Surgical menopause causing symptoms?? Please help.

I'm 40. In 99, surgery to remove dermoids on both ovaries. 02 - gallbladder removed (sluggish). 04 - uterine fibroid and right ovary removed due to dermoid blocking blood flow. Both surgeries involved removal of severe endometriosis, adhering to bladder/ intestines. In January this year, had 11cm cyst on the left ovary. Doc went in to remove cyst, everything was (in his words)"a big mess". Severe endo everywhere -bladder/ rectum/intestines. Everything came out: remaining ovary, uterus, cervix). I am in menopause- FSH 122, Estradiol 15, Progresterone <0.5, LH 35, testosterone 30 (I have facial/abdominal/nipple hair). No HRT yet due to endometriosis concerns. I have heat intolerance, palpitations/irregular heart beat (echo, ekg normal except for irreg heart beat), tinnitus, migraines, dry eyes/mouth/vagina, fatigue, hair loss, weight loss(20lbs), **body buzzing (like an electrical current surging throughout my body)**, constipation, recurrent abdominal/right rib pain, facial/forearm/lower leg numbness, and insomnia. I have a thyroid nodule (1cm), feeling of lump in neck, problems with swallowing. Thyroid/PTH numbers normal -TSH is .7 (numbers coming down over past year). Am tired, but can't sleep b/c my body can't "relax". My calcium numbers go in/out of normal -ranges from normal to 10.9, ionized calcium 6.2. 24hr cortisol elevated in July (53), August (58). I am having issues with low blood pressure (lowest was 77/55, hovers at 95/65). Before surgery was 100/70. EMG/Bone scan normal. IS MENOPAUSE or thyroid causing this? I'm seein a neuro/endo, but suggestions are appeciate

[Machelle Seibel, MD]

A. You certainly have a lot going on and it must be difficult to deal with all your symptoms. The fact that you have a borderline high cortisol level and increased hair growth, it is a good idea to talk to your doctor about working up Cushing

[chicken3]

Hi

I am sorry that you are having so many problems.   From reading you tread and after all the reading I am doing on menopause because I will have surgical menopause soon due to borderline ovarian cancer (and I am so scare of the menopause and how it is going to effect me).  I read a book called "Screaming to be heard: Hormone connection woman support and Doctor still Ignore."  By Dr Elizabeth Vliet.  I think you will find that thyroid, hormone and other things are connected according to her book.  Out of all the books I read I really like her (that is my opinon).

I hope this helps---best wishes (My prayers are with you)

[Mary 53]

Hi, I hope I can help you out. Looks like you already got a suggestion on a good book. I also recommend the book that changed my life, "The Wisdom of Menopause" by Christianne Northrup, MD. I still refer to it and I had my radical hysterectomy for early stage Ovarian cancer in 2000. Please take a look at my recent post responding to Pegdave....just a few lines down, under Mary 53 screen name, of course. More info there. Also, I posted information about all this (it can get very very confusing) over on the Ovarian Cancer forum of this website. Most of the women there do not have ovarian cancer, but landed there because of a scare regarding cysts, etc, and they stayed to help support other women. But, there are many struggling with surgical menopause (and thyroid issues, etc) since many have had a radical hysterectomy. And, there is a lot of support there.

Good luck to both of you.

Research and advocate for yourself as it seems you are already doing!

Mary

[chicken3]

Hi

I thought of another good book because you said you can't go on hormonal replacement is a book called "Sudden Menopause"  by Debbie Deangelo.  She talks about options that you can do if you are can't go on hormone replacement.

Be persistent with your doctor, if they are not hearing you after trying to tell them--it is time to find a doctor who will.

Good luck

[Mary 53]

Wow, I just read your post again and you should not be having to suffer like this.

Thyroid and menopause do go hand in hand, according to my research. Quite common.

I respond to a ton of posts regarding hormone replacement therapy, and I may repeat myself from time to time, and I am always afraid I am going to miss something. There is so much to learn about this and there are answers for you, but I really encourage you to do the research so you can get the best and safest possible help.

Low body temp (temp taken under the arm in the morning for a week or so) was so low that this was the main reason I started on thyroid replacement. I use Armour thyroid. I would do some google searches on it. My lab numbers were not horrible, but for me, they were bad. The biggest sign was the temp. I am lucky if I can get above 97.4 even during the day. Our bodies function best and optimally at 98.6 as we all know. I am still not there. My t3 is very low. But, also, progesterone plays a part in thyroid, too, and bioidentical progesterone is something you might want to look into. Do a google search on these, too, and learn all that you can. This is a very confusing topic and many docs are not familiar with the bioidentical's. They look at you like you are nuts when you ask for progesterone because they think you mean the synthetic...and, why would you want that if you don't have a uterus (progesTIN was made to protect women on regular HRT from uterine cancer, thus, if you don't have a uterus, why would you need progesterone???)....well, we have receptors for progesterone in our lungs, our brains, etc....we need it.

You deserve to get relief. Again, I am not on HRT, I am on bioidentical hormones and the difference is like night and day. You will actually be protected from many hazards of aging if you are on the right amount of hormone for you. They are made identical to what our body makes molecule for molecule, thus, they cannot be patented...so you don't hear as much about them.

Learn what you can...get Northrup's book...sounds like the quality of life is not good at all...and, if only the doctors who are out there telling you to go on and have a nice life would only realize that thousands of women are out there suffering...grrr.....sorry..this is my passion...well, one of them:)

Mary