In this episode of PCOS Unfiltered: Nourish, Heal, Thrive, Lindsie sits down with endocrine health specialist and international homeopath Tori Sorrell-Cook for part 2 of this powerful conversation about choice, possibility, and what healing can actually look like when we stop fighting the body and start listening to it. Tori shares how years of being told that symptoms are “chronic” and something women must simply live with can quietly strip away hope — and why that narrative isn’t always true. Drawing from her own journey with endometriosis and her clinical work with women experiencing hormonal chaos, she explains how symptoms can be learned, imprinted, and, in many cases, gently unlearned. Together, they explore the concept of hormonal imprints created by stress, medications, contraception, antibiotics, environmental toxins, and emotional trauma — and how these imprints can override the body’s natural signaling. Tori introduces Homeopathic Detox Therapy (HDT) as a way of helping the body safely reverse suppressed patterns rather than simply masking symptoms. This conversation dives deep into the body’s innate intelligence, the hierarchy of symptoms, the gut–hormone connection, and why true healing often requires patience, mindset readiness, and creating a sense of safety within the nervous system. Above all, this episode is a reminder that even when you’ve been told “this is your lot,” there may still be another path forward.
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(0:00 - 2:36) I just want women to know that they have choices. I think we can sometimes be so blinkered or we're so stuck on a medical sort of escalator, we're just, we're just moving up the, well this is next, well this is next. I'd like them to know absolutely you can get better because I think again I hear so often, well I've been told it's chronic, that's it, I'll live with this forever, it will never go away, you know, this is my lot. And actually I see so many women who do get better, who do live differently, who are able to stop, I mean we can't say cure, but they are not ruled by their health, which is often where they are when when we're meeting them for the first time. About also just be, just be open, just try it because at that point what have you got to lose? Hey friends, welcome back to PCOS Unfiltered, Nourish, Heal, Thrive. I'm your host Lindsie and today we're diving deep into a conversation that's going to change the way you think about your hormones, your health, and what normal really means. My guest Tori Sorrell-Cook is an endocrine health specialist and international homeopath who helps women understand why their hormones have felt chaotic for years, even when their lab results say everything looks fine. Her approach combines hormone mapping, functional insight, and homeopathic detox therapy, HDT, to uncover and clear hidden hormonal imprints left behind by stress, contraception, and environmental toxins. In this episode, Tori shares how her own journey with endometriosis led her to discover that the body can unlearn symptoms, not just manage them. We unpack the fascinating links between viral, chemical, and emotional imprints on hormonal health, how the pill and other medications can repattern the body's signals, and what it really means to create safety in the body so healing can happen. Now, as a reminder, the content shared on PCOS Unfiltered is for informational and educational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and guests are not intended to serve as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your diet, exercise, or treatment plan. The information shared is based on personal experience and expert interviews and is not a substitute for professional medical guidance. Okay, if you're managing your symptoms but still know deep down that something feels off, or if you're just curious about how to work with your body instead of against it, you're going to love this conversation.
(2:43 - 12:16) Um, like I had, so I had a lady recently who came for, so she did do an HDT course, and she had endometriosis pain, and had had endometriosis for about 10 years, and had had a full hysterectomy some years before I saw her, but said I've still got the pain, like this is mad, and so when I took her case, within that history we could see, you know, there were layers of things, she's chronically unwell, and I said there's layers of things, this might take a long time, I'm going to be really honest with you, but obviously what was really clear is this huge imbalance within the hormonal system for her, but she has a history of both the pill and then several rounds of IVF, so her body in terms of signaling had been pushed and pulled, and it had to overproduce, and then back on contraception, so I said we really just need to address this first so we can see what's, what's going on, and I don't know how this is going to fall down, but that's, that's trying, and she was also given alongside that detox the remedy that most fit the pain that she was having as well to support her with that acute symptom, but by week six she was messaging me going I don't want to say this, but I actually have got no, I've got no pain, she said I'm really scared to say it, because my pain is at an eight to ten most days every day, and I've not had any, she said, and my period's about to start, and it's maybe a two or three, she said this is literally life-changing, and we reviewed at the end of the course, and it has, it has held, and it has stayed, and it's gone, so that is an incredible result, and I go wow, like that is life-changing, now she's not healed and better, and headed off into the world with a hop, and a skip, and a jump, actually what's happened, and it's in terms of the hierarchy of symptoms, we talk about how symptoms come down, and through the body, and drain out, so her endometriosis pain is better, but her eczema that she had as a child has fled, the body is now clearing through a safer outlet, which is the skin, but that's obviously itchy and unpleasant, and that is our next step, so it's not a miracle cure, but what we have seen is a, is an improvement in the thing that was most disruptive to her at that moment, and we know we've addressed it, we haven't kind of skirted round, and looked at the what I call the suppressed picture, yeah you know, there are obviously other people who do a course, and feel less dramatic changes, but their cycles might just settle down, but there are other things that we then need to look at as part of that, and as I'm sure you'll know in your own practice, some of it's lifestyle changes too, oh yeah, we have to kind of allow the body to have that that space to release, because if we're still stuck in a stressful situation, or a difficult relationship, or you know we can't eat well, those things will kind of push pull our system as well, yeah wow, yeah that's amazing, I mean I have talked on a few episodes before about the skin especially, but it's just, it's amazing how smart the body really is, isn't it, I mean yeah, especially you know, it's getting rid of something clearly, but like you said now, it kind of found a different avenue to do that, yeah, and again it's, and I think that's the hardest thing, I was talking to somebody, in fact last night, a lovely lady who again is, we've been working on some things, but she has lots of issues with the bladder, and sort of cystitis type symptoms, but she absolutely knows it is related to her emotions, and the emotions come up, and then the bladder goes, and she was saying, I feel so much better emotionally, like I have so much more energy, I feel stronger, I feel lighter, so massive shifts there for her day to day, but the bladder is a bit worse than it was, because it's moved from this mental and emotional symptom, which is a deep, heavier symptom, into a more, because we have to help it go through, and the discussion we were having is that's the really, that's the hard yards, right, about going a more natural route, because if we take a medication, it might just stop, if we're lucky, and we get no side effects, it just, that's it, stop, put the lid on, and it's gone, until it wears its ugly head, maybe 10 years down the line, but right now, it's stopped, whereas when we are doing it naturally, we have to allow our body to have these clearing outlets and spaces to move, and bring symptoms through the hierarchy, which means we sort of have to live it, we have to walk through those connections with our symptoms, and we have to allow the body to do it, and reverse it, and that is sometimes a really hard road. Yeah, yeah, and it's going to take more time, but in the long run, you know, you're looking at lasting, you know, healing and health, versus just that quick fix. And that's it, isn't it, that holding that goal can sometimes be really hard, especially when you've got really itchy, red, eczema, that now everyone can see, I mean, the skin is an outlet, right, it's, you can't hide it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's the organ we can see, and it's the largest one, so yeah, and I mean, I've said this before, but the skin, skin talks to you a lot, like, and I don't know if it's like this as much by you, but you know, we're so specialized here in America that you have something like that, right, an itchy, red rash, you go to the doctor, he sends you to a dermatologist, whatever, they're like, okay, here's a cream, feel better, but more than likely, something deeper, something internal is probably going on that's, you know, and your body, your body's talking to you, you're just not listening. And I talk about that all the time, we say to people, actually, what happens is when we suppress that skin symptom, if you think about it, the skin is often the very first place most of us ever get a symptom, you know, how many babies have eczema, and the first thing we do is we put a steroid cream on it, and we, and we squash it, and we stop it, so it goes in, and the next place it goes, because it, we're pushing it, you know, skin symptoms, symptoms come from the inside out, like you said, but if we push them the wrong way, they go from the outside in, so it tends to then go to the next layer of skin cells, which is the lungs, so we then go from having eczema to having asthma. Ah, so that's why they're usually connected. Absolutely, and we then suppress, so we give them, we stop the asthma symptoms with another steroid, so we stop the body expressing itself that way, and it then becomes chronic allergies, so that's often why we see that triad, so we're always trying to look, where are we pushing the system? Yeah, yeah, that makes so much sense, because yeah. And essentially, that's what, what HDT is so great at, when we look at how the symptom's been pushed in, essentially, what we're trying to do is reverse it, okay, which system was pulled, pushed, what was put in, how do we help that lift, so we can allow that body to begin expressing itself again? Yeah, yeah, wow, yeah, I mean, back in my nursing days, I can't tell you how many, either they were, you know, in the ER for an asthma attack, or, you know, as you take their health history, I feel like, ah, so many times, it'd be allergies, eczema, asthma, kind of all together, yeah. And it pushed, I mean, again, we can't, even steroids, you think of the, at the hormone point, if we have had a body that has been, we're talking about addressing these kind of chemical imprints, essentially, if a body has lived many years with a steroid imprint, you know, steroid is short, as we know, for corticosteroids, it's cortisol, we're asking the body to overproduce in order to repair, what does that do to your signaling systems in the body when we're constantly keeping it in this high stress overproduction state? That's a pattern we're creating for our body. It's hardly surprising that further along down the line, we've got that deeper hormonal dysfunction. And, you know, we can't ignore these early patterns. And I think we don't, we don't always make those connections, we think, oh, my God, I've got this hormone dysfunction, sort of as a standalone thing. And that history is so often missed. Yeah, yeah. So what are some of the patterns that you see again and again, that tell you, you know, with your clients that tell you their hormones have been overridden, rather than naturally dysregulated? Yes, I think it's, I think it is those things we're discussing that sort of history, what has happened in life where you have had something suppressed, or stopped, or pushed down? It's and when I'm taking a kind of case history, and I'm sure it's the same for you, you know, when you start to take some case history, you're looking for those red flags about, okay, where did we, where did we get off the track? What pushed that? Now, that could be like we've said, it could be something like steroids, it could be an operation, you know, these big things that have happened, where our bodies had something huge to deal with, in terms of a pattern, but it also can be grief, and stress, and trauma patterns that will also imprint on the system, because the body holds that.
(12:17 - 12:31) Yeah, yeah. Do you see a lot with like antibiotic use? Because I mean, I mean, thinking back to my days, I had strep probably every six months, and I would just get amoxicillin. And I mean, that was going on for years of rounds of antibiotics.
(12:33 - 15:49) Absolutely. And actually, you know, we're talking about hierarchy often, and say, I've got this kind of endocrine disruptors at the top. And then we come down to sort of antibiotics and things as the next set of hierarchy before we hit those kind of chemicals and viruses. So when we're sort of going, we've got a really chronic case, that's sort of the order we start to look at needing to unwind in, because antibiotics are just so bad for the gut. And some people will go, well, I had them as a kid, and they were no problem at all. And absolutely, that probably is the case, because we started this conversation with everybody's individual, some people will take all the knocks, and just like a weeble keep getting back up. And nothing takes them out. But for somebody, again, maybe born by a cesarean, whose gut isn't quite so great. Somebody who is has a little bit of a weakness in that stomach, actually, that may be just enough to push the gut into never being in a great place. Yeah. And then I think combine it with, you know, our food sourcing now are, you know, the drive for more convenience foods, you know, more environmental toxins that we're exposed to, I think, because, you know, yeah, you hear about that. I mean, I have grandparents that are in their 90s, you know, and they weren't raised with the stuff that we are now. So I think it just changes even as, you know, as generations keep going. Yeah, I think we forget, you know, there's a lot of things we forget the gut is that second brain. And again, the science is catching up, but it hasn't always been there. And we haven't always been as kind to our gut. And again, people, I think, maybe 2030 years ago, were prescribing more antibiotics more easily, whereas they're now saying, Oh, do you know what, maybe we shouldn't do that. There's antibiotic resistance. And look, we cause problems in the gut by him. But because we didn't have that information, we now have people like yourself, like myself, who would have had a long history of antibiotics. And then we wonder why we have so many people with IBS, or so many prescriptions for metrazole, kind of gut dysfunction things and skin things. Yeah, that have that kind of root cause of this disruption from quite early on. Yeah, when I think we're just, I think we're seeing more C diff cases now to like, I know, I, I don't know, I think I went through a spurt where I just talked to so many people. And I was like, and they were younger. Like, and then they had C diff. And I was like, why, why are so many, you know, people getting C diff now more? And yeah, it goes back to the antibiotic use. Yeah. And also, I think breastfeeding a little bit, you know, and again, that there's no shame with that at all as to whether we did or whether we didn't, but there was a real, there was a bigger push as well, for a period of time of decades of formula is better for our babies. Yeah, that's what babies had. So there was less gut seeding, generally. And I think, again, only now are we beginning to understand how important breast milk can be to set up the gut bacteria and sort of turn on some of that immune stuff for life. Yeah, yeah, so true. When someone begins this kind of work with you, where do you do you usually start? And how do you help the body feel safe enough to change? I love this one too.
(15:50 - 16:31) Because it's huge, isn't it? And I know, before you pressed record, you were talking about kind of mindset being such a big part of, of the work. And I think, yeah, you have to, like we just touched on about actually, this is a process. So you have to be ready to go through the process. I'd love to say to everybody, yeah, great, like, we're going to cure it all, then everything's going to be fixed. And, but that's not always the reality. So you've, you've got to be in a really good place, from a mindset point of view of, I know what you want to, to achieve in terms of readiness, and what are the realistic timescales for that? Because otherwise, what happens is, we start the process, and we start unpeeling things, and people wobble.
(16:31 - 19:47) And then they go, Oh, actually, I can't manage this, and go back to medications. And maybe some things are even a bit worse, because we've kind of cracked the egg and haven't finished making the cake. I think, you know, there is mental readiness. But also, sometimes, within that timeline, it's about being really honest about what can the body do right now? And how do we need to support it to be ready to do the really big stuff? Because we all want to get to that end goal, right? You ultimate goal is, please make this go away. But maybe the body's not ready to do that yet. And so actually, let's, let's really be clear about realistic timescales. How able is your body to respond? Do we need to do some really gentle things, first of all, like just support your organs to be able to drain and clear? So really baby steps before we do those big things, which again, feel hard when, when things are really difficult, and you just want a result. But actually, if we put the groundwork in, you're mentally ready, your body is physically in a place where actually, you've got enough health, that you're not so on the floor that you can't respond to what it is we're asking it to do. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I like my 90 day program, I talk a lot about what our ancestors used to do. You know, how they used to eat and how they, you know, they didn't spend their days at a computer or sitting in general, you know, front of a TV at night, whatever it might be. And they were up and about searching for food all the times, right. And so they had that natural instinct, like, okay, now I'm being chased by by a tiger, even though I'm trying to find my food. So they would flip that, you know, flip that switch. But now, that switch is flipped for us a lot of times, all the time, because we have so many things going on and blue lights, you know, stimulating us and, yeah, just all the things. And so, as I talked to them, and as they go through the program, yes, they start realizing like, oh, my gosh, I do, I have to calm down in order to, for my body to feel safe, mentally and physically to be able to release weight or just feel better, you know, be in better health. It's really small things, isn't it? You know, we talk about I'm going, well, yes, okay, I can give you remedies. And I can give you functional support to make the body work and, like you say, rebalance or, you know, help it clear and drain some of that estrogen. Fine, we're doing that work. But actually, if you go to bed every night, at 3am, watching TV, you're constantly reprogramming that hormone loop again, into, like you say, into a stress response into being overtired. You know, we're not, we're not, particularly here in the UK, weather's not great, most of the year, we're not getting, we're not getting up and we're not going outside, we're not getting morning light, we've become so detached from, like you say, our biological ways of being and biological hormone signaling, you know, our hormone signals come from the light. And how many of us see it, see the daylight, you know, real light before we see blue light on a screen. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, that's so, so, so true.
(19:47 - 24:21) For the woman listening who feels stuck, overwhelmed, unheard, what would you want her to know about what's actually possible with this kind of support? That's a big question. I think, actually, it kind of comes full circle to where we started. I just want women to know that they have choices. I think the worst thing is we, and it's not necessarily which practitioner, you have to find someone who's right for you. There are lots of alternative ways of doing things. But the point is that there are alternative ways. I think we can sometimes be so blinkered or we're so stuck on a medical sort of escalator. We're just, we're just moving up there. Well, this is next. Well, this is next. Well, actually, it's another pill. And then if that doesn't work, it's surgery. And there's only this one route that we don't stop to look outside. And like you said, I think the thing for me is about what would I like them to know? I'd like them to know, absolutely, you can get better. Because I think, again, I hear so often, well, I've been told it's chronic. That's it. I'll live with this forever. It will never go away. You know, this is my lot. And all I can do is, and that's a list of prescriptions. And actually, I see so many women who do get better, who do live differently, who are able to stop, I mean, we can't say cure, it's not about the cure. But it's about, you know, are able to live in symptom remission, where they are not ruled by their health, which is often where they are, when when we're meeting them for the first time. Yeah. Our first instinct, especially when we have spent so long under so many specialists sort of saying, we hear that negative message, it's not possible, you will, you are stuck here that we actually do start to believe it. And so exactly about also just be just be open, just try it, because at that point, what have you got to lose? Maybe a change in diet will be revolutionary. Maybe like you say, mindset work may be right. Maybe you'll do an HDT course with me. And that will be the thing. But the point for me is there will be a thing there will be a thing that will unlock this box for you so that you do not have to live like this. Yeah, yeah. I mean, and that's why that's why I do this podcast. That's why I love to have this platform just to, to expose the listeners to more, you know, to more options, and find if they're not ready to give up the full traditional model, you know, healthcare, but they can still supplement with, you know, something like what you do, you know, I've, I've had, I just recorded one for like, for tapping, you know, for EFT and biofield tuning and energy work and stuff, you know, so just exploring some of that, especially when the cost isn't, isn't very much a lot of the times. And if, if you're still not feeling good, and you've been doing the same thing over and over again, then yes, maybe it's time to explore some other options. So I love, I love being able to show the listeners, you know, people like you that are that are out there. And I think it's that as well, you're saying, you know, we can do it alongside, obviously, we don't have to be scared, we're not about to pull out all of your scaffolding and just go, right, well, that's it, because you've chosen natural routes, you can't do anything else. So it's always about looking at it the other way and going, actually, what we'll do is we'll support you where you're at. And you don't have to give up the things you're on. But if you suddenly start to feel better, and feel like you don't need these supports anymore, that's when you can have those conversations with the healthcare providers. But isn't it great to be in a position where you go, do you know what, actually, I don't, I think even without this, I won't have that symptom, it won't be here. And that's, that's great. And the thing as well, a bit like that, you know, again, we're full circle back to what about the pill, and we weren't told those side effects, we can feel like we've got this because we are medicated and held. But we're very rarely looking to five years ahead and 10 years ahead. And what does that look like, then? Are those medications still going to work for us? What are the side effects? Has anyone spoken to us about that? Or have we just, again, has it been so bad, we've taken the sticking plaster, and we're hoping that it holds. So I think some of it's about education and awareness and knowledge to and going, let's have these conversations about, okay, what are you going to do in a few years time? How do you see this planning out? Because I don't suppose anybody's asked you, they've just put you on it. And no one will change it, unless you go for a review.
(24:22 - 25:02) Yeah, yeah. Love that. That's a great way to end it. Last question, and I will put the links in the show notes as well. But how can people find you and connect with you? So I am I am online. And that's where I run my practice. So I live in the online world, she says, whilst also trying desperately to hide from social media. You can find me on Instagram at innate wellness with Tori. And my website is innate wellness center.com. Awesome. Love it. Thank you so, so much. This was great. Lots of great nuggets in there. So super excited for women that need to hear this. And thank you again.
(25:03 - 25:45) Thank you Lindsie. I absolutely loved this conversation with Tori Sorrell-Cook, and I hope you did too. I love how she reminds us that true healing isn't about forcing the body into balance. It's about helping it remember what balance feels like. If today's episode resonated with you, be sure to connect with Tori online at innate wellness center.com. And follow her on Instagram at innate wellness with Tori. I'll link those both in the show notes for you. Thank you for listening for sharing this space with me and for continuing to rewrite your health story one episode at a time. Until next time, keep nourishing, healing and thriving. You got this.