This morning I had a follow-up appointment with my new OB-GYN after we did a saliva test to check my hormone levels. She suspected that I was imbalanced and whoa buddy was she right! This post might border on sharing too much information with the blogosphere, but I'm actually so excited to have some answers that I don't really care! And despite the mention of the girly-doctor, there's nothing gross in this post.
For starters... my Cortisol is WAY low in the mornings. She described that as what gives you get-up-and-go. I have none, as indicated by this graph on my results:
The light green area shows what is ideal (dotted line in the middle) and what's acceptable (top and bottom dotted lines). She said for my age, I should be at least at the middle dotted line but ideally higher. This is why I hit snooze on my alarm at least three times before I get out of bed in the mornings. This is why I have to have two alarms set (I've been known to sleep through one or dismiss it without actually getting up). This is why David practically has to yell at me to get up and get ready for work in the mornings! And as soon as he wakes up this evening I'm going to be right there to show him THIS IS WHY! I'm not just being lazy. I'm not just being difficult. I have a bona fide reason for not wanting to get out of bed in the morning. And that's sort of a relief to know because I have seriously tried to kick my butt into gear before without any results. It also shows why I have no energy to get things done and just want to crash when I get home from work in the evenings.
The other major issue we discovered is that my estrogen and progestin levels are not in sync. The ratio should be between 100 and 500... mine is 8. (Third line down)
She said that's barely registering! So that explains the difficulties I've had with my menstrual cycle as well as why estrogen-based birth control pills give me migraines. Why hasn't a doctor bothered to test this stuff before? I've been having problems since I hit puberty and all they ever offered me was birth control pills or shots that essentially induce menopause and can cause birth defects if you get pregnant within a certain amount of time after having had the injections. I declined the shots and I had finally been put on a progestin-only birth control pill, but I was still having issues with that.
So... what does this all mean? Well, I was excited when I read that the coritsol deficiency can be helped by, among other things, NAPS! Heh. Wonder if I can get a prescription for a mid-day nap at work? ;) (Come to think of it, this probably also explains why when I nap during the day I nap HARD!) Anyhow. I'm discontinuing the birth control pills (keep your fingers cross that doesn't backfire on us...) and will be starting new supplements.
They're bio-identical hormones. That is, they're not synthetic. They are derived from plants and in the case of the Adrenplus an animal. (I told her she really didn't need to tell me that part...) I rub the cream on my wrists, neck, etc, twice a day, and I take the pills in the morning and at lunch. It's going to take some getting used to. It's not covered by my insurance and I also have to go to a compounding pharmacy in Pace to get it! But they were super nice today, so I think that will be doable. Especially if it helps.
She said that this isn't a miracle cure. I won't see the results right away. But I go back in three months for us to check my progress and she said that I should be feeling better by then. I'm looking forward to what this will hopefully mean for my health and my energy levels.
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