About
Nicolé Thompson donated a kidney to her husband Constantine five days after their wedding in 2011. He has polycystic kidney disease (PKD), and his father died after 10 years on dialysis. Fifteen years later, they're both doing well.
Nicolé is a Morphus customer, life coach, and professional singer, and her story is one of the most unexpected conversations we've had on the show. She walks Andrea through living donor testing, surgery day (including a nurse who mistook her husband for a stranger), her recovery, and what life after a transplant looks like for him. Then she talks about the part so many of us know: when perimenopause arrived in 2020, she blamed her anxiety and fatigue on COVID, on stress, even on having one kidney.
What you'll learn:
- What living kidney donor testing actually involves
- What recovery felt like after donating a kidney
- What polycystic kidney disease is and why it runs in families
- Why kidney transplant patients avoid grapefruit
- Why perimenopause anxiety and fatigue are so easy to blame on something else
Chapters:
2:00 A kidney donation love story (and a very awkward nurse)
5:18 Her fiancé's polycystic kidney disease diagnosis
7:43 Living kidney donor testing: what really happens
13:56 Married 5 days before the kidney transplant
19:33 Kidney donor recovery: the first 6 weeks
21:17 What is polycystic kidney disease (PKD)?
23:23 Life after a kidney transplant: meds, grapefruit, colds
29:01 One kidney and perimenopause: anxiety, fatigue, insulin resistance
32:39 How kidney donation has changed, and would she do it again?
40:19 Her message if organ donation scares you
Take our new research survey, Perimenopause & Menopause Across Ethnicities: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeETDntSjZxIpJ8smhR8n6RoOJVFqTPkSUnfP_oP4nKW_P4Hw/viewform
This episode shares one person's experience and is not medical advice.
💌 FREE FRIDAY EMAIL FROM ANDREA
What she’s learning about perimenopause and menopause, plus a recipe. Sign up here
📖 NOURISHING MENOPAUSE, Andrea’s book (affiliate links)
Buy in the US | Buy in Canada
💊 Shop Morphus
📰 As seen in USA Today
✅ Fill out our surveys
📲 FOLLOW US
Instagram and TikTok: @wearemorphus | @andreadonsky
Facebook: /wearemorphus
Not medical advice. Always talk to your healthcare provider. Morphus may earn a commission on affiliate links.