Came across this site and thought I would share my experience with Sotto Pelle. Hope it helps some of you in your research. I started the program in March of 2008 and to date Aug 2009 I have mixed results.
ABOUT ME: I am self taught and studied nutrition and health care for the last 40 years. I am 62 have given birth to 7 children and up until I was 58 I had great energy, worked out daily and wore a size 6-8. I do not take medications and have always looked to the holistic healthcare community rather than allopathic medicine for health answers. My undoing was that I did something crazy which was to work for approx 2 yrs at a high stress job putting in 12 hour days 7 days a week. Sort of like throwing sand bags during the flood but the flood never stopped. So the result was that my adrenals were shot and caused everything else to go out of balance. I was suddenly very tired, my skin was dry, I felt unmotivated and I started putting on “puffy weight” Every morning I got up and was fatter. It felt like I was hooked up to a ball pump. When I looked at myself in the mirror I did not look like me. I felt like I was walking around in someone else's body and unfortunately I still do. My way of eating, which was really good, and my exercise gave me no results. The most difficult adjustment was that I have never had headaches but a throbbing headache started on the left side of my head and was constant sometimes to the point of nausea. I do not take aspirin so when the headache did not let up it was pretty miserable and of course I was looking for answers. All the symptoms of menopause right? But I had stopped menstruating at 55 and had hot flashes since I was 38. This was a whole different experience.
COST & PROTOCOL: I came across Sotto Pelle and thought the approach was as natural as I was going to get but I saw it as "first aid" not the long term answer. It is expensive. Between $150 - $350 for blood work and then another $230 each time you get the implants ( approx every 4 months) , $15 mo for the thyroid and another aprox $100 mo ( depending on your insurance. It can go to as high as $180) for the prometrium to control bleed off of the uterus. When I first started the blood work was done every month for the first few months and after that every 4 months in sync with the implants. If your insurance covers it good for you but most do not. My first visit was with Dr. Tutera and he was very nice. He spent time to explain things and went over my blood work results in detail. Dr Tutera told me the headache was because of the difference between my testosterone and estrogen levels. My estrogen was good but my testosterone was 14 when I first had it tested. It went closer to normal (above 280) after the first month of testing. When I was first given the thyroid I was supposed to take one in the am and one in the pm. They made me very shaky so it was reduced to 1 1/2 in the am only. The prometrium is to be taken at night before bed. I moved further north in Scottsdale so I went to another Sotto Pelle office and saw a practitioner who is a naturopath. He adjusted the prometrium from 1 daily to only 10 days a month as I do not mind having a bleed off. He also adjusted the dosage of prometrium from 200 mg to 150 mg from a compounding pharmacy because I was feeling looped even during the day. I still can tell it is in my system but it is better and the cost is greatly decreased.
RESULTS: It took approx 4 months for my headaches to initially stop. Since my testosterone level increased after the first month there must be more to it and they still come back quite frequently. My skin became less dry which is very nice. As many women on this site have mentioned I was suddenly "turned on" all the time and although I did not yet experience vaginal dryness my lubrication level has increased greatly. Wow. If you are in a relationship your man will think he has found heaven on earth. You will want to be all over him. However I am not in a relationship so that has been an adjustment. The head fog has not changed much and my energy level varies during the month. Fortunately sleep was never a problem for me. I could always go right to sleep and sleep through the night. However now if I have no obligations I will sleep for 12 – 14 hours and not stir. I know this is adrenals. I am studying how to help them heal. That is lifestyle changes and can take time.
WHERE I AM NOW: What bothers me about Sotto Pelle is that the program depends on “pills” and or “implants” to solve the problem rather than giving my body tools to heal. The idea of how the body uses the implants appeals to me rather than the spike of everyday creams but there is a difference as the pellets wear out.
What Sotto Pelle doctors tell me is that this is something I will have to do for the rest of my life. If I had had a hysterectomy it would make sense and I think it offers a good solution to women in that situation. It is also a good solution for women who want the convenience of not using daily creams except you are tied to doctor visits every 4 months and the expense of course.
I have all my organs and I want to give my body the tools it needs to heal and not to have my organs atrophy through loss of function. That is not healing. Although I appreciate Sotto Pelle for being as natural a solution as possible I have never liked the mindset of being chained to a doctor’s methodology for my health. I continue to apply changes to strengthen my adrenals and look for other health tools. Good luck to you.
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Came across this site and thought I would share my experience with Sotto Pelle. Hope it helps some of you in your research. I started the program in March of 2008 and to date Aug 2009 I have mixed results.
August 30, 2009 - 2:26pmABOUT ME: I am self taught and studied nutrition and health care for the last 40 years. I am 62 have given birth to 7 children and up until I was 58 I had great energy, worked out daily and wore a size 6-8. I do not take medications and have always looked to the holistic healthcare community rather than allopathic medicine for health answers. My undoing was that I did something crazy which was to work for approx 2 yrs at a high stress job putting in 12 hour days 7 days a week. Sort of like throwing sand bags during the flood but the flood never stopped. So the result was that my adrenals were shot and caused everything else to go out of balance. I was suddenly very tired, my skin was dry, I felt unmotivated and I started putting on “puffy weight” Every morning I got up and was fatter. It felt like I was hooked up to a ball pump. When I looked at myself in the mirror I did not look like me. I felt like I was walking around in someone else's body and unfortunately I still do. My way of eating, which was really good, and my exercise gave me no results. The most difficult adjustment was that I have never had headaches but a throbbing headache started on the left side of my head and was constant sometimes to the point of nausea. I do not take aspirin so when the headache did not let up it was pretty miserable and of course I was looking for answers. All the symptoms of menopause right? But I had stopped menstruating at 55 and had hot flashes since I was 38. This was a whole different experience.
COST & PROTOCOL: I came across Sotto Pelle and thought the approach was as natural as I was going to get but I saw it as "first aid" not the long term answer. It is expensive. Between $150 - $350 for blood work and then another $230 each time you get the implants ( approx every 4 months) , $15 mo for the thyroid and another aprox $100 mo ( depending on your insurance. It can go to as high as $180) for the prometrium to control bleed off of the uterus. When I first started the blood work was done every month for the first few months and after that every 4 months in sync with the implants. If your insurance covers it good for you but most do not. My first visit was with Dr. Tutera and he was very nice. He spent time to explain things and went over my blood work results in detail. Dr Tutera told me the headache was because of the difference between my testosterone and estrogen levels. My estrogen was good but my testosterone was 14 when I first had it tested. It went closer to normal (above 280) after the first month of testing. When I was first given the thyroid I was supposed to take one in the am and one in the pm. They made me very shaky so it was reduced to 1 1/2 in the am only. The prometrium is to be taken at night before bed. I moved further north in Scottsdale so I went to another Sotto Pelle office and saw a practitioner who is a naturopath. He adjusted the prometrium from 1 daily to only 10 days a month as I do not mind having a bleed off. He also adjusted the dosage of prometrium from 200 mg to 150 mg from a compounding pharmacy because I was feeling looped even during the day. I still can tell it is in my system but it is better and the cost is greatly decreased.
RESULTS: It took approx 4 months for my headaches to initially stop. Since my testosterone level increased after the first month there must be more to it and they still come back quite frequently. My skin became less dry which is very nice. As many women on this site have mentioned I was suddenly "turned on" all the time and although I did not yet experience vaginal dryness my lubrication level has increased greatly. Wow. If you are in a relationship your man will think he has found heaven on earth. You will want to be all over him. However I am not in a relationship so that has been an adjustment. The head fog has not changed much and my energy level varies during the month. Fortunately sleep was never a problem for me. I could always go right to sleep and sleep through the night. However now if I have no obligations I will sleep for 12 – 14 hours and not stir. I know this is adrenals. I am studying how to help them heal. That is lifestyle changes and can take time.
WHERE I AM NOW: What bothers me about Sotto Pelle is that the program depends on “pills” and or “implants” to solve the problem rather than giving my body tools to heal. The idea of how the body uses the implants appeals to me rather than the spike of everyday creams but there is a difference as the pellets wear out.
What Sotto Pelle doctors tell me is that this is something I will have to do for the rest of my life. If I had had a hysterectomy it would make sense and I think it offers a good solution to women in that situation. It is also a good solution for women who want the convenience of not using daily creams except you are tied to doctor visits every 4 months and the expense of course.
I have all my organs and I want to give my body the tools it needs to heal and not to have my organs atrophy through loss of function. That is not healing. Although I appreciate Sotto Pelle for being as natural a solution as possible I have never liked the mindset of being chained to a doctor’s methodology for my health. I continue to apply changes to strengthen my adrenals and look for other health tools. Good luck to you.
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