SPECIAL GUEST: Stephanie Wolff, P.A.-C (CEO) Hormone Expert

[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome to Chilling With Ice with me, Lori Fedrick, or most of you know me as Ice from the American Gladiators. Thank you for joining me on this podcast where we're gonna dive in and go behind the scenes on the number one hit iconic show of the nineties. It's time to get up close and personal on what drove us to be gladiators, what challenges we faced, and how we overcame to reach all of our.

[00:00:28] Intro: I know in this first season, inquiring minds wanna know, was their drama fight hookups? Are we all still friends? What did we do in our personal lives? And how are we staying in such good shape years later? Well, stay right here and let's get into chilling with ice.

[00:00:47] Lori: Before we dive into our incredible episode today, I wanna let you know that this is a self-funded podcast and I would love your

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[00:01:32] Lori: Okay, let's dive in.

[00:01:34] Lori: Welcome back and today's episode I am so excited about because we get to talk about. Sex and hormones and peptides and all of the above, and I am extremely excited to introduce Now. Here we go. I had to have my notes because it's a, it's a long list. Um, Stephanie is the nation's leading sexual wellness expert, co-founder of Launch Medical Co inventor of the Phoenix.

[00:02:04] Lori: Hormone expert, peptide expert, um, certified weight loss specialist. And more than anything, my own personal hormone expert, Stephanie Wolf. Thank you. Stephanie, thank you so much, so much for coming on today. I'm so sorry. It's such a mouthful. Are you kidding? It's great this, because what it does is, you know, everybody wants to know exactly who I'm talking to and what their expertise is, and.

[00:02:32] Lori: Oh my God, you're, you're an expert in so many things and I have been waiting for this podcast for a very long time because guess what, I get you without any interruptions to just talk about all the fascinating things that I love to talk about. No. Which

[00:02:48] Stephanie: is sex and Hormones. I am so excited to be here and I'm thankful that you invited me.

[00:02:53] Stephanie: Oh, thank you. To be here because this is my favorite topic in the entire world. I could sit here and talk about this all day, every day.

[00:03:00] Lori: Exactly. That was like when I was in your office and we just got into the conversation. I was like, oh, please, can you please be on my podcast so we can just. Sit and talk about this, but tell me, um, tell my audience actually a little bit about yourself and your background.

[00:03:13] Stephanie's background

[00:03:13] Stephanie: Yeah, so, um, I actually graduated from Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona with my physician assistant degree in 2003. And at that time I thought that I wanted to be in plastic surgery, dermatology. I wanted to be in the, or I wanted to do like Botox and lasers and, you know, just all the beauty stuff.

[00:03:34] Stephanie: And so I started working for, it was a husband and wife team. Mm-hmm. They wrote dual degree dds, MDs. So they were just kind of like bitching people. And I learned so much. And I was there for about four years. And what I realized through those four years was that I. I really wasn't doing anything. I wasn't really helping people the way that I've always wanted to help people.

[00:03:58] Stephanie: Mm. It was just kind of superficial and I was just, I just, it wasn't fulfilling me. Mm-hmm. So I decided to go into family practice and I started working for this doctor who saw. Basically it was called Access in Arizona. I'm from Arizona and it's called Access, which is Medi-Cal here in California. Okay.

[00:04:19] Stephanie: And I chose that because I thought, I don't know anything and the only way I'm gonna learn everything is to actually put myself into this position. And I knew that I was going to be seeing the sickest of the sickest. The poorest of the poorest. And I was just gonna be drained every day. Mm. But I knew I had to do that to learn.

[00:04:40] Stephanie: And so I worked for this doctor for about four years and we saw. Honestly, it was probably like 50 patients a day. Wow. That's a lot. It was insane. Yeah. Like, I literally had five minutes with these people. Wow. And they, we, we, there's this term that we learned in school, and it's called the zebras.

[00:04:59] Lori: I thought you were gonna say turn and burn.

[00:05:01] Stephanie: Yeah. That too. Yeah. No, but you're always taught to look for zebras, meaning that there's gonna be these diagnosis that you don't ever think of. And they're very rare. And they come about, you know, once in your lifetime, literally almost every patient I saw was a zebra. Wow. So it was pretty incredible. Just the amount of information that I learned.

[00:05:23] Stephanie: And, you know, I, I genuinely, I was so sad for these people. Number one, the fact that they just, they didn't have the resources. They didn't have the right. Medical in order to help them. And I did the best that I could, but at the end of the day, I couldn't do anymore for them. Mm-hmm. So it was really disheartening.

[00:05:44] Stephanie: A lot of them ended up, um, you know, moving on, passing away, whatever the case may be. Mm-hmm. And I got burnt out, anyone. Yeah. It sounds, yeah. So, um, It was about that time that I was married at the time, um, and the market had crashed and my ex-husband at the time was working for Countrywide and Countrywide is, you know, the mortgage company that mm-hmm.

[00:06:08] Stephanie: Right. The full crash happened. Yeah, exactly. So he lost his job. We lost our house, and we ended up moving to California. Damn. Yeah, so we had two kids at the time, um, at the time as if they're not here anymore. Right. Yeah. Kinda gone. Um, and so, you know, my son was in seventh grade and my daughter was in second grade, and we just decided to make the move.

[00:06:31] Stephanie: Moved to California and I got a job working at the hospital in family practice, and it, it was a lovely job. Mm-hmm. Uh, you know, it offered me part-time so I could still be a mom and, you know, do all those things. But again, as time progressed, you know, I was there for about 10 years. I was realizing that every patient that walked through that door would pull out their wallet and they would almost like a scroll of like what their medication list was.

[00:07:00] Stephanie: Oh, wow. They had no idea what they were taking. What it was for, what the dose was, how long they've been taking it. They just knew the piece of paper that they handed to me. Mm. And it was like, you're taking something, you don't even know why you're taking it. Mm-hmm. First of all, somebody told them.

[00:07:15] Stephanie: Somebody told them, and you just trusted them. Yeah. And I'm sitting here looking at your labs, and your labs look like you're not taking any of that stuff. Wow. Your diabetes is not controlled. Your cholesterol's not controlled, your blood pressure's not controlled. You have no energy. You have no sex drive.

[00:07:30] Stephanie: You look like death. So I must be doing something wrong. Right. And so I remember going home and I was like, I'm failing. You know, I, I really thought that I was getting into this industry because I've always wanted to help people. Mm-hmm. I want to help people live this fruitful life and this long extended life, and I just wasn't doing that.

[00:07:52] Stephanie: So I decided to just look further and I thought, you know what? I'm just gonna start taking patients off medications and I'm gonna work with their diet, their exercise, their supplements, and their hormones. Wow. And I, I was choosy. Yeah. And I said, this is my plan. Are you on board? And believe it or not, half my patients were on board with it.

[00:08:15] Stephanie: Oh yeah. So they came in every single week with their diet menu, their exercise plan, their sugar readings, their blood pressure readings. And it was so fun to see, like life come back in them. Mm-hmm. You know, they were actually in control of their health and they,

[00:08:31] you

[00:08:31] Lori: gave them

[00:08:31] Stephanie: hope. Yes, exactly. You know?

[00:08:34] Stephanie: Yes. And for, it's like for the first time, They weren't being told what to do, uh, it was like they were choosing to do it. Mm-hmm. You know, and they had somebody in their corner that was helping them. So it was really fun. I bet. So about this time, um, I decide that I'm gonna go on vacation and I was gonna leave for a week and I thought, well, we have like four other providers in the office.

[00:08:57] Stephanie: They can follow you. It's only a week. Just bring in all your fun stuff and mm-hmm. You know, I'll see you. So I come back and they end up having a conference with me, the doctors, and they said, um, I'm not really sure what you're doing here, but you can't be doing that. And I said, what? Doing what? And they go, well, you've taken everybody off their Metformin, their lisinopril, their aspirins, their statins.

[00:09:21] Stephanie: Like that's, that's against what we do here. You cannot do that. And I go, well, they're actually getting better and they don't need it. Mm-hmm. Like, I'm helping them. And they go, well, One physician in particular, she goes, you know, well if you fix patients, they don't come back. Wow. And I was like, what? You're like

[00:09:40] Lori: a light bulb.

[00:09:40] Lori: You're like, excuse me. Okay. Yeah. I see what this is all

[00:09:44] Stephanie: about. Yeah. And you know, it's interesting, I have said this before, and I feel like I have to say this right now on this podcast, but I remember that we would have a pharmaceutical rep. Okay. So we would always get visited by pharmaceutical reps.

[00:09:58] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. Right? Lunch, Starbucks. Oh yeah. Whatever you want. Yeah. Okay. And it was during the time that Symbicort was coming out? Mm-hmm. Symbicort was in comparison to Advair. Advair is like an inhaler that you use for asthma. Oh, okay. Okay. Well, with Advair, it's like a powder. Mm-hmm. So you inhale the powder.

[00:10:19] Stephanie: Some people like it gets in their throat, they're choking, they don't like it. Mm-hmm. And Symbicort, was it almost like an albuterol inhaler? So it was a mist, so not a powder. Mm-hmm. And the thing about it is it had this short acting part of it, so people felt the relief immediately. Mm-hmm. Unlike Advair, Whatever, two different pharmaceutical companies.

[00:10:39] Stephanie: So I remember at the time I started having patients try the Symbicort and they really liked it cuz they weren't choking on the powder and you know, they felt more relief. Right. So, okay, well then that's what I'm gonna write because that's what patients like. Mm-hmm. Well, before you know it, I have the Advair rep coming in and she, she pulls out her little notebook thing and she goes, I see that you've written 10 prescriptions of Symbicort and only won this week.

[00:11:05] Stephanie: Can I ask why? Wow. And I was like, damn, how do you have this information? Yeah, that's crazy. And why are you coming at me like that? Yeah. Crazy. And she goes, so how can I win your business? Like, how can I get you to stop writing Symbicort and write more Advair? And it was in that moment where I was like, do I, is the pharmaceutical company telling me like what to do for these patients?

[00:11:27] Stephanie: Yes, they are. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so it's like all these kind of thoughts started coming to me of. I just don't feel like I'm in the right business because that's not what I wanna do. Mm-hmm. And I remember going home, I started crying about it because my whole life, I've just wanted to be a doctor. Mm-hmm.

[00:11:44] Stephanie: I've always wanted to help people. And I go, maybe I was confused. Maybe I misunderstood what it's, what it's, you know? Yeah. Like, maybe I should be thinking about a different career. Yeah. And my ex-husband at the time, he said, well, why don't you just open up your own practice? Like, why don't you just do what you wanna do?

[00:12:04] Stephanie: And I was like, oh my God, nobody will come see me. And he's like, they will come see you. Yeah. And he was in advertising and marketing, so he goes, why don't we just do it together and I'll do all your advertising and we'll just get people in there. It's gonna take time, but they'll come. And so that's how the birth of Novus began.

[00:12:23] Stephanie: That's awesome. That was awesome. Yeah.

[00:12:27] The Birth of Novus

[00:12:27] Lori: It's, and it, and it's interesting that you talk about the pharmaceutical company because. Every single commercial on television now is sponsored by Pfizer. Yes. You knows. Think about it like, oh my, so one night I was sitting, I was sitting there watching television, and all of a sudden I, I, it just dawned on me, I went like this and I went, interesting.

[00:12:47] Lori: So the reps used to go to the medical offices all the time and then they, the doctors could choose on what they wanted to give their patients. Well, now the pharmaceutical pharmaceutical company said, kind of screw the doctors. We're going after the masses. Yes. And we're just gonna market to them. So then that person at home can go into their doctor's office.

[00:13:08] Lori: That's right. And go, this is what I want. That's exactly what was happening.

[00:13:11] Stephanie: God, I'm brilliant. Yes. That is exactly what happened. You would have these patients come in and they go, you know, oh, I saw this commercial. That's exactly what I have. I wanna try that. How do you know that's exactly what you have?

[00:13:24] Stephanie: Yeah. We haven't even tested you for that. But I have all,

[00:13:27] Lori: I, I have what they talked about. Yes, I told it. But what I love more than anything is the long list of side effects. Side effects, effects, side effects, including death, including, that's the very end one that I love, that impossible death. You know, it's like, sign me up,

[00:13:44] Stephanie: you know?

[00:13:44] Stephanie: You know what, I'll be that 1%. Yeah, exactly. That's, yeah. So it's, it's really interesting that the way that this industry is, and it's very sad because I wish it wasn't like that, you know? Um,

[00:13:59] Lori: as you know, my girlfriend, April, she used to be a veterinarian tech. Um, and same exact thing in the industry, in the veterinarian industry.

[00:14:07] Lori: She goes, I got out of it because I was so disappointed was the word that, you know, I, I went into it because I wanted to help animals and I wanted to help anything that I could possibly do. And she goes, you would think the veterinarians were the same. She goes, however, They've gotten jaded and they're not, wow.

[00:14:26] Lori: It's all about the money now. They don't care if they're helping the animal or not. Wow. Like, you know, people will come in that are, unfortunately they don't have any money and it's like they're still gouging 'em for, oh, you need this, you need that, you need this, you need that. And pretty soon you're just like, I can't afford $800.

[00:14:43] Lori: Yeah. My dog has a small rash on the back of its neck. You know? Yeah, exactly. But yeah, she got out of it because of that

[00:14:50] Stephanie: reason right there. Yeah. So it's just, I don't have a solution for that. You know? I don't know how to fix. Well, you have your

[00:14:55] Lori: own practice and that's that right there. Now you can control Yes.

[00:15:00] Lori: Your environment and what you do.

[00:15:01] Stephanie: Exactly. And that's really, that's, you know, what Novus kind of was built on. Now

[00:15:07] Lori: the way that I found you is because of the fact that I was seeing a hormone specialist and in the very beginning, She was awesome. And then all of a sudden I noticed, um, because, you know, I, I went through menopause when I was 50.

[00:15:25] Lori: My very first hot flash, I went like this, oh, hell no. Oh, absolutely not. I am not doing this. You know, and so somebody referred her to me. So I went and saw her the first year was great, and she, you know, recommended me my bioidentical hormones, which was, you know, the estrogen, testosterone, progesterone. And interesting enough, after about six months, she started taking away my testosterone slowly, like, kind of, and she kept giving this excuse of, well, you know, they just don't wanna give it to you guys anymore.

[00:15:57] Lori: And I'm like, who are they?

[00:15:59] Stephanie: Can they talk to those people? Yeah.

[00:16:01] Lori: Um, and so I just, long story short, she just kind of like, I. I didn't care anymore. It just became a money game. Yeah. And then she was like, you know what, I just don't have time for, you know, these hormone people and I'm starting my concierge business.

[00:16:18] Lori: And it just became a money thing and I was just like, okay, I'm done. Yeah. So obviously another gladiator re remind kind of recommended you to me. And when I went in there and you, you looked at my labs, I was shocked on all the things you told me because she had never went into detail like you did. Yeah.

[00:16:34] Lori: You know? So let's go here for a moment. Yes. And that is, I've heard from women before and yes, I'm speaking to you out there, you women, I've heard them go, oh, I'm gonna go through menopause naturally. Why? Why?

[00:16:51] Stephanie: You know, why would

[00:16:52] Lori: you do that? Exactly. Because I hear I have no energy. I'm overweight. Um, I have no sex drive.

[00:17:00] Lori: Um, just there's a list as you know. Yes, I have hot flashes. I feel like ass. Okay, so let's do something

[00:17:10] Stephanie: about that's do something. Let's talk about that for a moment. Okay. So let's actually go back in time a second because the way I'll try to explain it to patients is remember back in the olden days when women would have children, At the age of 13, 14.

[00:17:26] Stephanie: Oh, I can't even imagine. But okay. Right. And then they were dying. The average was what, like 50 to 60 years old? Yes. Okay. So if you actually think about that timeline, that's when we're starting our menstrual cycles. About 10 to 13. Yeah. Okay. So that you can procreate and then you die about the same time you go through menopause.

[00:17:48] Stephanie: God, what a wonderful life. Isn't that sound amazing? I wanna go back there. But you know, fortunately, and this is where modern medicine has its place, modern medicine has kept us alive longer. Correct. So patients are now living, I mean, I have so many patients in their nineties and their hundreds. Oh, that's, so think about that.

[00:18:09] Stephanie: We're no longer having babies at 13. Mm-hmm. We're actually having babies in her late thirties. Mm-hmm. Even into our forties. I have a woman who had a baby at 51. Wow. Believe it or not. So we're having babies. Older. Mm-hmm. And our life is extended more. Mm-hmm. But we're still going through that menopausal time.

[00:18:29] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. And so the best way for me to explain it is, you're living in this dead body for like 40 years. That's half your life. Right. Do you want to do that? Why? Why would you want to do that? I

[00:18:43] Are hormones dangerous for you?

[00:18:43] Lori: hear the reason why is because for some reason they're under the assumption that hormones are dangerous for you.

[00:18:49] Lori: Yes.

[00:18:49] Stephanie: Why? The one study? The actual, I don't know, one study. Okay. The women's health initiative study, this was actually, it came out right when I was graduating. Mm-hmm. So I think it was 2003, 2002, 2003. And you know, they were using the Premarin and the Prempro and it was, you know, the horse urine type. Right.

[00:19:09] Stephanie: The old school. The old school. Right. Hormone therapy. Right. And what they found is that there was an increased risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease. Well, first of all, can we address that what you were using was actually horse urine, right? And secondly, can we address that you were taking these patients who had been in menopause for, you know, 10 years?

[00:19:34] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. And then you put them on these high doses of hormones. That's the thing is when I think about ladies, wouldn't it be great if you could get your lab drawn? When you're still menstruating. Mm-hmm. And you feel your best. What is that? When you're 30, you're 35, maybe it's 25. Right. Whatever that number is.

[00:19:53] Stephanie: Right. It'd be amazing if these girls could get their labs checked. So they could say, this is where I feel great, and this is what my hormone level looks like at that time. Mm-hmm. Because when you start going through the change, which right now is ha. Quite honestly, I'm seeing a lot of women go through the change around 45, 46, and I could put my 2 cents into why I think that's happening, but I won't.

[00:20:15] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. And so, you know, what is happening is the, the hormones are adjusting and they're declining. Why would you wait until you go through menopause when all the hormones are completely outta your body to then like resh your body with hormone again to try to get you back up to that level? It doesn't make any sense to me.

[00:20:33] Stephanie: And you're, I started when I was 42. That's amazing. And you should, mm-hmm. That's the idea. Because if you think about it, hormones protect you. Mm-hmm. They protect your cardiovascular, they protect your brain from dementia, you know, they protect you from diabetes, blood pressure, all these things. That's what keeps us young, healthy, and hip.

[00:20:51] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. So if you. Take all those hormones out for about 10 years, you've already created this disease process. Mm. And then now you're wanting to turn back the time. It's like it takes time. It doesn't work like that. So it's best to start when things are actually starting to decline. Okay. So

[00:21:10] Lori: that, that answers another question to where it's like there, there's a certain point to where there's like a cutoff, right?

[00:21:17] Lori: Yes. To where they can't start taking hormones.

[00:21:20] Stephanie: Yes and no. Is that true? Yes. And okay. Not really, because I do have women who come in in their sixties. Okay. And they've been in menopause, you know, for five, six years, and they're sick of it, and they feel terrible. Okay. But with them, I start slow. You have to start Got it.

[00:21:33] Stephanie: Really slow. That makes sense. And I'm, I'm very communicative with them. Mm-hmm. And I say, this is gonna feel weird to you because you've been. Basically on empty for five to 10 years and you're gonna have this flux of hormone going in you and you're gonna be like, what is going on? Yeah. You know? And so we wanna start small because I want you to understand what's going on and I want you to feel what you're feeling and I want you to tell me what you're feeling.

[00:21:58] Stephanie: So in that sense, it's like I'm available for my patients. I want to be available. Mm-hmm. I want them to know I'm there for them and I wanna walk them through it as much as possible. Because at the end of the day, like I said before, I feel like everybody should have the right to live a fruitful, healthy, amazing life.

[00:22:19] Stephanie: Not just your first 50 years. First 50 years is a a nightmare. You're like trying to figure out what you are, what you're doing. You're getting married, divorced, you're having kids like the last 50 years are kind of, those are your golden years.

[00:22:32] Lori: Since I've been on, I mean, especially with you and the, you've definitely kind of adjusted my hormones, but I'm 60.

[00:22:42] Stephanie: It's incredible. You look amazing.

[00:22:44] Lori: Okay. So I, I contribute. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I do contribute that to hormones. I do too. Anti-aging. I mean, there's so many people that go, what? What are you doing? Yes. And yes, I can say, okay, diet, exercise. But I've been on hormone therapy since I was, like I said, 42.

[00:23:01] Lori: Exactly.

[00:23:02] Stephanie: Um, so you have had a slow, a slow decline. You've made sure that you didn't just overnight dump everything.

[00:23:10] Lori: Exactly. Yeah. And I still feel like I'm 30 inside. And so therefore, when I look in the mirror, I mean, I'm like, okay, you know, I see some, you know mm-hmm. Wrinkles and wrinkles and shit, and I don't like, and of course I'm like, Stephanie, I'm like, okay, what do we have as far as peptides for the skin?

[00:23:25] Lori: Um, because you start losing that last test. But my point is, is that. Um, I'm 60. I feel awesome. Yeah. I feel like I'm 30. I have a great sex drive. Um, I mean everything, I feel like a zest for life. My head is clear. Yes. You know, I don't have a problem losing weight if I want to or Yes. You know, trying to keep that muscle on when I'm, when I'm training, all of that is contributed to the hormones and so many people don't know that.

[00:23:51] Stephanie: Yes. It's frustrating. Yeah. And so by the time they come in to see me, they're already gaining weight. They have brain fog. They can't think clearly. And honestly, a lot of these women are in these high powered position roles. Mm-hmm. And so they're competing against their male counterpart or the younger folk.

[00:24:09] Stephanie: Yeah. And so they're like, how do I keep up? I know I can do this job. It's just my brain isn't keeping up with it. Yeah. That's called hormones.

[00:24:18] Lori: Yeah, that's what I, I don't get why and why people don't know that. And I think a small part of it is like when I went to go see my ob gyn because I mean, I, I do get my ultrasound and get, I mean, not to get too technical, but I do know about this and that is I get, you know, the, the uterus, the wall and make sure that it's not thickening.

[00:24:37] Lori: Exactly, exactly. So that's part of it with hormones. And so I get once a year, that's fine. That's cool. But I asked him one time, I said, I said, are me taking hormones? I go, is this dangerous? Because I keep hearing it in the back of my head or something. He goes, no, as long as your hormones are balanced, you're good to go.

[00:24:55] Lori: Yes. And I'm like, okay, then why, why are, why, why don't more people know about this? He goes, because, to be honest with you, yeah. The government would rather see you guys on antidepressants. Correct.

[00:25:06] Stephanie: What? Why? Going back to pharmaceutical company. Pharmaceutical companies. Yeah, exactly. Wow. And really, like he just said, it's all about a balancing act.

[00:25:16] Stephanie: Right. Okay. So the one thing I'll explain to my ladies and my men, you know, when they come to see me through the menopause era. Mm-hmm. I don't wanna get you back into menstruation. That's not the goal. No, I, I don't wanna bring your hormones back to, you know, in your twenties and thirties. Right. But I don't want you empty either.

[00:25:34] Stephanie: So I kind of want this middle ground and that's what I'm looking for. I'm getting you to this middle ground, to what is the least amount you can get away with to where you actually function and you feel alive. Mm-hmm. That's what we're looking for. So you shouldn't have an endometrial stripe, you know, thicker than what he's looking for.

[00:25:52] Stephanie: You shouldn't be having menstruation, cuz that's not what we're doing. Right. We're just trying to protect your bones. We're protecting your muscle, we're protecting your brain, your cardiovascular, so that you can live an extra 40 years and be active. Right. And happy. And happy

[00:26:07] Lori: and have, and have a life, and have sex and have Exactly.

[00:26:10] Lori: I mean, ob so many women, it's like, you know, they get in, either they're married for 10, 15, 20 years and fifties and they're like, Yeah, that's gone. It's like, why? Or is it, is it gone because of you? Yes. Or is it gone because of your husband? And that's another whole subject there. We, we'll talk about that for a second, but it's like, you know

[00:26:28] Stephanie: why?

[00:26:29] Stephanie: But I can't tell you how many women will come to me and they'll say, oh, I saw my ob gyn, or I saw my family practice and I told them, yeah, my libido's down. I have a dry vagina. I'm fatigued, I'm tired. And the doctor goes, that's just age. Oh, I know.

[00:26:44] Lori: That is such bs. What? Yes, it is. It's like, is that their answer?

[00:26:48] Lori: Yes. Like that's just, that's what I'm saying by Yes. Going through menopause and there's nothing they can do about it and it's just like, oh my God. Yes. I know you guys. And so that was one of the biggest reasons. I mean, it's like, I get this all the time. Yes. What are you doing? Yes. You look amazing. Yes.

[00:27:04] Lori: You, I mean, you have more energy than I've ever seen. And I'm like, okay, blah, blah, blah, blah. And pretty soon I can discount. Let's do this, watch this podcast. Exactly.

[00:27:13] Stephanie: Um, so yeah. I really, I wanna empower these women. Yes. You know, I want them to come alive again. Yes. And I want them to be active in their later years and

[00:27:23] Lori: they can't be afraid of testosterone.

[00:27:25] Lori: And now explain that a little bit. Oh my

[00:27:27] Stephanie: goodness. Testosterone. So many women are

[00:27:29] Lori: like, well, I don't wanna take testosterone. Yes. That's a male hormone. It's like, okay, well let's talk about what testo. Cuz we both have, we all have estrogen, testosterone in our bodies. Male, female. So it's like they don't understand what the testosterone actually does

[00:27:41] What does testosterone actually do for women?

[00:27:41] Stephanie: for us.

[00:27:41] Stephanie: Yes. Go. So this is what I always say. Think about it like this. If we were to, just to give an average number. Okay. Most men feel good if they're testosterone's at a thousand. Mm-hmm. Most women feel good if their testosterone's around a hundred. Mm-hmm. So we're not getting into the male number. We're not looking to reach that testosterone level cuz we don't need that testosterone level.

[00:28:06] Stephanie: Right. But for us, we're a little bit more intricate. We're a little more detailed. Of course we are. We have three hormones that we have to balance. Mm-hmm. You have estrogen on one side, progesterone on the other, and testosterone in the middle. They all work. Together synergistically. Okay. And testosterone specifically helps with mental clarity, mental focus, brain fog.

[00:28:32] Stephanie: So all these women that I'm seeing, they'll say that I can't find words. You know, I, my brain isn't thinking. Mm-hmm. I feel cloudy. And of course that's when their doctors wanna put 'em on an antidepressant. That's weird. It's clearly just testosterone. Yeah. You need testosterone. Testosterone also helps with vaginal lubrication.

[00:28:51] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. And so, you know, as we're going through the change, women will say, oh, I'm dry down there. I have to use a lubricant when I'm having sex. Or, it hurts. Hurts, yeah. It feels like hot ants. I said that word to a woman one time and she goes, wait, is that coming? And I was like, yeah, that's coming. Hot ants in your vagina.

[00:29:08] Stephanie: You're welcome.

[00:29:12] Stephanie: Oh my god's so funny. But it's like scratchy, itchy. Oh god. That's where dear, you get frequent UTIs. So to prevent that, you do wanna have a balance of estrogen and testosterone. Those, those two receptors are in your vagina. And so I think about the vagina like a rose. Mm-hmm. When a rose is being fed, watered has sunlight, it's fluffy, it smells good.

[00:29:36] Stephanie: It's pretty. When the roses it fed, there's no sunlight and there's no water. It crumples. Mm-hmm. It's cracky and dry and it stinks. Mm-hmm. Oh yeah. That's our vagina. Interesting. Interesting. But testosterone's also needed for that weight gain. Mm-hmm. So, you know a lot of women as they're going through the change mm-hmm.

[00:29:55] Stephanie: They get that tire, their fat tire. Oh yeah. And you know, you gotta remember that not only is that estrogen related, but it's testosterone related too. Mm-hmm. Because testosterone is what keeps that muscle on your skeletal system. And the more muscle you have, the more fat you're burning. So it's an important that you keep that.

[00:30:14] Stephanie: Yeah. There is a condition, it's called sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is where we start to lose muscle mass. Mm-hmm. It's the part of normal aging. It just is what it is. Right. So if you think about it, you have your skeletal system. And your skeleton bone needs testosterone to say strong. Right. But then you need muscle to surround the bone in order to protect the bone, which requires testosterone.

[00:30:39] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. So if you just lost testosterone, you lose the muscle. You lose the bone. It's a downhill, it's a downhill slide. Exactly. Okay. So we need testosterone just like men do. Right. We just don't need as much as they do. There

[00:30:51] Lori: are probably some women out there right now going. Oh my God. That's what's wrong with me.

[00:30:56] Lori: Yes. And I had no idea. And they're gonna go like this. Well, why hasn't my doctor told me about that? That's, that's the biggest thing. Well, why hasn't my doctor told me about that. Well, have you told your doctor you feel this way? Well, yeah, but you know, he, like you said, oh, it's part of

[00:31:10] Stephanie: aging. Yes. So you just have to find someone that will work with you.

[00:31:14] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. Now that you have the tools and the knowledge, you just gotta do a little bit of research and you gotta find someone. They're out there, the doctors are out there that know about this. Oh, they're, they're out there. You just have to

[00:31:24] Lori: find them. But a general one is just not gonna do it. The one's at, like the one that you work for.

[00:31:28] Lori: No. 50 patients a day for five minutes.

[00:31:30] Stephanie: Yes. Like, we don't have time. No. Yeah. We don't have time to be talking about your vagina. No,

[00:31:35] Lori: we next

[00:31:41] Stephanie: Your sex life is not important. Right?

[00:31:43] Lori: Yeah. And, and they kind of, they do poo poo that they do, you know, and they're just like, whatever. Yeah, they really do. So now did I ask the question of how long, okay. I had a woman the other day go, well, if I start hormones, well how long do I have to take 'em for? Is this like forever?

[00:31:59] Lori: And I'm like, That's a great question. Yes.

[00:32:01] How long do I have to take hormones for?

[00:32:01] Stephanie: And that's a really good question because I remember going to this conference and um, I'm part of what's called, uh, AFRM, which is anti-aging medicine. Mm-hmm. And it's, um, they have these conferences at the end of the year in December in Vegas, and it's worldwide.

[00:32:18] Stephanie: So you have physicians from all over the country coming and we learn, it's like four days, you're, you're learning about all the latest and greatest, so much fun to do. So I went there and I remember there was this older gentleman, doctor, he was probably in his eighties and he was giving a, a discussion on hormones.

[00:32:36] Stephanie: And this woman walks up cuz you, you know, now it's a questionnaire time. Mm-hmm. So she walks up and she goes, um, so how long are they supposed to be on hormones? And he goes, as long as they'd like to be feeling good, I. Interesting. And I was like, that's a good answer. Great answer. Yeah,

[00:32:55] Lori: that's a great answer.

[00:32:56] Lori: Yeah. So, yes. So in other words, I don't care if I'm 95, I'll still be taking my hormones because Exactly. If I, I mean, I don't know if I wanna have sex at 95, but probably, I mean not,

[00:33:06] Stephanie: yeah, probably.

[00:33:08] Lori: I mean, depending on what I look like at 95,

[00:33:11] Stephanie: you know? Exactly. But so, and that's the thing is like I want everybody to remember it's not a one size fits all.

[00:33:18] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. We are not a one size fits all. Right. Which is why medicine shouldn't be a one size fits all. Correct. Exactly. We're all individualized and your goals are different than your goals or different than my goals. Mm-hmm. And so you really have to make sure that you find a physician who's listening to your goals, not their goals.

[00:33:38] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. And is going to address them for as long as you'd like to address them. And your goals change throughout the years, you know?

[00:33:45] Lori: So why is it though, that I have to ask this and that is, Why, why won't insurance pay for hormones? I, I just, you don't even have to go there. You can just, you just answered it right there.

[00:34:00] Lori: It's so

[00:34:01] Stephanie: frustrating though. I want you just to remember preventative medicine versus reactive medicine. So they,

[00:34:08] Lori: they, you're, you're paying for reactive. Correct. Okay. So preventative they could give a shit about. Correct. They don't really care if we feel great forever. No. No. Okay. No.

[00:34:18] Stephanie: That's what I kind of thought.

[00:34:18] Stephanie: I want you to kind of think about it like this. Um, this is about the time I was in family practice. So I started Novis in 2016. So however long ago that was. Mm-hmm. Um, new guidelines had just come out saying that we no longer have to do yearly pap smears. It's not necessary. Now they're recommending every three to five years for a pap smear.

[00:34:42] Lori: Is that good, bad?

[00:34:43] Stephanie: What? Right. Wait. Isn't this preventative right? You

[00:34:48] Lori: wanna catch something?

[00:34:49] Stephanie: I don't get it. Wow. Yeah. Wow. And same with mammograms. They were saying mammograms for every other year. Same with prostate exam, same with PSA testing. These are all preventative screening tools that back, let's just call it 2015.

[00:35:04] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. When I was in family practice, they were now extending how frequent they were gonna pay for that. Do you know how much a pap smear cost? Cash pay? No, it's 150 bucks cash pay. Yeah. So they don't wanna pay for 150 bucks for you to go get a a preventative test. Oh.

[00:35:24] Lori: When I went and Okay. Side note, when I went and got my blood drawn and I actually saw the panel and I saw what they were charging.

[00:35:31] Lori: The insurance company. Yes. It was something like $4,000. Yes. And I went like this. Holy shit. Yeah. For a little Dr. They put it in a machine and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. There you go. It's like, yeah. Oh my God. Yes. Okay. Well that's why the pharmaceutical companies run the world. Exactly. Yeah. Um, so, okay.

[00:35:51] Lori: Menopause women, you don't have to go through it. You actually don't have to go through it. Do something. Find a doctor, please. Um, please. Let's talk about menopause.

[00:36:00] Stephanie: Oh my gosh, I love it. Like you said, you can talk about penises all day. I day talk about penis all day.

[00:36:06] Lori: It's my favorite. I was, I was telling you before we got in here that I, I was looking at your website and there's some things I had no idea.

[00:36:12] Lori: Yes. I mean, yes, I'm a gay woman, but yet I was bisexual when I was in my teens and going in my twenties, but at the same time, so, I mean, did I know too much about the penis? No, but there are things that. I mean, come on. I mean, I learned and I was like, holy shit, that's amazing. But tell, let's talk about menopause and then we'll go

[00:36:30] Let's talk about Menopause

[00:36:30] Stephanie: into your phoenix.

[00:36:30] Stephanie: Okay, great. Um, yeah. I, I never thought when I was in fifth grade that I was gonna be working on penis so much, but here I am. Yeah, you are. Um, yes. Men go through menopause just like women do, and they don't talk about it, and they don't talk about it, and nobody tells them that they go through it. Whenever I say that, men go, what?

[00:36:52] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. What do you mean? What does that mean? Yes. So this is what I want everyone to think about. We actually are the same person. We're just, oh, let me clarify. We're X chromosomes are different. We're xx and we're X, Y. Right? Right. Okay. But we have all the same parts. Mm-hmm. It's just the way that they're twisted and turned and involuted.

[00:37:12] Stephanie: Correct. Right. So if you kind of think about it like this, we're born with so many. Ovaries are, are, are ovaries are producing so many follicles. Mm-hmm. Right. And this is what's driving most of our estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. That's what keeps us youthful and young and able to procreate. Men are born with so many laidig cells, Laidig cells are produced in their testicles.

[00:37:37] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. And they're responsible for making testosterone. Okay. They're also born with so many sertoli cells. Sertoli cells are responsible for making sperm. Mm-hmm. Well, in order to make sperm, you have to make testosterone. They go hand in hand. Mm-hmm. Just like our estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. In order to get pregnant, you need estrogen to create the lining.

[00:37:55] Stephanie: You need progesterone to keep the baby. So it's the same idea. Mm-hmm. It's just different cells or different, however you wanna look at it. Right. So as women start to age, we're no longer having so many follicles. Right. Like we run outta follicles, we run outta eggs. So your eggs die out. Your eggs die out.

[00:38:15] Stephanie: And if your eggs die out, Your ovaries begin to atrophy. They kind of shrink up and yeah, whittle away. And they don't really need estrogen and progesterone because you're not growing anything anymore. Right? And so that's the decline. Same thing happens with men. They lose one late cell every five minutes until all their late cells are gone.

[00:38:35] Stephanie: Hear that Jeff? Late latex cells

[00:38:38] Lori: back to my engineer.

[00:38:42] Stephanie: And of course if they have diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure, they're overweight, they're not exercising. Any kind of inflammatory disease process is going to disrupt their latex cells. It's gonna destroy more latex cells, which is why I think we're seeing more and more men.

[00:38:57] Stephanie: Coming back in menopause in their twenties and thirties. Wow. Okay. So if you're not making testosterone, then you can't make sperm. Now you're infertile, so it doesn't matter. You don't need the hormone anymore, basically. Mm-hmm. So their symptoms are very similar to ours. Night sweats, hot flashes, brain fog, they get the belly.

[00:39:17] Stephanie: Yeah. I'm telling it's all the same symptoms. Mm-hmm. It's just nobody told them that that was menopause. They just said, oh, I work too hard. I'm not getting enough sleep. I drink too much alcohol, this and that. I'm stressed. No, your hormones are declining.

[00:39:32] Lori: So, and with this, they have a hard time get an erection.

[00:39:36] Stephanie: Correct. Okay. Because think about it. You know, most of their makeup is testosterone production. Right. And testosterone is what gives them that drive. It gives them energy, helps with sleep, helps with focus. Mm-hmm. But it also promotes nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is a potent vasodilator so that they can get blood into their.

[00:39:57] Stephanie: Penis to have a nice firm erection. Okay, so testosterone's very important for just overall being a man, like everything about them, right? And so as they start to lose this hormone, they, I hate saying this, but they kind of start turning into like, Women a little bit. Yeah. Sorry, God,

[00:40:18] Lori: don't say that too loud.

[00:40:19] Lori: But, um, sorry guys. Well, no, I mean

[00:40:21] Stephanie: I that, but it's true. Yeah, it's true. And so they come to you and they've been placed on antidepressants. Oh,

[00:40:27] Lori: really? They do the same for them then? Yes. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. It's

[00:40:31] Stephanie: incredible. Yeah. And so what I always tell them when they come to see me is, look, I'm not here to take you off any of your medications right now.

[00:40:39] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. What I wanna do is I want you to feel good. Yeah. So let's work on you feeling good, which could take three months. Mm-hmm. And then in three months, what happens is you decide mm-hmm. To start removing things. You decide you don't need this anymore. It's not me doing it. Right. It's you doing it. And I can't tell you how many men, once they start testosterone, I'm talking like a week later.

[00:41:01] Stephanie: Oh, I bet. Because it gets into you like that. Yeah. Yeah. They'll call me and they're like, oh my God, I just had this cloud lift. I don't think I was ever depressed. I don't think I need this pill. Yeah. And I was like, Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. You're like, I know. Isn't that fun?

[00:41:15] Lori: So it's low tea basically is what happens with them.

[00:41:18] Lori: Yeah. Well that's what I

[00:41:19] Stephanie: hear anyway. Yes, exactly. Yeah. So, you know, it's very important again, that they find somebody who's gonna listen to them mm-hmm. And their complaints and actually run the tests. Now there's a lot of urologists out there who do do hormone testing and do, do, you know, testosterone replacement, but there's a lot that don't.

[00:41:37] Stephanie: So you just, you gotta find someone that's gonna work with

[00:41:39] Lori: you. Let's talk about that for a minute, because you could go to a normal Okay. I'm gonna say normal. I always use normal as far as like, um, a general doctor and they'll look at your hormone panel. Like they looked at my hormone panel and I was like, you're fine.

[00:41:51] Lori: Yep. Okay. So in other words, like if, if my estrogen is in a range from, I don't know, like 10, I don't know the numbers. Yeah. Let's say from 10 to a hundred and I'm at 10. Yeah. They're gonna go. Oh, you're normal. Okay. You're normal. Yeah. Well, why do I feel like shit?

[00:42:05] Stephanie: Exactly. Okay. Because you're not normal. So think about it like this.

[00:42:09] Stephanie: If you go to your primary care doctor, right? He's focusing on primary care. What is primary care? It's high blood pressure, it's diabetes, it's cholesterol, it's asthma, it's allergies, it's rashes. It's a whole gamut of things. Damn. So he's not specialized in one thing. Mm-hmm. He knows a little bit of every little thing.

[00:42:31] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. So for him seeing hormones, he, he's not used to even drawing them. Mm-hmm. So he's gonna go off of the reference range of the actual lab panel. Got it. And remember, reference range means who's going into the lab. As young as a 10 year old. As old as a hundred year old reference range. That's crazy too.

[00:42:50] Stephanie: That's what they're looking at, right? So you have to find a specialist who, this is what they do all day, every day. Mm-hmm. Because they know what it is. They know what the number should be. They have patients, they can tell you what their experience is, just like a cardiologist. Why would you go see a cardiologist if you are bleeding from your rectum?

[00:43:10] Stephanie: Yeah. Like he can't help you. It's not his specialty. Funny. He'll do a good job, right? Yeah. He'll do the best that he knows how. Yeah. But that's just not his

[00:43:23] Lori: specialty, because I, I hear that so much with women and they're like, oh, I went to my doctor and my ranges are totally normal, but I still feel like as I'm gaining all this weight, I have hot flashes.

[00:43:35] Lori: I'm like, oh my God. You know? Yes. And it's like I'll start talking to 'em and going, you're probably on the low, low, low, low end of your hormones. You need to go see a specialist. They're like, no, my doctor's fine. And I'm like, all right. You just feel like shit. Go ahead. Yeah, exactly.

[00:43:47] Stephanie: Move along. Right. Okay.

[00:43:48] Stephanie: So that's really what its, and, and going back to the one size fits all Uhhuh, right? So like, Her number might be that number, whereas that number actually might feel good to you. Mm-hmm. But to her, she doesn't feel good at that number. So that's where it's finding that specialist that can work with you. Oh, you don't feel good.

[00:44:05] Stephanie: Oh, okay. Well let's try to go a different direction. What is it that you're experiencing? What are you feeling? Mm-hmm. Because again, it's like going off of your reference range of like 10 to a hundred. Maybe you feel great at 10, she would feel great at 15. Mm-hmm. So you just don't know and you gotta work with them.

[00:44:21] Stephanie: Got it. I see. Yeah.

[00:44:23] Lori: So going back to the menopause, um, so the men come in, they're, they feel like ass. You look at their ranges and everything. So let's say their testosterone's normal. But now interesting enough, on your website you have something that you developed and it's called the Phoenix. And I was really.

[00:44:43] Lori: Kind of like in awe of, of that because you said shock therapy and of course that's like shock therapy, but you started talking about the plumbing of the penis. So let's go there for a second because that was also very intriguing and interesting to me. I had no idea.

[00:44:59] Stephanie: Yes. So, um, I just actually Jeff laughing.

[00:45:02] Stephanie: I know he's laughing

[00:45:03] Lori: and he's like over there shy, like looking around, like they're gonna talk about penises now. Oh my goodness. I know,

[00:45:08] Stephanie: I know.

[00:45:10] Lori: Penis. Yeah. The

[00:45:12] The Phoenix

[00:45:12] Stephanie: plumbing. Yeah, exactly. So I do get a lot of, you know, um, I guess I would call it like complaints or concerns on TikTok, you know, from people and they're like, you're a female, what do you know about penis?

[00:45:25] Stephanie: And I'm like, trust me, I know a lot about penis. Um, I just finished writing a book actually, and I kind of go into, it's gonna be called the Novus Protocol, or at least that's what I think right now. Awesome. Um, and it just is basically going over all the stuff, you know, of like. The male anatomy penis, like how it all works together.

[00:45:43] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. And the way that I see it is it's three pillars. Okay. So you have your cardiovascular. Mm-hmm. You have your hormones and you have your brain. So as far as men go, I want them to think about it like this. You have to have all three working in order for you to get an erection mm-hmm. Firm enough that you can actually penetrate and finish completion orgasm.

[00:46:08] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. So it's a lot of things going into it. And one thing in particular, I have to say this on your podcast, um, most men don't realize that when their testosterone starts to drop, they're no longer feeding that tissue of the penis. Mm-hmm. So then what happens is that tissue starts to get. Um, lined with like fatty collection tissue, which no longer requires blood flow.

[00:46:33] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. So what happens is their penis begins to shrivel Oh. And turn like a gray discoloration. Oh. As if it's dying. It is. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. It happens, it's normal. That's actually part of the aging process. Huh? So I'm here to tell you, you don't have to allow that to happen. Okay? And how you don't allow that to happen is the three pillars.

[00:46:58] Stephanie: Okay? So cardiovascular is your blood flow. You gotta have blood flow, because if you think about it, you have blood vessels everywhere in your body feeding everything. Mm-hmm. It's feeding your brain, your liver, your kidneys, even your nose, your toes, your hose. Yeah. These are the smallest blood vessels. And so there's the ones that.

[00:47:19] Stephanie: They're gonna run the risk of being ruptured or clogged before the other ones do. Mm-hmm. So to me, it's kind of like this wake up tune of cardiovascular disease. You've got high cholesterol, you've got plaque buildup, you have inflammation. So the minute you start experiencing erectile dysfunction, I want you to start thinking about that.

[00:47:38] Stephanie: Okay? Think about your diet, your exercise, your lifestyle, your smoking, your diabetes, all of that is contributing. Mm-hmm. And so if you're having all this inflammation in the blood vessel, You can't send rich oxygenated blood through that vessel to feed the tissue. Mm-hmm. And the tissue needs that to grow.

[00:47:56] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. It's like soil, right? You have water feeding the soil, right. So you can grow a plant. Mm-hmm. So that's step one. Step two then is your hormones. And you need hormones in order to produce what I was talking about before, nitric oxide. Mm-hmm. Nitric oxide is a potent vasodilator. That's what's going to allow the blood vessel to open up wide enough to get more blood flow into them.

[00:48:19] Stephanie: But then the brain is the last part of it. And these guys don't realize how much is connected to their brain. If you actually think about it, this is a little bit kind of going into detail, but the men have to activate both their parasympathetic and their sympathetic nervous system in order to get an erection and ejaculate.

[00:48:39] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. So let me talk about that a little bit different. So, We have something called parasympathetic nervous system. It's our rest and digest. When we're just like chilling on the couch watching tv, we've activated parasympathetic. Mm-hmm. Which means we're just like, we're relaxed. Okay. Our blood vessels are vasodilated.

[00:48:57] Stephanie: We're just kind of feeding whatever we need to feed. Mm-hmm. So in order for these guys to get an erection, they have to be relaxed. They have to activate parasympathetic uhhuh. They can't be stressed out, they can't have anxiety, they can't be medicated. Right? Right. So then what happens is as they continue having intercourse and their thrusting and their like, heart rate starts to rise.

[00:49:21] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. Now what's happening? You're running from a bear. Okay. You're activating your sympathetic nervous system. Okay. Sympathetic nervous system is vasoconstriction. This is the act of ejaculation. Okay. So now you just switched from relaxation to fight or flight. Mm-hmm. Running from the bear so you can ejaculate.

[00:49:40] Stephanie: Interesting. So if you are on an antidepressant or anti-anxiety, that's kind of like giving you too much serotonin or not enough dopamine, you're not gonna ejaculate. Mm-hmm. And so I see a lot of that from guys, whether it's premature ejaculation or it's prolonged ejaculation, and it's all because of up here.

[00:49:59] Stephanie: Wow. It's the way that the dopamine and the serotonin and acetylcholine and you're sympathetic and it's all mixed together. Mm-hmm. So it's like if these guys could just understand how much goes into it and like it's, this is so detailed. Yeah. You know, that sounds extremely detailed. It is like not a again, not a one-stop shop.

[00:50:18] Stephanie: Right. We have to go through all pillars to kind of figure out what's going on. Okay. Which then leads us to the phoenix. Okay. Okay. So in our office we started using something called shockwave therapy. And Shockwave therapy has actually been around since World War ii. Yeah. But

[00:50:37] Lori: shockwave therapy back then is like, you know, the lobotomy period.

[00:50:41] Lori: I mean, so when people hear shockwave therapy, they're like, oh, don't get that thing near my penis. You know?

[00:50:47] Stephanie: Exactly. Yeah, that's exactly, they think we're gonna shock their penis. Yeah. And that's not what's happening. Okay. So it's a sound wave. Oh, okay. So these sound waves that are emitting, whether that's high intensity, a sound wave, or a low intensity sound wave will determine how the tissue responds.

[00:51:05] Stephanie: Mm. So high intensity is destruction, destroy. Mm-hmm. Which is where lithotripsy came about. Mm-hmm. Lithotripsy is how you break up kidney stones today in the er. Okay. So if you have a kidney stone, you go to the ER and you can't pass it, they're gonna use lithotripsy. Okay. Which is just sound waves. Shock waves.

[00:51:23] Stephanie: Got it. High intensity. Got it. What they found out is that when they admit high intensity, shockwave, the tissue around it gets low intensity and causes repair. Mm. So it's regenerating the tissue, it's creating new blood vessels, new nerve endings, new tissue. Got it. So they said, okay. They, I love that they random.

[00:51:44] Stephanie: I know we always say

[00:51:45] Lori: they, they, whoever they are. Those people, those people out there,

[00:51:50] Stephanie: they decided yeah. To take this low intensity sound wave and use it for musculoskeletal injuries. This is over in like Germany and Switzerland, by the way, probably about 20, 30 years ago at this point. Mm-hmm. So they started using it for, uh, Achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, knee pain, shoulder pain, musculoskeletal stuff.

[00:52:11] Stephanie: Yeah. Okay. And they saw good success because, you know, they were getting rid of scar tissue and promoting blood vessel formation. So I don't know who this random person was. Oh, but this random decided to put it on their penis. Oh. Because they thought, well, if I put low intensity and it does this on my joints, what will it do to my penis?

[00:52:30] Stephanie: And it actually does what you think? It repairs the tissue. Okay. It creates new blood vessels, new nerve endings. Re enhances that tissue. So cool. So now you get better affirmer erections. So cool. Here's the thing, it costs a lot of money. Oh yeah. It's $500. It's up to 500, $600 a session. One session to come into a doctor's office because you have to get undressed.

[00:52:55] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. And then a nurse has to do the actual treatment. Mm-hmm. She literally puts your penis in her hand mm-hmm. In a gloved hand. And she like puts this wand over your penis uhhuh. So a lot of guys, that's embarrassing. Oh yeah. They don't wanna do that. And they don't wanna have to take time off of work to come in for six treatments or four treatments or whatever they need.

[00:53:14] Stephanie: So we learned very quickly that, you know, there is a need to have this out there for people who can't afford to come in. Mm-hmm. And that's where the Phoenix was invented. Okay. So I'll give you, I don't know how much time we have, but 10, 15 minutes, minutes. Okay, good. Okay, good. So I'll, I'll kind of go backwards a little bit.

[00:53:33] Stephanie: So next thing you know, we're, we're kind of this, you know, low intensity shockwave therapy clinic. Mm-hmm. And we're having patients fly in from all over the country to get our treatment because it was very rare during the time that we started doing it, not a lot of clinics were doing it. Mm-hmm. And then next thing you know, we're having doctors come in and I'm training them on how to use it.

[00:53:52] Stephanie: Next thing you know, I'm renting out the Beverly Garland and we're having conferences on the weekend to show them how to use it. And so we kind of realized, so

[00:53:59] Lori: can I have your penis for a minute so I can, uh, demonstrate on how this is gonna work? Don't

[00:54:04] Stephanie: worry about it. I got you. And so we kind of realized, you know, yes, we were training these doctors and more and more clinics were doing this, but it still wasn't solving the problem that people don't have money or resources to come do this.

[00:54:18] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. And so it was at that time that my ex-husband said, wouldn't it be great if we can invent a home use device so that the men who couldn't afford it can't come in, it can actually do it at home. Mm-hmm. And I was like, yeah, that's great. I'm not an inventor. Yeah. I don't know how to do that. So next thing we know, a patient walks in the door and Dustin's telling him about it and he goes, today's your lucky day.

[00:54:39] Stephanie: I'm an inventor. And three weeks later he walks in with what we call Frankenstein and he put it on my desk literally. And like this big battery, we had to put like headphones on. We had to like plug it in. It was, I have it at home, it's really bad. That is so cool. And uh, he's like, you know what? We just have to get through the prototypes and make sure this works.

[00:54:59] Stephanie: So, um, we just started calling up patients who couldn't come into the clinic and we said, Hey, we're designing this home use device. Would you wanna be part of our study? I can't tell you how many patients signed up for that. Oh, I bet. It was incredible. I bet it was so awesome. Yeah. So it took us about two years to get to where we are today.

[00:55:19] Stephanie: And about that, you know, second year when we were ready and we're done. We're ready to go to market. You know, we were funding everything ourselves. Mm-hmm. We, we couldn't get any money. We tried going to go FundMe and you know, those campaigns and we just couldn't raise any money. And so my son at the time was working for us and he was doing,

[00:55:35] Lori: maybe, maybe it was because of the way you did it.

[00:55:37] Lori: Okay, go fund me. I have thing that goes over men's penises. Can you guys help me fund this thing? Can you like,

[00:55:44] Stephanie: gimme some money? I know Everyone's like, go on Shark Tank. I'm like, shark Tank doesn't want us. Sidetrack. Can you imagine?

[00:55:50] Lori: I need a volunteer. Yes,

[00:55:52] Stephanie: please. I'm sorry, go ahead. You're on stage. No. So your son using Yes.

[00:55:57] Stephanie: So my son was doing marketing at Novis and he goes, you know what, let me do a ClickFunnel campaign where I have them take, um, a quiz on their sexual health. Mm-hmm. And then we'll do like a presale order and you know, they'll buy it for half off whatever. He ended up raising $3 million Oh my God. In like six weeks.

[00:56:17] Stephanie: No way. It was. Insane. Wow. And it showed us like, oh my God, this is, there's a need. It's there's a need. There's a need, need for it's, yeah. Yeah. So we took that money and we, you know, started manufacturing the product and then we came to market a year later and That's so cool. We're in our third year. Um, we're still only in the United States, which is kind of crazy.

[00:56:37] Stephanie: Yeah. But I just hired a, um, an international expansion group in January. So we're getting ready to go into Canada, Mexico, Australia. So it's called the Phoenix. It's called the Phoenix people. People can buy

[00:56:49] Lori: it and they can use it

[00:56:50] Stephanie: at home. They can it online, they can use it at

[00:56:51] Lori: home. So is this taken the place of a

[00:56:53] Stephanie: Viagra?

[00:56:55] Stephanie: It's actually, yes. Okay. Because I want you to remember when you're taking medication is some, there's something called tolerance. Mm-hmm. Just like alcohol, just like smoking. Mm-hmm. Just like drugs. The more and more you use mm-hmm. The less effect it has. The more you have to use marijuana to get more effect.

[00:57:18] Stephanie: Right. Okay. Viagra is no different. Okay. So the more Viagra you take, the higher dose you need, the more it doesn't work. Now you gotta switch brands. Now you're doing injectable trimix. Oh, so, so shockwave actually goes in and it repairs the tissue, repairs blood flow. It's actually repairing and reversing the cause of ed.

[00:57:36] Stephanie: Wow. Yeah.

[00:57:37] Lori: You are doing some amazing work. It's kind of fun. I bet. Yeah. See, Jeff, that wasn't so bad, was it? Talking about penises.

[00:57:47] Stephanie: Um, I'm, I'm actually getting to do what I always wanted to do, which was help people. And that's what life is all

[00:57:52] Lori: about. Yeah. Life is all about doing what you enjoy because then it's not

[00:57:55] Stephanie: work.

[00:57:55] Stephanie: Yeah. It's not. You know, I enjoy so much of it and I, I love talking to these guys. I just had a guy come in yesterday, he's was in the military, and you know, he is like, I watched your videos and I purchased the Phoenix and you know, I came in and I'm, you know, Sophia's amazing. And he's like, I just wanna thank you for all the work that you've done because there's nobody talking about it the way that you

[00:58:17] Lori: do.

[00:58:17] Lori: And you are helping so many people in marriages. Oh my goodness. Can you imagine how many marriages you've kept together? It's crazy. I mean, between the, the women taking hormones and having a sex drive and no longer having a drive at China, um, to the men, you know, getting rid of their ed. Yes. Um, being able to perform.

[00:58:35] Lori: I mean, just think about, I mean, I know what you've done for my sex life and my relationship of, which is amazing. You reconnect. Yeah. The couples reconnect and, and so many people forget about that throughout their, their relationships and age. It's like, oh, we're old now. We don't need sex. Bullshit. You need sex.

[00:58:54] Lori: Exactly. Bullshit. I call bullshit on those

[00:58:56] Stephanie: people. I do too. It's what brings you together. It's you percent fall. It's what brings fall in love all fall all over again. Yes. You need these good hormones in

[00:59:05] Lori: you and it is all about the hormones. It is. You know, and so many people. It's so poo-pooed and just like, Put to the side.

[00:59:11] Lori: It's like, and that's why I just love talking about this and thank you so much for coming on here. Now let people know where they can find you and the Phoenix.

[00:59:21] Stephanie: Yes. Okay. So you can find me at uh, the Novus Anti-Aging Center. We're in Studio City, California, and you can just go to our website. It's www.thenovacenter.com.

[00:59:34] Stephanie: I do have a big TikTok following. I'm called a Dick Fixer. I don't know if you can say that. That's all I

[00:59:40] Lori: had. No idea. That is funny.

[00:59:43] Stephanie: So please follow. It's all educational. I promise. I give you lots of information. My next topic is blue balls. You're welcome. That is so cool. I just wanna talk about things that people don't talk about.

[00:59:57] Stephanie: Yeah. And know and it's fun. Yeah, exactly. It's all education. I don't understand, I don't understand

[01:00:01] Lori: why people don't like talk about these kind of things. I know either. I mean, they'll talk about, uh, they rarely talk about sex nowadays. It's like, well then again, you can't talk about anything nowadays without offending someone somewhere in some corner.

[01:00:13] Lori: But, um, okay. So they can find the Phoenix

[01:00:15] Stephanie: on your website as well. Right. And then Phoenix, you can find it on the website. You could go to get my phoenix.com. Uh, we also have, you know, presence on YouTube and Instagram. You can watch videos about it, how to use it. Yeah. I'm here

[01:00:29] Lori: for you. Do you actually have like a, an instructional

[01:00:31] Stephanie: video?

[01:00:32] Stephanie: Yes. And a lot of people don't like the dildo that I used. Wait a minute, wait a

[01:00:37] Lori: minute. If it's any, if it's the dildo that you used in your office, you have something I, it's okay. Wait, I gotta tell, I gotta say this. April and I were sitting in your office and all of a sudden the thing comes on the screen and I'm looking at the dildo and I went, holy shit.

[01:00:52] Lori: That would make any man feel inferior. I mean, this thing is like, you know, is, is that what a real penis is supposed to look like?

[01:01:00] Stephanie: I mean, it's like I was trying to visually, I wanted you guys to see what I was doing, so I had to have, you know, yeah. A bigger, you guys, this isn't a normal sized penis.

[01:01:12] Lori: Is it really a normal place?

[01:01:14] Lori: Oh,

[01:01:14] Stephanie: I know.

[01:01:17] Lori: It's so funny. Yeah. And before we go, the other thing that um, we didn't touch on, but I just wanna say it real quickly, is you don't have to wait until you're going into menopause. No. To please don't go in and check your hormones because like April, my girlfriend went in and she was extremely anxiety ridden.

[01:01:36] Lori: Yes. And come to find out, you looked at her labs and she was so estrogen dominant. Yes. And her testosterone is on the floor and she's only 42. And you're like, God, your body is trying to go into menopause already. Yes.

[01:01:48] Stephanie: This is what I want women to remember. We start losing progesterone around the age 35 to 40.

[01:01:56] Stephanie: Mm-hmm. Which is why it's very difficult for some ladies to get pregnant because they're progesterone deficient. Oh, interesting. Okay. And then around 40 to 45, we start losing our testosterone. Mm-hmm. And then around 45 to 50 is when we start losing our estrogen. So we're just dying out at 40. So we're just dying.

[01:02:10] Stephanie: Yeah.

[01:02:10] Lori: We're just dying. Exactly. Just like your h d starts dying at 30. But yeah, you gave her a little testosterone, um, once a week and it just Unbelievable difference. Yeah. Her anxiety has went away. Yes. It's incr. And she would, and she thought she was chronic anxiety from every doctor she went to, and they just kept giving her anaba uh, um, Xanax.

[01:02:30] Lori: Yes. Here,

[01:02:30] Stephanie: just take this. Just take this. And most women think, wait, if I have anxiety, doesn't testosterone cause anxiety? No. Mm-hmm. If you're on too much testosterone. Yes. Well, if you're on anything too much. Exactly. Which is why you need the the balancing act. Exactly.

[01:02:46] Lori: Stephanie, thank you so much for coming today.

[01:02:48] Lori: I so enjoyed it. I absolutely loved it. I know you guys loved it. So if there's any questions whatsoever, um, everything will be in the show notes where you can find Stephanie, everything like that. Any questions, put it in. Um, I mean anything in my YouTube, TikTok, whatever. And I will get you in touch with her and thank you so much.

[01:03:09] Lori: And until next time, keep chilling.

[01:03:13] Outro YT: Thank you so much for listening to Chilling with Ice, and don't forget to hit that like button. Subscribe and share wherever you listen to your podcast. Remember to follow us on Patreon and YouTube at Chilling With Ice and on Instagram and TikTok. You can follow me@lori.ice dot Patrick. I look forward to chilling with you next time here on Chilling with

[01:03:40] [Mic bleed]