Constant PMS

[Laura W]

I am 42 and for the past few months I have been experiencing near constant PMS until my period comes and then I get some relief. When my oestrogen spikes my anxiety is bad, sometimes I have panic attacks I have been suffering from vertigo for a couple of months. This is at its worst during the week after my period and for a couple of days about a week before my next period starts. The length of my cycle and periods are pretty normal though. This has been getting steadily worse over the past few months. I’ve had all the scans/blood tests and there is nothing physically wrong with me. My doctor is suggesting that I take natural oestrogen + mirena coil but I can’t do either because I have so much oestrogen in my body already that it will make my symptoms worse (especially the anxiety) and I don’t want synthetic progesterone in my body (the combined pill did not agree with me mentally when I was younger). I am taking magnesium and calcium D glucarate (the latter is a very recent addition so not seeing any results yet). I’m thinking about trying progesterone creams but struggling to understand what might be the right dosage for me and time during my cycle to use it based on my symptoms. I have also thought about taking the prescription for natural oestrogen and progesterone but only taking the progesterone (doctors in the uk are reluctant to go down the progesterone only route). If I was to do that I think I would need to be careful with dosage as I am highly sensitive and think the progesterone dosage might need to be low. I would be grateful for any advice you can give me.

[emilyjames]

This happened to me exactly! I started getting vertigo and major panic attacks - after a year of doctors, a neurologist finally told me I was having vestibular migraines. They wanted me to take anti depressants foe the migraines (no headache or pain, just vertigo and constant ear fullness and dizziness) but I didn’t want to do that so I started taking 200 mg prometrium and started a low histamine diet and it has helped tremendously!

[Adrummonds]

Hi Ladies! Not sure if this is helpful or not, I am a women's health specialist, a certified nutritionist, and trained in women's integrative health so have been working with a lot of women the last 15 years on Fitness, Nutrition and holistic wellness...anyways some of the things that I have found with issues like this that help a lot of women (outside of taking progesterone) as you mentioned are some of the following:

1-You said you started taking Cal-D...so the dosage is a big deal here. The brand (quality) is a huge deal too. I've had women taking the right dosage, but the brand wasn't great quality so they weren't experiencing any relief. The brand I have seen work best is Biotics Research. Usually 1 in the am and 1 in the pm.
2-Cutting out dairy is going to be huge even if you don't have a food allergy or any test showing a dairy issue, but this will help a ton.
3-Magnesium Glycinate and Ashwaganda at night before bed will help a ton with stabilizing the effects of the estrogen and cortisol (which causes a lot of the panic attacks).
4-The B6 Phosphate form is a huge help for a lot of women with histamine, metabolizing estrogen and stabilizing serotonin.
5-From a nutrition standpoint if your nutrition is off (eating too low of carb or not enough protein) it does throw off your blood sugar which can cause the dizzy spells and blood sugar has been known to cause anxiety issues.
6-Lastly, hydration. Drinking plain water doesn't necessarily guarantee hydration and the more dehydrated you are the worse the histamine intolerance is so when drinking water you want to make sure you are using electrolytes (sodium is a big factor here).

If you need more help with any of this I post a ton of free content about this on my site AshleyDrummonds.com. Hope this helps, ladies![url][/url]

[LauraS]

Hi ladies! I have a question about ashwagandha; maybe @Adrummonds can help?

I'm 46 and perimenopausal. Is it safe to take Utrogestan and ashwagandha simultaneously for the duration of perimenopause? I'm asking because there are still warnings going around about liver toxicity and hyperthyroxine. I take Utrogestan for insomnia alongside magnesiumbisglycinaat, taurine and zinc. Before I got the Utrogestan prescription I tried ashwagandha, which gave me some relief of syptoms. I then figured that I could gradually come off ashwagandha. However, the moment I stopped, I was confronted with incredible fatigue, lack of motivation, lack of focus and breast pain for most of the days in my cycle. Feels like Estrogen is jumping up and down. After one month of torture, I started taking ashwagandha again and now I feel my perfect self again.

Is it OK for me to combine these hormones and supplements for a while? I'd love to hear if anyone has experience with this!

Laura