Hormone Replacement Therapy

[PlateletGal]

A couple of members here, including myself, watched Robin McGraw yesterday speak about bio-identical hormone replacement therapy. Did you know that women as young as their teens can have hormonal imbalances ? And that you can show signs of perimenopause in your 20s... feel horrible and be misdiagnosed with chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia ?  And yet the medical field has failed us again on this other issue. = (

So how many of you are on hormone replacement therapy and are you taking the synthetic hormones or bio-identical hormones ?

[thyroid_sista2]

im on estrogel pump i take 2 pumps daily the dose for this is 2.5 g im also on thyroid meds. had blood work done an the doc told me i have high levels of estrogen in my system from the 2 pumps. does anyone know if high levels of estrogn therpy can cut out the effect of the thyroid meds to work? i have alot of fluied all the time also?

[PlateletGal]

Bravo to you for continuing to search for answers ! I've seen many people just give up, accept their diagnosis and treatment, although treatment isn't working for them. It does sound like you've done a lot of research on thyroid problems and EBV. I hope you will stick around and keep us posted. If you need a physician who frequently diagnoses and treats CFS, consider googling "Co Cure's Good Doctor List" for a physician in your area. Perhaps that physician will have some ideas ? But don't give up on your search for answers !

[chel 81]

Thanks for the welcome:-) Thought it would be worth a try and this post seemed right up my ally. I do have several of the symptoms listed above except for the bone loss, not too many aches & pains other than from the weight gain causing some back pain, and the heart palps only came on from too much thyroid medication. I know for sure there is something going on with my hormones but I do know that a few of them are off even when I'm well so it must be one of them that we're not catching that's at the root of it. Add to that list weight gain (I went from being right at underweight/normal to now overweight- BMI was 17.5 now 25- urgh).
I'm pretty knowledgeable on thyroid disease at this point. I actually take Armour thyroid because it contains both T3 and T4 so I don't just get the storage hormone like Synthroid or other T4 drugs. I actually have had all my docs test my Reverse T3 and it is higher but I can't take synthetic thyroid medications so when they put me on Cytomel (T3) and a time release T3 I actually got a lot worse. For some reason my body recognizes the difference between synthetic thyroid hormone and nonsythetic so I can't take anything other than Armour because I end up with even worse symptoms (including some of those symptoms they mention on the medication itself like breathing problems which was like having an asthma attack for 24 hours straight for almost 6 months- I thought I was going to die!)
My current doctor thinks that the EBV is preventing my body from using thyroid hormone because it is attacking it in my tissues so that's why even if I take a ton of thyroid hormone I still remain hypothyroid and thus the reason why my EBV symptoms are basically classic hypothyroidism symptoms. I'm going to a new doctor next week so I'll see what he has to say but he supposedly specializes in hormone problems as well as EBV.
Chel

[PlateletGal]

I thought I would also post this since you have hypothyroidism. You may want to print and discuss with your physician :



T3 REVERSE -- "The mix of treatments needed varies from patient to patient. There are some abnormalities that are common. For instance, close to 100% of individuals with these syndromes have low thyroid. This is, however, usually not picked up on the standard blood tests because the TSH is not elevated in these individuals due to pituitary dysfunction. Many of these individuals will also have high levels of the anti-thyroid reverse T3, which is usually not measured on standard blood tests. In addition, the majority of individuals can also have a thyroid receptor resistance that is not detected on the blood tests. Consequently, thyroid treatment, especially with timed release T3, is effective for many patients. T4 preparations (inactive thyroid) such as Synthroid and Levoxyl do not work well for these conditions."


Kent Holtorf, M.D.  --- link to article: http://www.immunesupport.com/library/showarticle.cfm/id/4320

[PlateletGal]

Hi ! I'm so glad you came over here because I'm sure you can relate to many of the other members and their experiences, symptoms, etc.

I was wondering which specialist is managing your hormone replacement therapy ? The physician that Robin sees (and had on her show) said that she is seeing hormonal problems in young women and even 13 year olds !  You may want to consider searching online for a practitioner in your area who deals with bio-identical hormones.

It is an outrage that you have abnormal lab results and yet these physicians are clueless and still think you need to be an adult for this to happen ! I hate to say it, but it seems to me that there is sexism in the medical field. I've seen many men who end up with a fibro or CFS diagnosis and they seem to have more testing done than women do.


Symptoms of hormone deficiencies can include:

low libido
thinning skin
aches & pains (arthritic)
bone loss
memory lapses
fatigue ---- feeling burned out   (of course nothing like CFS patients go through)
decreased flexibility
depression
decreased mental ability
headaches
brain fog
vaginal dryness
heart palpitations
lack of drive and energy
irritability

[chel 81]

This is the first time I've posted to this forum- been posting to the EBV and thyroid forums in the past but figured I'd check this one out since PlateletGal suggested it. This post caught my eye. I'm only 27 years old and can tell you that hormones & EBV have caused all sorts of problems in my life. I've had hormone problems since I was only 13 so you can never be too young to deal with them. I had my period for 3 straight months when I was 13 (didn't tell anybody because I was too scared) things eventually straightened out and I was fine until I was 18 when I stopped having my periods altogether. They put me on BCP's which caused some issues including weight gain that refused to budge, horrible cramps, acne, cysts etc. I stayed on them for a year and then got off (dr said I just needed to kick start my ovaries- whatever). Right after that I got mono and then hypothyroidism but wasn't given the hypo dx for 3 years. In the mean time blood test after blood test was run to determine the cause of my problems because they said I was "too young to have thyroid problems". We found that I had very low progesterone levels and rather than get on BCP's again I opted for natural progesterone cream which I have remained on since I was 21 and am now 27. Over the years I've found that I have lots of hormone issues: low progesterone, low thyroid, high DHEA, out of balance LH to FSH ratio etc etc. Unfortunately I've seen over 20 doctors beginning in 2001 at the age of 19 and so many of them are still completely oblivious to the fact that you don't have to be older to have these types of problems. I was well for a number of years but in 2007 everything went crazy again and I'm still struggling to get my life back together. I can't have children because of all the problems I have and would love to adopt but am in such a bad state with my health I can't even do that. It's been frustrating to say the least.

[Cindee56]

Funny you should bring this up.  My GP recently suggested I try estrogen and progesterone, but after reading the side effects, I am afraid to.  He said it will probably help me sleep better and may help the pain.  I'm still thinking about it.

Just as a side--Robin McGraw gets on my nerves.  Suddenly, she's the expert on everything and she's all gorgeous now that she lives in California with the beautiful people.  She's writing books, etc.  I'm not sure she's all that she thinks she is.

[VaBreeze]

P.S.  I should mention that my hormonal treatment began 'after' I experienced a hysterectomy.  I was not treated during perimenopause.

[VaBreeze]

I was taking Estradol and just discontinued about a month ago.  I noticed no difference in my level of fatigue or pain while on it, but it did take care of some of the sweating and hot flashes.

Yes, they have long assumed that a women in her 20's was 'too young' to be experiencing perimenopause.  Another fallacy we have had to listen to for years.