It took one person asking one question nobody else had thought to ask.
Twenty days after my husband and I moved in together, my period didn't come — and then it didn't come back. What started as a pregnancy mystery turned into something being really wrong with me. Two-hour naps I couldn't skip. Body aches like a permanent flu. Brain fog. A cold every few weeks. I was living in San Diego, working in health, eating real food, drinking my water, moving my body — doing everything right and getting worse every single month.
So I did what you're supposed to do. GPs, OB-GYNs, specialists, referrals to more referrals. And what I heard, over and over, was one word I came to dread: normal. Your labs look normal. Nothing concerning here. I heard it so many times I started to believe it — started wondering if I was overreacting. Meanwhile I was getting sicker. After a year I had five diagnoses from five doctors, none of which matched or explained anything.
Then I found a doctor who, before she ordered a single test, asked me one question: “Have you been exposed to mold?” I burst into tears. It was the first time in a year I felt like someone was finally looking at the right picture.
I had been. My estrogen had climbed to some of the highest levels those doctors had seen; my progesterone was almost gone. Three fibroids the size of softballs. My body had been stuck in that loop for close to a year — while everyone told me my labs looked normal. Finding it didn't make it fast: detox, surgery, and waiting I had to choose over and over. By the time we were cleared to try, almost three years had passed.
It took two cycles. She looks exactly like me. When we tried for our second, I was 41 — we looked at the whole picture, went in prepared, and it took two cycles again.
Parts of this still make me angry. But it's the whole reason I do this — because every woman who's been told she's normal deserves the person who finally asks the right question.
Kelsey · Functional Fertility Nutrition Expert · 24 years in nutrition