Aa
daughter - mental or physical?
My daughter is a senior in high school, and will turn 18 this month. She is 5'7" and weighs 123.
Some background on her - her sophomore year, she struggled with fainting and lightheadedness. We took her to doctors, she had blood work, was basically told to eat more frequently because it was probably her blood sugar. Her blood work all came out okay, the only number I could pick out that looked low was her estradiol was 22. At this time she was around 5'5" and weighed 105 or so. She started to eat better, and the fainting stopped.
Her junior year started strong, but she decided to start seeing a therapist to make sure she was staying on the right path health-wise. The therapist looked at her weights and heights and after talking with her decided that she did still have some hangups when it comes to seeing herself as getting fat. Junior year went very well overall, she gained to 123 pounds, was fit and healthy.
She just had her first period in January 2013, and has only had three more since then. They are very light. Now, that her senior year has started, she's had some episodes of just getting shaky and a little out of it or spacey acting, for lack of a better way to describe it. Other recent things I've noticed: she says her back hurts all of the time, she's had some trouble getting to sleep some nights and/or staying asleep for the night; she sweats in the slightest heat (in fact she even mentioned she sweats so bad anymore); she will get flushed or hot; her fingernails are so thin and split in layers; and, like I said, she'll get just kind of spacey feeling and shakey (shaky) once in a while. Last night she helped carry a heavy cooler, and afterwards she was shaking like a leaf.
I'm sorry this is so long, but I'm just looking for opinions on where to turn next. I mentioned her lack of periods to her therapist (who is also a nurse practitioner) but then we got another subject and never went back to it. In my opinion, she wasn't that skinny and unhealthy at 5'5" and 103 that it explained the lack of periods. And now that she's over 120, I really don't understand why they haven't started being regular. I know she's got a little depression/anxiety - but I don't know that it's any more than a normal, busy senior girl. I do know that not having periods causes her some anxiety - she just said again last night to me she feels like she'll end up on some "Mystery Diagnosis" show because maybe something is wrong physically and we're all missing it! Poor kid!
So, my question after my novel (sorry again!) is what would any of you do next? Do we go to the family doctor and tell her everything? She sees the therapist in a couple of weeks, should I present all of this to her and ask if we should go to a medical dr. and have things checked?
Oh, I thought they had checked her thyroid numbers in 2011 too, but I can't find any results from it. So they either didn't check it, or I didn't get a copy.
I don't want to over react, but I don't want to under react. How do we know if the mental is causing the physical, or the physical is causing the mental??
Some background on her - her sophomore year, she struggled with fainting and lightheadedness. We took her to doctors, she had blood work, was basically told to eat more frequently because it was probably her blood sugar. Her blood work all came out okay, the only number I could pick out that looked low was her estradiol was 22. At this time she was around 5'5" and weighed 105 or so. She started to eat better, and the fainting stopped.
Her junior year started strong, but she decided to start seeing a therapist to make sure she was staying on the right path health-wise. The therapist looked at her weights and heights and after talking with her decided that she did still have some hangups when it comes to seeing herself as getting fat. Junior year went very well overall, she gained to 123 pounds, was fit and healthy.
She just had her first period in January 2013, and has only had three more since then. They are very light. Now, that her senior year has started, she's had some episodes of just getting shaky and a little out of it or spacey acting, for lack of a better way to describe it. Other recent things I've noticed: she says her back hurts all of the time, she's had some trouble getting to sleep some nights and/or staying asleep for the night; she sweats in the slightest heat (in fact she even mentioned she sweats so bad anymore); she will get flushed or hot; her fingernails are so thin and split in layers; and, like I said, she'll get just kind of spacey feeling and shakey (shaky) once in a while. Last night she helped carry a heavy cooler, and afterwards she was shaking like a leaf.
I'm sorry this is so long, but I'm just looking for opinions on where to turn next. I mentioned her lack of periods to her therapist (who is also a nurse practitioner) but then we got another subject and never went back to it. In my opinion, she wasn't that skinny and unhealthy at 5'5" and 103 that it explained the lack of periods. And now that she's over 120, I really don't understand why they haven't started being regular. I know she's got a little depression/anxiety - but I don't know that it's any more than a normal, busy senior girl. I do know that not having periods causes her some anxiety - she just said again last night to me she feels like she'll end up on some "Mystery Diagnosis" show because maybe something is wrong physically and we're all missing it! Poor kid!
So, my question after my novel (sorry again!) is what would any of you do next? Do we go to the family doctor and tell her everything? She sees the therapist in a couple of weeks, should I present all of this to her and ask if we should go to a medical dr. and have things checked?
Oh, I thought they had checked her thyroid numbers in 2011 too, but I can't find any results from it. So they either didn't check it, or I didn't get a copy.
I don't want to over react, but I don't want to under react. How do we know if the mental is causing the physical, or the physical is causing the mental??
Please take your daughter to see a doctor for a full and complete work-up, to check for any and all possible problems. This alone may reveal something. Does she eat healthy? Take a daily multivitamin? Consider that as well. - Blu
COMMUNITY LEADER
I'm 5'5" and still had periods at 120. 105 is too light, of course her periods would stop if she was that light. It is possible that her body's set point for periods is higher than 120. She needs a few things --
- a complete medical workup including blood tests for things not so obvious; I would include a test of her calcium levels and her iron levels especially, but certainly also thyroid
- a frank talk with her therapist (not you) about body image and women in our society being pressured to be rail-thin, and about resisting peer pressure (even admiration) about being thin
- for you to get totally educated on perfect healthy meals, snacks and nutritionally balanced foods, and to put real effort into having such things on hand all the time [I know, I risk insulting what you are already doing by saying this, but there is always more to learn, and moms with almost-adult kids can often get so busy they let some of this slide]
- something else to do that is bigger than herself, such as volunteering at the Humane Society or with Habitat for Humanity, so she sees people of all shapes and sizes doing admirable things
I think a high-schooler is perfectly capable of understanding that she is risking her health if she lets anorexia-type thoughts take over her life. I don't think it sounds like you know entirely what she is eating, or avoiding. I don't even think you would know if she was purging. Please take all of this really seriously, it sounds like she is not eating a healthy diet, most of all.
Good luck, mama. It's not easy.
- a complete medical workup including blood tests for things not so obvious; I would include a test of her calcium levels and her iron levels especially, but certainly also thyroid
- a frank talk with her therapist (not you) about body image and women in our society being pressured to be rail-thin, and about resisting peer pressure (even admiration) about being thin
- for you to get totally educated on perfect healthy meals, snacks and nutritionally balanced foods, and to put real effort into having such things on hand all the time [I know, I risk insulting what you are already doing by saying this, but there is always more to learn, and moms with almost-adult kids can often get so busy they let some of this slide]
- something else to do that is bigger than herself, such as volunteering at the Humane Society or with Habitat for Humanity, so she sees people of all shapes and sizes doing admirable things
I think a high-schooler is perfectly capable of understanding that she is risking her health if she lets anorexia-type thoughts take over her life. I don't think it sounds like you know entirely what she is eating, or avoiding. I don't even think you would know if she was purging. Please take all of this really seriously, it sounds like she is not eating a healthy diet, most of all.
Good luck, mama. It's not easy.
I would try seeing a endocrinologist to check her hormones and her thyroid. Ask for them to test her T3 and T4 and they may find the problem there. (That is where my problem was) The lack of periods could be a hormone issue as well but I am not a doctor. There are other causes for the light periods. I personally have PCOS and don't ovulate on my own and I barely get periods and I weigh over 200lbs and I am 5'7". I hope you and your daughter can get some answers soon.
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