Your Inner Estrogen:
An Individualized, Natural Approach to Understanding and Balancing Your Hormones Before and After Menopause

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Living Women’s Health

Women’s health is more than just my job and career. It’s my life experience!

When I was 24 years old, I was diagnosed with stage 4 endometriosis. This disease causes cells that are normally found inside the uterus to grow outside and attach onto other organs, such as the bladder and the bowel. It took ten years and many painful menstrual cycles before the diagnosis was confirmed. I spent the next decade undergoing difficult surgeries and various hormonal treatments.

After being told by several physicians that I would never have children, I decided to focus on my career. Incredibly, I learned I was pregnant when I was thirty years old and in my first year of graduate school. I was within days of having my uterus and both ovaries removed! Fortunately, my surgeon had the wisdom to do a pregnancy test when I missed my period, even though he said “we know you’re not pregnant.”

Things were a little more complicated during my pregnancy because my mother was given diethylstilbestrol (DES) when she was pregnant with me. This is a synthetic estrogen that was prescribed to prevent miscarriage. Years later, some children born to these women developed rare cancers and/or problems related to fertility. Ironically, as a DES child, there was an increased risk that I would also have a miscarriage. Thankfully, nine months later I gave birth to a healthy baby girl who is now 24 years old.

The endometriosis returned just two years after my daughter was born and I eventually had my reproductive organs removed in 1994. This threw me into menopause and I began to experience in just one day, what usually occurs over several years. I experimented a great deal with various hormones as well as other remedies marketed as more “natural” than prescription hormones.

Along the way my breasts were responding to these many hormonal changes. After five biopsies and at least ten cyst aspirations, I was certain that there was something seriously wrong in my right breast. However, all of my tests were negative - even an MRI! I convinced my internist, surgeon and insurance company that I would be better off removing both breasts. The day after this surgery, in 1995, my surgeon called and said “I don’t know how you knew- you had atypical hyperplasia in both the lobules and the ducts of the right breast!” Although this is not invasive cancer, it’s possible that my actions saved my life. A good friend of mine was not so lucky. She was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and died in 1997. She was only 46 years old.

In 2000, I developed yet another common women’s health problem. It began with a sore hip. I became so debilitated, I needed to use a cane in order to walk. I went to see several expert rheumatologists and all of them told me the same thing: I had severe osteoarthritis in my left hip and I would probably need a hip replacement.

However, once again my intuitive sense regarding my health told me something different. I felt as though my body was under attack and, in fact, my ANA titers were very high. This is a blood test that is often used to screen for autoimmune diseases, largely a women’s health problem. Two years later I was told that I had an aggressive form of inflammatory arthritis. This made more sense to me. HOWEVER, the prescription drug treatment I was offered had the potential of causing more problems than cure.

I opted to focus on a rigorous physical therapy program along with some dietary changes and yoga. Today I can walk several miles without a cane! As long as I am faithful to this regimen, I can stay free of all pain medications. I also have to be careful that I am not overexposed to estrogen-like substances, since I learned from my “lived” experience, that my symptoms were worse if my “inner estrogen” was too high.

I’ve shared all of this personal history with you because these life experiences have taught me valuable lessons about health, illness and healing. They are not the kind of lessons that health providers usually learn in classrooms or science laboratories. Nonetheless these are important sources of knowledge that should be valued and shared!

My Professional Background

I started climbing the career ladder in a hospital kitchen, serving food to employees. Soon after, I started school at a local community college and became a registered nurse. That was 1974.

During the subsequent years I finished my bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees at Skidmore College, the University of Rochester in New York and the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I am certified as both a Women’s Health and Gerontology Nurse Practitioner. I was also one of the first 100 health care providers, including physicians, to be certified as a Menopause Practitioner by the North American Menopause Society.

Over the years, I’ve practiced in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and private offices in both the Midwest and the East coast. Currently I am Director of the Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner Program at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. I also have a private consulting practice in New York City.

© 2006 by Pat Camillo