lingering symptoms that had always been there.

But I was so much slowed down that I actually started noticing them. One of which was the inability to get outta bed in the morning. You know, pretty much living on a pot of coffee a day, get through my day or some other form of energy drink turning to the chip, the cookies, because number one, I had the craving for them. Number two, they were fast because I was so fatigued that I really couldn't. I'd open the fridge and see the salad in there and think, gosh, I could make a salad or I could go to the cabinet and get a bag of chips. So I would go get the bag of chips and go back and sit on the couch or lay on the couch. And of course I was gaining weight. I really, as a mom of, at this point, my kids were 5, 6, 7 years old.

I really felt, I hate to say it like a deadbeat mom. Like, I'm my gosh. Like I don't even feel like playing with my kids. I can't stand up long enough for forget it as a wife. Like I just had no libido. Speaking of libido, I, I really did not. I had really low self-esteem and, and confidence. Mm. And it was just, just downward spiral that I was in, including the chronic pain that I was suffering from. At this point, I had failed, flunked out of physical therapy. My doctor pretty much had gone through all the medications. She could give me for my back. As far as the pain, you know, I was on medications, pretty strong anti-inflammatories as well as pain killers. In addition to medications that counteract the side effects such as constipation and nausea, all those great things. Yes. And I was essentially living in this fog and I remember saying it to my husband one night. Like, I can't go on living like this. This is not living because you know, my doctors were like, well, there's nothing more we can do this. Is it.

Speaker 1:
Did you feel like your doctors kind of gave up on you at that point?

Speaker 2:
Absolutely. Absolutely. I had never felt so low in my life. I had never, ever felt like no one was helping me. I was hopeless for ever feeling better, you know, and that I would continuously flash back to the life I used to have. I went through all the stages of grieving, by the way, if anyone's ever gone through like major trauma or life changing event, like in retrospect, like I was angry. I was resentful of all the people that had their normal lives and here mine was drastically, radically changed. And, and I didn't even know I was going through all of these, all of these stages, but I did. And it came down to the point where I was like, I need something else. So I knew if I went back to my doctor complaining of all of the symptoms I was having, she was gonna tell me I have depression.

And sure enough, I went back, told her all my symptoms. She's like, you know, Renee, your life was turned upside down. It's completely different than it ever was before. I think you have depression. I'm like, yep. I've already diagnosed myself. But I, you know, I remember saying to her, I don't feel like this is what depression should feel like. I, I don't feel like I'm gonna cry all day. I just can't get outta bed in the morning. I just am dragging all day. And all those other symptoms, symptoms I previously explained and you know, she's like, well, let's just try this antidepressant. So I went on this antidepressant and of course I got all the side effects and it did not take any of my previous symptoms away. So I did what any good patient does. I went back in three months and went on a second medication because we never questioned the D although I was, but I didn't even, I couldn't even imagine what else it could be.

Speaker 1:
Yeah.

Speaker 2:
Yeah. And so I went on the second antidepressant and within a week I knew this is not, this is not it. Something else is wrong. Ironically, at the same time, I got the number of a functional medicine doc. And to be completely transparent, I was at this point selling antiaging, skincare. Like I went into the direct sales world because I was so without purpose and so bored with my medical life. Like, I'm like just gimme something fun to do something to wake up for. And so of course, since it was antiaging skincare, she was an antiaging doctor. My friend's like, Hey, talk to my doctor. And I'm thinking, what is, what is this functional medicine stuff? Right. But I hopped on the phone with her one night, not at all to talk about my health or anything else just to sell her some skincare. And we quickly transitioned the conversation, cuz she's like I have my own skincare line, but let's talk about you.

Cause she had heard about my injury. So we kind of went through what I would've been going through and I, and I really scaled it down and she's like, I, and this is like within probably five, 10 minutes of conversation. She's like, I really don't think you have depression. I think you have something called adrenal fatigue. And of course I'm sitting on my bed, it's about nine o'clock at night. I have my computer on my lap and I start Googling like adrenal fatigue. And right there was, was me like, that was me on that page with all of those symptoms. Like

Speaker 1:
My goodness. And I, and so you were not familiar with adrenal fatigue,

Speaker 2:
No idea, no idea.

Speaker 1:
And they did not cover that in medical school, correct?

Speaker 2:
No, no, no, no, no, no. You know, we only, we only think of, you know, a dysfunction of the adrenals is, is severe. It's either you're making no hormones or you're waking, making way too much. It was like, there's no in between. And that's kind of where adrenal fatigue is. And so I'm sitting there reading the symptoms and I am going, I, number one, I had an aha moment like, oh my gosh, this is me. I, and the series of things after that was this woman on a phone I've never met her, is helping me and giving me hope that like, I, I'm not crazy because you know, her validating my symptoms and saying, this is what I think you had was huge. Cause I don't know how many women are out there that you go to your doctor with symptoms. And since you're not, your labs are all normal and you're not fitting in that to box, you know, diagnosis box.

I, you you're made to think you're crazy. Like, yes, yes. Oh my gosh, there's something wrong with me. And that is exactly where I was, you know, not only did I was I rock bottom, feeling helpless and hopeless, but I honestly thought I was going crazy. And so in, like I said, five to 10 minutes, I'm a like, oh my gosh, this woman got it. Like this is, I think what's going on. And you know, of course we, we had to go test for it and make sure that is what it is. But the fact that it was just put on my radar and then the next aha moment was wait a second. How come I have been in medicine for over 15 years? And I have never heard of this before. Like where, or has this been and how many other women are suffering from this that I have personally seen that I told were normal.

You're just gonna have to live with these symptoms and right on the heels of her, pretty much telling me what was wrong with me. She was like, you know, do you wanna join me in practice? And in a, in a functional medicine practice. And of course here goes my, my keyboard again, I'm like typing functional medicine doctor. Like, what is this? I didn't even do my research before getting on the phone with her. And that's how unmotivated I was. I'm like, okay, what are you gonna do for me? You know, like no one else can help me. Yes. And when I saw what a functional medicine doc does, I was like, oh my gosh, this is my purpose in life. Like, this is my next calling. Like, this is how I'm gonna wake up in the morning

Speaker 1:
I love that. I love that.

Speaker 2:
And, and so right then, and there, I decided I was gonna go back into a fellowship in functional medicine and join this woman who I had just met on the phone for the first time in practice. And that's exactly what I did.

Speaker 1:
That's incredible, incredible. So, I mean, I love how it was literally a chance meeting about skincare and she quickly came alongside you and said, let's talk about you and, and got to the root of the issue. And, you know, we, we use that term root issue so much, you know? And it's interesting to hear you say that like things like adrenal fatigue that is not talked about in medical school, those root problems are not really discussed.

Speaker 2:
No, not at all. I mean, if you, you know, there's not a real diagnosis on the ICD 10, you know, adrenal fatigue, you know what we liked and we really don't use it in the world of functional medicine as much anymore. I think it's beautiful because it perfectly describes what the situation of the adrenals are. You know, what they're doing at that time. They're really tired. But it's really, you know, I call it adrenal dysfunction or HPA dysfunction, you know, which is hypothalamic, pituitary, adrenal dysfunction. So that kind of describes it more technically. But if we really wanna describe like, what is going on, your poor little adrenals are tired from chronic stress, you know, and for me it was that years of chronic stress. And then literally the, the straw that broke my back was falling off that horse. And, you know, that's what put me over the edge. And you know, to, to downward spiral for about a year and a half to two years without a diagnosis, which was pretty devastating. And fortunately, I'm still alive to talk about it because to have that thought a suicidal ideation, because I felt so hopeless and helpless. And like, I, I just couldn't go on being that mom, that wife, that, that clinician who was no longer, you know, transforming lives, like I couldn't go on living like that. So,

Speaker 1:
And to be at such a point of desperation and, and two to be seeking help from medical professionals and them literally running out of options. And you know, what you described? I think I hear this every single day from my clients. They get so frustrated because they go to the doctor, their labs are quote unquote normal, and they're made to feel like it's all in their head. And basically the doctor's like, well, I, yeah, I don't know, like you, you're fine. And this woman's like, no, I'm not fine. I'm not okay. But her feelings are not even validated about what's and she knows something's going on with her body. So it, I think I just hear that. In fact, I heard it from someone this morning, you know, just that frustration of my doctors, not listening to me. So let me, I do wanna, I wanna ask you first about adrenal dysfunction and how to address that. What are some of these signs and symptoms of this HPA access dysfunction adrenal dysfunction, adrenal fatigue. What does that look like? What are some of the symptoms and signs associated with that?

Speaker 2:
I had pretty classic symptoms. You know, I think even with my clients, the biggest thing I see is extreme exhaustion and fatigue and inability to get outta bed in the morning. And I think for women, we start beating ourselves up by saying, you know, like we can't get outta bed, what's wrong with us. Like, we're, you know, gosh, we must be lazy. And so that extreme fatigue, exhaustion inability to get outta bed is classic. You know, pretty much living on either caffeine cravings for salt and sugar, huge. You know, the caffeine and the sugar is essentially for energy because you are so exhausted. The salt could be is usually a little more along the electrolyte line as far as what the adrenals produce. But, you know, you definitely get salt craving as well. The weight gain, or especially in the midsection is classic because there are four times more cortisol receptors on your cells and your abdomen versus any other part of your body.

So when you have your cortisol really high, which is usually from chronic stress, you know that so cortisols are stress hormone. And you know, it's supposed to be high in the morning and gradually go down as the day goes on and be lowest at night, at which time our melatonin, which is our sleep hormone starts coming up. And what happens is from years of chronic stress, you know, you think you're doing well, but your poor little adrenal glands, which produces hormone and cortisol are getting tired. They can't, they can't churn out that cortisol as much as it's needed to cope with a day to day nonstop from morning to night stressors. And, you know, you don't put out that, that cortisol as abundantly at certain times of the day, particularly the morning, which is what leads to the morning fatigue. But you know, this high cortisol pumping out sporadically is actually what helps cause that weight gain in the middle, as well as those cravings for the sugar, the quick energy, because your body thinks it's fighting a tiger day in and day out.

Like you are just primed to, to be on and to potentially have to run. And what you need for that is sugar. So, you know, you get the cravings, you get it mobilized, you know, released from your cells and your body to be able to do its job. And you know, that, that self-esteem and, and low confidence. I honestly, for most women, I see it kind of comes hand in hand with that weight gain, with that feeling like beating yourself up every day that you just don't have that motivation to stick to the diet or to get up and exercise or any of that, because you are just completely exhausted. And you know, also constipation is a big one too, because essentially again, yep. Your body is like shunt all this resources to the muscles. So you can run again, your body doesn't know like a negative thought, a stressor over finances, you hate your, your job. Like those are all stressors to your body, but your body doesn't know that you're not running from that tiger. It's like, oh my God, she's gonna die. She's gotta run. Let's, let's give her as much sugar and let's hold, hold onto as much fat because if you are dying and eat, we gotta hold onto some, some fat. So yeah. Yeah. You know, really significant inability to lose weight as well.

Speaker 1:
It's incredible. Everything you just described. And I think it's important to know, you know, the body lumps, all of that stress together. And I like how you really described. I have never heard a better explanation of a adrenal dysfunction, adrenal fatigue. So thank you so much. I think, you know, sometimes women might hear that term and it's not explained very well. So thank you for explaining that so well, so I know that was part of your journey. What did you do to turn that around?

Speaker 2:
Well, you know, when she gave me the diagnosis, number one, I, I went off the answer to press, you know, because I'm like, this is not doing me any good. And for your listeners out there never go off an antidepressant, like cold Turkey, talk to your doctor and obviously to know we off. But I realized that a lot of the, the foundational changes were essentially lifestyle changes that I had to make such as, you know, getting off the chips and the pot of coffee and all those things that were giving me the artificial energy throughout the day. But in order to do that, and I do this with my clients as well, I do strategically use supplements because if I'm talking to a woman who's very overwhelmed, which I know we both do. Highly stressed, no energy. Right. And I, to tell her to change her diet, she's gonna be like, yeah, no, I'm too tired for that. Yeah. So I do, I love giving her something her body actually needs, which is be complex almost a a hundred percent of the clients I work with are deficient in, be vitamins because of the chronic stress and the fact that we're not getting it in our diet, you know, even whole food diet of our fruits, our veggies, our produce, they're just not packed with the nutrients like they used to be. So right. A lot of times, you know, we got that compounded by our chronic stressors, which are depleting our bodies O of these B vitamins, give her the B vitamins to help not only produce chemicals in our body that help with relaxation and happiness, they're called, you know, dopamine, GABA, serotonin.

Those are all like things that make you feel good and better, but these B vitamins actually help give you a little bit of energy. So, you know, I find that helping women and myself included this is what I had to do. I had to give myself a few supplements to help, like, okay, let, let's give me in lieu of the pot  of coffee, let's take a B complex and and really help give me some energy back. The other thing I did also, there's two other key supplements to help with my stress and my adrenals number one was an adrenal gland adaptogen, which essentially what that does is it's an herb that helps adjust your cortisol. So for instance, result in the morning was low. So it would actually help raise my cortisol in the morning. And ironically, my cortisol in the evening was high. And I didn't actually talk about that. I, I would get a second wind at around 10 o'clock. So if I didn't get to bed, I was up until midnight, one o'clock, which doesn't sound, it sounds very counterintuitive to someone who is extremely fatigued, but this is the dysfunction in that cortisol, like, right,

Speaker 1:
Right.

Speaker 2:
I cortisol would start going back up again.

Speaker 1:
It's that wired and tired type of thing, you know? And I think so many women get stuck in that trap up, and then they're also staying up late to try to be productive. Like they, they kind of get that second wind if you will. And then they're like, well, I need to be productive anyway. And then we're sacrificing sleep, which is making this even worse. Right.

Speaker 2:
Yeah. And I know, you know, the modern day mom out there, that's trying to do it all. Like she, especially with this recent pandemic and she have children in your homeschooling or virtual schooling and have a, maybe you have a home business, or you're just even trying to keep up with housework, right. You're staying up late to get everything done, falling into bed at night and then dragging yourself outta bed in the morning. So, so I essentially had it, you know, to use something, to help my cortisol levels. And the third was something called L theanine, which is an amino acid from green tea. The very, like non-toxic great supplement that how actually induces what they call alpha waves, which are more relaxing waves in the brain to help relax you. It gives you the sense of calm and without feeling sedated. So I always call it my natural Xanax because it gives you that calm feeling, but you don't feel like you wanna take a nap. 

It's really great for focus as well. Cause I don't know how many women out there, like when we get super stressed and like our brains start going all over the place like, oh, I gotta do this. I gotta do this. Helps with focus as well. So I really implemented strategic supplementation to actually help me start weeding out the coffee, the sugar, you know, and really start like having the energy to really make food, like, to even pour the salad mix out of the container into a bowl. Like that was hard for me in the past. And I know, I know this resonates with so many women out there because they're like, oh, even like I gotta take care of the kids and I have to make a salad. So, you know, I really made a conscious effort and I, and it really came this wake up call that I had to do this.

Like, nobody else was gonna do this, but me, like, my doctor was great. She's like, you know what, you're gonna get better. It's not gonna happen overnight cuz you didn't get here overnight. And I think that's very important to point out as well. Like this recovery process is a marathon. It's not a sprint. It it's something that like little by little, you feel a little bit better every day. You're not gonna wake up tomorrow after making some changes and like, oh my gosh, I have all my energy back. But you have to remember like where you got today and where I got it didn't happen overnight. Yes. The injury was the catalyst to me feeling the symptoms. But it was, it was progressive over several years. And you know, I kind of just having that in my mind, like, okay, I not gonna wake up tomorrow and all of a sudden have all this energy, but I do find that like just showing up like every day. And I wanna say I started the changes in February by about may. I actually had enough energy to start exercising.

Speaker 1:
Okay, good, good. I wanna tell you, you pointed out your timeline there because I think sometimes as women were like, okay, I've gotta make all these lifestyle changes and we try to do it all and that never works. So I like how you implemented some things very strategically. So you're saying you went from February implementing some changes. You didn't really start the exercise until

Speaker 2:
No. End of may. So it was beginning of February to the end of may. Yep. So, you know, I did those few supplements. I started to make small changes in my diet. Like it wasn't like one morning I woke up and had no more coffee and it, you know, ate all whole foods. That was not me. It was like, okay, let's cut down one cup of coffee every couple days to the point where I'm at a healthier one to two cups a day, let's, you know, try at least one time a day when I wanna go for those chips, let's try to have maybe carrots and hummus instead. And you know, obviously putting them more accessible in my house was huge too. You know, like making sure I get to bed by like 9, 9 30 because I, until I corrected my, of cortisol I, I, I had to get to bed before 10 and just knowing that like, you know, I was like, oh gosh, like I just made a conscious effort to try to get a good night's sleep.

And you know, it was interesting because even by may I, what kind of prompted the exercises, I actually felt more energetic. I was actually waking up in the morning without having to drag myself out with the alarm. Like I was waking up before my alarm, which really was an indication that things were starting to look on the up and up, you know, like, so I would actually get outta bed and go to my basement and work out for 20, 30 minutes before my kids got up. And that was huge because this is a woman that I couldn't get outta bed in the morning. You, you know, like I was dragging myself, I was, I was typically not a snooze person. I was snoozing. I was, you know, like I would literally walk like step outta bed and think like, when can I take a nap again? And here I am,

Speaker 1:
This was a huge shift. I mean, literally one extreme to another, but I love how you've outlined. It really took some time for your body to turn this around. And it sounds like you were very kind to your body in this process.

Speaker 2:
I was just so grateful. I have to be honest, I was grateful that I was actually gonna get some sort of energy and, and life back because I felt like for a year and a half, two years after my injury, I was in a complete fog and just, just going through the motions of life and not living. And the fact that I knew there was a bigger goal at the end, which is me maybe not being the way I was pre-injury, but maybe just as good. I was just like, I can wait. Like I, if I can just put one foot in front of the other, like 1% better or towards my goals every day. And if I, you know, did 1% worse, one day, no big deal. Like I didn't beat myself up. I, I really started working on my mindset big time, like how I talked to myself because I found I started on that a huge personal development journey in 2014.

And it continues to this day, seven years later. But I found that my mind and me playing victim for about a year and a half was not serving me and me poor me and why this happened to me like the Mimi, me and you don't know how I feel. That was really not serving my, my health, my wellness, my future. So I really had to start working on how I thought about myself, how I thought everyone else was thinking about me. And that was also pivotal in my recovery because, you know, and, and belief in myself that I could do this. Because up until then, you know, like again, I had failed so many times over my recovery. Like I never met the deadlines. I flunked out of physical therapy. Like, you know, there were so many strikes against me. Like what made me think now I was actually gonna get better.

But the belief of this doctor and her saying like, it's a, it's a, it's a long haul. Like it's not gonna be overnight. And just me, like I said, little by little at the three and a half month, month mark, right? March, April month. Yeah, three and a half months. I was actually like, I wanna exercise. Like I didn't force myself to exercise. Maybe go take little walks, but I have to say, I also became very much of a hermit during this time. Like, I, I live in a very small town and I felt like everyone was talking about me. So I, I really stayed in a lot. People didn't really see me. So when I, I actually erupted outta my house a few months later as its beautiful butterfly.

Speaker 1:
I love it. I love it

Speaker 2:
I went into my little Coco and you know, I walk out and people are like, oh my gosh, where have you been? And oh my gosh, you've lost weight. You look so much happier. You look like you have your life back. Like, you know, up until then people would see me. They're like, you look like they didn't say I looked sick, but they were like, are you okay? Cause I looked ill. Yes. You know, I had and I mean, for me, I love wearing makeup, loved doing my hair. I wasn't doing any of that because it just, the self-care wasn't there. I didn't care about how I looked because I didn't feel good.

Speaker 1:
Lost yourself in, in the middle of that

Speaker 2:
Lost. Yep. So, you know, I have to say like there's so many women out there that I, and I used to see, I, I now recall some of the women I used to see in my medical practice and like they probably had this and I didn't know what it was and I feel so bad, but like, I didn't know back then, and I know better now. So I can't go back to that conventional world where they don't recognize that this condition exists and that there is help and it doesn't have to be with a prescription medication.

Speaker 1:
Right. Right. I love how you covered that. That aspect of your mindset and looking at, what am I saying when I talk to myself and you reference, you know not playing the victim and, and continuing to ask yourself, why did this happen to me? Why did this happen to me? Cuz I think sometimes we get stuck in that spiral of why is this happening? And that really keeps us from moving forward.

Speaker 2:
Yeah. I had to break that cycle and that was the other thing, you know, like part of my recovery and knowing that I had to do this myself, like I had to, you know, everyone wants the, the tactical things to do like strategy. Like what, how much do I have to exercise? What do exactly do I have to eat? And I have the same. Mindset's not so sexy. You know, like to work on your mindset and to read the books and to do your affirmations or journal or whatever you have to do to heal yourself is not as sexy in the, in the world. But it's foundational. I, in my opinion, it's foundational to libido. It's foundational to overall health and wellness to your happiness. And you know, I, I find as a woman, it's a process. I started may of 2014 and I, I do it every single day.

Like I am constantly working on how I talk to myself, how I view myself, my body, my place, this world. And so, you know, we're never, I, I don't feel like we're ever done, you know, like we have years and years of like programming in our brain of like interactions with our peers or our parents growing up and things that were told to us that we have adopted as our story. This is who we are. And I have to ask is that you, is that really who you are, you know, like, and challenge some of the thoughts that you have about yourself, because if they are not serving you, they do not make you feel good. I'd really challenge like you to think, where did that come from? And how can we shift that? Because I had to do a lot of undoing during that time as well, because I was supposed to be the OBN until the day I died.

And there was a huge amount of ego identity placed with that. And so when I stepped away from conventional OB GYN, you know, even before I actually left my career as an OB GYN in the typical sense when I stopped delivering those babies and operating, that was a huge blow to my ego. That is who I was. That's where I got my, you know, that's where people appreciated me. That's where I got my praise, you know, like I, I realized that I like to be praised. I like to be thanked. I like to be appreciated. And I'm like, I'm not getting that anymore. Cause I'm not changing the lives. And you know, like I had to shift all that, like, okay, it's not about, you know, so, and it was about transforming the lives, but in that was this huge, thank you from someone that you changed her life.

Right? So like I realized that I put a huge amount of value in what I did for a living and that came to an end and I really had to work on like, okay, who am I now? Like, am I still a valued part of society and the medical community doing what I'm doing? And if not, how can I be? You know? And so it was huge. It was huge, but it was a decision I had to make for the safety of other mamas and babies out there that, you know, I, I had to give it up.

Speaker 1:
Yeah. And I love what you're doing now. So I love, I, I love story and what you've been through and you've described it so beautifully. So what would you advise to someone that is suffering from all of the symptoms that you have listed that inability to get outta bed in the morning and some of that depression and just pure exhaustion and craving sugar and salt and and the midsection weight gain, what would you advise that woman to do? What are her first steps?

Speaker 2:
Number one, have grace on yourself. You know, don't beat yourself up every day validation that this is real and that you are gonna feel better. And I think, you know, kind of foundational as well as like working on that mindset that you can feel better and that you are worthy and you're not lazy is, you know, the root of it is, is chronic stressors, right? Like trying to become aware of what is really tearing you down every day, day in and day out. Like, and you know, that becomes take that is awareness of like the stressors, but kind of with that is I was talking about my four D’s when it comes to stress. We, as women put on our to-do list, 10 things a day, right? Like we wake up the morning. Okay. I have 10 things. Okay. We realistically cannot get 10 things done, maybe three with all our other things that we have to do for the household, for the children, for the husband, all the things.

Right. So I always talk about my four DS of like each day or even the night before, like think about what you have to get done and what you have to the first D do. And what else is on your list that you can delegate? What can you ask your partner to do? What can he ask your kiddos to do? I mean, I have 14 year old twins. Like they can help me a lot around the house. What can you ask maybe a friend to do, can your friend pick up the kids from school or I'll go over to, you know, have them go over there, her house, you know, to give you some alone time, some quiet time. And then there's the third D which is the elite. Like what can you completely take off your list? Like what does not have to be done that you just putting on your list to make, like you got more stuff done and what number four, can you delay what doesn't have to get done today?

What can wait till tomorrow, till next week to the week after? And you know, there's, there's that, and then there's just that communication component asking others for help. Because I think the biggest part when I was reflect on my journey through adrenal fatigue and before I thought I was that superwoman, that wonder woman, like I had to do it all right. I had to, and that's just my conditioning. I wanted to be appreciated by everyone. So I had to take care of the kids and I had to do the work and I, you know, had to take the husband and the house and all the things. And if I asked for help, I considered myself a failure. I'm not doing my duty. And you know, what that got me is adrenal fatigue and falling into bed at night. I never got the trophy by the end of the day, I fell into bed exhausted at night. So I think the biggest thing is like finding out where others can help you. Like, it's not a failure to ask for help. You can't do it all. Even though we like to think we can do it all. And

Speaker 1:
We do, we do

Speaker 2:
And, and stay sane. And I think part of that too, is prioritizing self care, like yeah. Time for you. And maybe that looks like a nap in the beginning when you're recovering. Like I took several naps in the beginning of my recovery and, you know, after having my diagnosis, I'm like, this is self care. This is me healing. This is not lazy.

Speaker 1:
Right. Right.

Speaker 2:
And you know, so essentially, you know, like what it be sitting, reading a book, you know, part of my, any, when I started really working on my mindset was a little bit of journaling or, or meditation or something just to get quiet, little walks out in nature, you know, connect with nature and just listen to the birds, be present. Cuz so many of us are living either in the past of what we didn't do, what we didn't do well or the future what's to come. And so of us are not just being here and now, which is so important for healing, especially when you don't even know how you feel in your body. Like how do you really feel, what is, what is the biggest of your symptoms? What is the biggest thing and what do we have to do to help that? So essentially whether it be again, the inability get outta bed in the more, that was all about cortisol.

So it was those supplements I had talked about in addition to getting to bed taking a ton off my to-do list, maybe taking a nap during the day, if I felt like that rejuvenated me in that, you know, kept me up at night. And then, you know, going through like weight gain my inability to lose weight or the weight gain around the was those slow dietary changes that I, that I made. But slow, like that's the key here. Like again, this is like little lifestyle changes, day in, day out, get to bed, drink your water, try to like, you know, maybe for a couple breakfasts a week shift out that cereal for maybe eggs or an omelet or something, you know, with a, another avocado, something a little more nourishing to your body, that's actually gonna help heal your body and heal your adrenals.

Speaker 1:
Yes. And would you recommend that someone, in addition to all of that, do you feel like someone really needs to like go to a functional medicine doctor to help them fully address this and get some testing done? What are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 2:
You know, I think it's so widespread. I do think it depends on the, I think the severity and your, your accountability to yourself. I think there are some women that are like, yep, I got this. You told me everything I need to do. I'm on it and I'm gonna do it. And yes, which is great. I know there's also many more women out there that number one feel really alone on this journey. Their partners may not understand what they're going through. They may think they're crazy. Like, what do you have? Like if you don't have this stuff, like you're just making your, your diagnosis up. Like you're just listening to this internet stuff and you know, so a lot of women might need that support of somebody else. Including, you know, a health coach or a doctor or something to be able to support them on their journey.

You obviously OB you know, you wanna make sure there's not something else going on, but a lot of times I am working with women that have gone to their doctors already have gone through the blood work. Everything's fine. Quote, unquote fine. And they're still not feeling well. And the other thing I wanna say, you know, including my story, like there are, I'm not saying I'm not Papo depression at all. Is just, I think that many of us, myself included back when I was in conventional medicine, because I didn't know how else to treat my, treat me, people like me. I would've given them depressant as well. And you know, for the person out there that's like maybe gone through my journey of like, yeah, it didn't feel like depression. And I tried it, it didn't work, ding, ding, ding, maybe it's something else, you know? So like

Speaker 1:
Very good point. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
Maybe

Speaker 1:
Something else.

Speaker 2:
Yeah. And I do think sometimes those with extreme, there are some that were extreme, that they were just low energy all day, including the at night. They're a little further on the spectrum on the scale of adrenal fatigue and they may actually need more assistance from their, from a doctor. But I do think there's a lot of DIY out there and certainly I didn't need any prescription medications to, for feel better.

Speaker 1:
Yeah. Yeah. This has been the most, this has been the best conversation and I think we have really reached a lot of women who are like, thank you for hearing me. I I'm going through the exact same thing and you just described it so beautifully. And then a very clear cut plan of action. So we're actually going to continue the conversation in the next podcast and we're gonna dive even deeper into hormone imbalance, low libido and everything that affects women's health. So guys join us for part two of this podcast, Dr. Renee, give us your where, where someone can get in touch with you real quick for this podcast. So I wanna make sure that that's at the end of this first of this part one

Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely. I am Dr. Renee Wellenstein across all social media. I am on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. I have a YouTube, I have a podcast, the Real heal I'm everywhere. And I also have a website Dr. Renee wellenstein.com.

Speaker 1:
So good. Thank you so much for joining us. 

Speaker 2:
Thank You.

Speaker 1:
Don't worry. We are not done with Dr. Renee as a guest. Yes. She has been one of my absolute favorites. I love how knowledgeable she is. I mean, clearly she knows her stuff. She's double board certified as a OB GYN and a functional medicine doctor. Just a very powerful combination. So yeah, she knows her stuff, but here's what I love. She's relatable and she's encouraging. So I just think she does an excellent job of speaking to the hearts of women. So yes, we are not done with her. She will be our guest and, and we're gonna continue that conversation in two weeks as we continue to solve the mystery of low libido and adrenal fatigue, it's time for you to feel better. SIS. Remember if you're looking for a health coach to help you get to the root of your issues, don't forget. I have a 15 minute discovery call. Just go to inspire healthy harmony.com. And I'll talk to you soon until we meet again, have a good day. My friend.