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Wray - Breast Tenderness

by Beansprout

Hi Wray - I feel after a very long journey that I'm doing very well. I feel more and more balanced both physically as well as psychologically with each passing day. My diet is good, unexciting, but extremely healthy. I'm sleeping for 7 hours straight again, no interruptions, no waking up in a blinding panic or as a sweaty mess. So I stay diligent with my progesterone, my supplements, daily exercise, staying on a consistent schedule when it comes to both food and sleep. It's taken a lot of hard work, time, dedication, but I'm worth the investment I've made in myself. People are noticing that I'm calmer, happier, thinner, younger looking, yes, that's always a nice compliment.

Last month, no period. I was d-e-l-i-g-h-t-e-d to say the least. As you know, my cycles were vicious, long, heavy, all over the place. Then starting the progesterone returned them back to a normal to light flow and length of duration. Now they seem to have just stopped and I am over here rejoicing.

With all of that being said, I have no idea where in my cycle that I might be. All I know is that while everything seems to be balancing beautifully suddenly I have a lot of breast tenderness for the past five or six days according to my daily well-being diary.

Currently, I'm using 200-300 mg of progesterone daily. That seems to be my magic number. I feel fine, great in fact, no other symptoms. My first thoughts were that it was due to excess estrogen and that maybe I should up my daily amount. But then doubted myself in the absence of many of the old symptoms that I have recently put to rest. Then a medical doctor told me, no, it's actually a symptom of declining estrogen and this led to a bit of a debate right there in the examining room. I just don't know how so many members of the medical world can be so misinformed about hormonal balance when it affects such a huge part of our population.

So she linked me to this "expert" answer in an email that arrived just this morning which said: "Breast tenderness frequently happens during menopause due to hormonal changes in a woman's body. An estrogen imbalance is most likely the main cause for the tenderness, as estrogen levels decline. By the time menopause ends, a woman has only minimal levels of estrogen in her body, and no progesterone. Generally, women go through menopause around the age of 50. Menopause happens when the ovaries cease to release an egg, or ovulate. This happens because of a decrease in ovarian follicles and eggs. When the ovaries no longer release eggs, the ovaries produce less and less estrogen, while the production of progesterone ends. The uterine lining no longer thickens and sheds for the monthly menstrual cycle, and at some point, menses end completely. Menopause can take anywhere from five to 15 years to begin and end, with a period called perimenopause being the precursor to menopause. Marked breast tenderness is apparent during this time, sometimes more so than any other time in a woman's life. It's a normal occurrence and a response to the estrogen and progesterone decline."

See here.

Any thoughts?

Beansprout

Comments for Wray - Breast Tenderness

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Sep 09, 2013
 Wray - Breast Tenderness
by: Wray

Hi Beansprout Well we have a page on Breast Tenderness you could look through. It's always the decline of oestrogen that 'experts' believe is the cause of all our woes. But all through the Peri-menopause years, in fact from age 35, we get anovulatory cycles when no progesterone is made. These cycles increase in frequency as Menopause approaches. Is it any wonder we feel awful? Both oestrogen and testosterone are still in full swing. It's not until the last viable egg has gone do they begin dropping. And FSH and LH rise in an effort to stimulate egg production and ovulation. High LH and FSH indicates a woman has reached menopause. But take a look at this paper here. It says "As testosterone progressively dominates the hormonal milieu during the menopausal transition, the prevalence of MetS increases, independent of aging and other important covariates. This may be a pathway by which cardiovascular disease increases during menopause." Not only cardiovascular disease, but mood swings, weight gain and cancer. Many women begin getting a middle aged spread too. This weight gain over the stomach is related to hormones, particularly testosterone. In fact the menopausal ovary is an androgen producing organ, see here. Luckily progesterone increases SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin). If bound to SHBG testosterone becomes inactive, see here, so preventing the rise of free testosterone and severe PMS. So take your pick between the studies or the 'experts'! Take care Wray

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