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Postpartum antepartum issues

by Jennifer
(Eveleth Minnesota )

Hi Wray, I would like some insight on my situation. I became pregnant after a miscarriage the year before and many years of infertility. I was 38 when I had my son. When I was almost eight months pregnant I started having severe anxiety and intrusive thoughts. I do have a mild form of OCD but it never affected my life. I had never had anxiety or any issues like this in my life. I almost had a nervous breakdown, did not know how I was going to manage being mom and caring for my son while I felt that I could not manage myself.

I live in a small town so I was getting no support as no one knew what to do with me other than telling me to do yoga or take a antidepressant. I did make it and after a very traumatic delivery my beautiful baby boy was born. I say traumatic because we almost lost him and had to do an emergency cesearian. His heart rate was dropping and my blood pressure was sky high. He had to be bagged as my placenta was dying? I do have hypertension and have been on meds for ten years as my entire dads side of the family all has high blood pressure. I did develop preeclampsia after giving birth. Just some history.

I had hoped after birth things would even out but that has not been the case. I breast fed my son for nine months so I did not get a period for almost a year. My periods used to be like clockwork but not anymore. I get it anywhere from 23 days to 26. I start to bleed a couple days prior to that but it stops and then my period will come. I never experienced this before. My moods are horrible surrounding my periods. I always had pms but nothing like this. I started Prozac and it helps some but I still have a lot of anxiety. I ordered a saliva test after going to my ob gyn and she was a snot and told me I was almost 40 (39 now) and all of this was normal. I should be getting the results soon. I took the test on your site and I think I had over 100 boxes checked so I started the progesterone cream and I am praying this is what I needed. Any insight you could give me would be great. I feel blessed to have found this site. You are amazing!! Thank you thank you

Comments for Postpartum antepartum issues

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Oct 25, 2011
 Postpartum antepartum issues
by: Wray

Hi Jennifer Bless you for the kind words! I do believe you needed and still need progesterone, but you also need other nutrients too. Let me assure you that the symptoms you have are not normal. I had a late baby, but at 33 not as late as yours. I then had PND for 4 years, refusing antidepressants etc. Then before I knew it I was in Peri-menopause. How I or others around me survived I have no idea, but I discovered progesterone when I was 47 and that saved me, plus my family! The symptoms I had were all related to low progesterone, but not knowing this at the time, I put them down to ageing. They all went very slowly, in fact it took 6 months, but then I was on the recommended 20-40mg/day. I've since found far higher amounts are needed if symptoms are severe. I recommend 100-200mg/day, dependant on symptoms. There is a test that can be done to predict preeclampsia, which should have been performed due to the high BP you have, see here. It now appears you have PND, which does require high amounts of progesterone. I suggest you start with 200mg/day, increase this if no relief is found. Dr Dalton would use 800mg/day for her PND patients, while those with post natal psychosis would receive 2400mg/day, see here. We also have a page on Pregnancy which will give you more info. Please be aware Oestrogen Dominance can occur when first using progesterone, please increase the amount of progesterone if it should. It's essential to make progesterone the dominant hormone. OCD responds well to inositol, please consider taking it, see here. But large amounts are needed, I suggest you try 4000mg/day to begin with, you might have to increase to the amounts in the study, but you did say it was mild. Try to get it in powder form, it is available, as it will be impossible to take if in caps! I've run out of space so will start a new comment below. Take care Wray
Oct 25, 2011
 Postpartum antepartum issues
by: Wray

Hi Jennifer We also have a page on Anxiety, you might consider taking some of the nutrients listed, particularly tryptophan. This drops sharply, along with progesterone, after giving birth. It's very interesting, but preeclampsia is strongly associated with an increased risk of heart disease later in life, see here. Why this fascinates me is that both preeclampsia and heart disease, including high BP, result from a vitamin D deficiency, please have a test done. Both disorders are caused by oxidative stress, vitamin D is a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Please ask the rest of your family to have a test done too. For more info on testing etc see the Vitamin D Council, GrassrootsHealth Birmingham Hospital and Vitamin D Links websites. Blood levels should be 70-100ng/ml and not the 30ng/ml labs and doctors regard as adequate. The minimum daily dose should be 5000iu's per day. Studies have found in preeclampsia that the Th1 to Th2 switch does not occur normally, resulting in high levels of inflammatory cytokines and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP's). Progesterone causes a switch from Th1 to Th2, and suppresses MMP's, resulting in a normal pregnancy. A high level of thromboxane is found in preeclmpsia, plus lipid peroxidation. Progesterone inhibits thromoxane production and prevents lipid peroxidation. Another study found significantly lower levels of allopregnanolone and progesterone in pregnant women with high BP, with or without preeclampsia. Allopregnanolone is a metabolite of progesterone. Selenium is low in preeclampsia. Glutathione is low in preeclampsia, a vital co-factor for this is selenium. Nitric oxide is low in preeclampsia, progesterone increases NO. I've run out of space again, so there's a new comment below. Take care Wray
Oct 25, 2011
 Postpartum antepartum issues
by: Wray

Hi Jennifer The following are a few papers on preeclampsia, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. And these are a few on vitamin D, see here, here, here, here here and here. I have many more studies on vitamin D and heart disease and high BP, but I think I've sent enough now! Take care Wray
Oct 27, 2011
 in response to wray
by: Jen

Wray,

I did receive my hormone test results. I had been on the progesterone cream for ten days and even with that supplementation it was not even in the range of the supplementation use 416.62 pg/ml(500-3000), how fast does your hormone levels go up after using the creme? Also my estrogen was 1.25 (range of 1.0-10.8 for premeno) should I be concerned about this being on the low end too or no. I used Labrix and they suggested I was estrogen dominant with some adrenal fatigue (phase II). It is great to have all this information. I really appreciate more than I can say all of your time/energy you have given me into your responses. I will read and check out everything you sent. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. Jen!

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