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My life has become hell

by Sheena
(England)

I'm a 42 year old mother of 5 never had any real illnesses other than a overactive thyroid which I had removed in 2000. Since then been on thyroxine without any further problems up until early last year when I started feeling really fatigued. I lost interest in everything, became withdrawn from everything, started getting dry stiff skin leftside of my face, felt like someone has slapped me hard and my cheek always gets caught in my teeth and losing my appetite. Just could not eat and even if I did manage to eat I'd be sick.

I lost 3 stone in two months then in May one day had my first panic attack, God I thought I was dying, just could not breath. My heart started racing like there was no tomorrow with a lot of pain in my chest. I got absolutely terrified. My son dialled 999 and I went to ER where they checked, xrayed and did heart scans then told me it was just acid problems and gave me painkillers and sent me home. The palpations continued and just would not go away. I went to a GP who did some blood tests and sent me home after telling me that I was suffering from anxiety and that I needed to look at my relationships and work out what was causing these feelings I was going through. I swear I felt like I was choking with the sensations I was feeling.

After this day I was always at the doctor's asking for answers which they couldn't give me. All bloods came back normal then after three months of suffering one lady doctor told me that we needed to look at my thyroid because I just could not find any peace. I was so restlees with irritability. My test came back that my thyroid (ten years after being stable) was too high and that my medications had to be stopped and I had to go to hospital for more heart scans which were normal for them but for me it was just a nightmare. My doc gave me beta blockers which calmed me a little but did not take my palpitations away. The next day I started getting pain in my caesarian. I went back to my doc who sent me for a scan. It turns out I have endometriosis which had to be removed by having another caesarian. I had more blood tests done. At this stage I was so down with everything that was happening with me I could not cook, sleep, look after my kids or my home. I was just like a zombie from taking antidepressants because the docs said I had depression. Turns out I had developed a hiatus hernia which started acid problems for which more medicines were prescribed.

I was so fed up at this stage no one had any answers for me. Then one day I got a call from the hospital and the nice doctor told me that my estrogen levels were low. I did not know what that meant so I told him to explain. He told me that I had gone into early menapause and had been for the last year and that explained everything. Everything fitted. He also told me that this was just the begining and I had years more of this condition to look forward to. I could not believe that my own practice missed this and let me suffer all this time thinking I was dying of somthing serious. I am still waiting for my GPs to start any treatment which they say will be after six months when they will do another test for themselves because the hormone levels are not bad at this stage. They gave me more antidepressants and anxiety and sleeping tablets which do not help in the long run. I'm just so fed up I do not know what to do. I've stopped all meds as they were doing more harm than good. Even now my period comes five days early every month and lasts for only a day and half. I got spots all over my body and keep trembling with day long palpitations and body vibrations and of course the smothered feeling and choking sensations. Can anyone please help? thankyou for taking the time out to read this.

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Feb 24, 2010
 My life has become hell
by: Wray

Hi Sheena. Panic attacks are caused by a sudden surge of adrenaline. This causes the palpitations, the tight chest, inability to breathe, the panicky feelings. It's designed to do this, it's one of our stress hormones, involved in the flight, fight, fright response. The actual surge of adrenaline can be caused by a sudden, sharp drop in blood sugar. Can you remember back to when it happened and what you had eaten or drunk at the time? A fright can cause the surge, a drop in progesterone, a drop in GABA, a severely stressful event, which points to your thyroid. Please see this web page on anxiety.

I can't agree with your doctors about needing oestrogen. You don't need more. We all, including men, have so much now, it's in our food, air, water and the skin care we all use. Please see this web site.

Endometriosis is an oestrogen dependant problem, you certainly don't need more. Please see this web page. It can resolve with high dose progesterone. The typical treatment is an aromatase inhibitor drug, which suppresses all oestrogen and here're your doctors wanting to give you more oestrogen. How they can say you are in early menopause, when you haven't stopped bleeding... that's nonsense! The average age for menopause is 51, and to be in confirmed menopause your periods have to have stopped for 12 months.

I'm relieved you've stopped all the meds. Please consider using progesterone, it's very effective for panic attacks and anxiety, depression too. It's very calming so could help your heart, but what will help is the amino acid taurine, please take between 2000-5000mg/day. It calms the heart down, and calms us down too, it's very good for anxiety. To learn more about peri-menopause, the stage you're in now, please see this web page. Take care, Wray
Mar 05, 2010
 Taurine question
by: Amy

Read your story and I'm wondering if you took the advice and began taking taurine. It was suggested for me as well but I am so sensitive to side effects I am not going to try it. EVERYTHING has side effects. If you did try it, how did you feel on it? I also suffer from heart palps, I dont know if there's a way for you to read my story on here. Take care, Amy
Mar 06, 2010
 Taurine question
by: Wray

Hi Amy. Taurine is an amino acid, found in our food, it is not dangerous. In fact it's one of the most important aminos there is. Please see this paper. One way of increasing it is by eating more animal protein, it is not found in any plant food, including nuts. Although we can convert it from cysteine, the conversion ratio is too low for our needs. Take care, Wray
Nov 03, 2011
 Peri-menopause is the worst ....
by: Dawn L,

Hey Wray-I'm sorry to be a bother again-so soon.
Is Valerian a xeno-estrogen? I had a full 8 days
of a spotting period a week later than usual this
month(last month:2 heavier periods in one month.
I had reduced my prog.creme a bit and paid for it)My spotting stopped for two days but came back
again. This has been the most awful phase of my
life-I can relate to My life has become hell...
Between panic attacks and bleeding-what life?
I took ammino vitamins with Valerian root and
wondered if it jacked up my estrogen and caused
the spotting? Also,what about milk thistle-is
it estrogenic? Thank you for your valuable advice,time,and compassion.

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