No Hormones and feel BETTER!

Update. Finding a lot of stuff out so far. I have been estrogen free for 75 days and thyroid free for 30 days. My heart palps went away as soon as the thyroid was out of my system and my hair quit falling out after years of losing 1/2 of my hair volume, after I gave myself a break on progesterone. Without the progesterone for about a week I slept better too. So now its only three days a week unless I start getting some side effects.
Still no hot flashes to speak off a few flushes nothing horrible though. After getting off of my estrogen my cholesterol normalized as well as all my other heart related blood tests. My body temp is still low and I have brain fog. Thats it!! Now to figure out those two.

I know my brain fog gets worse with what I eat, to much sugar or gluten. So really need to be watching those, NO FUN!

mware, have you have your Vit D tested? I've found getting that up made a big difference in my mental alertness, energy and symptoms of subclinical thyroid issues

I agree to no HRT. I would never take estrogen for ethical reasons and I can't really come up with any reason why progesterone should be necessary.

my first reason: I am a historian and women have gone through menopause for thousands of years. Those Roman matriarchs were well past menopause and were vital and politically involved.

My next reason: personally, I don't ever remember having any issues with weight, acne, moodiness before puberty. I'll bet most of us didn't. So why wouldn't we naturally just go back to our pre-pubertal state after our "child-bearing obligations" were over. I cannot believe that menopause is an estrogen deficiency disease even though that is how it has been portrayed for the last half century.

I guess I'll trust mother nature's design. and trust that my symptoms are just withdrawal and detoxing hormones and that once they really are gone, I will feel normal again.

Another thing... There are no studies showing that hrt reduces osteoporosis or heart attacks. In fact, one long term study had to be discontinued due to ethical reasons when too many of the hrt treated women had heart attacks or developed cancer.

IDT - I agree with a lot of your sentiments but I think you are lumping all estrogens together and that is not the case.

the WHI study was done on older women (mostly), no hysterectomy, and using premarin or prempro.

Hysterectomy is not a normal state of things. However, I do believe that if we are nourishing our bodies right, and treating them right then nature will help us make some estrogen and testosterone. I personally believe in Primal eating and hoping that it will help me when I wean off estrogens, which I intend to do.

I've seen for myself several women who were thrown into menopause by cancer treatments and others who just didn't use anything after hysterectomy that are not only fine, but thriving, look beautiful and happy.

Also, for those of us who have been using hormones, I think we have to remembver it's going to take months for our bodies to realize we're not giving it any and it needs to now make it's own. Plus we have to remember, our bodies natrually slow down production of everything in the winter and that can change how you are responding.

6and - Good for you for going primal, I am still stuck in my raw-vegan hippie mentality but many of my friends are primal and they love my salads!

I agree all are not the same but I do believe we are not meant to retain the same levels of hormones after menopause that we had before. I really believe that adaptation to a lower level is preferable to supplementation regardless of the cause or age of menopause. I am a Turner Syndrome so was estrogen dominant/low to no progesterone until hyst, now dealing with dealing with no estrogen and hypothyroid sxs. Not so fun but I'd rather deal with my own body than the hormone roller coaster. I worked 20+ years in Women's health clinics and I've seen just how powerful they are.

BTW - for anyone who hasn't heard of her, I am a fan of Dr Barbara Seaman's work with hormones and menopause and highly recommend her books.

Thanks for the info...I'll look her up.

Yes, I absolutely agree they are powerful and we are not meant to maintain levels of our 30's or even 40's as we grow older.

I've seen women both taking and not taking hormones who have thrived, so it goes back to personal decisions.

I've yet to have a thyroid problem (knock on wood) even though it runs in the female side of my family.
Sorry you're having to deal with that aspect.

Love hearing these stories about progesterone. just curious how much to use at night. Directions say 1/4 to 1/2 tsp seems like so much when measured out and take so long to rub in.

Where are you rubbing in at night?

Mware are you continuing to see results?

I had a total hysterectomy in july 2005 & have not used any HRT at all.I feel better than I ever did since getting my period at age 11.NO MORE MOOD SWINGS! I dont have hot flashes at all.

I went off estrogen replacement last december after a cancer diagnosis. I also had to stop progesterone. But after a year and a half of experimenting with both of those hormones and feeling varying degrees of lousy, I still couldn't find a "balance" now 6 months hormone free, my hot flashes have actually settled down, as long as I avoid certain food triggers. Next week I am starting on arimidex, an estrogen blocking drug for my cancer treatment. I am not looking forward to the hot flashes possibly returning. If they do I will have to try some natural, non-hormonal remedy for them.

Hi everyone. I am 5 weeks post op. Cant have estrogen for six months due to endometrial cells. I have these little bumps on my neck, jaw, and forehead and hot flashes that wake me up a few times a night. I used progesterone before surgery and wanna use it now but my understanding is that you have to have at least some estrogen in your body first. I dont think i have enough estrogen but i really wanna start using prog cream. Any thoughts?