Lori Baum is a medical assistant who has spent over two decades working in oncology. She knows cancer. She knows screenings. She eats well, stays active, and has been proactive about her health for years.

And still, in November 2022, she found the words "invasive carcinoma" on her phone screen at lunch.

In this episode of Thrive on Plants, Lori shares her full story: a heavy family history of cancer, a negative BRCA test, a breast MRI that changed everything, and a triple-negative breast cancer diagnosis that her mammogram earlier that same year had completely missed.

What follows is one of the most honest conversations we have had on this podcast. Lori talks about what it actually feels like to go through 16 rounds of chemotherapy and 15 rounds of radiation, how she stayed active and kept eating well when treatment was taking everything from her, what the healthcare system gets right and gets wrong during survivorship, and how she found her way back to herself on the other side.

Lori is now 58 years old, fully plant-based, strength training, running half marathons, and training for an Ironman relay. She says she is in the best shape of her life.

Topics covered:

• Why family history and dense breasts may require more than a standard mammogram
• Triple negative breast cancer: what it is and what treatment involves
• How Lori stayed active and ate well through chemotherapy and radiation
• The emotional weight of survivorship and what comes after treatment ends
• How plant-based eating and strength training transformed her recovery
• Why self-advocacy is the most important tool you have in your healthcare journey

Connect with Lori: loriabaum@yahoo.com

Additional resources to help you thrive on plants:

🌱 Access the free Plant-Powered Body course: Access Here

🌱 Take the free health assessment for women 40+: Start Here

🌱 Watch every episode on YouTube

⭐️ If you loved this episode, please leave a review! ⭐️

Here’s how to do it on Apple Podcasts:

Go to the Thrive on Plants Podcast page: Click here

Scroll down to the ‘Ratings & Reviews’ section. Tap ‘Write a Review’

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Content Warning: This episode includes an honest, courageous conversation about the mental health toll of hormone deficiency, including a moment of profound hopelessness. Sarah speaks to this with full self-awareness and strong support in place. If you or someone you love is struggling, please reach out to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.

What happens when a nurse practitioner who specializes in women's hormonal health spends an entire year fighting to get her own hormones covered by insurance?

That is exactly what happened to Sarah Katkhouda, FNP-C.

Sarah is a women's health nurse practitioner and a provider at MIDI Health. In this episode, she pulls back the curtain on one of the most frustrating and overlooked realities in women's healthcare: the gap between what women need and what the system is actually willing to provide.

After undergoing a hysterectomy and oophorectomy for pelvic congestion syndrome, Sarah was plunged into surgical menopause overnight. What followed was a year of insurance denials, medication shortages, dose trials, canceled appointments, and a slow but deliberate fight to reclaim her health, her strength, and her sense of self.

In this episode, we cover:

• What pelvic congestion syndrome is, why it is underdiagnosed, and what women need to know before pursuing surgical intervention
• The critical differences between surgical menopause and natural menopause, and why treating them identically is doing women a serious disservice
• How to optimize estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, and why the sequence and method of delivery matter
• The role of muscle in hormonal health, metabolic resilience, and longevity, and what happens to musculoskeletal integrity when hormones are out of range
• How to self-advocate when you feel dismissed or worn down by a system that was not built with women in mind

Sarah does not sugarcoat what this year has cost her. She also does not stop there. She shares what she has learned, what she wishes she had known, and why she is committed to making sure other women do not have to fight as hard or as long as she did.

Connect with Sarah Katkhouda, FNP-C:

Sarah is a provider at MIDI Health, a telehealth organization focused on women's midlife health. MIDI accepts insurance and is available in all 50 states.

MIDI Health: https://www.joinmidi.com

Disclaimer: This episode is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider for guidance specific to your individual health needs.

#MenopauseHealth #HormoneReplacement #SurgicalMenopause #WomensHealth #HRTAwareness #TestosteroneForWomen #PelvicPain #PelvicCongestionSyndrome #MenopauseSupport #HormoneOptimization #MidlifeWomen #WomensHealthAdvocacy #ThriveonPlants #DrDaphneBascom #PerimenopausalHealth #MuscleAndHormones #MentalHealthAndMenopause

Additional resources to help you thrive on plants:

🌱 Access the free Plant-Powered Body course: Access Here

🌱 Take the free health assessment for women 40+: Start Here

🌱 Watch every episode on YouTube

⭐️ If you loved this episode, please leave a review! ⭐️

Here’s how to do it on Apple Podcasts:

Go to the Thrive on Plants Podcast page: Click here

Scroll down to the ‘Ratings & Reviews’ section. Tap ‘Write a Review’

(you may be prompted to log in with your Apple ID).

Thank you for your support!

Most of us were never taught about the pelvic floor. And yet it affects everything from bladder control and bowel health to sex, exercise, and how we age through menopause. In this episode, Dr. Daphne sits down with Dr. Sara Reardon, board-certified pelvic floor physical therapist and author of Floored, to have the conversation most of us never got from our doctors or our mothers.

In this episode we discuss:

• What the pelvic floor actually is and why it affects everything from peeing and pooping to sex, exercise, and menopause
• The three reasons women have been kept in the dark about pelvic health (and why this is a medical system failure, not a personal one)
• Why Kegels are not the whole answer and why some women actually need to relax, not strengthen
• How perimenopause and declining estrogen quietly change your pelvic floor, even if you've never had children
• Topical vaginal estrogen, prolapse, hysterectomy, orgasms, running incontinence, and more

Resources:

• Book: Floored: A Woman's Guide to Pelvic Floor Health at Every Age and Stage by Dr. Sara Reardon: https://thevagwhisperer.com/floored/
• Dr. Sara Reardon's website and The V-Hive app (your pocket pelvic floor therapist): https://www.thevagwhisperer.com/
• Find a pelvic floor PT near you (Academy of Pelvic Health Physical Therapy): https://pelvicrehab.com
• Follow Dr. Sara Reardon on Instagram: @the.vagina.whisperer | YouTube: @thevaginawhisperer | App: @the.vhive

If this episode helped you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a woman in your life who needs to hear this. Your pelvic floor has to last you a lifetime. Start caring for it today.

Additional resources to help you thrive on plants:

🌱 Join our free Thrive on Plants community: Join Here

🌱 Access the free Plant-Powered Body course: Access Here

🌱 Take the free health assessment for women 40+: Start Here

🌱 Watch every episode on YouTube

⭐️ If you loved this episode, please leave a review! ⭐️

Here’s how to do it on Apple Podcasts:

Go to the Thrive on Plants Podcast page: Click here

Scroll down to the ‘Ratings & Reviews’ section. Tap ‘Write a Review’

(you may be prompted to log in with your Apple ID).

Thank you for your support!