I Tried Tirzepatide. Here’s what happened.

My perimenopause journey is not unlike the next woman. I feel like I was doing everything “right” by my body. I was eating well, moving often, prioritizing protein (can we really ever eat enough?!), walking, lifting weights, running lab tests, doing functional medicine protocols and even removed my breast implants. I was on a transdermal estradiol patch and nightly micronised progesterone. Still, my body felt like it was in a state of teenage rebellion. Which I know well, with teenagers under our roof 🙂

As far as meals were concerned, I think I do a good job planning a beautiful plate. One that a health coach of 11 years would be proud of. And yet, I was struggling with satiation and feeling full after my large meals. I was grabbing for snacks between my meals, or worried hunger would hit quickly afterwards and I would be in the car with the kids and not have something. I would add extra protein, fats or fiber to try and bridge the gap between my meals and some days it would work and others it felt like a worthless feat. Long story short, I realized I had food noise. I feel like this food noise snuck up on my in my periomenopause journey and had never had that before. It just feels like constant mental noise that revolves around food and with my satiation, appetite and hormones all in flux it was nagging me.

I am very consistent with getting my blood work done at my annual physical and this year I went ahead and did Function Health Labs.  These labs are so thorough and they allowed me to run my biomarkers twice in 2025. I have had biomarkers elevated for the last 3 years that I consistently work on: cholesterol and A1c. These two are constantly elevated with my cholesterol at 260 (my ApoB is on the rise, as well) and my A1c at 5.6. In the past, I have tried to manipulate my diet to work on these biomarkers. I have been vegan to bring my cholesterol down and animal based to bring my A1c down, but to no avail.

With my Function labs, I learned that I carry the ApoE Genotype 3/4. This genotype increases the risk for cognitive decline and related disorders. I am very aware of how hard Alzheimer’s can be on a person and their family. My grandmother and Michael’s grandmother both suffered from the disease. Doctors and researchers are now saying that Alzheimer’s is Type 3 diabetes. The lower your A1c, the lower your risk of getting Type 2 and maybe even “Type 3” diabetes. I was so empowered by this to bring my A1c down lower.

I have worn a continuous glucose monitor on and off the past 18-months to better understand my body’s glucose response to food, stress and my workouts. I learned so much about my body during those bouts with the CGM, and even augmented my workouts to limit HIIT workouts since they were one of the largest spikes I would ever see. I would try to give those 3-4 hour digestive breaks between meals, but insert the “food noise” I shared above and it became hard.

In early 2025, I ran a battery of Functional Medicine labs with Equilife. I am so grateful to now run these labs in my practice because I learned so many new things about where my body was out of balance: I had candida and bacterial overgrowth, my inflammation markers were off, mold was present and so were heavy metals. I went to work on completing the necessary protocols to heal my body and ideally, get me back to feeling like me, again.

I wanted to feel at home in my body, skin and mind, again. Yet, with each of these new findings and subsequent action steps I was still struggling.

In July of 2024, I began to listen to podcasts that shared information around microdosing Tirzepatide. Dr. Tyna Moore opened my eyes to the many benefits of Tirz beyond the one we all read about: weight loss. She explored the cognitive, metabolic, cardiovascular, gut and inflammatory benefits the body may reap on a very low dose of Tirz. I remember sending my Mom and Dad a podcast of hers to listen to, as it was so eye opening. In a family with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cancer and high blood pressure, I am always keeping my eyes and ears open to possible methods to bring about better health and longevity.

I tucked away this information at the time and continued to do my research. In September of this year, I decided to trust my intuition, play guinea pig on my self and experiment with my very first peptide.

I had no idea how hard it would be to find a human provider. I met and interviewed 5 different practitioners over the US and none of them were in alignment with my goals or within our family budget. I knew that there had to be an option out there for someone like me who has the support of a doctor when I get sick and also likes to take a very proactive and engaged approach to my health and longevity.

Enter EllieMD. Ellie MD is a telehealth provider with Functional Medicine Doctors prescribing peptides. They use a 503A pharmacy to compound their peptides, which is FDA regulated. They are National Association Board of Pharmacist accredited and with the amount of research I did, I knew this was my option. I loved that they offered an entire arm of longevity peptides and microdoses. They are the option I chose for real, regenerative healing at the cellular level. I did all the deep research and heavy vetting. Ellie MD is a company I am proud to support and be a brand partner for.

Before I dive into how I started, what the benefits have been and beyond… it is so important to have a strong foundation to begin with. Know what is going on within your body before you go down a peptide path, speak to your doctor if you have concerns or wonder if this is the right path for you. My goal in every interaction or discussion is to empower you all to make the best choices for you. I want to lift the stigma on taking a GLP-1/GIP for reasons other than weight loss. Note: I am so rooting for you if weight loss is your goal, too. For the sake of this blog post, and myself, that was not my driver.

GLP1/GIP are not just for weight loss. When I began my microdosing (this just means I take a smaller, therapeutic dose) journey at the end of September, within 48 hours I felt more calm and at peace. My anxiety volume was turned WAY down and I had zero food noise. I would eat my breakfast, feel gloriously satisfied until enjoying a later lunch, and so on until dinner. I did not think about food at all during the day and found myself more motivated and focused because of it. My productivity has increased 10 fold since starting my microdosing journey.

Energetically, I feel like I am 20, again. No need for afternoon naps or cups of matcha after lunch. Zero grabbing around for a crunchy snack when I am making dinner. It feels like a weight I did not know I was carrying for years had been lifted.

My body is so much less inflamed and puffy- especially around my hips and knees. I wake up every single day feeling like I just had a FloPresso lymphatic drainage massage. I can’t tell you how good that feels each day. Like most women, I have a good 5-pound weight swing. Since starting my microdose of Tirzepatide, I wake up on the low side of that weight range each and every day. My stomach feels incredible and I have had zero digestive side effects. I also eat my chia and psylllium husk pudding each day to get on the front end of that, but no ill effects at all.

I wish I didn’t wait this long. I feel more me now than I have in such a long time. And, all I am doing is injecting a small dose of  GLP1/GIP (Tirzepatide) + B12 Microdose every Monday morning.

I know that this path is not for everyone, but I refuse to hide behind this or let the stigma scare me from sharing my journey. I think of microdosing Tirz the same was as I think about HRT. Your body makes progesterone and estrogen and during perimemopause your hormone levels decrease. HRT helps to rebalance the levels that your body needs to thrive. Your body also makes GLP1, and as you age, your body makes less. Microdosing a GLP1/GIP is replenishing what my body needs to keep blood sugar and insulin levels steady, providing a very normal appetite where I am not starving or grabbing for food all the time and bloating, puffiness and joint stiffness can recede.

On December 11, I am getting my blood retested with Function Health. I am so eager to see if my microdosing journey has helped move the dial on those markers down. I promise to keep you all posted along the way. If you made it to the end of this, thank you. I couldn’t sleep tonight and felt the need to pour out my heart on here and give this journey a permanent space to live.