hi all,

saw my pcp today. lugged in my page full of symptoms. this is only the 3rd time that i have seen this new doctor - but she is so great. i'm so used to being patted on the head or dismissed. but she totally got it. & based on my july blood work, she really feels like i'm pretty much in peri hell (that small? percentage of women who have a really bad time of it). she doesn't feel like there are other endo issues involved, but didn't dismiss that my overall condition may be mulitfactorial.

her treatment recommendation was to try oral contraceptives again (i had a nasty reaction to yaz last november) to try to even stuff out. & to try elavil for the sleep, while hopefully weaning off ativan. i asked if using ocs would just delay the inevitable misery, but she said that wasn't the case. but i didn't ask her why (i don't understand why it wouldn't just all start again when i stop the pill).

she warned me that it would kill whatever libido i have, but didn't mention any other side effects (i didn't ask). she said that it should help with some of the symptoms & make some of the others more manageable by getting my body back into some type of regulatory pattern.

just want to get everyone's opinion on this approach. i'm almost disabled by the symptoms (i charted at random & in 21 days i had 3 days of feeling great, 7 days of moderate or fluctuating mild-severe symptoms, & 11 days of severe symptoms), but i'm not too keen on oral contraceptives. never seemed to help with my pms or painful periods & i just never liked being on them. plus i'm scared of a repeat of the yaz reaction, which i don't have an explanation for. feeling this bad isn't great either & i don't know if just trying to struggle through is a good choice or if it sets me up for other problems (fibro?) even if i survive it.

thanks for listening,
ellen

Not sure what to tell you. I took hormones about a year ago for 2 months for a uterine fibroid that had me bleeding non stop. I hated them, gave me horrible headaches and just didn't adjust to them. The last time I took BC was in my early 20's. If you don't tolerate hormone treatment, depending what your symptoms actually are, alot of women take an antidepressent during this time, I know, it is like what is the lesser of the two evils. The other thing is to try and wait it out. I had about 8 months of various symptoms (fatigue being the absolute worst and longest of them all) and can now say that I seem to be on an upswing at the moment. I am not a hormone candidate because I (still) smoke so my choices are limited. I just try and ride the tide. Have you tried seeing a homeopat? Does your Dr. work with natural alternatives as well? Perhaps this would be a good avenue for you to explore before feeling as if you need to take any *school medicines*.
Hope your day is a better one today
Hugs,
girlsmom

hi girlsmom,

i'm glad that you're on an upswing right now & i hope that i continues. i appreciate your input - i've been trying to ride this out. it's been going on for awhile, but definitely all hell has broken loose in this last year.
since i've never really felt great my whole reproductive life - bad pms, bad periods, other symptoms of endocrine problems - i'm thinking of asking this new doc for a more comprehensive endo eval/testing (i've had the basic bloodwork panel) just to rule out other stuff, even though she didn't think that there was anything else going on.
then i'll look at the options. i really hated the oral contraceptives & am concerned about resuming for a variety of reasons. but i'm not closed to considering hormonal intervention. or using anitdepressants (she recommended low dose elavil to try to restore sleep patterns & possibly improve the muscle aches). but i have been inclined to explore all other possiblities first (lifestyle, etc) & that has included a homeopath. i saw him about a month ago for the 1st time. i've been worse in some extreme ways since then, better in other ways. really, who ever knows what is impacting what when things are whizzing around so much? but i will follow up soon with him.
have you had success with homeopathy? or anything else in particular? i just can't believe that peri could be so damn disabling.
but then, this site wouldn't exist, would it?

thanks & continued best,
ellen

Hi Ellen,
I'm in much the same boat you are. I also had a really bad reaction to Yaz in February and have tried just to ride out all the craziness. I teach school and during the summer things were much better -- probably because of the decreased stress -- but the last few months have been a little much. I'm going to the dr. on Wednesday to see if I can try Alesse -- I was on it a few years ago but stopped because it made me a little bloaty! What I wouldn't give for just a little bloaty these days! I've also talked to several people who've had good success with Loestrin 1/20. I may also ask about taking a B complex vitamin since I understand those can help a great deal with the mood swings, anxiety, etc.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for both of us!

Jennifer

hi jennifer,

how did the doctor's appt go? my god, i can't imagine teaching like this! is it going ok? i'm going back to see my pcp in a few weeks to discuss some further endo evals for some other stuff that i think may be going on, but i just don't know what to do about this peri stuff. my yaz reaction was nothing i ever want to repeat - the mood eventually descended to scary suicidal. i hope yours wasn't that bad. & i hope you've got some good options. i even went to a homeopath & he gave me a blue cohosh remedy that is individualized to my symptoms, but then i looked it up, found that it was toxic, & now i'm scared to take it.

good luck & let me know how you are doing.

ellen

Hey Ellen,
Well the best thing that came out of my visit was that she prescribed the new pill Lybrel, I took it that night and had the same reaction to it that I had to Yaz! I say it was the best because now I know the pill is not the way for me to go. Lybrel is the one that just came out in July that keeps you from ever having a period, which I felt really weird about. She also blew me off when I asked if it was perimenopause and when I told her I was sure all these symptoms were from excess estrogen/too low progesterone.

SO, I am going the more natural route. I started last Thursday taking a B complex vitamin and a tablespoon of flaxseed oil and I am starting to feel like a new person already. Someone recommended the book Before the Change by Anne Louise Gittleman, and these are her suggestions. She includes 10 Peri-Zappers in the book and I've started 4 -- eating better, exercise 5 times a week, B complex vitamin, and the flaxseed oil. I can't remember if you're having anxiety at all but I bought a book by Dr. Claire Weekes that has made a huge difference in dealing with that.

I know everybody is different, but these are really helping me lots, thank goodness. I was getting desperate!

Jennifer

hi jennifer - looks like we're on at the same time. yikes about the lybrel reaction! that is exactly why i am scared to try oral contraceptives to manage this. & i haven't heard any ideas about why these bad reactions happen, unless it is just due to the need for greater individualization of dose, or chemical makeup of the the hormones in the different ocs. there's still so much i don't know & the medical profession hasn't exactly been helpful & informative. i'm angry that your gyn blew you off - i'm so sick of that.

i'm glad that you are finding positive improvement with the other remedies. i am reading vliet's books right now (ok, pecking at them with this disturbing inability to read like i use to) & had planned on reading gittleman's book as well. thanks for the reminder on claire weekes. i don't have major anxiety symptoms (only a few doozies now & then), but have had problems at hormonally sensitive or high stress times in my life. so i am fully expecting that something could manifest at any time.

hope things keep going well - keep me posted. how wonderful if you can manage through lifestyle/nutritional/& other avenues. in the end, that can only be a positive boost for good health across the board & throughout life.

as for me, i've actually strung together a few days in a row of feeling good. so counting my blessings & trying to figure out my next steps.

best,
ellen

Hi Jennifer,

Are you sure that your symptoms are from too much estrogen and too little progesterone? I know that Lee says that but Vliet says the opposite. I am in peri and it has been my experience that I do not have enough estrogen to balance out my own progesterone which makes me feel horrible. If I add extra estrogen in the form of estradiol gel I feel much better. Sometimes women blame their symptoms of too much estrogen when in fact it is decreasing estrogen with the same amount of progesterone that is creating problems. For example bloating and breast tenderness sometimes gets blamed on estrogen but it is the progesterone that is causing it especially when the ratio is off.

One way to check your own progesterone is to take your temperature every morning before you get out of bed. After your period and before you ovulate your temp. will be down. After ovulation your temp goes up several points. If you find that you are getting a rise in temp that stays up the second half of your cycle you will know that your progesterone is working. If your symptoms occur when your temp is up, it is likely that the progesterone is causing your symptoms. When we were younger and had lots of estrogen to balance our progesterone and we felt good and had minimal pms. Now that we are older our estrogen has dropped and we do not have enough to balance our progesterone and we get symptoms. At some point we stop ovulating and loose our progesterone which causes a different set of problems…

I just wanted to point out a different perspective. I used to think that I had too much estrogen and too little progesterone like you do but since I have figured out that I have the opposite problem I have been able to get better results with the correct treatment.

Kathy