E6 S2 | Difficult to Diagnose: Holistic Endometriosis and Hormone Expert Dr. LJ Johnson Shares What You May Not Know or Understand About Endometriosis

Welcome to Episode 6, Season 2 of the Sick and Seeking Podcast!

In this episode, I speak with Dr. LJ Johnson, a Holistic Endometriosis and Hormone Expert dedicated to empowering women to improve their quality of life despite their health challenges. This insightful conversation will change everything you thought you knew about endometriosis.

Join us as we explore these vital insights on navigating endometriosis and improving your overall well-being.

Conversation Highlights:

• Personal Journey: Dr. LJ shares her 16-year struggle to obtain a proper endometriosis diagnosis amidst limited options from conventional medicine.
• Shift to Holistic Health: Her realization that conventional approaches weren’t enough led her to retrain in functional medicine and holistic health.
• Understanding Endometriosis: We discuss how endometriosis involves uterine-like tissue outside the uterus, along with its stages and symptoms, which can vary widely among individuals.
• Diagnosis Challenges: Endometriosis can be difficult to diagnose, often requiring processes of exclusion; Dr. LJ emphasizes the role of an excision surgeon for confirmation.
• Surgery Insights: She compares ablation versus excision surgery in treating endometriosis.
• Finding Trusted Care: Dr. LJ advises on the importance of seeking doctors and surgeons who genuinely understand your needs.
• Lifestyle Adjustments: Practical tips on identifying trigger foods that cause inflammation and how to implement lifestyle changes for relief.
• Root Cause Focus: How functional medicine can uncover the underlying issues affecting your body.

Quote:
"I really and honestly turned my pain into my passion. It took me 16 years to be properly diagnosed with endometriosis, yes, 16. That was 16 years of blaming myself, my doctors, and feeling dismissed while literally pleading for help." - Dr. LJ Johnson

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Transcript

Leslie (00:01.914)

Welcome everyone to the Sick and Seeking podcast. I have with me Dr. LJ Johnson. Dr. LJ, I'm so happy to have you with me today. Thank you for being here.

Dr. Lj (00:11.597)

Thank you, Ms. Leslie, I'm excited to jump in.

Leslie (00:14.594)

Well, this is a fun episode because I really don't know much about Dr. LJ, except that I've been following her on Instagram and man, she is on it with all the info and all the intel and all the good stuff. So maybe a good place to start is how did you find yourself where you are today?

Dr. Lj (00:32.125)

I know, what turned me into the holistic endo expert? Most people were like, why endo? What is endo? Why endometriosis? I always joke and say, it's like supacalawut. I mean, endometriosis, it's like, I remember when I first got diagnosed, I could barely pronounce it. The doctor kind of could, but it was like, I'm just gonna throw it out there, no shame. We don't mind. Endo, E-N-D-O for short, we're okay with it. So what really turned me?

Leslie (00:42.805)

Ha!

Leslie (00:49.122)

Hehehehe

Dr. Lj (00:58.237)

into what I do today, I really and honestly turned my pain into my passion. It took me 16 years to be properly diagnosed with endometriosis, yes, 16. So that was 16 years of blaming myself, blaming my doctors, hating my body, hating my doctors, doctors being very dismissive, me, you know, begging, bleeding, literally bleeding out of every orifice of my body, you know, begging to be heard, pleading for help.

Leslie (01:07.703)

Mmm.

Dr. Lj (01:26.409)

You know, just not really getting the care that I needed and then not really the attention on the disease, right? It was a long time just really chasing the diagnosis. I remember just going to the appointments and I remember I would just sit in my Tahoe and cry and cry and cry because I'm like another doctor's appointment where they're talking to me. They're trying to make me feel like I'm crazy. Then maybe I'm like, I am crazy. I don't think so. And then I remember just a distinct moment when I was chasing my diagnosis. I...

printed off all the paper and that's before we were like, you know, not saving trees back then, honey, we were on that dial up. We were just happy to get a dial tone and actually get on the internet, right? And we weren't saving trees. We printed off all the little papers, probably didn't even print front and back. Like I was probably just printing on the front. I'm gonna call myself out. I'm healed now. I'm a little better about those things. But I printed it all off and I went in and I was like, I think I found it. I think this is me. And I remember he looked at it and he's like, yeah, I think you're onto something. And then it was kind of like,

Leslie (01:56.885)

Hehehehehe

Leslie (02:01.445)

I'm sorry.

Leslie (02:11.874)

Hehehe

Dr. Lj (02:22.033)

Okay. And it was like, yeah, you know, and it's like, okay, great. Like if we're on to something, let's get the diagnosis. And I'll never forget, like I got the diagnosis. And then it was almost like once we did all the final stuff, and it was official, it was what I call that throat punch Thursday, where they were kind of like, okay, where they give you that look. And it's like, everyone knows that look when your doctor kind of looks at you, they want to tell you to shut up, but they know they can't. But there's that look that they give you. I kind of got that look. And he was kind of like, So do you want to go back on the birth control and pain pills? Or?

Leslie (02:45.876)

Hehehehe

Dr. Lj (02:51.817)

And I was like, oh, I thought like now that you knew what was actually wrong with me, that we could figure it out. And he was like, yeah, these are your only options, right? And it was in that point where after begging and pleading, it was really interesting before I even got that diagnosis, I wanna pivot back, cause I wanna throw this in there. I remember one time going in and...

Leslie (02:55.981)

Uh huh.

Dr. Lj (03:13.709)

They were just trying to convince me it wasn't that big of a deal, that it was just period pain, that some people are heavy bleeders, there's gonna be a little cramping, it's not a big deal. And I was like, you know, I'm listening to you, like I hear you, and this is what I always, I even say that now, I hear you, but if I say I hear you, that means I'm really not buying it, I'm listening. And I hear you, but I'm not really buying what you're saying because I was like, it seems very real to me. I've missed two weeks of work, I'm all out of PTO, I just got wrote up.

Yes, I'm always sick, so it's always LJ's ill, but like I'm about to lose my job due to this disease. So what you're telling me is it's really not that big of a deal, but like my quality of life. Like I'm spending more time on the couch downstairs than sleeping in my bed because there's some days where I'm in pain where my kids had to walk themselves up the stairs and put themselves to bed. I couldn't walk up the stairs. I was sleeping on the couch. I would have loved to have been upstairs in my bed, right?

Leslie (03:44.876)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Lj (04:11.129)

couldn't have the energy, didn't, you know, too much pain to get upstairs to bed. So it was really that turning point of literally just fighting back and forth, back and forth, then getting the diagnosis, and then just almost like that slap in the face where it was kind of like, well, there's not a lot we can do. Did you want to just go back to what you're doing? And I'm thinking, what I've been doing hasn't been working. And I don't know how much longer I can survive just doing conventional medicine. And that is where.

Leslie (04:26.03)

Mmm.

Dr. Lj (04:37.405)

I literally had to shift and pivot, not just my personal life, but my professional life. And it's interesting that you say, you see me on Instagram and people like, where do you get the energy? And it's like, the energy is here now that I'm on the other side, but a lot of my content comes from my own struggle. I know what it's like to have an amazing job and not be able to show up. I know what it's like to be on the news and sharing health tips and traveling the world and then show up at a conference and have someone congratulate you on a baby.

Leslie (04:42.158)

Hmm.

Leslie (04:53.838)

Hmm

Leslie (04:57.42)

Yeah.

Dr. Lj (05:05.985)

that you're not pregnant, you've just packed on a bunch of weight because of your hormones, you're inflamed, which we were just talking about, you're in pain. And oh yeah, endo belly makes you look six months pregnant when you really aren't. It's just that I decided to eat a meal because I was hungry, therefore I became very inflamed and bloating, like that was my world. So I was kind of like, what I'm traveling the world and preaching and teaching isn't not working for me anymore. So that's where I had to take a step back, do a lot of retraining, functional medicine, holistic health.

and really what I call getting a driver's seat of my health because nothing against conventional medicine, it's needed to get that diagnosis right. You need that, your insurance is not gonna help you at all, right, unless there's a code. I gotta have that ICD code. I get it, I get it.

Leslie (05:47.618)

Hahaha! Uhhh!

Dr. Lj (05:51.077)

But for me, it only got me so far. For me to have actually quality of life and be able to function, be able to show up as a single parent, to be able to show up as a black woman that ran a business, to be able to show up as a sibling, as a daughter, all of these things, I had to take my life back and really decide that I was no longer going to just entrust my health and trust my wellbeing to the medical system, because that was only going to get me so far.

Leslie (06:16.39)

Thank you.

Dr. Lj (06:19.637)

So that's the Reader's Digest version. I could go on and on and on, but that is why I do what I do because I got tired of suffering. Just flat out was tired of suffering and hiding in plain sight. And a lot of people deal with lots of chronic illnesses and hiding in plain sight, you're probably like, oh, what does that mean? You know, when you hold the perma-smile and you're in pain, when you go to work and you act like everything's okay, when you...

Leslie (06:26.722)

Wow.

Dr. Lj (06:42.573)

go to Thanksgiving dinners, when you go to events and social stuff and you eat the food knowing that you're allergic, but there's nothing else, but you don't wanna ruffle the waters by saying that you may have an allergy. You know what it means to hide in plain sight. I just got tired of that. That took a ton of energy to hide in plain sight. I literally just wanted my life.

Leslie (07:04.53)

Oh, wow. I'm speechless because your story, and like you said, this was just the small version, the small notes version of your story. First off, I just wanna say the passion you have and the aliveness that you have when you speak is, it's just as incredible. I can see that you are living your purpose, and I know that you're helping so many people. And like you said, what a...

great thing that you're on the other side of it, but we know that you went through years and years and years of struggle. Let's not forget that. But I guess I'm saying this because it's an inspiration to me. It's been really hard managing chronic illness as long as I've had one and many and then all the other things that keep going. So just wanted to pause and say what an inspiration you are to be watching you, to putting yourself out there again and again to share your knowledge and to help others. What an inspiration. So thank you for that.

I just wanted to say that. And now I think maybe it would be great to talk a little bit more about endometriosis because you talk a lot about myths and facts and you are just on it all the time. So I would love for you to share some of your knowledge around that.

Dr. Lj (08:01.057)

Thank you.

Dr. Lj (08:15.489)

Yeah, so let's talk about endometriosis or endo for short. So I'm gonna build a definition. I'm gonna kind of stack it. I almost wanna say anything you've heard about endometriosis, just kind of sit in a corner because I know you're gonna wanna hold on to some of those old misconceptions or if you have endometriosis, you definitely have let those misconceptions go and you're like, LJ bring it honey. You're bringing the truth, right? So endometriosis is uterine-like tissue found outside of the uterus. I'm gonna say that again.

Leslie (08:37.174)

Hahaha

Dr. Lj (08:45.081)

tissue found outside of the uterus. It is not a rogue period. It's not just that you're a weak woman with the uterus. It's not a gynecological issue whatsoever. It is chronic systemic inflammation throughout your entire body. Now, when I say throughout your entire body, that's everything outside of your uterus. You can have it in your sinuses, in your shoulder, in your bowel, on your bladder. It can be anywhere. I've had patients have had it in their ankle.

It can be throughout your entire body. Those lesions not only inflame themselves, but all of the tissue around it. So let's say you have a pinch of it on your bladder. It's not uncommon to have a bunch of UTIs, have kidney issues, have a lot of inflammation and pain down there. Maybe you have a diagnosis of IC. All of that comes with endometriosis. Those lesions also create their own hormones. They bring...

their own estrogen and progesterone to the table, which is where we'll talk about some of those misconceptions. So it does have a hormonal component, all of that wrapped up, don't worry, I'll circle back through, and then on top you have autoimmune-like factors. So chronic systemic inflammation throughout the entire body, uterine-like tissue found outside of the uterus, meaning it can be anywhere throughout the body. Those lesions cause pain and inflammation at the actual lesion site.

anything touching or around it, then you've got that inflammation still circling through and then those autoimmune like factors. That is endometriosis. Now, what I will say is some people, and I always kind of forget that, so I want to throw this is some people have diagnosis of silent endo, zero pain whatsoever.

Never knew they had an issue. They're on a fertility journey. Things aren't adding up. They go into a specialist. They have a laparoscopic procedure. And they're like, hey, your organs are fused together. You've got all this endometriosis lesions. And they're like, we don't even know endo. Like, what are you talking about? Versus others have a lot of pain and symptoms. What I call check engine lights. My check engine light was flashing, honey. It was working on 100%. It was a 24 seven check engine light. I felt pain. Now,

Leslie (10:47.054)

I'm sorry.

Dr. Lj (10:52.929)

When we talk about endometriosis pain, I wanna be very clear, there's no way. I could be here for days talking about all the symptoms because everyone's symptoms look different. What you have to remember is, everyone's symptoms are different, everyone's timeline is different. As I start to go through the symptoms, period, point blank, I'm a doctor, but I'm not yours. If you think there's an issue, talk to your doctor, but please don't listen to the symptoms and be like, oh, I didn't have the murder scene, periods.

but I did pass out a couple of times and oh yeah, I've got weird nerve pain. Oh, it's probably just bad genetics. Please do not think that just because you don't have all the signs and symptoms, you could have just one symptom and still have a very huge case or a stage four as they would call it of endometriosis. As I mentioned the stages, I typically don't just because when we think stage one, we always think low, right? Stage two, maybe a medium.

Leslie (11:42.892)

Mmm.

Dr. Lj (11:44.969)

Stage three, you know, a little bad and then stage four severe. With endometriosis, baby, whole new game, right? There's stage one, two, three and four. Those do not equate to the level of pain, discomfort and inflammation you will have in your body. You could be stage four endometriosis per a diagnosis and have zero pain. Maybe you just had a fertility challenge. You could have stage one, maybe stage two and be like, LJ, I can't walk during ovulation.

I'm like throwing up when I'm on my period. I'm bleeding outside of my cycle. I'm having all of these issues. Talk to your doctor, get diagnosed, and they're like, oh, well, I don't understand. Yeah, you're just to stage one. Please know, stage one, two, three, and four, which is why I don't really, it kind of jumped out of my mouth, but I'm glad we're covering it. I don't talk about the stages because it does not equate to the pain and the suffering and the things that you're going through. Now, when we talk about symptoms, I'm just gonna rattle a bunch of different things off. There are a lot of...

Leslie (12:30.035)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Lj (12:43.789)

period and menstrual issues. However, it is not a gynecological disease. This is not a bad period. This is not a rogue, you know, uterus. This is endometriosis. You can have heavy bleeding, cramping during your cycle, during ovulation, bleeding outside of your cycle. That's a big one that I see. People that are like, oh, I just have two periods a month. You know, I've always had two periods a month. Possibly you're having two periods a month, but I highly doubt you're ovulating, you know, that many times a month. I also...

Leslie (13:11.79)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Lj (13:13.589)

you know, bring in question if you have other symptoms. If you are bleeding outside of your cycle and you're having debilitating pain, you're passing out, you're throwing up, your stomach is burning, all of those types of things, those supposed two periods, I would definitely look a little deeper and talk to your doctor about that. You can have that chronic inflammation in your bowel, lots of GI issues or IBS, which...

I always say it, people get offended. I really feel like IBS is total BS. It's just cause you don't know what's going on with me, right? Either I'm constipated or have diarrhea or something in between. And you're just like, yeah, you got IBS. Awesome. How many of you are listening to this right now and have the diagnosis of IBS and still have no idea how to get better? Like you're like, I have IBS. So anytime anything goes with your stomach, kind of like when I talk about the endo rug, you just throw it into your IBS rug. And this is where I kind of get a little sassy.

Leslie (13:40.114)

Hahaha

Leslie (13:47.822)

Fair play. Yeah.

Leslie (14:01.422)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Lj (14:03.841)

We gotta pull some of that stuff away from under the rug because if you're bloated all the time, yes, you could have IBS, you know, that may be your diagnosis, but it could be something more serious, like something structural. It could be like an overgrowth. It could be leaky gut. So that's all a side note. So when you're dealing with endometriosis, you're gonna have a lot of GI issues, a lot of digestion issues.

Maybe when you eat everything, it comes in whole, it goes out whole, lots of bloating, right? Now there's the bloating where you're like, oh, I'm bloated today, you know, it's cooler weather, I'm gonna throw on a sweatshirt and some leggings, right? Then there's endo bloat, where it's like, it can honestly, TMI if you wanna call it, be uncomfortable to even wear a bra or underwear. Like the lining of your underwear is so.

intense on your stomach because it's so inflamed. It'll leave an indentation. Endo belly will swell within a second and it's very, very painful. The other thing with endo belly is sometimes it will have actual heat, like legit heat radiating from your room wellness area, right? So that's a little different than, I'm just going to do the sweater weather, right? And hide in the sweater. That's a little bit different when endo belly, right? A lot of different things going on with that. You can have sciatic pain, nerve pain.

Leslie (15:04.211)

Yeah.

Leslie (15:07.95)

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Dr. Lj (15:16.365)

on painful sex, you can have diaphragmatic endo. So those lesions can actually be in your diaphragm. So you're maybe having asthma issues, you may be coughing up blood. I've had multiple sinus surgeries and I've had sinus infections and different things like that. You can have sinus lesions in your sinuses. So I've had removed sinus surgery four times and I've had lesions removed three times from my sinus cavities. Once again, not a period problem. Sinuses up here, womb down there.

I'ma let you make the connection, right? So you can have lots of inflammation around your cycle, just inflammation 24 seven that can cause vision changes. You can have a lot of ear, nose and throat issues, a lot of just chronic unexplained pain, right? A lot of chronic food sensitivities. You're like, I'm allergic, I'm allergic to everything. One day you eat a salad, you feel amazing, right? Two days later, you eat the same salad, but you have leaky gut, you're bloated, you're distended.

Once again, all of the symptoms, I could go on and on and on, look different for every single person.

Leslie (16:18.45)

Mmm, oh my goodness. So then my question would be, how do people often find out that they have Indomit, Indo, a lot faster, I'm glad you gave us permission to use Indo. How do people find it out or is this really the issue? They don't figure it out. Tell me about.

Dr. Lj (16:29.177)

I'm sorry.

Dr. Lj (16:35.809)

That, you know, I like how you said that. And that's really the honest truth. It's really hard to figure out. I honestly feel like, honestly feel like endometriosis is sometimes a diagnosis of exclusion, right? They ran a bunch of tests for this. It's not that, it's not this, it's not that. You really need someone to start connecting all the dots. And I think why it's harder to get diagnosed with endometriosis is because anytime you mention period pain, painful sex, or anything in the wound wellness area, they're like, ah.

Leslie (16:46.467)

Ehh

Leslie (17:01.972)

Yeah.

Dr. Lj (17:05.085)

I know I got the birth control for you. I know exactly what you need, right? And we pinch and hold it under that. And then the patient isn't able to really explain like, oh yeah, but actually I have bleeding outside of my cycle. I pass out during bowel movements. Another thing, extreme pain. Like I remember like gripping the walls, like when I'm trying to have a bowel movement cause it was so painful. And it's like, you literally want to get the crap out, right? Cause you're constipated, you're feeling comfortable.

Leslie (17:08.682)

Yeah.

Dr. Lj (17:32.277)

but it's so painful to have a bowel movement, right? Because of those endometriosis lesions. So it's being able to find someone that's going to connect all the dots. I think it's taken us a really long time to get conventional and allopathic medicine to understand like, okay, endometriosis is not a period problem, but I spoke at a medical conference in April and I liked that a lot of them were like, okay, we get that, but they're like, then what do we do? Because everyone's symptoms are so different. Everyone has...

Leslie (17:56.894)

Yes.

Dr. Lj (18:01.449)

a different set of symptoms, a different set of physical things going on, not to mention the emotional part, right? The depression, the anxiety, you know, the depression because you're like, I don't know if I can hang out with my friends this weekend, you know, I would love to go to the getaway wedding, but who knows if I'm gonna be sick, if I'm gonna be bleeding, you know, like, what do I do? You've got the financial stress of always buying a random supplements and pain pills and.

Leslie (18:07.502)

Mmm.

Dr. Lj (18:25.825)

trying all these different things, right? Cause you just want to be better. You've got the depression, the anxiety of not knowing when your body is going to let you actually show up, right? It's one thing to be like, I don't feel well, you know, I think, and I'm not dismissing the pain when you're younger, but when you're a child, right? Your pain is one thing and you're kind of offloading onto your parents, right? You're just like explaining it to your parents and your parents are taking you to get the cure. As an adult, you're usually that person that someone's

Leslie (18:34.539)

Yeah.

Leslie (18:46.647)

Yeah

Dr. Lj (18:53.825)

offloading, bloating onto you, right? You've got a partner that's relying on you. You have a job, so you're supervising other people. Everyone's kind of trauma dumping on you, which doesn't really allow you to sometimes advocate for yourself. So there's a big mental health portion of that as well. So endometriosis, the golden standard to be diagnosed, and I know there's a lot of controversy kind of coming up in research, but I'm still saying that the golden standard to be diagnosed is laparoscopic procedure.

Now, yes, there are blood tests and inflammatory markers and ultrasounds and MRIs, and I think all of those things can be helpful, combined with talking to someone that knows about all the symptoms and making the connection. But the golden standard, if you want to be surgically diagnosed, I should say that is laparoscopic procedure where they make the incisions, they physically go in and see. Now.

Leslie (19:43.342)

Yeah.

Dr. Lj (19:44.109)

There's some caveats to that. If you just have your OB-GYN or someone that's not as familiar with endometriosis, there's been lots of surgeries where people are like, my doctor went in and they didn't see anything. You get to an endometriosis excision surgeon. So I am not an excision surgeon. I do not do endometriosis surgery. But when you get to the excision surgeon and they're like, oh.

Leslie (19:54.658)

Mmm.

Dr. Lj (20:04.221)

I went in there and they're like, there was endo everywhere. That's because they eat, sleep and breathe endo. They know endo like the back of their hand. It is their passion. They would do, you know, they would do anything they could to educate. And you know those people that will step into the fire and do all they can to make you better. They're going to be able to see endometriosis, nowhere to look, et cetera. So I know that the surgical, you know, version of laparoscopic procedure is the golden standard. However, a lot of us have been gas lit. We've had multiple procedures.

Leslie (20:08.59)

Yeah.

Leslie (20:20.066)

Mm-hmm.

Leslie (20:29.486)

Mm.

Leslie (20:33.666)

Yep.

Dr. Lj (20:33.761)

We're in pain, we don't trust the medical system, we don't have a doctor we can trust. And we're like, I think I have endo, but I don't want the surgery. And I'm getting that a lot. And this is actually, this is a good reminder. When I listen to this podcast, it'll remind me of a podcast episode that I need to drop because people are like, I don't want the surgery. What do I do if I don't want the surgery? This is what I say. If you know, I always say it this way, if you know when you're nowhere, if you feel like you have all the signs and symptoms, if you've talked to your doctor and it's suspected.

Leslie (20:45.602)

Hahaha!

Yes. Yeah. Tell us. Tell us.

Dr. Lj (21:01.745)

Yes, it can be helpful to have it in black and white. I did the surgery. Here's the diagnosis. That can be very impactful. However, do not feel like you can't turn your health around and start doing the things you need to do without that diagnosis. Don't feel like.

Leslie (21:17.102)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Lj (21:18.397)

I can't do anything until I get that official black and white because some of you have been through so many different surgeries. I'm going on a soap box here, but it's important, right? You've got the adhesions and the scar tissue. You've been gaslit, you've been lied to, you've been used and abused and everything else. And you're like, I don't want not one more procedure. I think it's okay to stand in your power and say that and still start making the lifestyle changes and things that we're gonna start talking about. Make those lifestyle changes so that you can get into the driver's seat.

Leslie (21:26.098)

Yes it is.

Dr. Lj (21:46.657)

whether or not you have the official diagnosis. Now, the golden standard to have endometriosis lesions removed via conventional medicine or surgery is excision surgery. Now, I'm gonna talk about a couple things. There are people that are like, "'Oh, LJ, I got my endo removed. "'We had ablation.'" Ablation, let's talk about ablation versus an excision. I'm huge on analogy, so this is my best analogy. Ablation surgery is kind of like, every Friday I go mow my lawn.

Leslie (21:49.433)

Mmm.

Leslie (22:07.502)

Mm-hmm. Yes.

Dr. Lj (22:15.741)

I mow my lawn, I don't want the weeds out there, I'm just gonna mow over them every Friday. Now excision is like, okay, this kind of sucks. I can mow my lawn every Friday, but what I'd rather do is like get down on my hands and knees and pull those weeds out. Take that analogy, bring it over into the surgical world. That's ablation versus endometriosis excision surgery. Number one, most ablation is going to be done inside of the uterus.

Endometriosis lesions, remember, they're not inside of the uterus, they're outside of the uterus. So that's gonna be a game changer, right? You're kind of mowing the lawn in spots where the problem is not at, right? Excision surgery, you have an excision specialist that's actually gonna go in and excise, cut out those lesions, but they're gonna look everywhere, right? Bowel, bladder, diaphragm, depending on the skill.

Leslie (22:52.075)

Oh, mm-hmm.

Dr. Lj (23:06.281)

and the level of your excision surgeon. Because I feel like we really need to start leaning more into the skill, because a lot of people are out there having excision surgeries, you know, with whoever they can find. And I understand your insurance and all of those things are just, whoever could get you in, right? When we got out of the scam-gymic, a lot of us hadn't had care for a long time, right? You just want to get to the first person that'll get you in, you'll take whatever you can. And I understand that, but we had a lot of people that did not have the skill and the knowledge doing supposed excision surgeries.

Leslie (23:20.042)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Lj (23:35.009)

then actually getting to someone that is a true skilled, eat, sleep and breathe, your ride or dies, I would call it excision surgeon, go in there and be like, okay, we're not saying they didn't remove any, however we kind of are, because this is what you came in with and this is what you look like now, and we're seeing night and day. So it's very, very important that you find a doctor that you know, like, and trust, and not just the first person. I definitely got in the soap box, but this is important.

Leslie (24:03.906)

Yes.

Dr. Lj (24:03.985)

not just the first person that can get you in, but someone that you really trust that is going to be advocating for you, not just in the waiting room, not just in there when you're in the office, but when you're actually in the OR, doing what is for your best health and making sure you guys are on the same page with that.

Leslie (24:24.49)

No, it's so important to find the right doctor and I get it these health things come up whether they're we've known about them For a long time or they're brand new. Oh, I got to take time off work, but oh gosh I got to get so-and-so to soccer practice. So my mom needs this that and the other It's it's so tempting to want to cut that corner and just say oh, I found someone they sound good enough But we'll just do this. I want to be done with it. I Totally understand and identify with that as well. However, like you just said there's

there's probably a lot of reasons why maybe that's not just the way to do it, that we need to take more time. You have to find the right person. You know, that's the big thing about when you're unwell and having to take care of your body because of different illnesses, sicknesses, chronic or otherwise, it's a lot of time. It's a lot of effort and it's, um, you know, it's not easy. So we talked about that all the time on the sick and seeking podcast. And I wanted to say it's such an interesting point that you talk about, um, you know, the need to actually have surgery versus not have surgery. So,

I've had chronic kidney disease for 21 years. And just so happens the doctor I found all those years ago who was really fantastic, he did not see a need to biopsy my kidney or kidneys or one of them or both, probably just one. And it's so funny because since then, it's followed me ever since. Every doctor wants to know, have you been biopsied? Have you been biopsied? I've been asked a million times.

and we never biopsy because he was very confident in the treatment I needed and there was no need to go in and find the actual strain and give it a name and I've done really well. So it's just interesting, I can totally identify with the need to maybe not have the surgery because you already really know what's going on and you can proceed with treatment. So this might be the moment to talk about those lifestyle changes and you have such great tips and I'd love to hear them.

Dr. Lj (25:51.028)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Lj (26:12.981)

Yes, first thing, we're gonna start with what we were talking about pre-conversation, the nutrition piece. I know as some of you hear it, you're like eye rolling, you're like, oh my god, here she goes, saying I can't eat anything white, I have to stop eating all the white stuff, the sugar, the grains. This is what I'm gonna say, I'm gonna lean in for this one. I'm not necessarily saying you can't eat wheat, gluten, dairy, etc. Number one, it really depends on the quality of life that you want. The quality of life that I wanted was to not be...

Leslie (26:18.387)

Yeah.

Leslie (26:22.178)

Hahaha!

Dr. Lj (26:42.145)

doubled over in pain every second, right? To not be bleeding out on my couch. Like another very humbling moment, right? And bought a new couch and then you wake up and you're like, what is, you know, like the murder scene period. You're like, well, okay, we've got a new couch and now we don't have a new couch. And how do I, what do I do? Like I honestly ended up having to replace my couch. It was that bad. So for me and for a lot of us, we were at the point where we're willing to do some elimination, right? Now, depending on where you're at,

Leslie (27:00.738)

Wow.

Dr. Lj (27:10.765)

This is why I say identify your trigger foods. Now, some of the most common triggers are going to be like wheat, gluten, dairy, but sometimes it's different. I've had someone recently, we did some functional testing, hers were almonds, peanuts, pineapples, things that you wouldn't necessarily like. Pineapples, you're not like, oh, don't eat pineapple because everyone's like it has bromelain, it's anti-inflammatory. Everyone's body is different. Simple, simple, simple. Log your food.

Leslie (27:19.895)

Mm-hmm.

Leslie (27:35.458)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Lj (27:38.413)

There's way too many apps. I've got two cell phones. I mean, most of you guys have multiple phones, the gadgets, all of that. Download an app, start tracking your food, not because we're counting calories. We are definitely not doing any of that scarcity mindset. If you wanna track anything, track your macronutrients to make sure you're getting enough protein and carbs and healthy fats and things like that in your nutrients. But you wanna start keeping track of what you're eating and then how you feel, right? For example, if you have a peanut butter sandwich every morning, awesome.

Leslie (28:03.406)

Hmm.

Dr. Lj (28:07.261)

That wouldn't work for me, right? Personally, the lagoons inflames my body. Now I've healed my gut. I mean, maybe I could give peanut butter a try, but at this point I'm kind of like, I've done a lot of work. I don't even know if I need to test it to see if I'm good. I think I'll just stick with the almonds or what works for my body. And even then I have to be really cautious of tree nuts. So log your food, see how you feel and start to identify your trigger foods. That's step one. Now,

Leslie (28:19.883)

I'm sorry.

Dr. Lj (28:32.869)

Let's say you're listening to this and you're like, LJ, I'm an OG, I've been doing this a good minute and I still haven't figured it out. That's when we need to go to testing rather than guessing. We need to start looking to see if you have leaky gut, if there's some type of overgrowth. As Dr. Carey would always say, I love my girl pooping for science. We gotta maybe do a stool sample. We maybe need to look at your gut barrier. We need to look at some of those inflammatory markers. There's also some testing that we can do.

to actually see which foods work for you, right? Not just the whole, let's prick your back and see how itchy we can make you. I mean, yeah, we've all done that, right? And it still doesn't do us any good. There's other things that we can do on functional testing. As I mentioned that, I think this is a good time to also talk about the testing. Conventional testing is amazing, but it is there to diagnose you. It is diagnostic. This is your blood work? Oh.

Leslie (28:59.49)

Mm.

Leslie (29:05.177)

Yes, yes, yeah.

Dr. Lj (29:22.357)

You have low thyroid, now you're hypothyroid. Let me put a number, a title, a diagnosis with that. That is what it's for. Functional medicine is different. I always explain it is because we want you to be able to function. I always say 110% because I work with chronic.

Leslie (29:37.358)

Mmm.

Dr. Lj (29:38.537)

ill people. So that brings in my battery analogy. Your battery is always going to be just a little lower than the person that has no chronic illnesses. So I need to push you to that 110, which is going to bring you out of that negative and then bring you closer to that 100. So functional medicine is looking more for root cause versus just being like, oh, this is what it is. Here's your problem. Here's the bandaid. I want to know why do you have linky gut? You know,

Why are you having these asthma attacks every two weeks? Why are you so sensitive to certain foods? Yes, it could be something genetic. It could be something on your blood, blood work or your blood type, but it also could be leaky gut, a barrier issue, a histamine response, hormones. We always want to know the why and really zoom out because that's gonna give you the real wins, right? Versus just a pill for every ill and then a supplement for every symptom.

only gets you so far, right? Nobody wants to be taking 35, 40 supplements the rest of their life. So it's being able to get to the root cause. So that's where you'll see that difference. So trigger foods are huge. The next big thing I would say is sleep. And I know it's like, oh, okay, that's easy to say. Yes, sleep is easy to say, but a lot harder to put into practice. The issue is, is when you sleep, that's when you're.

body actually decompresses and detoxes, right? Your brain drains that, you know, if you're always dealing with the brain fog, and you're probably not sleeping as well, right? Depending on what's going on, your brain drains, like everything kind of drains and detoxes. Your inflammatory markers go down, it's your reset. If you're not properly sleeping and your nervous system and your inflammatory system is, you know, inflammation is just running rampant, then every day you wake up, you're not waking up with a clean slate.

Right? The inflammation, the markers that we were talking about before, right? They get higher and higher and higher and higher. You need to be able to sleep. Also, if you're not sleeping, you're not able to heal. If your body's not able to just power all the way down. If your body feels like it's always plugged up to like, you know, you put your finger in the socket and you've got that little charge, if you always feel that way, you're not going to be able to heal. You really have to sleep. You really have to rest, um, get your body into that parasympathetic where you can just.

Leslie (31:36.334)

Hmm.

Dr. Lj (31:55.321)

breathe and be that's where the healing really begins.

Leslie (31:56.056)

Yeah.

Leslie (31:59.874)

Yes, we want to hear all about the healing. So thank you for saying that. I really appreciate it. I also really appreciate you speaking about what a functional medical doctor does. You know, like I said, I was diagnosed when I was 18. It took me until a couple of years ago to go, wait, what are these functional or integrative medicine people? What did they do? So I just thank you so much for finally coming on here and telling the people what they are and why we need them, why.

Dr. Lj (32:04.214)

get.

Dr. Lj (32:24.604)

Hahaha

Leslie (32:27.718)

If we can, more of us should, if we can seek out functional medical doctors like you. I get it. Most of the treatment is not covered usually by insurance. This is the big sticky part. That's, you know, hopefully going to change one day and we got to change it. We got to, we got to make these shifts and these changes. So that's the tricky part about it though.

Dr. Lj (32:47.517)

It is, but I think it's also, you know, the easiest way I can put it, you get sick and tired of being sick and tired. Yeah, you can keep going to Walgreens and CVS and doing your monthly refills, and there's nothing wrong with it if you need a pharmaceutical, but it becomes where, when it's not working, right? Or you're like the one pill that's helping with this one issue is actually causing all of these other side effects, which they conveniently gave me more pills. Or if you're doing it for years and years and you're like, I'm still not better.

Leslie (32:53.762)

Yeah.

Leslie (33:16.098)

Yeah.

Dr. Lj (33:16.321)

Or if they lower the dose, then the problem comes back, right? That's when you have to just kind of decide, like, is this how I want to live? For some people, that quality of life is perfectly okay for them. Others of us were like, this isn't working for me. Like, I'm not able to show up in my life. I can't show up in relationships. I have no social life. You know, I'm depressed, I'm anxious. I have a body, essentially, that I can't rely on. You know, how many of you have went and gotten blood work and they're like, oh, you're fine. And you're like,

Leslie (33:30.09)

Yeah.

Dr. Lj (33:45.525)

weird because I don't feel fine. I mean, I like, I hear what you're saying, but I just once again, like I said, I hear you, but I don't feel fine. You know, I keep my eyes open, like I need you to help me out with this. And so it's just understanding that you have to advocate for yourself and that you have to trust your body, even though the society has taught us as females, especially as women of color.

Leslie (33:54.604)

Yeah.

Dr. Lj (34:11.277)

to not trust our bodies, to just second guess ourselves. We second guess ourselves in relationships, at work. We're always over analyzing, but sometimes you just have to stop and make it super basic. My back is hurting, it hurts all the time. I need to figure out what's going on with it. Just because you go to your doctor and you're like, oh, you had two kids and you're in your forties. I understand that, yes, but that doesn't mean my back has to hurt all the time or I don't have to have these sharp pains in my hips and my back every time I have my cycle.

But also did I mention when I have a cycle, I'm using eight to 10 super tampons in one day times six days, those types of things we start adding up. And it's like, yeah, we need to dig a little deeper and really voice our concerns to advocate for ourselves.

Leslie (34:59.278)

Hmm, absolutely. This is the one thing that keeps coming up again and again in the conversations that I've been having with women. It's that intuition. Excuse me. It's that bodily knowing. I also came to this realization that because sometimes when your body is sort of out of whack or doing some things that you would prefer it not to do, you also get almost like fine tuned like to knowing. You're like, oh, that thing's happening again. There it is.

Dr. Lj (35:09.954)

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Lj (35:20.841)

Okay.

Leslie (35:25.79)

And then you kind of like, because we have all these things potentially happening, like you said, pain or the bleeding or whatever, and we have busy lives, we put on the back burner. I'm just gonna put that on the back burner. I know it's burning, I got a simmer on it, but it's still to do my life, right? So that's the amazing thing. A lot of people have these things going on their body. The intuition is spot on because they learn their bodies so well. Doesn't mean we don't like to be out of it. Doesn't mean we don't like to dissociate. That's a whole other thing, but we really get to know our bodies well. So I just...

Dr. Lj (35:37.689)

Thank you.

Leslie (35:54.602)

I appreciate you sharing that. And I know Dr. LJ has a busy day today. So we're gonna pretty much just have her wrap it up, share how she can, not she, how we can find her. And we'll have her back for another episode to keep going. So Dr. LJ, how could people find you?

Dr. Lj (36:11.041)

Yes, absolutely. I'm totally down for a part two. So you can find me. I spend a lot of time on Instagram. That's like one of my favorite places and the whole wide world. I know social media, but I am on Instagram at the holistic endo expert. I also have a podcast, which is the holistic endo expert podcast. We talk everything hormones, endometriosis, functional medicine. Even if you don't have endometriosis, I would say come on over because there's definitely something that you can learn to improve your quality of life.

The main website right now is ljspowerhouse.org. We are gonna be shifting, but you can still go to that one. Probably by the time this episode comes out, it will send you to our new website because we are launching a huge nonprofit. We had one, now we're re-ramping it up. So we're gonna be doing some amazing things. So we'll have the for-profit side, which is the holistic endo expert. And then we're gonna have our nonprofit, which is LJ's Powerhouse Foundation. So super excited about getting into the schools, raising awareness, talking about health, and just.

All the stuff I needed to know when I was 14 and 16, I'm gonna start talking to other people about right now so that we can give back and just shift and pivot. So yeah.

Leslie (37:13.646)

Mmm.

Leslie (37:17.954)

Wonderful, wonderful. I can't wait to share all those resources and links with everybody. And have you back for part two. So thank you for being with me today.

Dr. Lj (37:26.509)

Thank you.

Leslie (37:29.026)

Hahaha!