Vindication
Aug. 14th, 2015 23:59![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillOr at least a fair step toward it.
I've been off the NuvaRing for about a week (I think I pulled it last Thursday night). Today I felt very much the same as I have for the whole week, and the week before: slightly crampy, disinclined to eat, sometimes downright queasy. The breathlessness, fatigue, and brainfog weren't really chipping in more than occasionally, and thank goodness the depression hasn't shown up for a couple of weeks. But it's been getting harder and harder to eat.
Knowing that I would be seeing Akien today, I thought it might be a good time to run an experiment. You see, sex causes a spike in estrogen, and on previous occasions I've ended up sleepy, extremely fogged out, and downright sick for a few hours after enjoying some bedsports. So I thought, how about trying to prevent some of that estrogen from flooding my system?
To that end, before I left home I took 300mg of grapeseed extract, which was the lowest dose I thought might show some effect. GSE is an aromatase inhibitor, which should prevent the conversion of testosterone into estrogen. I figured that with a couple of hours to work, it might have an impact on how sick I got after sex.
Result: better than I expected. Not only was I not queasy when I got up, I wasn't sick all evening, and I ate a normal dinner containing things I haven't been able to eat in weeks. I was also sharp enough to discuss biochemistry and read journal articles, and I was fully awake and alert (I still am, just after midnight). It wasn't perfect -- I could feel a touch of nausea here and there, and I wouldn't have wanted to try to eat dairy or sweets -- but it was a vast improvement. I suspect 400mg would have done the whole job. (Also of note: I got eczema all across the roof of my mouth at dinner. I know, I know, but I'm sort of the clearing house for weird symptoms... the point is, eczema in my throat and mouth showed up about a day before each of my episodes of heavy bleeding; I associated it with a sudden drop in estrogen.)
So that means: I was right about there being an excess of estrogen involved; GSE is effective at reasonable doses (as the literature suggested it might be); the doctor was dead wrong yesterday; and I have something in my pocket which has the potential to return my life to normal.
The process isn't over, of course... while I don't detect the symptoms of low progesterone, it's worth seeing whether progesterone supplementation has a similar effect, and if so, at what dosage. I might be working with both low progesterone and excess estrogen, rather than just one or the other. I'm also curious to know whether a short course of GSE results in having a real period rather than just the heavy spotting I've been having all along. I would normally expect to have a period within ten days of ceasing birth control, and I know my uterine lining has been thick for months, so if I don't start really bleeding by the middle of next week it's probably not going to happen on its own. At that point, I can try GSE and see whether I get the horrendous flood I've been expecting for weeks. If that doesn't happen, I will suspect insufficient levels of progesterone, and I can try a graduated course until I get the expected response.
More data spawns more possible experiments, but I'm feeling much better now. Not just because the GSE hasn't worn off (the unconverted testosterone helps bolster my self-confidence) but because my hypothesis has been upheld, and that means I'm on the right track. I'm getting somewhere, significantly enough that I have the ability to make myself feel almost normal again. My analytical skills have been validated again as well; I had been starting to doubt that my speculation was reasonable. And if all else fails, if no doctor will ever help me and I'm forced to do this all outside the medical system, I may be able to treat myself with inexpensive over-the-counter options to good effect. Where I had felt powerless in the medical system yesterday, now I feel empowered to do it myself.
I've been off the NuvaRing for about a week (I think I pulled it last Thursday night). Today I felt very much the same as I have for the whole week, and the week before: slightly crampy, disinclined to eat, sometimes downright queasy. The breathlessness, fatigue, and brainfog weren't really chipping in more than occasionally, and thank goodness the depression hasn't shown up for a couple of weeks. But it's been getting harder and harder to eat.
Knowing that I would be seeing Akien today, I thought it might be a good time to run an experiment. You see, sex causes a spike in estrogen, and on previous occasions I've ended up sleepy, extremely fogged out, and downright sick for a few hours after enjoying some bedsports. So I thought, how about trying to prevent some of that estrogen from flooding my system?
To that end, before I left home I took 300mg of grapeseed extract, which was the lowest dose I thought might show some effect. GSE is an aromatase inhibitor, which should prevent the conversion of testosterone into estrogen. I figured that with a couple of hours to work, it might have an impact on how sick I got after sex.
Result: better than I expected. Not only was I not queasy when I got up, I wasn't sick all evening, and I ate a normal dinner containing things I haven't been able to eat in weeks. I was also sharp enough to discuss biochemistry and read journal articles, and I was fully awake and alert (I still am, just after midnight). It wasn't perfect -- I could feel a touch of nausea here and there, and I wouldn't have wanted to try to eat dairy or sweets -- but it was a vast improvement. I suspect 400mg would have done the whole job. (Also of note: I got eczema all across the roof of my mouth at dinner. I know, I know, but I'm sort of the clearing house for weird symptoms... the point is, eczema in my throat and mouth showed up about a day before each of my episodes of heavy bleeding; I associated it with a sudden drop in estrogen.)
So that means: I was right about there being an excess of estrogen involved; GSE is effective at reasonable doses (as the literature suggested it might be); the doctor was dead wrong yesterday; and I have something in my pocket which has the potential to return my life to normal.
The process isn't over, of course... while I don't detect the symptoms of low progesterone, it's worth seeing whether progesterone supplementation has a similar effect, and if so, at what dosage. I might be working with both low progesterone and excess estrogen, rather than just one or the other. I'm also curious to know whether a short course of GSE results in having a real period rather than just the heavy spotting I've been having all along. I would normally expect to have a period within ten days of ceasing birth control, and I know my uterine lining has been thick for months, so if I don't start really bleeding by the middle of next week it's probably not going to happen on its own. At that point, I can try GSE and see whether I get the horrendous flood I've been expecting for weeks. If that doesn't happen, I will suspect insufficient levels of progesterone, and I can try a graduated course until I get the expected response.
More data spawns more possible experiments, but I'm feeling much better now. Not just because the GSE hasn't worn off (the unconverted testosterone helps bolster my self-confidence) but because my hypothesis has been upheld, and that means I'm on the right track. I'm getting somewhere, significantly enough that I have the ability to make myself feel almost normal again. My analytical skills have been validated again as well; I had been starting to doubt that my speculation was reasonable. And if all else fails, if no doctor will ever help me and I'm forced to do this all outside the medical system, I may be able to treat myself with inexpensive over-the-counter options to good effect. Where I had felt powerless in the medical system yesterday, now I feel empowered to do it myself.
