If You Give a Woman a Lab Test - The Quiet Beginning Most People Don't Question
- Christian Elliot
- 2 hours ago
- 8 min read
PHASE ONE
It starts innocently.
Her “specimen” is mailed to a lab run by people she will never meet her…analyzing a body they know nothing about.
Two weeks later, an email arrives.
It’s a PDF with charts, numbers, and colored ranges.
It looks important.
It also makes almost no sense.
Her eyes immediately land on the numbers flagged “out of range.”
Her stomach tightens.
Is something wrong?
She schedules a follow-up… but the next available appointment is two weeks away.
So, she does what nearly everyone does when uncertainty strikes:
She searches the internet.
Within minutes she is reading worst-case scenarios, conflicting advice, and statistics that seem written to frighten rather than clarify.
By the time she speaks with her doctor, her anxiety has taken root.
The recommendation?
A medication to bring her numbers back into range.
She hesitates — but it’s described as a safe, responsible, preventative…and a “super-low dose.”
So, she agrees.
Three months later…
The original symptom improves.
But now there are new symptoms.
Her doctor suspects those might be side effects of the original medication, and swaps it for a different one…and, the doctor ads another prescription for the new side effect…“just in case.”
And without realizing it…
She has stepped onto a path millions walk every year.
A path that rarely moves backward.
Only forward.
PHASE TWO
Months pass.
She still doesn’t feel like herself.
So, the doctor orders another round of lab tests.
These come back “inconclusive.”
Which means one thing:
A referral to a “specialist.”
After waiting months for the specialist appointment, she undergoes more advanced testing.
A scan reveals “a little something.”
Probably nothing… but worth “monitoring.”
The specialist informs her that there is a newly approved medication that “shows promise,” so she decides to try it before considering anything more serious.
Half a year later, everyday tasks begin feeling harder.
Fatigue lingers.
Brain fog creeps in.
Another test is ordered.
This time the language changes.
Her chart now includes an “area of concern.”
Soon after, a clinical label appears in her medical record.
And something subtle — but powerful — shifts.
She is no longer just a person with symptoms.
She is now a person with a condition.
PHASE THREE
The specialist refers her to… another specialist.
The earliest appointment is months away.
To “get answers,” the new specialist recommends a more invasive screening, which she will have to wait at least two more weeks for.
While waiting, she researches the procedure — only to discover the scan itself carries risks and side effects.
For the first time, she wonders:
How did things get this serious?
A friend suggests a “functional” doctor — someone who looks deeper.
Desperate for clarity, she books a visit.
Weeks later, she walks into an office that feels different.
This new doctor orders a completely new category of tests:
Nutrient levels. Food sensitivities. “Inflammatory markers.”
The conclusion?
Medication side effects may be contributing to her problem.
The solution?
A “more natural” prescription med, a restrictive diet, and a stack of supplements.
She leaves carrying a bag full of hope — and a protocol that feels like a part-time job.
It’s overwhelming.
But also reassuring.
Finally…someone seems thorough.
Finally…someone is looking deeper.
Or so she thinks.
PHASE FOUR
Two weeks into the diet, she notices small improvements.
Enough to stay motivated.
But the plan is expensive — emotionally, socially, logistically.
Meals require strategy. Dining out becomes stressful. Travel feels impossible.
Still, she pushes forward.
By the end of the first month, strange new symptoms appear.
Now she wonders:
Is it the supplements? The medication? The diet?
Her follow-up appointment with the functional doctor is still two months away.
Meanwhile, the invasive test recommended by the second specialist looms in the back of her mind.
The challenge is, none of her doctors communicate with each other.
Yet everyone seems confident in their piece of the puzzle.
Friends encourage her to “rule out anything serious.”
So, she agrees to the invasive screening.
This time…
The scan finds a mass.
The specialist — who also happens to be a surgeon who removes masses — recommends trying a new medication combination before considering surgery.
But surgery is now officially on the table.
As the gravity of a potential surgery sets in, she had the arresting thought…
Other than the functional doctor suggesting she was low in magnesium and vitamin D, no one seemed to be asking any questions about what might be CAUSING her symptoms.
Her small army of doctors has been almost exclusively suggesting testing, more testing, and symptom-suppressing treatments.
And in one arresting moment, a realization cuts through the noise:
Despite her growing team of “experts”…
No one is actually solving the mystery.
THE FORK IN THE ROAD
At some point — whether quietly or all at once — many people reach a moment that changes everything.
Not because their symptoms suddenly worsen.
But because a question finally surfaces that can no longer be ignored:
“Why is no one looking for the root cause?”
And from that question… two very different paths emerge.
OPTION A — Continue on the Medical Merry-Go-Round
Eager to find the root of the problem, she asks her doctors what might be causing the condition now attached to her name.
The answers are familiar—Genetics. Aging. Stress.
Sometimes the word “idiopathic” is used — which is doctor-speak for:
“We don’t know why this is happening.”
Her doctors are not careless. They are not indifferent.
BUT, they are working exactly as they were trained — within a system that sees the body as a collection of parts – a system designed to manage risk, respond to symptoms, and intervene.
But it was never built to investigate the unique, interconnected story behind chronic illness.
Yet, she doesn’t know what else to do. After a second of her doctors recommends the surgery, she agrees.
The mass is removed. Pain meds and rehab begin. Scar tissue forms.
The root causes are not addressed and life moves forward.
Yet months — or years — later, new symptoms appear.
Another specialist is recommended.
Another test is ordered.
Another treatment begins.
And without ever consciously choosing it…she finds herself inside a cycle that feels strangely familiar.
One that starts exactly where this story began:
With another lab test.
OPTION B — Get off the Ride Altogether
After an honest reflection on two years, she allows herself to step back far enough to see the pattern.
She pauses, tears up, and feels overwhelmed with the disheartening realization that the system CAN’T help her…because it was never designed to. It was designed for endless, escalating treatments.
This produces a wide range of emotions from sadness, to anger, to fear, to overwhelm, to self-doubt, to feeling inadequate, and even defective.
She feels like getting well really is up to her, but she doesn’t know where to start, or who to trust.
As the emotions subside, she realizes she has too much to live for and so she becomes a voracious consumer of everything “alternative.”
After a season of cleaning up her diet, reducing her toxic load, and trying a lot of “silver bullets” she has learned a lot, made progress, but stalled.
Despite her best efforts, her symptoms persist, and those negative emotions start being stirred up again.
Chasing symptoms begins to feel like trying to solve a thousand-piece puzzle… without the picture on the box.
But, she feels like she feels like she has to “do something.”
For many, “do something” eventually leads back to…another lab test.
Not because it worked the first time.
But because they don’t see another structured path forward.
She almost went that route, but then a friend told her about.
A Conversation That Changed Everything
Instead of scheduling yet another test, she decided — almost on a whim — to book a complimentary, 45-minute coaching call she had heard about.
No grand expectations.
Just curiosity.
Within minutes, she sensed this conversation was different.
Not rushed. Not transactional. Not checkbox-driven.
For the first time in years…
Someone was listening for understanding — not just diagnosis.
She was asked questions no one had ever asked before.
Logical questions. Connecting questions. Clarifying questions.
And as she answered them, something remarkable happened:
Dots began connecting.
Symptoms that once seemed random started forming a pattern.
Past treatments suddenly made sense — including why many provided only temporary relief.
Even aspects of her personality, stress responses, and life history revealed clues no lab value could capture on its own.
For the first time, her health was being viewed as an integrated system…
Not a collection of isolated problems.
Then came the realization she still struggles to put into words:
Healing might not be as complicated as she had been led to believe…
…but it does require the right framework.
The right sequence.
And the right investigators.
She also discovered something unexpectedly comforting:
Support didn’t have to involve months of waiting or fragmented communication between providers.
There is a method.
A structure.
A way forward that actually makes sense.
And in that moment, a belief she hadn’t noticed she was carrying quietly fell away:
That she needed another lab test to figure out how to heal.
What she needed was a different lens.
Why You’re Reading This
If parts of this story feel uncomfortably familiar, you are not imagining it.
This progression is extraordinarily common among intelligent, proactive people trying to do the responsible thing for their health.
And here is the encouraging truth:
Many of these phases can be shortened — or skipped entirely — once you understand what most models overlook.
Which raises a simple but important question:
What if the path forward is…
Not more testing…but better investigation?
Not more interventions…but clearer strategy?
Not more guessing…but a repeatable method?
Fortunately, there is a way to see exactly what that looks like.
Before You Schedule Another Test…
Watch this first.
In this short presentation, you’ll discover:
The hidden pattern behind most chronic conditions
The three-step framework that helps identify what others miss
How to build health methodically — instead of reactively
Even if you ultimately choose a different path, you will walk away seeing your health through a far more informed lens.
And once you see it…it becomes very difficult to unsee.
A Thought to Leave You With
The most life-changing health decisions are rarely the dramatic ones.
They are the informed ones.
So, before you consent to another procedure… Before you start another medication… Before you accept that this is simply “how it is now”…
Give yourself the clarity that only understanding can provide.
Watch the video below.
Your future self will be grateful you did.
If you thought of someone while reading this, send it to them.
The right insight at the right time can change the trajectory of a life.
What have you got to lose? Book a call today,
Christian
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