Tattoos and Telehealth

Starting Fresh: Hormones, Faith, And Focus

• Nik and Kelli • Season 2 • Episode 1

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The year didn’t start with a neat checklist—it started with truth. We’ve been caring for aging parents, navigating dementia, recovering from surgery, and managing clinics while our minds ran 24/7. That pressure cooker led us back to basics: faith as a real anxiety reset, presence as a daily skill, and boundaries that keep our work from swallowing our lives. Along the way we asked a bigger question: what does real relief look like for women who’ve been told to tough it out?

We get candid about the mental load, the “let them” approach with adult kids, and the way forced rest can become a hinge point for healing. Then we turn to the most hopeful medical shift we’ve seen lately: a reframed, evidence-aligned view of women’s hormone therapy. We break down why timing matters in perimenopause, how transdermal and bioidentical approaches differ from the old-school pills, and what current data suggest about brain, heart, and sleep protection. We also highlight low-dose vaginal estrogen for dryness, UTIs, urgency, and better nights—practical fixes that change daily life without drama.

You’ll hear real clinic wins, including ferritin checks for hair thinning and fatigue, and a look at estriol-based face creams compounded with collagen and hyaluronic acid for gentle skin support. We share what’s coming next: a private community for menopause education, GLP-1 guidance, and peptide strategies—clear talk without hype. If 2025 stretched you thin, this conversation offers grounded strategies, science you can use, and a renewed commitment to well-being that doesn’t require burnout as the entry fee.

If this resonates, tap follow, share with a friend who needs relief, and leave a review telling us the one symptom you most want solved—we’ll build future episodes around your questions.

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Nicole:

Hi everyone, welcome to 2026 Tattoos and Telehealth kickoff. We are going to, we don't really have a script today. We actually we typically don't have a script. We usually just have an idea that we're gonna talk about and then we just wing it because that's just the best way to do things. But we really just want to catch up and with each other. And Kelly lives in Texas and I'm in Florida, and the holidays have been you know busy for all of us, and uh we're just gonna we're just gonna catch up. So nothing specific to talk about uh today. We're just really, I think we're just gonna just chat, just have a girl chat, which I am so glad 2025 is over. I am so glad. I feel like it's been a shit show. Uh I don't know.

Kelli:

I feel like our patients feel that way too. Like I've had so many people that they come in and they're just like, God, this year has been an ass kicker. And I'm like, yes, preach. It has been.

Nicole:

Yeah, I I I I feel like that too. You know, just personally, my dad moved in with me. He had an amputation. My daughter had some issues going on just as a 22-year-old, right? 22-year-old issues. Uh, and you know, you think as a parent, when you get when they get older, you're like, okay, I'm good, but it's that really doesn't happen. It's not like they turn 18 and you're like, okay, I don't have to worry anymore. You're like, no, now they can make decisions, and you're like, ah, they're so some of their decisions are just so stupid. But they should be but should they be making those decisions? I know. Exactly, exactly. You know, I'm trying to I'm trying to take a an approach of them. Mel Robbins, I think I'm saying that right, Robbins. Yeah. She has she has the the the let them theory, and I I think it's it's good for me because it kind of gives me a it decreases my anxiety a little bit because I'm like, okay, I need to let her. I I need to kind of let that. But it's it's hard because like, okay, I've already done that stupid shit. Okay, I've I've already done that. So this is how it's gonna work out. But you know, I think they just we have to pay our own stupid tax in life, and whether if that's I mean, whatever, it's not always financial. Stupid tax is just it's just uh what you some some things you have to just pay the piper for your stupid shit. And so it just, you know, you gotta reap what you sow and lay in the bed that you that you made, and and that's kind of kind of what that means. But you know, I'm trying to let them let let everyone uh and it it will be okay. It it will be okay. And I think when I'm getting away from my my faith that truly God's in control of everything, I'm not in control of anything, really. Really I'm not in control of anything. So when I am when I am strong and close, clo feeling close, close to God, and I'm prayerful and I'm thankful, my anxiety is less because I can I almost offload those anxieties. But it's so hard to come back to again my worries and my concerns and what I'm you know concerned about. It's just it's so easy to just get back on back on that. Yeah.

Kelli:

You know, I think that for me, a lot of it has been so so much of my year has been not just you know dealing with those family issues, but so much of ours has been like medical stuff. So, you know, I know we talked, I don't think our viewers, you know, and our listeners know this, but like a lot of this was we we got my mom who's dealing with some you know psychological, psychosocial issues herself. She has some underlying issues. We got her finally moved out and moved in with my sister and got her house sold, and and that was a dramatic situation. So she's a bit of a hoarder, and her house was partially like rat infested. It was just gross, and we couldn't get her convinced to leave. And we finally did. So we got that situation ironed out, and that was, you know, financially an issue, emotionally an issue, and all those things. And then we transitioned her to move in with my sister. We got that situation dealt with. Well, then, you know, my dad, you know, he and I have always been close. You know, I'm not really a daddy's girl, but I've always been closer to him because my mom and I never had, you know, haven't had a great relationship in the last several years. And so then I started kind of noticing this lapse with him and some some issues. Well, then he got diagnosed with Alzheimer's dementia. And I'm like, here we go, you know, I'm not ready for this chapter of my life, you know. And I know your dad lives with you. And I'm thinking, okay, is this, you know, is it time? Is it time to have him live with us? And he's not amenable to that yet, which is fine. You know, that's that's fine as long as he's still doing the things, you know, bathing, eating, those things, you know, and he is. And so we've had that transition and kind of dealing with that. Well, then my husband had a cancer scare, and then I ended up having shoulder surgery. And I think for me, what pulled me back into, like you said, faith and life realization and putting that back together was, you know, that halt, that sudden halt for me. Like you and I, we go, go, go all the time. The moment our eyes are open to the time they we lay our heads on the bed. And even half the time, we put our head on the pillow and that brain doesn't stop. It never shuts off. We're always thinking about the next thing that we got to do. Like, I didn't go over that person's labs, or I didn't call this person, or I need to do this, or I need to that. Like, I'm constantly on work mode, right? And that sudden stop of not being able to work out, not being able to lift weights, not being allowed to do, my arm in a sling. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't even sleep in my own bed. Like, that was a huge life-altering moment. Well, then, you know, you fast forward even just a few weeks, and you're still playing catch-up. And it's like in that small window of time, what feels like forever is just a snapshot, right? It's just a snapshot for the rest of our life. And that was really God's way of slowing me down and saying, I need you to just chill a minute, you know, just come on, come back to me and let's let's talk about this over here. And it really was a good time, I think, for me to slow down and reconnect and settle down and realize that maybe there was some pots I had left on the back of the stove a little too long. Um, and it was a good opportunity to reconnect.

Nicole:

Yeah, I think sometimes we get so far ahead of ourselves that we have to be knocked down a few notches, you know. We we truly just have to be okay. Things are not quite as big of a deal. Now, since I will tell you, going through, going through in the middle of menopause, getting started on a little bit of estrogen has definitely, when you started me on that, I felt great within, I felt better within 24 hours of starting it. And so that has been better for my mood. I haven't been so short-tempered. And so that has been really good for me. But the, which is a success for 2025 as far as that goes, but the mind part of it still goes, goes, goes. Like I'm I picked up this book at the bookstore last week and it's called Let That Shit Go. And it's about two very successful women who are kind of like I don't know what happened. Who who are just their mind is going and like they are they're they're in their car, they go to work, and they're thinking about, okay, whose birthday is this weekend? I need to go to this meeting, I need to, I need to schedule this. I told my I told I, you know, I told my kid this, I need to pick up what's for dinner. Oh my gosh, I still have to fly on my taxes. I need to like, and then you get to where you're going and you're like, how did I even get here? I don't even know. And so I'm hoping I read two chapters last night, but it's the book, the point of the book is to help us to calm the mind and to be present because it said one of the things it said to said, and I was like, dang, but if we're always worried about tomorrow or later what we didn't do or what we did do in the past, if we're always worried about the future or the past, we're never here. We can never be here. And so I'm like, that is so true. So, like before I fall asleep, I'm like, okay, I need to set a reminder. I need to make sure that this patient got their cola guard. I need to make sure that I order tickets for something that, you know, that Buck wants to that's really important for him to a workshop that is is important for him. I need to make sure that like there's all these things that as I'm falling asleep, I have to grab my phone and put a reminder because I I don't want to forget. I I I don't want to forget. So then I have, yeah, I don't know. It's just there's a lot. And I so relate to the I have to do this, I have to do that. Oh my gosh, I'm still doing this, I'm late on this, I still need to respond to this email. This person's waiting on me. I still have to, you know, there's it's just it's constant. It's constant. And it like never calms down. And so I'm hoping I can learn in 2026 how to calm this shit down.

Kelli:

I think it's I think it's important. I'm glad we're having this conversation because I think it's interesting that you and I suffer from the exact things that we tell patients to stop doing. You know, especially as a functional medicine provider, I talk to my patients all day long about, you know, stress and ways to deal with it and sleeping and sleep patterns and coping and you know, all those things. And then I'll look in the mirror and go, girlfriend, you ain't got your shit together either.

Nicole:

I know, I know, I know. It's it's true, it's true. It's it just it doesn't, it doesn't shut down. And and I am like, dang, like it really puts it, puts it into perspective. And so I'm I'm eager to continue reading it to say, okay, what's what's what's the secret? What's the secret? And you know, so far it's like, you know, being present, yeah, taking trying to think about, enjoy, you know, look at the trees, look at, you know, listen to the music, listen, be, try to be present. Those thoughts will flood in still, but you can you kick them back. You know, you say, okay, we're not I can't pay my taxes from the car, I can't respond to the email from the car, I can't, I can't buy tickets from the car, I can't, you know, I can't check this cola guard for this patient in the car. So this is this is really useless. It's really useless. It's worrying is and well, worrying is a useless emotion. But um, but all of the anxiety of things, it it is is making zero progress, helping me zero, because I can't do anything about it right now, anyway.

Kelli:

So there's um there's a series on Netflix called The Lincoln Lawyer, and the guy literally wants to work in his car. Like he's an attorney that never shuts it off. He's like you and I, and he hires a chauffeur to drive him from his office to the courthouse, from the courthouse to wherever he needs to go, so he can work in the car. So he can all the things and pull up his, yeah, so he can build time in the car. And I'm like, that's actually pretty ingenious. But then I thought people like me and you, we would really never turn it off because then we would do those things from the car. And I'm lit sitting here, we were watching it, and I looked over at my husband and I went, I would really work 24-7 and if I had a chauffeur. I really would. Like, if I had someone taking me back and forth, like today, I have to leave to go to physical therapy. And I'm like, it's a 40-minute drive to town for me. You could check labs, you could check on that cola guard, you could do you can get some shit done. I could get some shit done, but then I'd be like, All my other patients who have high cortisol levels and can't get any sleep. You know, I just there's a whole lot to be said. So we're true.

Nicole:

It's true. I was talking to my brother about it a couple of weeks ago, and he said, you know what? Now I know why people who run big businesses and have these big responsibilities. They have chauffeurs. It's not because they're just trying to be fancy, it's because they're so effing busy that they literally have to take advantage of every minute, and that's how it's done. Yes.

Kelli:

Yeah. You know, we we really learned a lot in 2025, guys. Like Nicole and I have been through so much together. I think of, I think all the way back to the very first time we met, you know, and fast forward to where we are now. And then this year, just this last year, this 2025, how how much we have grown as partners, as, you know, as business partners, as friends, as as women, as wives, as mothers, as partners. And just the stuff that we've learned, you know, about each other and about how to how to do business. And then I look back and see how much medicine has changed in the last year. You know, you talked earlier about, you know, me starting you on estrogen. I am over the moon. And I know this is, you know, back talking about medicine real quick, but I'm over the moon about the changes in women's hormone therapy just in the last six months. Over the moon. 2026, ladies, 2026. Line up because hormone therapy for women has just blown the doors open. I love it. I love it.

Nicole:

I started somebody on it today.

Kelli:

I started somebody on hormone therapy today because all about it. Because you know what? They got it wrong. We all knew they had it wrong. We were all screaming from the mountaintops, nobody wanted to listen. And finally, people are listening. And I'm like, thank you, Lord. Finally, women have some relief.

Nicole:

So, can you can you give a little snippet of what you mean when you say release is on the way? What is like, can you just give a little indication of what that is going to look like?

Kelli:

So, the number one, number one, first and foremost, the FDA removed the black box, the black box warning for hormone therapy with women. Number one, right off the top. Right off the top. And what that means, here's what that means you will still see warnings on the medication label itself because that's coming from the manufacturer. Okay. That's not coming from the FDA, that's coming from the manufacturer. So you're still going to see that. But that has not anything to do. So, what they have realized is that all these years when they have gaslit women and fear-mongered women into not being able to take hormones, you know, after you, you know, are perimenopausal and menopausal because they say it causes all these things, they have learned that guess what? They got it wrong. Well, duh. Of course they got it wrong. Because what they've learned is that it doesn't actually really contribute to increased risk for DBT and increased risk for cardiovascular incident and increased risk for stroke and increased. No, what they've learned is that it is cardioprotective, that it is dem that it protects you against getting dementia when you started early on in your perimenopausal journey and you continue it through your your menopause years. What they've learned is that it is actually protective against all of these things that they said you were at risk for. Now, this kind of goes back to what you and I have said. Your body naturally makes something. If it was bad for you, your body would not naturally make it. So we've been saying this for a long time. And so what all of that means for ladies is that there's a big difference between the, I'm not going to name the brand because we're not calling anyone out here, between the oral horse urine-based pills that they pushed on us back in the 70s and 80s, and the now available bioidentical transdermal creams and compounded hormone therapy that is available, that is very safe for you to take, that is not based on horse urine, that does not carry those black box warnings and all those things that we were thinking in the past, that is so safe. Not to mention the fact that Nicole and I both have seen women within days come back and go, I never knew I could feel this good, quote unquote. I never knew I could feel this good.

Nicole:

Yeah.

Kelli:

Yeah. As you should, ladies, as you should. Yeah. And studies after study after study that shows that women that start hormone therapy in their perimenopausal years, women our age, mine and Nicole's age, who maybe we're still having periods, but they're becoming irregular, they're sporadic, they're heavy, they're light, they're all over the place. We could we can be angry in one moment, snap your head off to balling our eyes out in the corner the next, like just all over the place. There's studies that show that when you start these hormones in your perimenopausal years and you carry them through into menopause, you actually are protecting your body from getting dementia, from Alzheimer's, early onset Alzheimer's disease, memory loss, brain fog, fatigue, insomnia, cardiovascular disease. The list goes on, on and on and on.

Nicole:

Yeah, I think it's I think it's it's it's amazing. The patient I just started estrogen on today, her iron is okay, but her ferritin, her storage is low. So we have to supplement before we get anemic because she has a history of anemia. Her hair is thinning, her skin is dry, she's got she's got mood changes. She's like, I'm like, do you have mood changes? Like, well, I'm my patient's is very thin. And I'm like, okay, so those are all perimenopausal. We need to make some changes here.

Kelli:

And so vaginal estrogen for the wind, ladies. Vaginal estrogen for the wind. I'm sorry. You don't you don't have to be miserable. Vaginal estrogen is super, super safe. It fixes so many things. It there's studies out there that show it decreases your risk of recurrent UTIs, all of the, you know, urinary symptoms that women get as they get older, urinary frequency, bladder prolapse. I mean, urinary problems are just we see that over and over and over in our in our menopausal women. Vaginal estrogen for the wind, and it's super safe. I use an estrogen compounded cream on my face every night.

Nicole:

So I heard that you did. Somebody told me that you were using it, you loved it. So tell me about that. But it's you're not using it for hormonal reasons.

Kelli:

You're using it for I'm using it for aging purposes. And here's why. So I have to give perks to Kelly is 75, people. Kelly is 75. So I have to give perks to one of our favorite compounding pharmacists. Our we call her our guru of everything, but our practice manager slash CFO, she's fantastic. I had her query all of our compounding pharmacies to find out what they were doing in the world of compounded facial estriol cream to see what they were compounding it with. And I they she came back at me with, you know, oh, they're using it with tretinoin cream. No, I'm not putting that toxic crap on my face. No, thank you. And no perks to anyone that, you know, not no not no shade to anyone that does that. I'm just not that person. I have very sensitive skin. I have eczema on my face. I can't use tretinoin or retin products at all. But that's not what I was after. I wanted something very clean, an estriol-based cream with either vitamin E or collagen or DHA or something like that. So our wonderful, fabulous, fantastic pharmacist, whom I love near and dear to my heart, she came at me with estriol, compounded with collagen and DHEA, um, and a little bit of hyaluronic acid, very low dose. Chef's kiss. Fantastic. I've been on it for, I think I'm coming up on a month. It's been about three weeks, maybe three and a half. After the first two weeks, the circles under my eyes gone. Fine lines that I was getting right here. I started getting some plumping. You can already see it back in my cheeks. It's got collagen in it. So yeah. It's got collagen in it. So it was starting to come up. The little business we get here.

Nicole:

I was gonna ask you if you put it on your neck, because you know we're we're gonna get a gobbler.

Kelli:

Yeah, I put it here. All of this is starting to tighten up. These right here, all across here, starting to tighten up. You put it all across here, everything's starting to tighten up, starting to get a little bit of the natural moisture and things back in my face. I'm gonna order some. It's fantastic. So if you think about what women use estrogen for in our vaginal mucosa, to restore natural estrogen, to increase moisture, to produce naturally healthier cells, the things we use it for in our vaginal mucosa, you can use it on the same thing on your face. It's a different form of estrogen. It's estriol, so it's a very different formulation. I'm not gonna get into the science of that on our podcast. If you want to talk to me about it, please, HamiltonTelehealth.com will have all the talks you want to have. But I've been using it for almost a month now. I will never go without it again. Never.

Nicole:

And you and so I want to say it's not very expensive. It's like less than like. 50 bucks. Less than 50 bucks. I think it's like 45 bucks.

Kelli:

40, 45 bucks, I think. Wow. And you put it on just at night? Every night, a little piece size amount on my finger. I put it on all little problem areas, little pieces amounts, rub it in after I wash my face. This is at the very last thing I do before I go to bed. Love it. On my neck. Love it.

unknown:

All right.

Nicole:

If anybody wants some, go to HamiltonTelehealth.com and make sure you say, hey, where I want to get some of the estrogen. Where can I get that estrogen cream? Yeah. Estrogen face cream.

Kelli:

So that kind of got a little off topic there. But my my whole point to all of that is, guys, 2026, man, we're coming out the door with a wob bang. Tem Hamilton Telehealth is coming out with a wob bang. Not just a little bang, a wah bang. Nicole has got some fantastic stuff in the works. Our peptides, she we are peptide certified. If you guys didn't know, Nicole went through an entire course and is the guru of all things peptides. You asked her the question, and she's like, you know, on the spot from peptide stacking to all of the things about uh GLPs and how to microdose and all the stuff. And man, it's been a year.

Nicole:

It's a lot of good information. And we are we are starting a Facebook group for if you're if you're a patient, you can join our Facebook group. So we'll be given more information probably within the next episode or two about how to join because we're gonna have really just some good raw information in there that is just gonna be for a closed group because that's kind of the way some of the things should be. And we never want things to be construed as you know, as they aren't, you know, not everybody, not everything works for everyone. And so, you know, you just you know, not a one size fits all, but there's gonna be some really good, really good information in there. So we'll probably get that out here shortly. I know it's created, we just gotta load some content in it. We'll get we'll we'll get that out there, but it's gonna be pretty much menopause talk, GLP1 talk, hormone talk, all the things.

Kelli:

And tattoos and telehealth listeners is gonna look a little different this year. Nicole and I are gonna come on and we are gonna talk about what's going on in our world, kind of like we're doing now. We're gonna chat about maybe without really without HIPAA violations, maybe some things we're seeing in clinic, issues that we're dealing with, personal stuff, what's happening in the telehealth world, updates, new updates, medication updates, what's coming out, what's new, what's what's hot, what's topics. And then if you guys have any suggestions, stuff maybe you want to hear, you want to hear more about, please, please go ahead and and down in the comments make a suggestion, say I want to hear more about this. We'll research it and get back to you guys. Absolutely happy to do that.

Nicole:

Yeah, for sure. So happy 2026. Here is to a better year. It has to be better. So um yeah, exactly. So we will see you guys next time. Thank you for joining us. Please like, subscribe, all the things, and we will talk to you soon. Bye, guys.

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Nicole Baldwin, APRN

Host
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Kelli White, APRN

Co-host