Hypothalamus Dysfunction

Hi Sisters!!
I have had trouble with this all for 5 years or so
now,cant get this whole thyroid-hrt rite!
Recently Dr Larrian Gillespie wrote me back
saying alot of my problems could be from a
"DYSFUNCTIONAL HYPOTHALAMUS CAUSED FROM ELAVIL" I took when all my problems started
in 1995.(70lb weight gain in 5
months!!fluid retention,bloating,
hard to loose weight,sore swollen breasts.,no
sexual desire)
Ive been off Elavil since 1996 but still
have probems.Ive always felt the Elavil
did something wrong to my metabolism.
She said to have dr check prolactin,and
to have this hypothalamus disorder treated
with Pondimin(have to get it overseas!!)
I looked up Pondimin on the net and
its like Phen-Phen! Thats scary!
Appearantly Elavil causes a hypothalamic/
pituatary thing she states.
I bet this is why no hrt or my thyroid meds work
temporarily or not at all!!! And the prolactin is why my
breasts stayed sore all these
years NO MATTER WHAT HRT IM ON!And why for
years I cant get my weight down(mostly fluid)
Does anyone have any thoughts or input??
THE HYPOTHALAMUS!!New topic to
hystersisters.Isnt this THE MASTER controller
of all hormones??This could be why
nothing has worked!
Told nurse at drs office she said "Copy that and
bring it in to show dr!Weve seen the oddest
things be the cause of all the problem!!"
So Im having my shbg (sex hormone binding-globulin)
checked next appt. and bringing this hypothalamus
topic up!!! Maybe an answer to my metabolism
problem!!!
Slowly finding my way!!Deedee

Wow, DeeDee. I do think we are discovering there's a thicker part in the jungle for some of us. Maybe this afternoon I can do more digging around to see what I can find about high prolactin levels. I do know that one of the causes of high prolactin is low progesterone, which will also cause low SHBG and low thyroid. Please keep us updated. I find your situation important to all of us and it could possibly help many sisters get out of the jungle. Meanwhile, I'll see what I can find out about prolactin.

I'll be watching for updates too. Anything with hormones and thyroid and I'm all ears. Do let us know what your doc says

I also have some info on Prolactin somewhere as I had a high (but within normal range) for years after the birth of my DD - 14 years to be exact. Now my estrogen is low, prolactin is no longer high. There are so many actions and interactions here in the jungle (as you know), it's so
I did have a good article from an endocrinology website about looking for causes to these hard to solve hormone imbalances. One thing they mentioned was that a pituitary or hypothalmus disorder could be caused by a prolactin producing tumour (benign in nearly every case) - however not all of these tumours grow enough to give symptoms such as pressure behind eyes, headaches etc. They are just there enough to upset the balance. High prolactin is an indicator that there could be a further problem, so having it tested would be a good idea.
Deedee, what a time you have had

I also gained 80 pounds in about 5 months following my hysterectomy, and I was on multiple antidepressants/ mood stabilizers for several months, before deciding that FORGET IT, if I don't get my weight under control, I'm going to be miserably depressed forever. I'm still overweight, and nothing I do seems to take off the remainder that I haven't been able to lose (which is still a lot). In fact, recently Ive been afraid to get on the scales. I studied the hypothalmus in college, working on lab rats - lovely -
My husband has been of the opinion that all of these problems that I've had with ---I don't even want to go into the physical stuff -- stems from the overdosing of psychpharmaceuticals they had me on. Was it just elevil? I had something called Seratonin Syndrome, I think its called, at one point - big idiot dr. I had
----Sorry, writing too fast with a bad attitude today! Enough from me, as Deedee, you just need a and that's what you'll get from me!!!

Thanks Sisters!

Lauren: I was hoping you'd see my post!
Thank you for further researching
prolactin info.Also do you know anything
on Pondimin?Was curious also if there was
anything else out there to treat a hypothalamus
disorder other then Pondimin.(was related with the
phen-phen drug...scary).But then again I want to get
better too!

Brenda Lee: I will get back to all on what my dr says!

Lily: I dont think mine is tumor related as where the
Elavil caused the imbalance between the
hypothalamus and the pituatary.

Cass: Wow! You've been through alot too.I was just on
Elavil,BUT speaking of overdosing...............
Elavil makes ERT more potent and ERT makes the Elavil
more potent! BINGO! :eyes: YIKES! and I was on ERT
too at the time with Elavil.

So thanks for the hugs sisters they were great!
Deedee