Transcript 0:00 Hi, I'm Rachel, and if you have been following me for a while or if you've listened to the podcast in the past, you know that I have taken a bit of a long hiatus and it definitely wasn't planned out that way. 0:13 Life just sort of went in a different direction, but now I'm finally at this place of accepting where I am and sharing more of my full story of why the hiatus was there in the first place. 0:28 So welcome back to You Are Here. 0:31 Initially, when I had first launched the podcast, I really wanted to lean into a lot of stories with people who had really compelling career transitions because at the time I also was going through a career transition and kind of just figuring out the next step in my life. 0:47 But since then, the podcast has really transformed into a place where I'm sharing a lot of stories and bringing on experts who really have a specialty in women's health in particular. 0:59 It's an area in which, obviously I'm a woman, [laughs] I'm very interested in health and, and wellness and longevity, and I also have a really personal story that I'm gonna share today around this. 1:10 So even though the podcast has been on hiatus for a while, I actually have been recording episodes probably since the end of last year intermittently, since maybe December through the beginning of the year and here and there as my schedule and as my energy level really allowed since then. 1:29 But the reason why I really had to stop the podcast is because I really honestly didn't have the emotional capacity to continue it at the pace in which I was going. 1:40 Because earlier this year, and if you follow me on Instagram and social media, I have shared this news over there, but earlier this year I was diagnosed with endometrial cancer. And, um... Hold on. 1:54 [laughs] Didn't expect to really get emotional around this 'cause I've shared this publicly. 2:02 That is a part of my journey right now, so, um, you know, I'm in just, like, a new rhythm of life and I'm sort of trying to figure out how to 2:11 navigate, continue my dreams, continue to make things work in my life and make progress, but also know that I have to take care of myself and go at a different pace. So that is where I'm at right now. 2:27 Hopefully, that is the first and last time [laughs] that I get emotional and break down in this episode. 2:32 I think it was just sort of like cracking the seal or whatever, getting it out there, but it is something that I'm currently navigating and it's a little scary because I don't necessarily know the, the outcome, right? 2:46 Like, I don't know, you know, if the treatment that I'm on is going to work, what this means for kind of like my family planning path in life, which is something that I'm going to get into. 2:58 But that is where I am currently in life and I felt like I really just needed to be transparent with where things are at. 3:06 And now let's really get into more of the details of how I found out and sort of like what this path has looked like for me. 3:13 Okay, so when I first shared this on social media, one of the questions that kept coming up when I asked sort of like a ask me anything about this diagnosis was, "How did you know and how did you find out?" 3:27 And the funny thing about this is that I really did not have the traditional symptoms that you normally would get if you have endometrial cancer. 3:37 So I'll go into how I personally found out, and it's a really kind of unique path, and then I will also share what the actual common symptoms are so that you as a listener, as a viewer, can also just have that information in the back of your mind so that you can also just really be mindful of, you know, your own body. 3:59 And hopefully you're not experiencing these types of symptoms, but if you are then you know kind of like what to look out for and potential questions or things that you should ask your doctor at your next checkup. 4:10 So going into how I actually found out. Again, if you've been following me on social media, over a year ago I actually shared that I was going down a path of solo motherhood by choice. 4:22 And for those of you that really don't know about that community, it's basically women who are making this decision for themselves to choose to pursue creating a family on their own by using a donor. 4:34 So I went through a donor bank, I chose a donor, and I actually created embryos from frozen eggs that I had previously many years ago when I did freeze my eggs and also from a fresh round of an egg retrieval that I had done. 4:50 Now in the IVF process, um, before actually going through an embryo transfer and actually trying to become pregnant, you have to do this sort of final check and I believe it's called a saline sonogram where essentially your fertility doctor will check to see if the uterus and the environment in which they're going to implant the embryo is healthy and will have a higher chance of a successful transfer. 5:16 And so they check for scar tissue, fibroids, polyps, things that could potentially reduce the chances of a successful transfer. 5:25 So when I did a saline sonogram at the doctor's office they actually found that I did have polyps and the doctor at the time basically said, though, "It's not anything to really be worried about. 5:36 A lot of women actually have polyps but they just don't know it so the next step would be to just get them removed, get a biopsy done. 5:44 It's very routine, and then after we remove them chances are it's going to be benign and then we can move forward with a transfer of the embryo." 5:53 That unfortunately was not my case because when they removed the polyps and they did the biopsies they actually found that it was classified as E-I-N. 6:04 And I'm gonna pull out my computer here and just, like, make sure that I get the name of what that is correct for you. An EIN stands for endometrial intraepithelial neoplasia. 6:19 So obviously, I'm not a doctor, and I don't use the full medical terminology to be able to say that correctly. 6:25 But essentially, it's a precancerous condition where the inner lining of the uterus, or endometrium, grows abnormally. 6:33 And so it's also called atypical endometrial hyperplasia, where essentially it's not cancer yet, but there's a really high chance that the pre-cancer will turn into cancer over time. 6:47 So in my case, unfortunately, the pre-cancer did turn into cancer, despite being on, um, some medication and doing kind of the traditional steps in the, the protocol of what my oncologist wanted to do. 7:03 From my understanding, with the medication that I'm on, it's not necessarily this, like, 100% or close to 100% chance that, okay, everything will reverse for everyone who goes on this medication. 7:17 I believe he had mentioned that it's about 50 to 65% that it actually will work. Unfortunately, I fall into the other percentage where it hasn't worked, and so the pre-cancer did turn into cancer. 7:34 And now I'm sort of at this crossroads of figuring out what the next step is. I'm definitely, you know, being closely monitored. 7:42 I go to a doctor at MD Anderson in Houston, and I'm really thankful that I'm in driving distance there, 'cause it is, you know, one of the top cancer hospitals in the country. But essentially, that is how I found out. 7:56 So it's not that I was symptomatic of, you know, the traditional things that you would find in endometrial cancer. It was that I was going down this path of solo motherhood by choice. 8:08 I was going down this path of IVF, about to do an embryo transfer, and this is just sort of something that I discovered just by going down this path. 8:18 And the craziest thing for me is that I thought, you know, crossing that psychological and emotional barrier that I had around choosing to grow a family in this way that's non-conventional would be the hardest part of the path. 8:34 And I thought that once I emotionally crossed that threshold and made that decision for myself and my future family to say, like, "Okay, this is how I'm going to grow my family," I thought that was gonna be the hardest part, and everything after that point would be smooth sailing, [laughs] not realizing that there are so many other complications that can happen. 8:57 So in a lot of ways, because I found out through this path, I almost just view it as a blessing. Like, it was... 9:06 I, I hate to say, like, oh, it was meant to be that I find out this way, but there is something really unique about the story and about how I actually did find out about this. 9:19 Because again, I was asymptomatic for the most part, and I'll get into that next. But I found out in this very special way. So now let's get into what the traditional symptoms are of endometrial cancer. 9:33 And again, I'm gonna bring out my computer here and just pull this up from the American Cancer Society. 9:40 Okay, so common symptoms of endometrial cancer are unusual vaginal bleeding, vaginal spotting, other discharge that is not normal. 9:50 It could be a change in your periods or, if you are post-menopausal, bleeding after menopause. And some later stages of symptoms for endometrial cancer are weight loss and also pelvic pain and pelvic discomfort. 10:05 So funny enough for me, my periods were completely normal, but I had noticed actually not abnormal bleeding in terms of more heavy bleeding. 10:16 But I actually noticed the opposite, where it was more so not spotting, but just like a very light period and a very short period in the months leading up to the pre-cancer diagnosis. 10:29 The other thing, even though I said that I was asymptomatic, the one thing I do wanna call out is, again, the months prior to my diagnosis, I actually discovered that I was having a little bit of period pain. 10:42 And I'm someone who d- actually never gets period pain. 10:45 I had never really could closely identify with a, a lot of my female friends who would say that they would always get period pain, because I never really truly experienced that. 10:54 But the months prior, I just started to kind of get a little bit more cramping than what was normal for me. Again, everyone's body is so different. 11:04 But I know that there were slight changes, but it wasn't enough for me at the time to actually proactively go to the doctor and get this checked out. 11:13 I was going through a lot of, you know, IVF treatment and just a lot of hormonal things leading up, obviously, to that, um, moment of embryo transfer. 11:22 So my body had been going through a lot, so I kind of just figured it was all associated with that. But who knows? Maybe that was actually my body signaling to me that there was more going on there. 11:34 And luckily for my situation, I already had to do a checkup to see what was happening. 11:38 But I'm just bringing this up for you, because just in case, you know, you are experiencing even just the slightest of changes, I'm all about trying to be proactive, trying to be as preventative as possible, or at least catching things as early as possible. 11:51 So if that is you, I definitely urge you to, you know, go to the doctors and check what you can and ask the questions that you need to to really advocate for yourself and, and get answers. 12:04 So now I'm at a place where, as I mentioned, I'm kind of at this crossroads of not really knowing what the outcome is for my health. I am going to see my oncologist. 12:17 I'm on a lot of oral medication, and luckily, I also am seeing a functional medicine doctor, a functional nutritionist. I'm doing a lot of other therapies that will support my body. 12:29 So when I say functional care, I've had guests on in the past, and there will be more episodes coming out in the future just talking about functional medicine, but it's essentially figuring out what the root cause is of whatever medical condition you might be going through, and it's not necessarily treating the exact symptom that you're going through. 12:48 Obviously, cancer is so multifactorial, and it's not like, you know, there's this one answer of like, "Oh, everyone gets cancer because of this reason." 12:57 However, with functional care and my practitioner and my nutritionist and all of the specialty testing that I have done over the past few months, so there's a lot of other things that are in the environment and the foundation of my body that really need to be addressed. 13:11 And the hope here is that in addressing those things, in addressing the insulin resistance that I have or in the overall inflammation or the, the gut health issues that I have, in addressing all of those things, the hope is that by that getting better, everything else surrounding that will get better. 13:31 So I've been on a really intense supplement protocol. I've been on some other prescription medications that really address all of those other issues that I just mentioned. 13:43 So I'm hopeful that everything that I'm doing outside of the traditional care that I'm receiving from my gynecology oncologist is really going to just support my overall health. 13:57 And in addition to that, you know, I'm doing a lot of high-dose vitamin C IV therapy. There's been some studies that have shown that that is really beneficial. 14:07 You know, I'm super into, like, acupuncture and taking the herbs and doing all these things, uh, red light therapy. So I'm very open to a lot of healing protocols. 14:18 And also, last but definitely not least important, it's actually probably one of the most important things that I'm doing, is that I'm actually seeing an in-person therapist. 14:29 I actually haven't seen an in-person therapist in several years. 14:33 I have seen virtual therapists, but there's something about seeing someone in the flesh right in front of you that gives it a little bit of a different depth for me. So we go into some somatic work in our sessions. 14:46 She's also someone who is a cancer survivor herself, so there's that sort of commonality, so she understands some of the emotional health aspects that I'm going through, and I know that she can relate on a personal level, so that always makes me feel a lot closer that I really feel seen in those sessions. 15:04 And also, she is well-versed in IFS, which is internal family systems. We can get into that in a different episode. 15:12 But it's really uncovering all of those parts that we hold from childhood and how that really shows up when we are an adult. 15:20 Because a lot of times, how we react or how we respond or how we process things as an adult, it all comes from who we were, what we experienced as children. So that's something that I'm definitely diving into. 15:33 I'm a huge believer in the fact that our emotional state really affects our physical state, so this is a really important part of my healing journey right now. 15:45 So with all of that being said, I'm definitely doing what I can, also trying to make room for compassion and space for myself, but that's really, you know, the details of my, my current state of my health. 16:01 I am going in for, uh, a procedure called a hysteroscopy D&C, so essentially it's, you know, kinda scraping out cancerous tissue, doing a biopsy, again, to see, you know, if there is any progress that's been made over the past few months. 16:18 I'm very hopeful just given all of the things that I've been doing that there will be some progress. But as I feel comfortable to share, I will definitely share. 16:28 And I know in this episode I didn't necessarily share a lot of kind of the more medical science aspects of things because I am actually going to have a doctor come on, talk a lot more in depth from the medical side of what endometrial cancer looks like, what treatment looks like, um, and also just to talk about the, the common cancers specifically for women and to go through some of those details. 16:55 Because I think when it comes to cancer specifically for women, I hear so much about breast cancer. 17:01 You know, there's a whole dedicated month for breast cancer, and that's incredible, and awareness is always so important. 17:08 But I do think that we need to start bringing the conversation up more about the other cancers that are affecting women. 17:15 So, you know, I'm in this position to where I'm personally experiencing cancer and, you know, with this podcast, with the platform that I have, I'd like to just kind of just bring more awareness to this. 17:29 So if you have any specific questions when it comes to endometrial cancer, uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, there's so many different cancers to kinda dive into, please let me know in the comments or, or send me a DM, um, and I'm happy to bring these questions to the experts who will give you the real answers. 17:48 So to bring this story kind of full circle, I started off by sharing that my journey was to go down this solo motherhood by choice path for myself. 18:00 But given everything that I'm going through, also the fact that, you know, my uterus right now is not a hospitable environment to carry a pregnancy, that part of my journey is on hold. I'm saying it's on hold. 18:15 It's on pause. It's not something that is, you know, off the table by any means for me. 18:22 I am just needing to really take care of myself, make sure that I'm really healthy, and I really believe that, you know, for me, this is happening so that I can get down to the root cause. 18:33 I can be the healthiest version of myself that is possible, that I can adopt healthier habits, that I can do, really do the inner work to ensure that, you know, when the time does come for myself, I will be able to successfully carry a pregnancy. 18:50 But, you know, until then, we're kind of in this pause period where I'm giving my body the space that it needs to really be able to focus on creating this, this healthy environment for myself. 19:03 So in closing, I know that I had mentioned this earlier on, but I really want everyone to walk away from this journey that I've been on in understanding your body. 19:17 Like I mentioned, I'd had little symptoms or signs here and there and little signals that I sort of brushed off and thought they were something else, and maybe they could have been, but it also could have been an opportunity for me to bring some of these questions up. 19:34 And even if the doctor said like, "Oh, it is related to, you know, the IVF medication," or, "It is related to this or that," that's one conversation. 19:42 Or, you know, maybe it could have been like her saying, "Okay, thank you for bringing that up to me. Let's investigate." So it does give your doctor that opportunity to kind of dive in a little bit more. 19:55 So if you're someone who is maybe experiencing an irregular period or maybe it's not even period related at all, cycle related at all, maybe it's something where you just have more brain fog or you're just fatigued and tired all the time. 20:12 That's something that I feel like for as long as I can remember, I've always kind of been a little bit more tired than I feel is normal. 20:21 So chronic fatigue is something that is, you know, something to, to look into or just really paying attention to those signals of your body and asking those questions internally of like, "Hey, is this normal for me? 20:34 Does this feel a little bit off, even just a tiny bit?" And bringing those things up to your doctor. 20:40 So I hope that this episode, you know, while it was a lot about my journey and kind of where I'm at in my process, I hope it does shed light for you as well to really just do a check-in with yourself and to ask more questions about your own body, and I hope this brings a little bit more awareness to endometrial cancer.
