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  #46   ^
Old Sat, Jul-31-10, 07:39
amazon2 amazon2 is offline
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Posts: 99
 
Plan: atkins
Stats: 142/131/120 Female 5'6"
BF:
Progress:
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Here's a link from yesterday's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/s...children&st=cse

I know it's not the same drug but estrogen closes the bone plates of girls and boys. Exposure to estrogen can cause premature puberty and it can make kids stop growing earlier than they would otherwise.

I'm going to take it in pill form until my son leaves home (3 years) just to be on the safe side.
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  #47   ^
Old Sun, Aug-01-10, 17:57
FroheFrau's Avatar
FroheFrau FroheFrau is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 38
 
Plan: my own/ IF
Stats: 155/155/125 Female 63.75 inches
BF:I/don't/care
Progress: 0%
Location: cactus country
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I think the bottom line on BHRT is everyone has unique DNA. You have to work with your health practitioner/ doctor to find what works for you.
After years of tweaking, and with chronically weak adreenals, I find that i must take BHRT simultaneously with adrenal and thyroid meds.
I take estradiol in low doses, continuous all month. (1mg per day). I take avg amt of progesterone cream or prometrium pills in 1mg amt. If I stop estrogen, I become clinically depressed and sluggish...and super cranky. If I stop progesterone, I don't sleep at night.
You just have to figure out what works for you. According to Dr. Uszzi Rice---some of your hormonal needs at/post meno will depend on your body type. Tall, lean, small chested females or muscular/athletic types will generall feel the need for more estro after menopause than the more naturally voluptuous types. I can say that this is true in my family. I had a grandma who was the "Sofia Loren" voluptuous type. She breezed thru menopause with out even noticing that it happened. I, on the other hand---miss muscle butt---had the menopause from hell.
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  #48   ^
Old Mon, Aug-02-10, 04:53
amazon2 amazon2 is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 99
 
Plan: atkins
Stats: 142/131/120 Female 5'6"
BF:
Progress:
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I think I have weak adrenals too. I'm a carrier of a disease of the adrenals. I tried taking cortef which is something which people with this adrenal disease take but it made me really depressed.
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  #49   ^
Old Tue, Aug-03-10, 07:21
FroheFrau's Avatar
FroheFrau FroheFrau is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 38
 
Plan: my own/ IF
Stats: 155/155/125 Female 63.75 inches
BF:I/don't/care
Progress: 0%
Location: cactus country
Default re--cortef

Amazon2
Cortef is a Rx that contains hydrocortisone or a cortisol replacement, I think. I'm not positive. I take generic Rx hydrocortisone and it tends to make me mildly depressed, too. If I raise my thyroid meds dosage a bit, I am less depressed. Also, having enough estrogen seems to chase away depression. Estrogen is a mild steroid---so having an optimal amount of estrogen would be a good thing for adrenal fatigue.

Do you have any thyroid issues that you know of? How's your hormonal status?
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  #50   ^
Old Wed, Aug-04-10, 06:19
amazon2 amazon2 is offline
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Posts: 99
 
Plan: atkins
Stats: 142/131/120 Female 5'6"
BF:
Progress:
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You have hit upon something that I am somewhat of an expert at - one of my kids has a mild adrenal issue and I'm on an online board for that condition. Ditch the generic hydrocortisone and take real cortef. It's a pretty inexpensive drug (don't know your dose) and if you have insurance they'll cover it if your doctor specifies no generic.

I just had the routine thyroid test and passed it although I don't think I trust it. I've been thinking about going to one of the doctors recommended on the Livin La Vida Low-Carb website when I have more time. What tests did you take?

I take 1 mg of estrodial a day and 2 prometriums for 12 days every 2 months.
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  #51   ^
Old Wed, Aug-04-10, 09:55
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
Experimenter
Posts: 25,843
 
Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
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Here's a good site for thyroid info: http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/

And a message forum: http://forums.realthyroidhelp.com/

My thyroid issue was hard to deal with because I don't convert enough T4 -> T3 and no one ever checks it. I had Free T3 levels below range. Only taking natural thyroid hormone has helped, because it contains T3 and T4.
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  #52   ^
Old Mon, Aug-16-10, 19:38
WereBear's Avatar
WereBear WereBear is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 14,606
 
Plan: EpiPaleo/Primal/LowOx
Stats: 220/125/150 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 136%
Location: USA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FroheFrau
Tall, lean, small chested females or muscular/athletic types will generall feel the need for more estro after menopause than the more naturally voluptuous types. I, on the other hand---miss muscle butt---had the menopause from hell.


That's fascinating. I am having something from hell... but I don't know what it is.

I had a bad ovary taken out in a cancer scare, and a few months later my periods. Just. Stopped. I was 47, three years ago.

Then all sorts of things crept in, very gradually, until about nine months ago I was getting 3-4 hours of sleep a night, which might have contributed to the difficulty with short term memory and the highly increased instances of me wanting to take an axe to someone's skull. I'm really not a temperamental person... that drove me to the doctor and a medium dose of PremPro.

Within 3 hours, I swear, I felt much better. And I've been feeling better and better... until recently, when I realized it wasn't the light in the bathroom or my imagination... I'm losing the outer third of my eyebrows. Classic hypothyroid symptom... as I understand it... a late hypo symptom.

Which just doesn't make any sense, because I haven't felt this good in a couple of years!

Ah, well. Doctor visit this week, and I already had blood drawn, so instead of sitting there and saying "Let's get some blood drawn" he can sit there and say, "Let's look at the blood work."
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  #53   ^
Old Sun, Jul-03-11, 01:03
JesseJT JesseJT is offline
New Member
Posts: 10
 
Plan: New Atkins
Stats: 177/175/125 Female 5' 2"
BF:
Progress:
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I have been using BHRT for about a year and a half and I love em. I use natural estrogen intravaginally and natural progesterone on my skin. I did start having periods again, but don't always have them. (I had been 2 yrs without any before starting BHRT, and my Dr. assures me I can't become pregnant). Regular doctors tend to freak out a little over all this; mine ordered a uterine biopsy and ultrasound; everything was fine. I've read different things about how they may/may not affect fibroids. A good resource is Christianne Northrup's book The Wisdom of Menopause.
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  #54   ^
Old Sun, Jul-03-11, 08:13
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
Experimenter
Posts: 25,843
 
Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
Default

I just had an extensive genetic test done at http://23andme.com. It's really cool, you should check them out.

Anyway, turns out I have a very bad gene where 34/100 people with it get deep vein thrombosis and it's even worse if you supplement hormones. So I think that probably indicates I shouldn't do HRT, bioidentical or not. Blah!

My brother had it and my mother did too.
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  #55   ^
Old Mon, Jul-04-11, 16:30
cbcb's Avatar
cbcb cbcb is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 791
 
Plan: South Beach-esque
Stats: 194/159/140 Female 5'3"
BF:34% / 28% / 20%
Progress: 65%
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Here's a hypothetical for you: Say you'd missed a couple periods (admittedly, during an unusual 14-lb. whoosh ... and when younger you'd occasionally missed 1 period when losing weight fast). But say now you were starting to get hot flashes ... and wanted to see if your body could resume having periods and forestall the possibility of menopause. What regimen would you bet might help, if any? I want to give my body the best substrates it can for continuing fertility a little while longer. Bioidentical estrogen and progesterone, HGH, something else? (Read something once suggesting HGH might help.)


Also, I'm curious -for those of you who use bioidentical progesterone as well as estrogen, what do you find the progesterone does for you and do you take both at alternating times to mimic a menstrual cycle and then stop, and restart in a week etc.?
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  #56   ^
Old Tue, Jul-05-11, 09:51
FroheFrau's Avatar
FroheFrau FroheFrau is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 38
 
Plan: my own/ IF
Stats: 155/155/125 Female 63.75 inches
BF:I/don't/care
Progress: 0%
Location: cactus country
Default

NancyLC---what is your blood type? I'm just curious. Type O blood seems to not form clots very well---and Type A seems to have no difficulty clotting.

cbcb---when you say fertility, do you mean cyclic periods or do you mean ability to conceive? Essentially, menopause is all about running out of eggs. You can continue cyclic periods with high supplemental doses of BHRT---but it will not enable you to conceive once you are out of eggs.

Check out Suzanne Somers' books on BHRT and staying young. She interviews medical experts on that subject, and tells the stories of various women who have chosen different ways of aging gracefully with and without BHRT. Talk to your doctor---get blood and saliva tests to see what your hormones levels are currently.

Also, don't forget that some post meno women also need supplemental testosterone. It helps maintain muscle tone and skin tone/ flexibility. I tried it---but it made me terribly nauseated and gave me liver /gall bladder issues. The good news is that a female body will convert a small amount of progesterone into testosterone. I have gone with progesterone cream---it seems to be more effective or potent than pill form progesterone.
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  #57   ^
Old Thu, Feb-09-12, 13:57
Buttoni's Avatar
Buttoni Buttoni is offline
Patience Personified
Posts: 3,234
 
Plan: LC/OMAD
Stats: 199/188/130 Female 5'3"
BF:5'5" tall
Progress: 16%
Location: Temple, Texas
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I'm post meno some 15 years now. Ovaries in situe but uterus removed with a ginormous fibroid years ago. No HRT for a long time after that surgery but then my doc started me on Premarin "on principle". I dumped that pretty quick because it caused severe leg cramps and a classrsoom teacher on her feet all day doesn't need that. We then tried pure Estrace and I tolerated that OK for a year or so. 'Bout that time the negative literature was coming out on HRT and I stopped everything about 10 years ago.

Stress-related cortisol issues (mine was off the norm charts) after my Dad died 6 years ago brought on some testing that revealed a number of other hormonal issues. Finally my doc was convinced, with much pressuring by me, to test my thyroid as well. Usual story, TSH normal, but further tests revealed I'm not so normal and he has started me on Armour thyroid 2 mos. ago and Levothyroxine 30 days ago. Finally, my excessively low body temps are finally climbing closer to 98's in the evenings. No more 94's, 95's and only occasionally wake up to 96's. Other thyroid and adrenal symptoms have not abated, however......yet. My doc isn't a believer in "adrenal fatigue, BTW". But I've only been on thyroid meds for 60 days and he's probably going to be fine tuning dosage for awhile.

Saliva and blood tests a year ago also revealed high cortisol and estrogen, progesterone and testosterone imbalances and basically that I'm estrogen dominent as progesterone is severely deficient (stress-related cortisol is known to deplete progesterone levels). Guess my ovaries are finally "petering out" as my OB-GYN surgeon told me years ago they would, eventually.

Current doc first tried just progesterone cream, but no symptom relief, other than mood and temperament. He now has me on BHRT pellet implants (since last March) for testosterone and estrogen, but has recently added Biest cream (less cancer risk than other forms of estrogen) and more progesterone cream to the regimen. Mood and ability to handle stress is improving noticeable by me and hubby. Energy levels are a little better, too.

So for me, the jury is still out on BHRT and whether my doc is on the right track with the BHRT levels he's aiming for and the thyroid therapy. Don't know when it's time to say he may not know what he's doing and maybe I need to find an endocrinologist. But I hear THEY don't always know what to test for and investigate when it comes to thyroid issues, either!
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