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Any advice would be very much appreciated

by Alison
(Uk)

I am 37 years old.
For the last 6/7 years I have been convinced that ive had some kind of horminal issues. Then I had an ultrasound which showed that I had fibroids.
I then almost 5 years ago fell pregnant unexpectedly. I felt that I didnt have a gd pregnancy I felt like something wasnt quite right. I started to lose a black discharge and thought the worst at 15 weeks. A scan showed nothing wrong.
I was convinced I went into early labor and again was backwards and forwards to the hospital to be told everything was intact and fine. So I just wemt along with it. Until 29 weeks pregnant and my waters broke. I ended up with an infection and our little girl was born by c section at 30 weeks. She is absolutely fine thank goodness. However I havent been. I have been experiencing lots of symptoms since having her of which include Hot flushes, severe night sweats, period pain but no period, breats always hurt, foggy head, severe insomnia. Blood sugar issues. I was sent for another scan due to the period pain. Showed I had mild pcos (that was 2 years ago)
Since then my periods are vertually non existent and when I do get them now theyre not heavy and go on for 8 days, now they are very light and only last about 4/5 days at the most.
My Dr agreed to send me for blood tests which I dont really understand the results of. I was really hoping somebody woukd be able to shed some light on what could be going on for me.
My fsh came back as 3.5
Progesterone 1.9
Oestradiol 67 pmol
When I went to have the bloods taken I had finally come on my period.
I keep being told I have anxiety which I have sufferedvwith all my life but ive never felt like this before with it. And back then antidepressants helped. Why are none of the anxiety meds helping me. Nothing makes any sense.
Does anybody have any ideas?
Thankyou for reading and to anybody that responds
Alison

Comments for Any advice would be very much appreciated

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May 09, 2016
 Reduce stress, eat clean, sleep
by: Helene

Hey Alison,

I sense your frustration and fear for your health and I'm sorry to hear how you have been ignored by medical system. Unfortunately that's very common when it comes to female hormonal issues.

I'm very into a natural approach, and I don't believe much in using antidrepessants and I only took natural progesterone, because I had absolutely no other choice. I believe, if we start treat the body the way we were meant to, it will become healthy again. So here's the advice I can give you, from my own experience:

From what it sounds like to me you need to focus on your stress. Stress fucks hormones up like nothing else. So.. Find out what stresses you and start cutting them out of your life. It may take a while, but be thorough. Could be in the workplace, at home, how you think about yourself and so on.

Stress makes you anxious as well. So if you reduce your stress, your anxiety will probably go away.

But stressors are more than psychological:

Eat clean - whole foods; fruits and vegetables. And when you have those blood sugar-issues you have to eat often, but small meals, so that the blood sugar will not drop. Low blood sugar is a major stressor to the body.

Get a lot of sleep! Go to bed around 10 pm - or earlier if you need it (and it's possible). Sleep is really important for your hormones.

And you can use progesterone if needed. But don't use tons of it! Hormone replacement should only be used to get the balance back. I don't know when your test was taken, but you that progesterone and Estradiol varies through the cycle - so it's important when in the cycle the test is done.
I would recommend that you start educating yourself. Google, and read. About your cycle, about how hormones work and affect each other HPA-axis for example. And adrenal fatigue.
I would also recommend that you start taking your temperature in the morning. When we ovulate our temperature rises, so that way you can see if you ovulate at all. If you DON'T ovulate (= if the temperature doesn't rise) you will need progesterone - because it's the egg that produces progesterone in the luteal phase of the cycle. As I said. Read!

And last, don't expect to get back to 100 % over night. It may take a year or two before you're balanced - but it can definitely be done.

Best wishes,
Helene

I'll follow the thread, so just ask, if you have any questions :)
May 09, 2016
 ...
by: Kate

I have been through a lot of what you have been through. Your progesterone to estrogen ratio is extremely low. If i were you, I would go through this website top to bottom, completely inform yourself. Then you have a shot of talking to your doctor and actually getting the right treatment. I had to really convince my doctor to put me on 200 mg of bio identical progesterone cream. But I did it, and you can too. It also helps if you google Bio identical hormone treatment therapy doctors in your area. Not all doctors are created equal. But I can tell you that it can get better. I was suffering from horrible ovarian cysts that would burst, heart arrhythmias, insomnia horrible fatigue, which all came about after my second child and almost all of my symptoms are now gone. I will tell you, that I had to go on a much higher dose than my original 200. I'm probably closer to 1000 mg of cream now, but don't be scared if you have to go higher. Just inform yourself, so you can be your own advocate. I can't stress that enough, because I can pretty much guarantee your doctors will be useless. Good luck, take care.
May 13, 2016
 Any advice would be very much appreciated
by: Joy

Hi Alison

I am so sorry that you went through all of that while pregnant, but pleased that your baby girl is fine. I have just said to Wray and it amazes me that doctors can’t or will not help us. This is why we have to take things into our own hands.

Fibroids and PCOS are both caused by oxidative stress and unless the inflammation is dealt with you will battle. Excess estrogen also plays a part. You need to take the nutrients mentioned on on the Fibroids and PCOS pages. At 37 which is usually when Peri-Menopause starts, can be a difficult time for most women. This explains your adverse symptoms, hot flushes, night sweats, etc etc. These are all crying out Estrogen Dominance and progesterone needs to become the dominant hormone before this will improve for you. Your progesterone:estrogen(E2) ratio is 28:1, this again proves that you are estrogen dominant, the ratio should be around 600:1 as the Hormone Testing pages suggests. Progesterone therapy will certainly help you, but it can’t do it on it’s own, it needs help, vitamin D3, magnesium and if needed calming hormones. Your heavy bleeding, while it lasted also takes place at Peri-Menopause, but your erratic periods is another symptom of Peri-Menopause. I can’t understand why doctors can’t figure this out!

Your meds are probably not helping because they are band aids and do not treat the cause. The Anxiety page lists natural anti-depressants which come with NO side effects.

Please read these pages:

How to use Progesterone Cream
Estrogen Dominance
Peri-Menopause
Menopause
Vitamin D3
Magnesium
Anxiety
Progesterone Cream
Fibroids
PCOS
Hormone Testing

Hope this helps you.
May 14, 2016
 Helene, Kate and Joy thankyou for responding. All advice much appreciated
by: Anonymous

Indo have a few things in reply tonall of your responses which I hope any of you could advise me on please.
I dont really have mnay stresses in my life....just the norm, I dont work so dont have that added stress either. I try to eat as clean as I can and very rarely eat processed foods.
I now have been told I have high cholestrol but I cannot tolerate the statins they gave me at all so trying to lose weight which im finding extremely difficult!
I go to bed at a reasonable time and my sleep hygiene is good. Even the professionals comment that im doing all the right things.
I have recently seen my gp since my original post.
He looked at my blood results (which by the way were taken on 2/3rd day of my period) and said they were all within normal range and said that he thought all of my symptoms were down to pcos and suggested the mini pill noriday.(which I have now taken for 4 days) im already getting cramps, spotting and some awful headaches from it, im feeling irritable and angry but that could b the sleep deprivation. I tried the mirena a year or so back and it affected me the same. My question is if I need progesterone why are these not helping? I understand that they are synthetic hormones doe sit not work like the natural bio identical cream?
Joy you mentioned that my progesterone:estrogen ratio is 28:1 (im not sure how to work these things out) and should be 600:1.... Does this still apply due to my bloods being taken on my 2/3Rd day of my period?
I have some vitamin D3 and magnesium spray which I have thought about using.
I mentioned to my gp about my hormones being withing normal range but possibly being unbalanced but bcus the testing centre said they was normal and no further action needed he didnt say anything and I left there withe prescription for noriday and feeling disheartened and quite silly. He did say I could use the progesterone cream if i wanted but he didnt know wherebi could purchase it from or how much I should use so that was much help either.
Where would I buy it and how would I know how much to use and side effects??
I will Def have a read through the pages you have suggested Joy.
I really hope I get a reply from you guys
Alison
May 15, 2016
 ...
by: Helene

Hey Alison,

About the stress: If you have anxiety, you are stressed. Anxiety is like the core-symptom of stress - your nervous system is alert and sensing danger. Maybe you are just so used to it, that you don’t perceive it as stress?
But even when we don’t have clear-cut symptoms like anxiety, we can easily be in a state of stress anyway. We don’t necessarily FEEL that the body is stressed - because our body is designed to counter-act stressors all the time - without us noticing. But that doesn’t mean that we’re not stressing our body. For example if we skip a meal, and our blood sugar drops, the body releases stress cortisol to raise the blood sugar levels again. But that doesn’t mean that we FEEL stressed. Nevertheless cortisol has been released. And if a lot of little stressors like that is going on - we end up with too much cortisol. My point is... When our body is showing symptoms of disease/imbalance - some kind of stress is going on.

But it does sound like you’re doing a lot of good stuff; eating and sleeping well is very important :)

Too much cortisol ‘eats up’ progesterone (because progesterone is a precursor to cortisol) - and we can then get a deficiency. Plus cortisol over a long time suppresses the thyroid function, slowing down your metabolism. Not to mention that cortisol breaks the body down - like it’s supposed to, to create quick energy in dangerous situations - but of course we don’t want that going on all the time.

Well, enough on the stress. Though it is one of my favorite topics ;)

High cholesterol:
As far as I know high cholesterol is a classic symptom of thyroids problems. Like I mentioned before, this can be an effect of cortisol - and also lack of progesterone. Too much estrogen also suppresses the thyroid. I think it’s good that you don’t take the statins - they’re just suppressing symptoms, not healing the cause.
If you eat well, the forget about losing weight until your hormones are balanced. I know that’s difficult, but weight will probably come off all by it self when things are back in order. Diana Schwarzbein has written some books about balancing metabolism with diet, exercise and bio-identical hormones. She also emphasizes that a little weight gain is often unavoidable in this process.

Synthetic hormones:
I don’t take synthetic hormones anymore - and never will again. I think it’s mad that women are put on this stuff, which is actually proven to have bad side-effects.
It’s not that I know a lot about it, but I do know that our natural hormones are like a ‘network’, where one hormone is made from another - like for example cortisol is made from progesterone. But the body doesn’t recognize the synthetic hormones, so it can’t use them to convert to other hormones needed - which just results in more imbalance. That’s where bio-identical hormones are better. Because they can join the hormone-‘network’.

Progesterone/estrogen-ratio
Blood tests are not optimal when it comes to measuring hormone levels. The actual levels are often lower than the test shows (something to do with how the test is done, and ‘free’ vs. ‘locked’ hormones). Saliva tests are better for hormones. Here in Denmark experts say that the test should be done between day 19-21 in the cycle. This is when progesterone is at the highest. At other times in the cycle estrogen is - and should be! - higher than progesterone.
And here they also say the progesterone/estrogen ratio should be 200:1 (on day 19-21). So there may be some disagreement on that. Like with everything else :)

D3
Summer is coming - even for us here in the north - so I would get my D3 from the sun. And then maybe supplement during the winter.

A long post! Hope some of it is useful :)

/Helene
May 25, 2016
 Helene
by: Alison

Thankyou helene.
I know what your saying about stress but sometimes this is inevitable and out of my control. The antidepressants dont seem to even help. Goodness knows why!
Anyway I had to stop the noriday mini pill after only 8 days, mentally I felt extremely low, I began feeling extremely depressed. Thta was 6 days ago now so im hoping I can pick myself up a little.
If i needed progesterone why would the progesterone only pill cause me to feel this bad?? Surely the natural progesterone would have the same effect??
Also with regards to the progesterone :estrodiol ratio.....they were both within normal limits for the time of month so how can they be unbalanced? I dont understand that.
I hope you can help me get my head around these questions....feel a bit confused
thanks again
Alison
May 31, 2016
 ...
by: Helene

Hey again Alison,

Actually I think it’s a good thing, that you’ve quit the Noriday. My advice would be that you start using ‘natural’ birth control like taking your temperature and condoms - and put synthetic hormones behind you. No matter what it's definitely not good going on and off hormones - your body gets all confused. So at least give it the opportunity to stabilize. Then your body can get the peace to fix itself. It can take a while, maybe a year or two - depending how damaged your hormone system is. But I really think it will be worth your while.

I hope the depression will go away soon though, so that it won’t be totally awful.

Synthetics hormones vs. bioidentical:
I took mini-p once (before I got stress and became a health freak) - and they made my periods longer and just put me off balance. They definitely didn’t do me any good.

Why you had a negative reaction to the Noriday I don’t know. But first of all the mini-p are made to PREVENT a natural menstrual cycle, right? To prevent pregnancy. So no matter what the pills are not made to balance your hormones - you know what I mean? Something that moves us away from our natural hormone balance are likely to make us feel bad. Especially (probably) if we’re already out of balance.
Also I don’t think you can compare 1 to 1 the synthetic progesterone (SP) and the bioidentical progesterone (BP) and assume that they’ll have the same effect. I’m not sure exactly why; some say it’s because the body can’t get rid of the byproducts from the SP properly. Others say - like I mentioned last time - that the SP can’t be used in the body’s hormone-chain (one hormone is made another, that is made from another and so on - something like this.
To me both arguments make sense.

When you use BP you can get a negative reaction in the beginning, because the progesterone actives estrogen-receptors and if you are estrogen-dominant this will result in negative symptoms. If the SP in Noriday might have had that effect on you I can’t say.

Estrogen/progesteron-ratio:
There are two reasons, why you can’t really use those test results you have. First of all - as I read it - it was a blood test. Blood tests are not reliable for hormones. It needs to be a saliva-test. I don’t know if your doctor can offer you a saliva-test. They don’t do that in Denmark. I have paid for my own tests and ordered them from Germany (medivere.de - unfortunately they don’t translate their website or testresults - but I have managed using Google Translate ;)). Maybe you have some clinics in the UK where you can get a test for reasonable money. I paid 117 euro for progesterone, estradiol, estriol, cortisol, dhea, testosterone. Of course a progesterone/estradiol-only-test is cheaper.

Second; your test was taken on day 2-3 of your cycle. In this phase both estrogen and progesterone are low - this is very important to understand. As you can see the ratio varies throughout the cycle.

The saliva-test should be taken on day 19-21 of the cycle, where progesterone is at it’s highest.

That’s why you can’t use that test for anything at all, Alison, because you wouldn’t know if your body produces enough progesterone when it should.
Maybe your results can say something about whether you’re estrogen-dominant. But I’m not sure about that.

Bottom line is that if you want to be sure about the progesterone/estrogen in your body: 1) saliva-test, 2) day 19-21 of the cycle.

There are other things that I would recommend you. I’ve already mentioned taking your morning temperature to see when you’re ovulating, and if the temperature rises in your body like it should the last 14 days of your cycle. It gives you an overview of what is going on in your body. And it’s very important that you ovulate, because you only produce enough progesterone if you do. It’s the progesterone that makes the body temperature rise in the last part of the cycle, so if that happens, you know that SOME progesterone is at least being produced.

Write a symptom-log. Start writing down your day to day symptoms and maybe also what you eat and how you sleep. You may be able to see a pattern, that can make you wiser. And you’ll be able to see what works for you and what doesn’t. We forget how we felt in the past incredibly fast. It has helped me a lot. Also as proof that I’m getting better when I’ve felt discouraged.

Hope you’ve been feeling better since your last post.

/Helene

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