Mary J.’s Story

This day, I am a renewed person. I say this because I am now the happy, healthy, and active person I was once, before my problems with autoimmune thyroiditis, yeast infections, and deficient progesterone levels began, not to mention the inability of numerous doctors to fix the problems.
 

I had always had trouble with hormones, even in my early 20's, but finding a doctor to correct that problem was impossible, because they all wanted to put me on birth control pills. I had always had an adverse reaction to any birth control pills that I took. As long as I had no stress in my life, enough sleep, and I was not ill, my hormone levels were fine, but the minute I encountered stress or an illness, became more active, or did not get much sleep a few nights in a row, it would throw my hormone levels off. My husband and I had been trying (and I mean we tried hard!) to have another child for over ten years with no success.

 

Before all of my symptoms began, I woke up at 4:15 a.m. almost every day to go work out, but then I began feeling like I was being drugged or that I was drunk all of the time. I began having digestive problems and severe acid reflux. I found it very hard to stay awake during my hour trip to work during the week, even after what I thought was a good night’s sleep. I was late for work every day because I could hardly drag myself out of bed. After being an early morning person for many years, it was real hard for me to not be able to get up early in the morning. I would come home from work, eat, and go to bed. My family and my boss began to worry about me because I was just not the same person who woke up early and kept going all day long. Sex was completely out of the question because, let’s face it, I did not have the energy to participate in physical activity at the time. All I wanted to do was sleep. 

 

I came to my wit’s end when, for no apparent reason, I gained 20 pounds in two months and could barely think or walk in a straight line. Functioning physically was a huge chore for me during that time. I sought help from eleven doctors in various medical fields. Several of them said I had no thyroid or hormone problems, and several wanted to put me on antidepressants. One even suggested that I seek psychiatric help for my condition (I am ashamed to say that I wanted to slap that one). I then came across an article that Dr. Hotze wrote and realized that the symptoms of the patient that he referenced in that article were the exact symptoms I was having.

 

I saw Dr. Hotze in the latter part of May 2000. He put me on hormone replacement therapy, thyroid medication, and various other medications, vitamins, minerals and supplements. I was instructed to go on a diet free from yeast, sugar, etc. (all the fun stuff). I thought he was out of his mind, but I did everything that I was instructed to do. At the time, I did not understand how his program could work. I waited until the beginning of June 2000 to begin the eating plan, so I had time to purchase the things needed for the diet and, admittedly, to psyche myself up for it.

 

Four months later, I had lost a little over 20 pounds but, more importantly, I had the energy, vitality and libido that I had before all of my problems began. That is not all, as there was icing on the cake: I got pregnant after struggling with infertility for over ten years! When I was about six months pregnant, I was still asking my doctor if he was sure I was pregnant because I still could not believe it. My youngest son will be 5 in July and has brought so much joy to my life. I could not imagine my life without him, and I have Dr. Hotze to thank for that.