Top 3 Things to Know About Endometriosis with Dr LJ Johnson
In this episode, we’re discussing “Top 3 Things to Know About Endometriosis” with Dr LJ Johnson, a women’s hormone coach. Endometriosis is a common yet often misunderstood condition that affects many women around the world. Dr Johnson is here to help us understand more about the condition and what we can do to manage it.
Firstly, Dr Johnson explains what endometriosis is and how it affects women’s bodies. She explains that endometriosis occurs when the tissue that usually grows inside the uterus grows outside of it.
Next, Dr Johnson addresses some of the biggest misconceptions about endometriosis, such as the belief that birth control can cure the condition. She explains that while birth control can help to manage symptoms, it does not address the underlying causes of endometriosis.
Dr Johnson also shares some tools that women can use to manage endometriosis. She emphasizes that nutrition is a key component of managing endometriosis and that an anti-inflammatory diet can be helpful in reducing symptoms. She also highlights the importance of addressing emotional traumas that may be contributing to the condition and the benefits of detoxification to address metabolic chaos.
What you’ll learn:
1:22 Get to know more about Dr. LJ Johnson
2:26 What is endometriosis?
11:15 Detoxification
14:30 What Dr. LJ offers to the world
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Professional bio
The Carolina Sotomayor Podcast is brought to you by Carolina Sotomayor and the Fertility Foundation.
Carolina Sotomayor is an Expert Womb Healer who helps women conceive by removing physiological blockages with Reiki. She is the host of the Carolina Sotomayor Podcast, a show that covers everything from fertility to postpartum to motherhood, and the creator of Fertility Foundation Collective, an online membership that helps women heal at their own pace to boost their fertility.
Carolina has served over 500 women from around the world to heal. She is passionate about helping women create their families. As a result, there are over 60 reiki babies in the world.
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Podcast Episode Transcript
Hi, I’m Carolina, your podcast host and expert wound healer. Over the past five years, I’ve served over 500 women to remove physical blockages in their bodies. We achieve this with Reiki. I believe healing doesn’t have to be done alone, nor should it be. We will hear stories of healing methods to heal with and guest speakers covering taboo topics you won’t hear anywhere else.
Let’s continue this journey of wound healing together.
Welcome back, friends. I’m Caroline your reiki master, um, womb healer, and your podcast host. Today we are diving into a topic that is much needed and not talked about enough. The top three things you need to know about endometriosis with Dr. L j Johnson. Dr. Lj, thank you so much for being here, and I am so excited to dive in with all of this information that you have, and it’s so important to talk about because so many women that I talk to on TikTok lives and in my containers have endometriosis or P C O S, and they just don’t get the right answers, or they suffer too long in pain not knowing how to even.
Live more comfortably or how to counteract this disease. But before we get into the topics, can you tell the world, where are you at? What do you exactly do and why do you do it? Absolutely. Thank you. I wanna just congratulate you on getting this episode and getting the information out there. I am Dr. LJ Johnson here in Scottsdale, Arizona, and this is why I do what I do.
It took me 16 years to be properly diagnosed with endometriosis. That was 16 years of thinking. I was crazy being told I was crazy, having a body that I hated saying I hate myself, I hate my doctors. I was hating on everybody, honey. Suffering. So that is why I do what I do, because I got the diagnosis. I was able to heal myself naturally and I couldn’t go back to my private practice singing the same old stuff, right?
Cuz it wasn’t working for me. So then it was really just my goal to educate and empower and motivate other women that you can have an amazing life despite your diagnosis. It’s so powerful. I can’t tell you how many women I have talked to just that have endometriosis and like they wanna conceive and they, you just wanna live without pain or there’s so much fear and dread around this diagnosis, so, People need to know what endometriosis actually is.
Can you explain what it is? Absolutely. There’s so many misconceptions out there, so I want you to take whatever you’ve heard before and just kind of sit it on the back burner because this is going to be life changing for you. Endometriosis is uterine like tissue. Found outside of the uterus. I’m gonna say that one more time.
Uterine like tissue found outside of the uterus. It is not a reproductive disorder. It is not a rogue period. You’re not crazy. All your symptoms are real. It is chronic systemic inflammation throughout the entire body, so that entire body is on fire. It is a small fire that is burning 24 7. It is hormonally driven.
Those lesions outside of your uterus do create their own hormones, so their own hormones that they bring to the table, like estrogen and progesterone. And then to make it a little more difficult and interesting, it has also has autoimmune like factors. So you have all that inflammation wow. Inside of your body.
And so the biggest thing I will say is it, Not a reproductive disorder. It’s not just a rogue period. And that is really where a lot of the misconceptions come in, because when people think of endometriosis, they’re like, oh, it’s the girl that calls in to work with the horrible periods. And it’s anything but that.
You mentioned misconceptions, and when we talked B prior, there was. Three that stuck out and it was birth control, hysterectomy will possibly cure this. And then pregnancy, you can’t get pregnant. So, great. Can you discuss those three in depth? Let’s talk about the birth control. And before I say all of this, I just wanna be very honest.
I’m not coming from the high horse talking down to you like, this is what you need to do. I’m like, baby, I’m coming from the low horse. They’ve been there, done that horse. For all the misconceptions cuz I didn’t have the information that I’m providing you today. So when you are a person that’s basically come on the other side of this and is living what everyone is desiring to have Absolutely.
And they Absolut or they don’t even know it’s quite possible Yes. To have or achieve after the diagnosis. And I’m, look here, I’m bringing you to the other side with me. So number one, let’s dive into it. I, I’m sure, I think this is so important because there’s representation is so important, right? For. Just for, for diagnosis, but also like, you know, in every situation.
So, but a lot of women are not given this information because doctors don’t even know. All the answers, or they’re being taught from falsehoods, right? Right. And a lot of those misconceptions are out there, and it’s a lot of the stuff that you see on the internet. So number one, birth control is not going to cure your endometriosis.
Now I know that’s a toughie. It will possibly help with quality of life, but turning off your period is not gonna turn off Endo. Endo is not a period issue. It is hormonally driven. It may exasperate your menstruation SY symptoms, but it’s not a a period issue. So turning off your period, which is your fifth vital sign, is not going to cure endometriosis.
And so that is one of the biggest misconceptions because when you say something about period pain or painful sex, doctors are like, I got you girl. I got you. You know, let’s get the bush birth controlled. But here’s the thing. Turning off your period is not gonna turn off endo. I’ve been there, done that.
Like I said, I’m coming from the low, been there, done that horse I got on the birth control. It just made me super sassy. Honey, I already got a lot of attitude, so that birth control was not working for my mental health. It was a little too much. Dr. Johnson couldn’t even handle herself. So it’s a bandaid and it’s not necessarily a helpful bandaid.
Absolutely. And then secondly, it didn’t bring me the quality of life. It didn’t turn off my period. It didn’t turn off endo. I was still cramping. I was still bleeding, I was still bloating. I was still missing work. Like it didn’t do a whole lot for me. Now, once again, not demonizing it, but you need to realize that bringing in hormones, bringing in synthetics, is not necessarily going to cure your endometriosis.
Number two, the other misconception. Let’s have a hysterectomy. You know what? If there’s issues, let’s just turn off your period. We’ll turn it off. We’ll keep you going. We’ll yank out all your lady parts. Here’s the thing, endometriosis is not inside of your uterus. It is outside of your uterus. So removing all of those tissues, removing everything in the background, is not necessarily going to turn off your endometriosis.
It can help with quality of life. If you’re having what I call those, Murder scene periods, or you’re just like, I just want everything taken out. But please realize those lesions are outside of your uterus. They’re outside of your ovaries. They can be on the bowels, they can be on the bladder, they could be inside of your lungs.
So just realize that removing all your female parts is not going to turn off endometriosis. So you And then number, go ahead. No, you mentioned that you’re the uterine. It’s uterine like lining. Mm-hmm. outside of the uterus. Correct. So you’re saying, Even in the bowels and the lungs, even if you got a hysterectomy, it doesn’t mean it could prevent that uterine like lining appearing in other parts of your body.
Correct, correct. Right. So just moving those out. And so once again, it’s moving that misconception of, oh, it’s just a reproductive issue. Let’s yank out all the reproductive, uh, parts. That’s not really how it goes. And then number three is if you have endometriosis, you’re just gonna be in. If you can’t have kids, don’t even try.
Take that off the dreams list. That is not necessarily true. I personally have two children, ages 20 and 23 had zero fertility issues, no fertility journey here. However, it can make it more challenging for people to conceive. It can make it more challenging for you to get pregnant. So think of it this way, endometriosis is a small fire that is burning every single day within your body.
Now there are things that you’re gonna do that are gonna make that fire get. Smaller. There are things you’re gonna do that are gonna turn that into a bonfire. Now that fire burning right is one thing, but your body is in fight or flight. If you’re always dealing with chronic inflammation, you’re dealing with nutrient deficiencies, you know you’re bleeding, you’re cramping, you’re not able to do the things you need to do.
If your body’s dealing with that all day, think about it. How are you going to be able to, you know, get pregnant, keep a womb that is strong and do all these things? So what I say when you’re talking about fertility and endometriosis, number one, you need to keep an open mind and an open heart, and know that your journey may not look like everyone else’s.
It’s super powerful. You have to remember is you’ve gotta do a lot of detoxification because baby is going to be shopping from mom’s stores. And if your hormones are imbalanced, if you’re not pooping two, three times a day, if you have all these other issues, you really need to calm all those down so that you have a strong foundation to build and have a pregnancy that’s successful.
That’s super powerful. So what do we do to fix this? What do we do to heal this? So the, the key word that you have always used is heal. Mm-hmm. . So what are some tools that we need to have or know about to, and you touched upon them already, but like, so we’re talking about nutrition. Mm-hmm. , emotional traumas and detox.
So what is the nutrition side look like? So let’s start with nutrition. That was one of the biggest things. And I know people hear nutrition, they’re like, oh God, here she comes with the endo. Pump the brakes. There is no cookie cutter endo diet. There’s no diet you’re gonna find on my website or any endometriosis website on anyone that tells you these foods are gonna heal and kill and cure.
They are different for everyone. The biggest thing I will say when it comes to nutrition is find out what your triggers are. The foods that inflame my body could be perfect for you, yet they could be kryptonite for you. I had to really work on my gut health, and it was more than just sprinkling out a probiotic.
I had to remove gluten, I had to remove dairy. Now, what I will say is in the beginning, I had to be really strict about it. I couldn’t let an ounce of dairy, ounce of gluten, baby. I could look at gluten and gain 10 pounds. Like it’s okay, but you have to put in the work. So number one. Identify the triggers, identify those things that cause inflammation.
If it’s the red wine, if it’s the Taco Bell, if it’s that vegan protein shake that you think is healthy, but you’re like, I’m vegan, but somehow when I drink it, I get really bloated and gassy. Figure out what is going as far as your triggers. Now the other thing is detoxification, which is huge baseline detoxification.
Make sure your bowels are moving on a regular basis. Many of you are, you know, I’m gonna just say it tmmi, but honey, you’re pooping once a week and you think that’s normal. Like everyone in your family thinks that’s normal. But I’m telling you, it’s important to talk about poop. Yes, I know, right? Not fun, but it’s important.
No detoxing and it has been talked about lightly on the podcast, but poop. Nobody has ever talked about like poop in regards to health, but I know that it is. I have i b s and. My gut health is something I have to watch and my food triggers has been like a multi-year journey of like figuring out what our triggers are.
And also for my son, cuz he had eczema for a long time and mm-hmm. thankful he hasn’t had a flare up in two years, so like, , it has a lot to do with like your individual triggers. And when I can eat, my husband can’t. I can eat tomatoes. He can’t touch a tomato, , right? And you have to find what works for your body.
And so when you’re talking about detoxification, make sure you’re hydrating your body. Make sure you’re getting in plenty of water. Make sure your bowels are moving, bringing in fiber. Those would be the. Biggest tips. And when I say fiber, I’m not talking Metamucil. I’m not talking about MiraLax or Benefiber, any of those.
I’m talking about whole foods that are gonna come in and really help you. But here’s the deal. When you’re managing endometriosis and other chronic illnesses, or even I B S I B D, you are gonna need more than that. You’re gonna need to probably do some tool stool testing to really let dive in. I mean, let’s be honest, if you’re listening to this podcast, you wanna be in the driver’s seat of your health.
But we gotta start, really start doing some testing rather than guessing. And then the biggest thing that we did talk about is the traumas. This is something I talk about, I screamed from the rooftops. For me personally, I felt like. I wasn’t holding a lot of trauma. I’m like, I’m a therapist, honey. I’ve been there, done that.
I worked through all the issues. But here’s the thing, especially for females and women, we have to understand, yes, we have our heart, that broken heart, that relationship, that promotion, we didn’t get that person that did us wrong five years ago. Holding all that unforgiveness is one thing, but that unforgiveness is also being held in our womb.
That is your second heart. And so for me personally, that’s a great way to put it. That’s a quote. Yes, your wo is your second heart. I’m gonna, that’s a quote that needs to be in a cup in a shirt. . Yes. Your womb is your second heart. And so when you’re dealing with those wound wellness issues, the hormonal imbalances, there’s a lot of trauma work that needs to be done.
I think it’s one thing to go into Instagram and be like, oh, I’m a badass. I’m this, that and the other, and nothing’s gonna hold me down. That’s all fine and great, right? Until the rubber meets the rolled road. And something that someone said two years ago about, you can’t do this. You’ll never be this, that, and the other, and you’re still holding onto that.
And so many times my patients, yes, we talk about the nutrition and the fitness and all of those practical things, but we really have to talk about the emotional and the spiritual component as well, because a lot of those. Really are being held in your body, your body is protecting it. I will just use this as an example.
I just got off a call with someone and she’s like, I’m doing everything. I’m not losing the weight. I’m not losing the weight. And I’m like, well, here’s the thing, right? I feel like you’re doing a lot of the practical stuff, but are we letting go of some of those traumas when you’re. Body is holding weight.
When your body is holding pain, it’s trying to like encapsulate it and wrap it, right? It’s holding it in. So once again, when you feel like you’re doing all of this stuff and nothing is working as woowoo and you know, whatever it may sound, it really is time to like kind of let go of the traumas because that was a huge turning point in my journey and that’s why we have Reiki is this one modality.
Reiki is not necessarily the only way that you can heal your womb. I think you can heal your womb in so many different ways, but healing your womb is so important. because it’s gonna return emotional safety. Yes. So if you’re being triggered, you’re in that flight or flight and you can’t get out that survival mode, that’s not healing mode.
You can heal feeling unsafe, but it’s gonna take you 10 times, a hundred times longer, and it’s gonna be much more difficult. But if we can move you to feeling safe, We can allow your body to relax a little bit, and then your tissues relax and then the trauma can be released so much faster. Absolutely. So, Dr.
Lj, can you tell us a little bit more about, you said a client, so what is it that you do? What kind of practice do you have? What is it that you offer the world? So my thing is endometriosis. I really and truly want to empower anyone that has endometriosis or any type of hormonal imbalance. I love women’s health specifically because of my own journey, but my goal is to empower, educate, and motivate you to get in the driver’s seat of your health, right?
The driver’s seat of your health is being able to show up and be that mom. Being able to show up in your business, being able to live a life where you’re not stuck on Mattress Island and not able to enjoy your world. So it really is encompassing everything. As a holistic practitioner, you know, I’ve got lots of different resources and things that will link for my podcast and my Instagram, but the biggest thing I do is the one-on-one coaching.
And so I’ve got a couple different packages where, like I said, it’s time for the testing rather than the guessing, like what’s going on with your body and getting to the root of the problem. The biggest thing in my. Personally is really looking at the metabolic chaos. Looking at like what’s really going on at the core, rather than chasing the weight gain rather than chasing the hormonal acne.
So I like to look at all the different systems in, you know, a cohesive nature so that you can find that quality life, figuring out your nutrition, your supplement, your lifestyle changes, getting out of that trauma loop, right? Dealing with some of that trauma. Those are all some of the things, like I said, sometimes it’s not the sexiest, not the fun stuff, but it is the stuff that makes the most impact.
I have a couple questions about endometriosis that I’ve just never been able to find the answers to. Is endometriosis like something that can go into remission? Is that the right term or could you say, I’m curative this? Absolutely. I will say my endometriosis and other my patients that are no longer.
It’s in remission, right? I’m pain free. I don’t have painful periods. I don’t have painful sex. I don’t have the crazy bloating where I’m looking nine months pregnant. Like all of those things I had before. I can truly say, and I do feel it’s an honest thing that we can say that we have put our endometriosis into remission.
There is technically no cure. Now, I think it also depends on where your faith is at, right? I feel like I’m cured. I’m good to go. I don’t have any issues. But I mean, I would never technically tell someone I can cure your endo, but honey, what I can do, has put you in the driver’s seat to where endometriosis is not defining every single moment and movement in your world.
And so we talked a little bit about women who, who think or have been told you have endometriosis. You’ll never be able to have a baby. So if a person is able to get a grip on some of the things we talked about, mm-hmm. , if your endometriosis is in remission mm-hmm. , does that mean your period returns? So everyone’s period and everyone’s cycle is different.
And what I will say is just because you’re having a period doesn’t mean you’re ovulating. So I think that’s true. One thing that we have to remember, you know, you could have a period, super good point, more regular and not be ovulating. The biggest thing when you’re on the fertility journey is hyper nourishing your body, replacing those nutrients.
You know, maybe you’ve been on birth control, maybe you had IBS or horrible diarrhea, and so anything that came in just went right out and your body wasn’t able to grab those nutrients. First thing is the building block. Block is. Taking care of that gut health, then replenishing those nutrients and then working on detoxification so that you can move out all the waste and all the trash so that your body can naturally do its job, which is going to put you on that successful fertility journey.
I love that so much. If a person was newly diagnosed with end endometriosis, what is something that you wish someone had told you sooner? Something that I wish someone would’ve taught me sooner. The biggest thing I would say is that clean eating for me, and I think once again, maybe that’s when I was on a high horse, cuz I’m like, I’m the nutritionist, I’m the dietician.
I travel the world and tell everyone what to eat. But at the end of the day, the biggest misconception eating clean. Eating salads, chicken, breast, and broccoli was not going to heal my endometriosis period. Point blank. I have nothing against salads and chicken and all those fun things, but it was really that thing where I needed someone to tell me that the cookie cutter eating clean, that I was being taught at the gyms that I had learned in nutrition classes that my neighbor was doing.
Those little six week challenges of we’re all gonna fast and pray and and do all these crazy diet. I wish someone would’ve told me that that was actually exasperating my symptoms because I was just so hooked on the whole eating clean and doing protein shakes was going to make everything better, and that was one of the biggest things that held me back on my healing journey.
I think it’s super powerful. Where can people find you on the internet? On social media, ljs powerhouse.org. I’ve got my blog there. I also have my podcast, which is the Holistic Endo Expert podcast. Um, and I spend a lot of time on Instagram and lots of freebies on there. I mean, if you’re also listening to this and you have endometriosis, definitely go to my Instagram.
But then maybe you’re like, all right, lj, I already know I got Endo. What else can you do for me? Go over. We’ll give you the link as well. I have a freebie that is called Making Your Period, your Superpower, and it talks about cycle syncing and. Way you can, you know, ways that you can really optimize your cycle rather than being like, oh my gosh, here it comes.
I’m gonna be outta commission. We gotta remove that baby. It’s Tom to show up and show out in 2023. So I think show up and show out . Love it. Yes. Grab that freebie. , lj, you’re probably one of my favorite guests I’ve ever had on the podcast, so thank you so much. Your energy is infectious and I hope you have the best day.
Thank you. It was an honor to connect and serve you this week. If you were a spiritually curious person wanting to conceive, inhale blockages in your fertility, click the link in the episode description to learn more about the Fertility Foundation collective. Until next time, my friend know you are love.
