Bio-identical hormone replacement--please help!

[spelt 70]

When my second child was born, I never had my periods again. I am 40 and have only had a few periods in the last 10 years. I just haven't felt right for a while. I find myself having more migraines, irritability, anxiety, on and offf depression, and stress. My blood tests with my family doctor show no hormonal imbalances. I have had IC for 4 years. I thought I finally had control of the pain this past summer, but have been flaring since September. I find that I have days of extreme irritability with very little IC pain and then days that I feel like I am on top of the world with extreme IC pain. My emotions are all over the place and my IC is all over the place with the emotions. Family doc. says the periods may have gone away due to stress, but I am wondering if their is a hormonal imbalance that the general blood tests are not catching. I have found a Hormone Replacement Center that does blood testing to check hormone levels and thyroid testing. If they find a hormonal imbalance, bio-identical hormones will be administered. I am nervous. I cannot take birth control pills and I tried one out of 10 provera over Christmas to get period and bladder could not tolerate the progesterone. With this facility, the estrogen and testosterone are in the form of pellets that are surgically placed under the skin and progesterone is compounded in a compounding pharmacy and given orally. Has anyone tried this? I am scared once the pellets are placed under the skin and start to dissolve, they cannot be removed if my bladder cannot tolerate it. The pellets are usually replaced every three to four months, when they stop working. I really want to feel better and I feel something is out of balance, but I don't want to do anything to make my flare any worse. If anyone can give me any suggestions, I am going for a free consultation on Friday. This will not probably be covered by insurance, so I don't want to make a mistake and cause myself more stress and pain. Thanks!

[sailawaygrl]

I was just reading a web site about that subject last night. To me it sounds too good to be true so I fear it might be. The one I was reading seemed to make it sound like they could cure everything under the sun! I swear I was waiting to read it could cure hang nails. I don't have any experience with this but I am interested to hear anyone else that has gone this route. I also wonder about the dangers of hormones, they seem to go back and forth on that all the time. I know this is what Suzanne Summers is speaking about these days. Other than that, I am at a loss. Sorry, I am no help.

I hope someone can let us know more about this type of treatment.

Sandra

[sailawaygrl]

No other replys? I guess you and I are the only one's that have read or seen anything about this. This post will "bump" the thread back so maybe someone else will see.

[girlwithic]

Reply to Spelt 70 Bio-identical hormone replacement--please help!

I am new to this forum thing so hopefully I'm doing it right. I am 23 years old and have had hormonal imbalance for the past 2 1/2 years. It started when I got off birth control. I found a hormone specialist that drew some blood on day 21 of my cycle and found out that my progesterone was low, hypothyroidism and vitamin d deficient. I was prescribed oral bio-identical progesterone, thyroid medication and vitamin 5,000 iu daily. All which help my I.C. symptoms. I also told my doctor I had vaginal dryness so he prescribed bio-identical topical testosterone cream. (testosterone also helped improve symptoms) After 3 months of taking everything I was feeling better, but still knew something wasn't quit right. I called my doctor and we decided a rhythm saliva test would be the best. (you collected your saliva on certain days of your cycle to see if your hormones follow the rhythm they're suppose to.) The results of the test where shocking. My progesterone levels where the opposite of what they where suppose to be. Now we know my body produces the progesterone, but isn't rhythm is incorrect. On this test my testosterone didn't even show up it was SO low.
Moral of the story: blood test show the amount of hormones your body is producing and saliva shows how much of the hormone is actually being used. So, if your blood test come back fine, think about a saliva test. Hopefully this help, if you have anymore questions please ask.

[Snowden1]

I take Bio-Identical hormones and would suggest before putting them in permanently that you try them topically. I have both estrogen and progestrone compounded into an arm cream. I have testosterone for my inner thigh area right now. I learned with too much progestrone my breasts hurt. I have had a total hysterectomy. I have been told that all the test can be wrong due to changes in your body, the time of day, pretty much anything. The only one they recommend is a first readding to see where they they think you may be. I had none. Yet the saliva test did show that I had some testosterone.

Estrogen or progestrone may need to be added or subtracted based on how you feel. That is how they usually do it. If you have it implanted I don't know how they can do that. It may be a good idea once you know where your at. You dont have to rub it on twice a day or get it on anyone else or take a pill. My NP makes me come in to get a script every month and I have run out before getting it compounded (that lady is rude too). So, I am thinking of going somewhere where they will give me a script like before for up to a year and no going in all the time for office visits I can't even sit through or now walk to. I am definately going to look for a better compounding pharmacy the lady is so rude she told me today she didn't know when she would get to mine (I have been out 2 days and having horrible hot flashes). She said she had ten people in front of me and was going home at 4. She wasn't sure if she would have it done tomorrow either. Unfortunately, there are not many places here that do this. But, I am going to find another for sure and probably another NP too. Why do they make is so hard when life is so hard already? And to be mean on top of it - I was in tears today. But, I cry everyday so nothing new there.

Maybe if someone could ever come up with something to help the pain from this I could stop trying all these ridiculous things that cause me more harm.

[sami4]

Hormones

Spelt:
First I would ask for a copy of the original lab tests run by your doctor. Many Doc's depending on their personal philosophy have their own ideas about what is "normal".
If its a teeny tiny dose doc he will feel anything barely in the normal range is just dandy. If its a Doc who titrates by your symptoms, he will want optimal range for you. Optimal range and normal are not the same. How the test was done is also a factor: if its a saliva test for hormone titration its useless. For hormone titration you need to use serum level and testing should be done about 7 hours after last dose to get an idea of how it is falling off from a high.
You need to take Estradiol in enough of a dose that you are not having symptoms or are in at least the midrange of normal. Weaker estrogens such a bi-est must contain enough estradiol to do the job as bi-est does not give you the body benefits unless its in a very, very large dose.
I too had a severe progesterone tolerance problem and here is what worked for me: I found the synthetic progesterones not Prometrium which is bio identical worked the best for me. All progesterone formulations are not made the same, I did best with those that were testosterone based such as Aygen for example. I finally got a MIrena IUD which was medicated to release progesterone directly into the uterus and did not go systemic.
I would strongly suggest that you buy Dr. Vliett's book called Screaming to be Heard about women and hormones. She has a chapter on IC and states that an estradiol level of a minimum of 100 is needed to keep the bladder estrogenized.
I have used hormone pellets and liked them, you get a nice high estrogen level but when they give up in about 3-4 months you crash. I found that either cream or oral lozenges dosed in AM and again in PM worked for me to keep a more steady level which is what bladder likes.