Sign Petition to Raise Awareness During National Endometriosis Awareness Month

Thanks to Jeanne over at Endo Blog for working extremely hard to help raise awareness for Endometriosis, a debilitating yet little understood chronic illness millions of women worldwide suffer from.  If you would like to sign Jeanne’s petition to help support Endometriosis awareness, please click THIS LINK, read the information on the page, then click at the bottom to complete the petition.

If you would like to learn more about Endometriosis, please visit Endo Blog and my article on National Endometriosis Awareness Month.  You can also view many Endometriosis websites and blogs via my Resources page.

Symptoms of Perimenopause vs. CFS

This year I turn 40 and for the past couple of years I have felt the hormonal shift going on within my body.  While my doctor continues to claim that I am too young to be experiencing any symptoms of premenopause or perimenopause, I know that this is what I am suffering from.  My menstrual cycles have been changing to where I may have my cycle a full 9 days where it used to last 5 days.  My cycle used to come exactly the same time each month and for the past year or so it has been as much as a week late several times and it has also been as much as a week early several times also.

I will suddenly get extremely hot and my face and neck will turn beat red and I will feel as though my body is on fire.  My mood changes are so extreme around my cycle that I don’t even know who I am.  My doctor claims that it is PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder) but the medication I’m on for that isn’t working so I fully believe I am having perimenopause symptoms.

Where the confusion lies is that there are similar symptoms between perimenopause and ME/CFS so for women my age, or older, it can be difficult to know which is acting up.  Is it the hormonal changes or is it a CFS flare?  Symptoms of perimenopause can begin as early as 10 – 15 years before a woman’s menstrual cycle actually stops. Symptoms of perimenopause include:

• Irregular periods
• Heavy bleeding
• Hot flashes
• Vaginal changes
• Hair loss
• Loss of libido
• Dry eyes
• Drastic mood swings

The symptoms of perimenopause that are the same as those symptoms of ME/CFS include:

• Headaches
• Sleep disruption/insomnia
• Weight gain
• Short-term memory impairment
• Cognitive dysfunction
• Fuzzy thinking/inability to multi-task�or brain fog
• Anxiety
• Fatigue
• Depression

What happens to the body during perimenopause?  According to Women to Women :

During perimenopause, the ratio of estrogen to progesterone is frequently in a state of flux, which can manifest along with other symptoms as very heavy (and maybe even frightening) bleeding. In our culture, many women tend to be operating with an internal hormonal balance tipped toward the estrogen side of the scale. This tilt is often the result of a diet high in simple carbs and low in quality protein, a lack of essential nutrients and fats, and chronic exposure to environmental toxins and artificial hormones such as endocrine disruptors. Prolonged emotional and physical stress, which I define as anything that works against your state of balance, will also upset the hormonal applecart. In today’s fast-paced, disconnected, eat-and-run world, it is no surprise to me that younger and younger women are coming in to my practice with symptoms of hormonal imbalance and perimenopause.

In some cases, women in perimenopause may have low levels of progesterone in comparison to their estrogen levels. In other cases, the progesterone level is fine, but estrogen levels are too high. Another case we are seeing more frequently is where all three of the key hormones which flux during this time, estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, are too low. What’s most important to recognize is that each woman needs to be evaluated differently, preferably by a medical practitioner conversant in integrative or alternative medicine. More often than in the past I find conventional doctors are quite willing to discuss the reality of perimenopause, but natural, long-lasting solutions are still hard to come by. Most conventional practitioners don’t believe that people can change their lifestyle and eating habits. My response is that I know and have seen that they can. And I will tell you this: no woman needs to suffer with symptoms of hormonal balance, at perimenopause, menopause, or after menopause. You can feel better and you can start right now.

Being in perimenopause does not necessarily mean that you will follow an immediate and direct path to menopause. Some women go for years in this transitional state, whereas others sail through in just a few months. What does seem to influence the severity of symptoms is the weight of other burdens women may have placed on their bodies over the years. Poor nutrition, chronic stress, and a lack of daily exercise are three major amplifiers because they each play a significant role in the body’s ability to detoxify and maintain homeostasis. Lifestyle choices such as smoking or drinking to excess are likewise compounding factors.

Link Between Fibromyalgia in Women and Sexual Dysfunction

A study by the Department of Physical Therapy, Recanati School for Community Health Professions, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University in Israel found that there is a definite association betweeen sexual dysfunction and Fibromyalgia in female patients.

The major findings that resulted from this study found that female Fibromyalgia patients have:

• decreased sexual desire and arousal.
• decreased experience of orgasm.
• increased pain with sexual intercourse.

The study also found that Fibromyalgia, sexual dysfunction and depression may be interrelated “with the depressive mood responsible for desire and arousal problems.” It also suggests that the pain associated with sexual intercourse is due to lower than normal sensory input in FM.

Further studies are needed to evaulate the FM and sexual dysfunction in women further.

Having a chronic illness on its own can cause a women to lose her sexual drive and if you are losing all desire to have sex with your spouse, you should talk with your doctor.  Communicate your feelings with your spouse also so the lack of sexual desire isn’t taken personally.

Uncontrollable Stress Worsens Symptoms of Endometriosis

Endometriosis is a chronic painful disease which occurs when endometrial tissue grows as lesions outside the uterus, mainly in the area of the ovaries and fallopian tubes, but can also affect the intestinal tract. The condition results in chronic pelvic pain, painful menstrual periods and pain during intercourse.

Ihas been a poorly understood illness for years incapacitates and affects the productivity and lifestyle of millions of women around the world. Just in the United States alone, endometriosis affects nearly six million teen and adult women at a cost of approximately $1.6 billion annually.

Many women who have endometriosis report having high levels of stress due to trying to deal with the painful symptoms that affects their everyday lives – work, personal relationships and family. There is currently a new study that is investigating the relationship between stress and the painful symptoms of the disease. This will be the first time a study has been done that offers evidence of the negative consequences of stress in the progression of endometriosis, most likely through an effect on the immune system.

The study was conducted on seven female rats who were induced with endometriosis. Half were subjected to stressful swim tests for ten consecutive days, a chronic and stressful situation the animals could not control.

According to the senior researcher for the study, Dr. Appleyardm the study conclusion was:

“These findings contribute to our understanding of how stress may affect the severity of endometriosis. We think there is likely a connection with the immune system because of the observed levels of mast cells in the colon and the increased levels of inflammatory cells in the peritoneum of the affected rats, since this has also been observed in patients with endometriosis. The results offer a jumping off point to help identify stress-management interventions that will help those women who are affected by the disease.�

Vulvodynia: Genital Pain in Women

For years, women who have suffered from a chronic pain condition known as Vulvodynia have been accused of having sex phobias and told their symptoms are not real.� If a doctor has happened to believe these women, they tell them nothing can be done.� Gee, sound familiar?

The genital pain of Vulvodynia can be so severe that sexual intercourse can be unbearable and inserting a tampon, having�a pelvic exam and wearing a pair of jeans can cause excruciating pain.�

This immensely painful chronic illness� of the vulva can result in pain that is described as “shooting”, “searing” when any amount of pressure is applied.� I have also read where Vulvodynia was described as someone stabbing you “down there with a knife”.

It is estimated that approximately one in six women suffer from Vulvodynia and 6% of these women start showing symptoms before the age of 25.� For these, the symptoms are usually limited to burning pain in resonse to touch or pressure at the vaginal opening.

A professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University (Dr. William Ledger) who is an expert on Vulvodynia said in a New York Times article:

“It is clear that there are subdivisions of this condition – one diagnosis doesn’t fit everyone.”

Dr. Ledger has found two genetically based predisposing factors in women with Vulvodynia:� women produce inadequate amounts of a substance that blocks an inflammatory response and an unstable production of a substance that normally responds to an invasion by yeast or bacteria.� This places these women at an increased risk for chronic infection.�

Dr. Ledger said:

“There’s good evidence that with Vulvodynia as a whole the women have more nerve fibers in the vulva and they are firing more pain signals to the brain. It’s kind of vulvar Fibromyalgia. most patients with Vulvodynia have very tender glands at the entrance to the vagina.”

Some treatments used for Vulvodynia include Celebrex and the muscle relaxer, Flexeril.� Another treatment that is used is a surgery that removes the layer of tissue containing many, many nerve endings.�

Heart Risk Linked To Women Taking Calcium Supplements

Many women take calcium supplements to try to prevent osteoporosis. A recent New Zealand study showed that older women who take calcium supplements may have an increased risk of heart attack.

The researchers stressed that they do not consider their findings the “definitive word on the subject” but with the higher heart attack risk they saw, they felt the subject needs further studying.

Researchers said that:

“The effects could outweigh any benefits on bone from calcium supplements.”

The study involved 1,471 healthy post-menopausal women, average age 74, who already had participated in a study on the effects of calcium on bone density and fracture rates. Of them, 732 were given a daily calcium supplement and 739 were given a placebo. They were followed for five years.

Heart attacks were more common in the women taking the calcium supplements, with 31 women who took supplements experiencing a heart attack compared to 21 women who got a placebo, the researchers said.

The researchers noted that previous research had suggested that taking calcium supplements might protect against vascular disease by lowering levels of bad cholesterol in the blood.

They said that because calcium supplements raise blood calcium levels, this possibly accelerates the formation of deposits in the arteries that could lead to heart attack.

The new results are not conclusive but suggest that high calcium intakes might have an adverse effect on vascular health, the researchers wrote.

In the meantime this potentially detrimental effect should be balanced against the likely benefits of calcium on bone, particularly in elderly women.

Birth-Control Pill Used to Treat PMDD

You have probably seen the commercial on television for YAZ.  It is a new birth-control pill that is also being used to treat PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder).

I have talked on this blog previously about my own struggle with PMDD and how the doctor has me taking Prozac.  Now that I am on the 10 mg. of Prozac that I have to take 14 days before my cycle starts, I have been doing very well.  I still get a few physical symptoms to let me know that time is coming soon, such as hot flashes, cramping and night sweats, but otherwise great!

Here is the press release for YAZ when it was first introduced to the market.  The press release talks about PMDD and the severity of symptoms and the multi-purpose use of YAZ.

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