They Told Me I Was Fine. The Labs Said Otherwise.

In May 2026, I had a hysterosalpingogram or HSG Test. That is a procedure where they thread a catheter through the cervix, inject contrast dye under live fluoroscopy, and watch to see whether your fallopian tubes are open. If the dye spills through, you are cleared.

Both of mine spilled through.

I cried in the parking lot for fifteen minutes, then on the 45min drive home, and then on/off throughout the week. Not because the procedure was uncomfortable, though it was. Because getting to that parking lot took four years, a functional medicine doctor I pay cash to see, a literal parasite, a prediabetes diagnosis, a gut that looked like a war zone, and somewhere in the middle of all of it, an ADHD diagnosis at 32 that reframed everything I thought I knew about my own body.

When my husband Dee and I decided to start actually trying to conceive in my early thirties, I assumed we were working with a relatively straightforward situation. I'd been pregnant before and we had otherwise, no reason to think otherwise.

Turns out, wasn't straightforward.

What followed was a slow-motion collision with a medical system that had been assuring me for years that I was top tier health. That my fatigue was stress. That the bloating was just how my body worked. That irregular cycles were common in women my age.

I stumbled upon a functional medicine doctor, Dr. Jinaya Beatty, and started running the kind of comprehensive testing that conventional medicine doesn't unless you are already sick enough to be in a hospital. Metabolic panels. Stool analysis. Hormone panels. Heavy metals. The full picture.

What came back was... a lot.

Specificity is what is missing from most wellness content IMHO. Everyone says they reversed their health without showing you the before. Here is the before.

In February 2022, my HbA1c was 6.1, which is prediabetes range. My Vitamin D was 29.2, borderline deficient. My TSH had dropped to 0.006 by December 2024, critically low, meaning my thyroid was running hot in a way that looked like early hyperthyroidism. My progesterone during the luteal phase was 0.2, which is essentially follicular-phase levels. That is what cycle dysfunction looks like in a lab result. It is also, quietly, what infertility looks like. I found out about that PCOS diagnosis as well.

Down the road, we ran Vibrant Wellness's Gut and Zoomers simultaneously. The gut results showed a protozoan parasite, almost certainly picked up through contaminated water or food during travel. This test did follow my two month honeymoon in Eastern Europe & Turkey.

The parasite was sitting on top of existing SIBO, which was sitting on top of gut dysbiosis: elevated Clostridium, depleted Bifidobacterium, an F/B ratio that was off. My gut was not just imbalanced. It was depleted, inflamed, and of course hosting a parasite.

My estrogen was metabolizing through what they call the dirty pathway. The 4-OH estrone was at 31% when it should have been 8 to 16. The protective 2-OH pathway was at 48% when it should have been 55 to 75. The 2-OH to 4-OH ratio was 1.6 against a reference of 2.5 to 8.7. This is the direction that, over time, increases risk for fibroids, cysts, and estrogen-sensitive cancers.

I also had fibroids. Only found when Dr. Beatty suggested I consider a transvaginal ultrasound to see what we were working with. No one, to that point, had ever suggested this sort of test and so why would I have gotten it before? This whole process has truly shown me the meaning of, you don't know what you don't know until you know.

The heavy-metal called barium was significantly elevated at 33.93 micrograms per gram against a reference of 5.59. Probably water. Denver has a complicated relationship with groundwater, and I have traveled extensively. Nickel was elevated too. Both have downstream effects on hormones, gut function, and neurological health.

So all in all, in a two year period I learned of my unexpected diagnoses: PCOS, MCAS, SIBO, parasite, pre diabetes, complete gut dysbiosis [I wasn't absorbing any nutrients from any food or supplement] and insulin resistance.

Late diagnosis of ADHD in women, especially women of color, is a systemic failure. Tack on the co morbidities as well and we've got ourselves a light epidemic [think: autoimmune diseases mostly ravaging women].

I seemed fine on the outside. I was not fine under the hood.

But here is what the ADHD diagnosis did like nothing else: it gave me a framework for understanding my nervous system as the root of everything else.

ADHD is not just a focus problem. It is a nervous system regulation problem. The threat-detection machinery runs differently.

• The stress response activates faster and stays activated longer.

> When your nervous system is in chronic low-grade activation, cortisol follows.

> When cortisol is dysregulated, gut motility suffers.

> The gut lining becomes more permeable. The microbiome shifts.

> Hormones are negatively affected.

> Everything downstream of nervous system regulation, which is almost everything, gets dragged along.

The MCAS, PCOS, SIBO, + parasite that found my gut to be a hospitable environment, the estrogen metabolism going sideways, the prediabetes, the fibroids: none of these were separate problems. They were all downstream of the same root. A nervous system that had never had the tools to regulate itself, running hot for three decades in a body that was doing its absolute best yet coming up consistently short.

I did not fix this with a smoothie or by trusting my intuition and following what felt right. I fixed it by running comprehensive testing every six months for four years and following a mostly science-backed, personalized protocol under the supervision of a functional medicine physician who looked at my actual data.

In real terms: a three-phase gut reset protocol targeting the parasite and SIBO first, using berberine, botanical antiparasitics, and garlic extract, then rebuilding the microbiome with specific probiotics, prebiotics, and digestive enzymes, then sustaining. An elimination diet during the most acute phase followed by 80/20 anti inflammatory diet forever more.

So many supplements!! Including ones for estrogen metabolism, adrenal support, dissolving heavy metals and so on.

I also started taking strength training seriously at 2-3 time weekly, followed by the sauna, consistent daily movement and ensured 8-9H sleep with Mg glycinate. Getting an oura ring at this time was also super helpful.

And the nervous system work of course - breathwork, sound healing, regular massage, lymph drainage, and so on.

April 2026.

No parasite. No bacteria at pathological levels. No active gut inflammation. No leaky gut.

Super low MCAS markers.

Hormones are in balance. Estrogen dominance resolved. Progesterone where it needs to be. Fibroids dissolved. TSH back in normal range. Cycle regulated at a shocking, 27 day rotation [it had been 22/23 days since I got my menses at 10].

And in May 2026, both fallopian tubes showed they were open and anatomically healthy.

The medical system is not designed to see us clearly. It is not designed to connect the dots between a nervous system that never learned to regulate and a gut that became a parasite's home. It is not designed to ask whether the prediabetes and the fibroids and the MCAS and the infertility might all be coming from the same upstream source. It is especially not designed to consider that a late-diagnosed neurodivergent woman of color in her thirties might have been running on empty since childhood, and that running on empty has a physiological signature that shows up in your labs.

What I'm saying is, IT'S NOT YOU. It is not a failure of discipline or willpower or self-care. It is what it looks like when a nervous system built for a world that never quite fit you spends decades in low-grade survival mode.

The resilience I talk about in my work is not the push-through kind. It is the regulate-and-return kind. The kind that comes from building an actual relationship with your own body.

You are not broken. You are not lazy. You are not making it up.

You are dysregulated. And dysregulation, unlike brokenness, is something you can actually work with.

If any of this is landing for you, the Adventuring with ADHD quiz is a good place to start. It maps where you are in your own post-diagnosis arc and points you toward what makes sense next.

Find it at victoriouscoach.com/awadhdquiz.