in a turmoil

[brutusanne]

I have been having bouts of anxiety and panic attacks for a few months. At the onset of these i was having lots of gastro problems that eventually got better and the anxiety /panic got worse. I was put on Zoloft and the dose was gradually raised to 200mg daily i kept having the panic/anxiety and possibly more so on the higher doses. I kept telling my doc that something wasnt right with me, so he has agreed to get me off the zoloft he graually had me on reduction dose. Meanwhile i went to a hormone specialist because i felt like maybe this was hormonal, however the Psychiatrist says that hormones do not play a part in mental stability and will not affect me in that way at all. So against his judgement i had a hormone evaluation via saliva test done and my numbers were wacked out, the progesterone is 8 and they say it should be 100-500, the estradiol was 1.0 and should be 2-6, the ratio PG/E2 was 8 and should be 100-500, the testosterone was 22 and within normal limits, the dheas was 2.2 and shld be 4-11, the cortisol morning and night were both within normal limits. They also did a thyroid workup and it showed everything to be within normal range except the rt3, should be no more than 300 mine is 500. So my question is at 45 years old, no kids, hysterectomy 4 years ago, with these problems can they affect my mental status, i have problems concentrating, some days i have no desire to get dressed, just want to lay around and rest, i dropped 30lbs in 6 weeks when all this started, several symptoms, just mainly concerned with the foggy thinking loss of memory problems. Any insight would be appreciated i sometimes feel like i cant take another day of it but i somehow manage to get myself thru another day.  AND the treatment started for the hormones was the dhea and progesterone creams, i will be adding estrogen in 6 weeks and testosterone in 12weeks.

[Mary 53]

Hi...

I got your message on my profile. I will send you a message, but just wanted to say that I saw this and I am shocked that the doctor said he thought that hormones do not play a part in your mental health!!! Although now that I think of it....See...I work in Mental health and I don't say much at work about my hormone issues because I doubt more than half would understand what I am talking about. But for the Psychiatrist to say that so blatantly is disturbing. I guess until you go through this yourself you just don't "get it." How sad for his patients, though. I would stick with the hormone specialist.

Here is another thought...when you take meds for thyroid if they are warranted, you most often can decrease or skip using meds for anxiety. That happened to me...that and along with the use of the (bioidentical only) progesterone will affect the thryoid. Menopause and thyroid issues go hand in hand. Geez...is it just the women in the throws of menopause who know all this?

Foggy thinking...trouble concentrating. All can be hormonally related....I have tons of stories to share about this from my own experience and that of my friends.

I will go and write a message to you now.

Mary

[John Kim, M.D.]

It seems that you are undoing some mental issue related to menopause. I think that going through menopause can cause some of the mental symptoms of "foggy thinking loss of memory problems". I am not an advocate of hormone replacement because of the increased risk of coronary artery disease, stroke, heart attack and increased risk of breast cancer. However, if some wormen have severe menopausal symptoms they can try a short course of the lowest dose of hormone replacement for one to three years until they can get their life in order. You can discuss this with your gynecologist.