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Early Relief From Symptoms

by Charrise
(Los Angeles)

THIS IS LONG, BUT I BELIEVE IT WILL BE HELPFUL TO MANY...

I've had symptoms of estrogen dominance ever since I hit puberty at age 11. It started with depression and acne. I was on the birth control pill for six years in my twenties which lessened the acne, but didn't cure it, and the depression remained. I stopped taking the pill at age 26. By age 31, I started experiencing hair loss in the middle of my head, hot flashes, chronic candida that I could not cure, annoyingly heavy periods, fatigue, and the acne and depression that had been there from the start. I was a mess! I felt horrible and sick ALL OF THE TIME, despite changing my diet and exercising. Doctors didn't know what was wrong and they couldn't understand why I had such a chronic case of candida. I "seemed" healthy to them. I'm not overweight and blood tests for all kinds of diseases came out normal.

When I was in my mid 30s I read about natural progesterone cream. I began to think my problems were hormonal because many of the symptoms listed matched mine. So I bought a cream from a health food store, but it made me feel worse. At that time I didn't know about natural progesterone cream possibly making estrogen dominance symptoms worse when you first start using it so I stopped using the cream. The cream also contained a very estrogenic ingredient, called rosemary. But more on that later. At the time I didn't know about this informative, life-saving website, therefore there was a lot about natural progesterone cream that I didn't know. So stopping the use of it seemed logical to me at the time.

I still continued to feel bad ALL OF THE TIME. A few years later I was diagnosed with uterine fibroids. It was really a miserable existence and it seemed like there were no answers for me.

Last year I found this website and the information on it changed my life because I began to have hope that I could actually feel good again. I honestly hadn't felt all the way well since age ten - seriously!!! I started using natural progesterone cream again, and made sure I used between 100mg and 200mg per day. However, it was the same cream I had used years earlier from the same manufacturer and I did indeed continue to feel bad. I chalked it up to the initial estrogen dominance symptoms worsening that Wray talks about on this site. But then I luckily ran across another bit of info somewhere else on the web that explained that the progesterone cream can't do it's job all the way if there are estrogenic ingredients in it. Rosemary was named as a common estrogenic additive. The progesterone cream I was using did indeed have rosemary in it so I stopped it right away and started using a cream with no estrogenic ingredients. It's been about a month and I can honestly say I feel like a million bucks for the first time in over thirty years! Yes, THIRTY years. So far, the depression and fatigue have improved substantially and the acne and candida have improved too. I'm 42 years old now and I can't believe the engery and clarity of mind I have compared to the dis-eased state that I'd had been living in for three quarters of my life.

I know now that I am literally the TEXT BOOK example of a person suffering from estrogen dominance. I just wish I'd known the things I do now back when I was a young woman. You just don't assume you're having hormonal problems when you're young. And doctors don't have a clue.

Because my symptoms are severe and long-standing, I've taken Wray's advice and using the cream everyday until I normalize, even though I'm still pre-menopausal. I'm having my period now (it came on time no disruption in my cycle) and I feel pretty good compared to how I normally feel. One piece of advice, if you happen to buy a natural progesterone cream other than Natpro, PLEASE PLEASE make sure it has no estrogenic ingredients or the cream won't be as effective and might make you feel worse. Some of the common ones are rosemary, evening primrose, and I think red clover but I'm not sure about that one. If you're unsure about an ingredient, google it to see if it's estrogenic.

Thank you Wray for your compassion in creating this website. I truly believe the information has been a life saver for me.

Comments for Early Relief From Symptoms

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Apr 12, 2012
 Early Relief From Symptoms
by: Wray

Hi Charisse Bless you for telling us this! It makes it all so worthwhile for me, hearing stories like this. It is a sorry state, so many women unaware of the hormonal problems and what to do about it. There are 40 million women in the states who suffer once a month. Not to mention those going through puberty, or post natal depression or peri-menopause! Please keep a watch for any Oestrogen Dominance symptoms, they can come out of the blue. I'm so pleased you added the bit about a cream having oestrogenic ingredients in it. So many do, and it is an uphill battle for the progesterone. Worse are those that contain oestrogen itself, plus testosterone. The problem is women think it's the progesterone causing the adverse symptoms, when it's not. Unfortunately most of our food contains oestrogen mimics! See the following papers which list the phytoestrogen content of foods, with seeds, legumes and grains having the highest content, see here. Even foods of animal origin contain them, see here All oilseeds contain phytoestrogens, red clover does too. The USDA Food Composition site is an excellent resource. It's best to get the full report, see here. Another excellent site, particularly for skin care products, is Skin Deep. I've heard that rosemary oil is oestrogenic too, but this puzzles me. I've done a quick search and find all the constituents, ie a-pinene, borneol, b-pinene, camphor, bornyl acetate, camphene, 1,8-cineole and limonene do not have a triple bonded A-ring, which all three oestrogens do. As do all phytoestrogens, plus BHT used as an oxidant in food and skin care. To see what I mean have a look at the molecular structure of oestradiol on Wiki Then look at the ChemBlink site for the molecular structures of the rosemary oil constituents. You'll notice not one has the tripled bonded A-ring. I will look further into this, as we were thinking of using an organic rosemary antioxidant for the cream. Thank you once again for your support and kind words about the site. Take care Wray

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