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hi everyone my name is Dr Z I am
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Clinical Psychology specializing in
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transgender care welcome to my channel
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who has not yet subscribed please make
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support you by giving you tips guidance
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and advice not to mention I do weekly
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Q&A on Instagram as well so please let's
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connect on Instagram for today's video I
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will be sharing with you three
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Essentials the three most essential you
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can call them tips you can call them
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strategies or you can call him insights
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from a gender specialist that I have
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observed over the course of my career in
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transgender field when it comes to
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hormones and we will be talking about
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both feminizing and masculinizing
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hormones for those of you who identify
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as non-binary for you it really would be
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depending on your goals of course it
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would be perhaps maybe a combination of
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those St or micro doing or other other
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ways of
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regimenting uh your hormone treatment in
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order to help you achieve the results
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you need but this video is going to be
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relevant for individuals of any type of
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gender identity who are interested in uh
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utilizing medical aspect of gender
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transition as part of their gender path
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now today as you know hormones and
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information about hormones is all over
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the internet not only it all over the
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internet but in fact I wrote a Blog
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about it several years ago it's called
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don't play uh Dr Vu HRC and I mentioned
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the blog how people tend to chase
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numbers that somebody else has mentioned
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what I mean by that is that it's very
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common to see somebody post perhaps a
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pre and post transition or pre and post
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hormone and discuss how much the
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hormones have really changed their
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appearance and then go on and share what
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exact dose and regiment they on and to
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discuss what their blood level numbers
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are and then somebody takes that and
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runs to their gender Clinic runs to
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their endocrinologist and asks to mimic
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the same results that's what I see
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that's quite common you know what I
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don't blame you hey I you know for me
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for example I'm always on a lookout for
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a ways to slim up a ways to drop a few
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pounds and so if I do see somebody who
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lost weight and then they tell you how
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to do it of course I'm going to want to
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try to mimic it so while it is natural
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to want to mimic what works for somebody
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else the reality is that when it comes
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to hormones it's a completely different
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game it's a completely different way of
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approaching it and over the course of my
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career working not only closely with my
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clients who are on hormone therapy but
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also working with endocrinologist who
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manages their hormone regiments I have
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learned quite a bit about horon and
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while I'm not a medical doctor and in no
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way what I will be discussing today
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replaces medic IC advice I do have some
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tips that I think would be really really
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important to know about I think it's
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going to be really important for a lot
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of you to hear
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about first before I share with you the
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three Essentials the overarching
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overarching umbrella essential for all
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of you to think about when it comes to
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uh medical aspects of your gender
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transition whether you are just about
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thinking starting hormones or you are on
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hormones but you haven't really thought
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about this yet you overall are in themes
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that you need to have in place before
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you even start or if you again started
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think about it now is what are you
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overall goals each one of you is going
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to have different goals some people want
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to uh change secondary sex
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characteristics as quickly as possible
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and then the question becomes well how
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would you know when that's a shift so
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we're looking for particular breast grow
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size are looking for particular voice
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steepening and how quickly what exactly
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are we looking for here and you have to
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be very clear what your goals are for
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individuals who are non-binary also
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thinking about what you're trying to
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achieve and for how long you want
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sustain that achievement a lot of
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non-binary folks go on microing or
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having a variety of regiment and then
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when they achieve their goals staing
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your regiment all together that's also
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very very common so knowing what your
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goals are for a lot of people when it
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comes to hormones your goals are going
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to be physical understandably so for a
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lot of other people starting hormones is
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all psychological it is all about
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quetting down that noise of dysphoria it
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is all about bringing that down it's all
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about getting rid of the mental Ang
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inside of your hat everybody's going to
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have different goals for some of you
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it's even going to be a combination of
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psychological and physical but the key
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here is to be very clear what your goals
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are here's the thing if you don't know
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where you're going how do you know when
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you're going to get there right it's the
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same analogy if you are on a in know
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ocean on a boat and you don't have a
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destination how will you know when you
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have arrived so goals and being very
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clear what they are is going to be very
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important say for example your goal is
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to feminize and feminize as quickly as
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possible again what is it going to look
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like and what kind of time are you
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willing to commit me to in case if it
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doesn't happen in a time period you want
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to so goals is going to be your
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OverWatch arching uh goal it's going to
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be the destination where you heading to
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underneath this goal now I'm going to
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share with you three Essentials that I
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have learned over the course of my
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career the First
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Essential is going to be making sure
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you're working this a good
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endocrinologist and if they're not an
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endocrinologist and just make maybe a
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nurse practitioner or a general doctor
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make sure they have experience not only
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working with trans Fox but they actually
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have experienced understanding how to
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look at your blood work and understand
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how your goals are going to feed in the
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particular
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regimen sadly this first tip is not
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going to be easy to achieve for a lot of
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you that's because we still have a ton
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of medical providers who are de ly
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undertrained or we have a whole bunch of
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medical providers who stick to dogmatic
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old approaches if any of you ever
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watched Willow video the infamous video
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on hormones just know exactly how many
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roads he how many boats he rocked and
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just know exactly how he brought to the
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Forefront a lot of things about uh
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hormone care especially feminizing
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hormone care uh hormone care that nobody
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was
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discussing so finding a good doctor is
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going to be so essential because here's
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the thing even if you're getting
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hormones but you're working with
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somebody who doesn't know what the heck
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they're doing or they don't even know
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how to look at you bloodwork and analyze
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it and know what they're looking for
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again it's it's aching to going
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somewhere without a destination so it's
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really really going to be important to
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find somebody who is is knowledgeable
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the positive thing is that we have a lot
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of great clinics online who are quite
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skilled for example queer MD I'm going
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to try to remember to link it below if I
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forget please somebody just like DM me
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ideal and Instagram because that's where
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I'm most responsive and say Hey you
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video today put down queer MD but it's
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queer MD they're quite knowledgeable
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they're really good at reading and
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understanding when they're looking at
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your block work so even if you can find
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somebody in your region see if they are
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able to provide services in your state
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so that's tip number one have a doctor
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who knows what the heck they're doing if
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you're in a place where you just need to
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get started or you already on hormones
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and you feel like your doctor is not as
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knowledgeable now listening to this you
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are freaking out please don't freak out
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you can always change your doctors and
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if you are in a place where you have
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nobody else
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being on hormone regiment regardless if
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it's helping you if you feel like you're
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getting some results physical or
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psychological or boss that's still a net
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positive okay so that's tip number one
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tip number two or Insight I would say
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Insight number two when it comes to any
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type of hormones and that's going to be
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I would say the most important tip that
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I have for all of you is this please
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trust me when I say this no two people
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are going to have identical
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results even though their Doses and
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regiments are exactly the same let me
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repeat that no two people are going to
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have identical results even if their
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hormone dose and regiments are going to
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be the same here's
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why hormones don't just come in numbers
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they don't just come in doses a lot
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depends on how your body metabolizes
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hormone a lot depends on your age on
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your health and on so many oh my God so
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so many other factors a lot depends on
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that this is why you see people who may
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be taking exact the same regiment and
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they're further along or they're not
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further along than you this is why
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people sometimes struggle and can
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achieve absolutely no breast growth and
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people excel at breast growth this is
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why some individuals have their voice
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crack and deepen within a week yes or
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within a month and others have to wait
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six months to a year to get the same
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results some people have facial hair
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immediately some people have to wait
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it's all because of these factors and so
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many more each one of you is individual
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hormones are complicated and complex
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we're talking about medicine how your
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body is going to respond to the hormones
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again is going to very
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drastically and this is where not only
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how your body metabolizes but this is
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where the numbers play not such a
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significant role in a
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sense that a lot of times people chase
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numbers right oh I want to be in this
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range this this is a range for This
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Woman This is a range for this man right
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sometimes people chasing particular
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numbers to be in and this averages but
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averages for a CIS person may mean
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different than an average for you
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there's a lot of factors here at play a
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lot of
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factors so instead of chasing those
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averages or those numbers or
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particularly with numbers people always
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tell me oh you got to take x amount of
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milligrams no it doesn't work like like
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that what you got to take and what you
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got to figure out with your medical
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doctor is what mix of cocktail let's
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call it cocktail what mix of uh my
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favorite my goodness
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um Jin Martini what mix of Jin Martini
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works best for
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you is the best mix for you two shots of
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gin my preference is it one or is it
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just a little bit more ver moose you
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have to figure out what mix of cocktail
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when it comes to hormones works the best
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for you I had people who were taking a
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low dose of hormones and have drastic
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results and there was no need to
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increase the dose I had people who were
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in a very high dose or on a regular
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standardized to and struggle in the end
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of a day you got to work with your
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medical doctor and in the beginning it
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may take as much as up to 6 months yes
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to figure out and the reason why it
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takes so long is because you want not
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only your body to to give your body time
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to acclimate to hormone to stabilize and
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then assess what results you're getting
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on the stabilized Baseline but here's
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the beautiful part once you figure it
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out you're probably going to stick to it
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for at least some time and then again
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you're going to modify it because as we
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get older as other things happen in our
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life
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stressers other type of things come up
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other type of diseases if we get for
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example aimmune disorder those are all
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going to affect how those hormones work
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in your body for that reason you got to
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work with your medical doctor and what
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you want to look for is less necessarily
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numbers although numbers going to be
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super important for Doctor to look at
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but those numbers in combination with
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how they're meeting your goals remember
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your goals are both physical uh
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psychological or either one of those
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right so are you seeing your goals if
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you're not seeing your goals what else
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can you do are you psychologically
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feeling better is are alleviating things
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you need to alleviate you need to find
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the mix the regiment that makes you feel
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good that makes you feel not only that
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you are evolving and shifting and
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changing but also that psychologically
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you feel really good the dysphoria is
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alleviated that noise is quiet and down
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that's what you want to look for so
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that's the most very very important
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strategic tip for all of you to remember
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now the final Insight strategy tip if
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you will that I will cover today is this
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chances are in some part of your
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hormonal treatment you are inevitably
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going to hit Plateau I spoken about
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Plateau many times on this channel I
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have a video on this topic I think you
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can even Google Dr Z uh hormones and
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plateau and you're going to come up
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against that video that's when suddenly
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it feels like you're taking hormones but
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specifically the physical changes you
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want are not happening right it's almost
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like everything G suances again to make
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an analogy to exercising you are uh in
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calorie deficit you're eating class
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you're working out it's been two weeks
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and the scale doesn't watch that's
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hitting Plateau things feel the same
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if you do heat Plateau on hormones see
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what other factors may be contributing
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are you extra stressed that something
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else happened in your life with
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something else going on if no other
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factors contributing and you're still
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experiencing Plateau it's a great
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opportunity to sit down with your
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medical provider and discuss what can
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you do about plateau and yes there are
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things you can do about Plateau one of
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the things a lot of my clients do is
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change or shift the rout of hormone
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Administration if they were taking oral
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route they switch to Patches or they
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switch to injections or they switch to
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pallets there's a variety of things that
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you can do now all of this may seem
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anecdotal and your doctor might say
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there's no research for that but here's
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the
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thing thousands of people I worked with
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keep telling me that the minute they
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change something it's almost as if the
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body is now processing it differently
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because it is going through a different
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rout of administration and and somehow
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it tends to jump start the changes again
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in the very least it's worth a try right
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you got to have to take your hormones
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anyway so I don't see how changing it
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from one way to another is going to
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change in a very least give shot hormone
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therapy for Trans Fox is all about trial
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and error it is all about trying to find
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again what will work for you I really
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wish there was a great one maybe cookie
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car if it's all but it doesn't work like
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that there are a lot of doctors who
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still use Quicky cutting approach of
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standardized Doses and as a result a lot
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of people are very miserable because you
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can't when it comes to Medicine you just
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can't approach a quickie cutting thing
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to individuals especially when it comes
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to their endocrine system so these are
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my three the most important tip
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strategies insights for you to take away
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today again have your goals outlined and
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be very clear
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find a doctor who knows what they're
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doing if you can ideally that would go
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miles and miles away for you number two
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remember it's not about numbers it's not
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all about numbers it's also about how
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your body metabolizes and works with
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that hormon and number three when you
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hit Plateau which most likely you will
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because everybody does and that's
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okay how can you switch it up how can
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you play around with it come on below
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let me know where you are with hormones
00:18:01
have you have you had experience of
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working with the doctors that didn't
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know what they were doing and switch
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what was that like for you have you ever
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hit plateau and what was the outcome of
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that what did you do what was the
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discussion with your doctor I want to
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hear it all comment below let me know
00:18:20
and I will see you all next time goodbye
