Posted by BarbaraCat on November 5, 2003, at 15:28:36
In reply to Hello gals..., posted by fluffy on November 5, 2003, at 10:50:26
Hi Katy,
What a dissapointment after you'd been feeling so good. You know, I think we had this conversation a while back and I recall that I said then what I'm saying now - you're gyn is full of crap. Progesterone most definitely causes mood swings. Just enough causes relaxation and lessening of anxiety. Too much causes lethary and depression. Progesterone opposes estrogen, acts as a break on it which is a good thing if there's an imbalance of too much estrogen but a very bad thing if there's too high a ratio of progesterone to estrogen. Too little progesterone is going to come with it's own host of problems from anxiety and sleep disorders to muscle pain. Sometimes introducing a hormone from an outside source shuts down our natural production and it's possible that your body is recognizing the progesterone in your uterus and figures hey, why work so hard? But I guarantee you that progesterone in your IUD is not the bioavailable kind your body likes and this creates even more of a problem that most docs don't acknowledge. Did you know that synthetic progesterone is highly implicated in causing depression?The amount of progesterone an IUD releases is not significant but it does affect your whole system, not just your reproductive organs. Suppose you already had an imbalance one way or another? That extra amount leaking into your system may have tipped the scales. Progesterone is the hormone that surges the week before menstruation and who can deny that PMS causes wild mood swings? Is it possible your gyn is male and doesn't understand these things?
If you feel in your heart and gut that the problems started with your IUD then getting it pulled would be a very good test. Bear in mind that the balance won't be restored right away and may take months. Hormones are slow moving. Check out my post to Nicole (nmk) in this thread about Vitex as an herbal regulator of hormones. Here's a link to some info.
http://www.viable-herbal.com/herbdesc1/1chastet.htm
Something you should definitely think about is getting a saliva test that measures your hormones (estradiol, progesterone, DHEA, cortisol, testosterone). I've been very impressed with what they can uncover. If you don't have a health practitioner that is savvy to saliva tests then you can order it yourself and monitor your own progress. A good lab is ZRT Laboratories:
It costs $150 and is worth every penny to know where you're at hormonally. Otherwise you're doing trial and error indefinitely and this is expensive in so many ways. Alot of mainstream docs don't believe in saliva testing but all I can say is I feel so very much better since seeing someone who uses and believes in them than all those who don't believe in them, don't use them, and haven't done a thing to get me feeling better. - Barbara
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:238206
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031105/msgs/276901.html