Question Premenopausal Diagnosis-Need Alternative Ideas

May 4, 2006

Namaste,

My name is Aishwarya. I am new to the group and have been reading your posts

and have learned so much.

I have a question that perhaps someone might help me answer. I apologize in

advance for the length of this post, but I had a devastating experience with

allopathic medicine that I believe may have played a heavy role in what

appears a permanent state of my physical health and I would like to provide

you with this context before asking my question.

I am a 42-year old American woman of mixed race. My father heritage in

African and Native American Indian and my mother's is European (Welch and

French). I have stopped having menstrual periods for 2 and 1/2 years now. I

have most recently been diagnosed with Premature Ovarian Failure or

Premature Menopause suspected to be the result of an autoimmune disease that

I can find little research on in the literature. Furthermore, I have reason

to question anything at all that comes out of the mouths of Western

medicine. The context of the development of these symptoms I have given

below that will explain why I have reservations.

I would like to explain some changes that I believe led to this state of my

body. First, I have checked with all living female members of my family and

none of them began menopause so early and none was ever diagnosed with

"premature menopause" or "premature ovarian failure."

Here's the story of what was going on prior to this change in my body.

I was on several psychotropic medications for 10 years (I no longer take

these-I have turned to information that I can glean from books about

alternative medicines like Chinese and Ayurvedic medicinal practices to find

natural methods to deal with my depressions). During this 10-year period in

which my state of general overall health began to decline my weight went

from 127 lbs to 227 lbs. At about the 10-year mark, the first thing that

began to happen was that my period became sporadic. After taking some lab

tests, the allopathic doctor diagnosed me with a slowed thyroid and put me

on Levoxyl. Shortly there after I was diagnosed with high Cholesterol and

was put on Pravochol. Then, with a blood glucose level of 95, I was told to

take Glucophase due to the high cholesterol and other risk factors like

obesity and family history that would soon lead me to become diabetic. In

the autumn of that year my menstrual periods stopped altogether. Then, after

doing all that I was told by my doctors to do for all of these conditions

for some months, in late April, I began to feel very strange...like

something was deeply wrong with my body. The only thing that I could point

to was that perhaps my thyroid levels were off and needed a medication

adjustment. So, even though at the time I had no medical insurance, since I

knew that I could not do anything about the thyroid levels that raised

question in my mind without consulting my doctor, I called my prescribing

doctor to have a TSH blood test done and said that I would make payments to

him to do the testing. He refused and told me to go to the nearest emergency

room because "they could not refuse me." This was the day my life turned

completely around.

On that day I threw away more than 15 allopathic drugs. Within 48 hours I

was in the emergency room feeling as if I were ready to give birth. I had

the worst cramps that I had ever had in my life. By 3 a.m. my menstrual

period started-over a year had passed without it by now. It was more painful

than I had ever experienced (I was put on morphine for the pain) and the

period lasted over 8 days (Ionger than is usual for me). I was also told to

have an ultrasound due to severe uterine pain. That ultrasound showed one

fibroid tumor the size of a golf ball with a stalk on the back of my uterus.

And again, none of the women in my family have a history of fibroid tumors.

At this point, I began to read the literature on the side effects of each of

the medications I had been taking and found that Paxil had produced

"enlarged fibroids" in some women taking this drug. When I called the drug

company to learn about their long-term studies on this drug I discovered

there were none. All they did was keep record of the complaints that came in

after their 12 month to 3-year trial study period on this drug. I was also

told that since I was taking other drugs at the same time as Paxil that it

couldn't be proved that any problems that I was having was due to Paxil,

some other of the medications I was taking or some combination of the others

by themselves or with Paxil. I couldn't believe that I allowed myself to put

so much faith in this capital-driven American Healthcare System in which

"feed the "disease" with a chemical drug for an indefinitely period if not

the rest of your natural life" is the philosophy.

I began to get copies of all of my medical records at this time as well as

speak to my gynecologist to find out what was really going on with my body.

He was baffled, but was certain that my problem with my menstrual periods

was related to my metabolism. So, even though I had no outward signs of

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, he diagnosed me with this-and wanted to put me

on either hormones or glucophase. "No way," I said. "I want to see a

reproductive endocrinologist before I do anything more." So I followed up

with one and was told that I did not have PCOS after both inspection of my

outward body and extensive laboratory testing. I was told, however, that I

had Dysmetabolic Syndrome X and should never be put on any psychotropic

medication that impacted the metabolic systems unless it was a

life-threatening emergency and only short term.

Ironically, I became depressed because of a conflict in my marriage over

whether my husband and I would have children. I wanted them. He did not. I

became depressed and he suggested anti-depressants. I wanted to save my

marriage and wait to see if he would change his mind. He did not and

eventually we divorced, but by then I had been conditioned to medicate

myself just to leave the house and live life each day. But, since over this

period of time, antidepressants did not work to "fix" my sadness, I was

further prescribed over time medications for bipolar disorder and eventually

antipsychotics like risperidone and seroquel. I fell into a system that

convinced me that I was "mentally ill" and set up to "take care of my

illness" for the rest of my life! And, this happened quite easily since I

just became sadder over this apparently "hopeless" state of affairs and

wanted help to feel better.

So anyway, many years later, after my divorce, here I was very, very ill and

needed to take my health into my own hands. I started by doing many things

including throwing all those meds away. I became a vegetarian and learned

about reading food labels. I read every book I could find on holistic health

and medicine. I became spiritual (vaisnava tradition) and began mindfulness

practice and meditation. I utilized all and everything that I could afford

including aromatherapy and Reiki. I got all new doctors and let them know

that I viewed their role in our relationship as consultants on my health,

not fixers of disease, and that I would take or not take their advise only

after further consultation and research. Things went very well. Within a

year, I lost eighty pounds-no exercise at all (just using the changes in

lifestyle and diet mentioned above). When retested all the blood laboratory

tests and found that my cholesterol, thyroid and blood glucose and insulin

had normalized. The only thing that had changed in one year was that my

Follicle Stimulating Hormone test score went from 2 (normal) to 76 (post

menopausal). I had completed menopause without even knowing it. I had only

one period during that year-exactly one year after that visit to the

emergency hospital-and that was during one menstrual cycle in which I had

gone back in my calendar and counted 28 days for a year so that I could

start a progesterone medication test on exactly the right day. After that

one period last May, I've had nothing since.

We retook that FSH test a year later and the score was in the low 60s. At

this point, my new gynecologist diagnosed me as having Premature Menopause

or Pre-Ovarian Failure. I was devastated. No children ever and no husband.

Both were gone. But, I was not going to return to that original sadness that

got me here. I simply chose to accept this news of permanent infertility as

one of the possibilities and recognized that even if it were a fact, that I

would be okay. At 42, there are many wonderful experiences in my life that

could not have happened if I had been tied down with children and given

other problems in my marriage, I probably would have divorced my husband

anyway and having had children with him would have made my life difficult

in a way different than it is today. And lastly, at 42, my life really

doesn't have much room for children in it and I no longer have the kind of

patience that I used to. In other words, no matter what was the case, I

would get through it and be fine. It's not so much that I want children at

this point in my life, I just want to know that the loss of my fertility is

part of a natural process and not the irreversible result of what those

horrible allopathic medications did to my body; and even if it did turn out

to be the result of the medications I had taken, at least I want to do

something now to prevent any more lasting damage to my body from having

taken them. At most, if this diagnosis of Premature Menopause is correct, I

would create a small ritual by taking a baby flower and burying it in the

beauty of the mountains and grieve for a moment of time over my lost

fertility and the child that I never had.

Thank you if you read this far. I needed to share this and provide a context

for my question.

Now, having been given this last diagnosis, the fact is, I have no symptoms

of menopause: no hot flashes, no mood swings, no weight gain, and no vaginal

dryness-nothing. My doctor wanted to put me on hormone replacement and I

refused because of this-I don't need it. She said that it would also help

with osteoporosis. But, I argued that my body type was not that of any of my

European heritage but was like that of my African heritage. I am not petite

in my bone structure and therefore I did not feel represented fairly in the

studies of those women of European-Caucasian heritage who tended toward

getting osteoporosis. Only one person in my immediate family, my mother, had

the bone structure and heritage to get this; and even she had not yet

developed osteoporosis by the time she died of bladder cancer at 63. I told

her that I would take a calcium supplement as a preventative measure and

would do weight baring exercises and weight training. She said that she

would contact a specialist in autoimmune diseases to find out about a test

for POF. I have never heard back from her on this.

>From my perspective, the FSH as an indication of menopause or POF is a

correlation, not an absolute indication of the cause of this disease or

menopause. I would respectfully like to ask you all here in this list

whether anyone might have heard of the kind of problem I am describing and

how it might be treated in naturopathic, homeopathic, Ayurvedic or otherwise

alternative health system? Does anyone know anything from any of these

systems of healing that might be done for someone who has stopped having

periods that might help the system to rebalance and periods return? I know

that I am nearing a normal age for menopause and don't have much time anyway

even if I were to find some alternative treatment. But this is my life and I

want to try. I want to try any last thing I can before I commit myself to

the belief that I'm in this new time of life-the menopause--permanently. I

believe that belief, in itself, is an essential part of one's health or

disease and the experience thereof; and as such, I take my belief about my

state of health very seriously. I'm not looking for diagnosis. I'm not

looking for "the treatment" answer" that will fix my problem. I want to

consider options. Thus, I am looking for ideas that I can use for stepping

stones of my own research and that I can considered trying in one last

effort to change the situation or begin to accept menopause with my whole

heart and move on from there.

I do not have very much money-it is hard to admit (even with a masters

degree) that I have found myself impoverished at this time in my life, but I

do have several catalogs for Ayurvedic products and have read several books

on Ayurveda. I score on several of the tests I have taken from such books as

Perfect Health by Deepak Chopra and another book by Vasant Lad as Vata-Pitta

(although when taking those terrible medications, I was overwhelmingly Kapha

with Vata and Pitta suppressed). However, I believe that I am not qualified

to make any determinations regarding my health using Ayurveda without

consultation with a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner or doctor. Also, I

would like to mention that I live in the state of Utah and I believe that

there are no Ayurvedic doctors practicing here. We have Chinese medicine

here and some few homeopaths.

I am responsible for my own state of health and am looking for knowledge.

Any advise or ideas that might help me improve my health or the quality of

my life would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for listening and considering my situation.

Respectfully,

Aishwarya

You can also visit -

http://www.geocities.com/cybervaidya

http://360./cybervaidya

http://ayurveda.pbwiki.com/

May 24, 2006

aishwarya, i came across your post as i was doing research on natural treatments of POF. reading your story was very inspirational to me as i am also looking to take control of my health from western medicine. my husband and i are trying to start our family and through the course of western treatment i was diagnosed with POF. i received this diagnosis when i was 29, i am now 31. my highest FSH was tested at 64. i haven't had it tested in almost a year, the last time i tested it it was 30. i am receiving treatment from an chinese medicine practitioner for this condition and have been for the past year. this includes acupuncture and chinese herbal formulas. i have had my period a few times since i started treatment, my cycles usually last 60-120 days. my practitioner is hopeful that this will help regulate my cycle and bring down my FSH but it will take some time. i live in chicago so i don't have any information regarding TCMs in your area but there is a national certifying body for TCM, not sure what it's called but i am sure they have a list of practitioners by location if you decide to pursue this path.

good luck to you!