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Periodes after chemo

by Aria
(France)

I would like your advice on the use and dosage (in tsp) of the NatPro product. Two and a half years ago I underwent chemo and surgery for a breast tumor. Since then I'm missing my periods. Only last August I had my first period again after 2 years and after having used your product for about 3-4 months, in cycles, in combination with an estrogen cream. But this happened only for the month of August 2012. I restarted using the product in November and have been applying it regularly since then but I didn't have any periods. Could it be that I had gained some weight back in August which induced a period? In the meantime I experienced a stressful situation for a while in my life which caused me to lose all the weight I had gained last August. I've always been around 125 pounds and am 5'6'' tall. What can I do to have normal looking periods again? That would make me feel a lot better psychologically since I'm 46 years old and all my female friends around my age are still having periods and a normal sex drive which I've missed.

Comments for Periodes after chemo

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Jan 19, 2013
 Periodes after chemo
by: Wray

Hi Aria I'm surprised they gave you an oestrogen cream after having a breast tumour. As it's usually contraindicated. Progesterone can help the reproductive cycle begin again, see these comments here. and here. The weight gain could have influenced things, as our steroids need fat to be produced. Too low a BMI in a women does stop periods. I do understand about wanting to be normal again. But there's strong evidence all the periods we have, i.e. 400 over a life time, are not normal. Our ancestors and women living today in very rural societies only have about 100. Due to being either pregnant or breast feeding, both of which stop the reproductive cycle. The high levels of progesterone while pregnant, and prolactin and oxytocin while breast feeding, are the reason for this. If there wasn't this safe guard, we could fall pregnant again and again while being pregnant! Ending up with multiple foetuses. All this would put too great a strain on the woman. The same applies while breast feeding, which takes a huge amount of energy from the woman. You might like to read this paper here. and this one here. I'm not sure how much progesterone you were using, but after having had a tumour, I would say no less than 400mg/day to begin with. Please see this page here for an explanation. I would also suggest using it daily, through any bleeding which might occur, for about 2-3 months. Then once stable, you could begin trying to get a cycle back again. There's info about this on our page How to use progesterone cream. You are now in Peri-menopause, as are all your friends. Cycles do become very erratic towards the end stages. P-M begins anywhere from 5 to 10 years before menopause, the average age of this is 51. Continued below
Jan 19, 2013
 Periodes after chemo Part 2
by: Wray

Hi Aria Progesterone is helpful for Libido, in fact we have many men using it for that too. Please have a vitamin D test done, too low a level increases the risk of getting many cancers, breast included. Plus a low level reduces the benefits of progesterone. You might like to see these comments here. For more info on vitamin D levels, test kits etc see the Vitamin D Council, GrassrootsHealth and Birmingham Hospital. Blood levels should be 70-100ng/ml (175-250nmol/L) and not the 30ng/ml (75nmol/L) most labs and doctors regard as adequate. The minimum daily dose should be 5000iu's per day, although recent research indicates it should be 10,000iu's per day, see here. It's best to take a magnesium supplement too, this is the most important co-factor for vitamin D. Take care Wray
Jan 19, 2013
 Comments for Wray's comments
by: Aria

Thank you very much for answering my post and giving me all the informational links with it. I read all of them and I was very surprised by the findings on the way our modern word's women menstruate compared to women in more primitive societies and how that relates to high rates of reproductive system cancers appearing after the industrialization of societies in the 20th century. I respect the research results but I also think, after a great amount of reading that I did of similar scientific research that most such cancers are produced by an imbalance in hormones (lack of progesterone), caused mostly by stress and of course by our today's poisonous environment which is full of xeno-estrogens.
Please let me also reply to some of your concerns regarding my case. I was not prescribed an estrogen cream. I had read that it's a good idea to use one in combination with progesterone in order to balance the progesterone out. You may comment on this if you'd like. It might be a misconception that many of us have. I was using an over the counter phyto-estrogen cream in a smaller dosage than that of the progesterone dose I apply daily. Other women in the US and the UK use a compounded solution that I couldn't get in France. But after reading your post I think I might stop using the estrogen all together and see if I do or don't get any negative symptoms. I hope at this point you don't think I am experimenting with my body... I certainly don't want to, however, I am very mad at my doctors for not preparing me for any of the horrible chemo effects I went through and certainly also for not doing anything about the complaints I confronted them with afterwards. Unfortunately I didn't know anything about the progesterone creams during chemo or during radiation. I don't know if it would have prevented part of the nightmare I lived through as it was the case for that other lady (you sent me the link of her post) but I have a feeling it would have at least to a lesser extent. Instead I did take some very expensive oral and injectable vitamins which didn't really help any.
Please also know that I do take a vitamin D supplement but I will go ahead and test my blood levels as you're suggesting.
Again I found your answers and the links that came with it very helpful and hope that they'll help other women on your site too. Best regards, Aria
Jan 23, 2013
 Comments for Wray's comments
by: Wray

Hi Aria I'm glad the info was of help. I do agree about the oestrogen mimics too, over 100 now! The website Our Stolen Future is very good on that aspect. And of course Stress, very high in all of us now. I'm relieved you weren't prescribed the oestrogen cream. And if it was only a phytoestrogen, won't have done much to you, but would advise stopping it. I'm not in favour of any phytoestrogens. Yes there are studies showing they have some benefit, but also ones showing they can cause cells to proliferate. Because of this I don't think they're worth the risk. It seems normal for women not be be warned about side effects from any medication or surgery, most extraordinary. As if we are but numbers in a game, not humans. I would love to hear what your vitamin D results are when you get them. Thanks for the kind words! Take care Wray

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