women i ned advice about hormonal imbalance please ..getting desperate

doodoot

It could be a lot of things - age, PCOS, hormonal imbalance, early or pre-menopause.

To rule out something going wrong hormone-wise, you need a blood test - so go back and request one, and if they refuse ask to see another GP.

I'm late 30's and have noticed a bit more darker hair where I don't it - thank god for the inventor of tweezers! - but it's just down to aging as a blood test came back as OK.

heartbreak_star

barbiedoll wrote: »

There aren't any vitamins which will correct a hormone inbalance if that's what you have, and remember, some vitamins can be harmful if taken in large doses. Don't self-medicate if you don't know what's wrong, just because something is sold in Holland and Barratt, doesn't mean that it's good for you to take!

Another round of applause for this. NO vitamin will correct a hormone imbalance, and why faf about with a herbal medicine that has not been proven and might or might not work? (check out badscience.net and the related book by Ben Goldacre).

OP, please go back to your doctor, get a second opinion, we have a free at point of access health service in this country so please use it instead of letting the alternative practitioners fleece you.

(Disclaimer: I have no issues with complementary treatments provided they are branded as such and used alongside conventional medicine. I have an issue with anything that claims it is "alternative medicine"and better than what the "untrustworthy men in white coats" give you.)

HBS x

rita-rabbit

Personally I think natural herbs are definitely something to consider. I contacted my GP about missing periods and breast cysts & was told I was peri-menopausal & HRT suggested to `ease things'! Before anyone asked I had blood tests (2 different sets).
After visiting the hospital to have large breast cysts drained - painfully lumpy swollen breasts scared me as a cousin was diagnosed with cancer I was upset & scared of the thought of 10 years or so of more of the same (medics said `it's normal & you can expect this until menopause) I decided to investigate natural remedies.

I scoured the internet & discovered the writings of susun weed and started to make & drink herbal infusions of red clover blossom daily. The periods returned, but more importantly, I felt ALOT better & six months later the cysts (which ultrasound indicated were throughout the tissues) have gone.

I have a friend with diagnosed PCOs who is taking vitex & her periods have normalised. I am taking it now (aka agnus castus) in tincuture form from Holland & Barratt but am brewing a batch of my own now as it will work out cheaper PLUS it's much more natural/I know there are no hidden pharmaceutical chemicals in it.

If you make herbal infusions you are not risking anything as you are using dried herbs and hot water - nothing more.

Regarding hairiness before I went down the herbal route I had laser hair removal & haven't looked back. Sometimes you have to decide what's important to you & give things a try.

Good luck & don't `just put up with things'!

amus

If hair is the problem you could also look into laser hair removal they seem to have lots of offers for these treatments on sites like Groupon?

rita-rabbit

Hair can be hormonal but also genetic/unlucky.

Word of warning Groupon's deals on laser can be tricky - I abandoned one of those deals when I got burned on my upper lip. I used Skin-clinics & paid for treatments in one block via interest free credit - wish I had done it decades ago as I have always been fighting excess hair(s)!

The Op mentioned sweating - blood tests at the GP is a start but also panic about appearance (unwanted hairs) causes stress & potentially sweating too. No mention was made about periods BUT when I started on agnus castus I noticed sweats initially but they then disappeared.

I really do think natural remedies are a better place to start trying tackling this (am older than OP by the way) as flooding bodies with additional hormones in my opinion is fighting fire with fire.

Agnus castus (vitex) stimulates the pituitary gland to produce the body's own hormones correctly.

Annisele

rita-rabbit wrote: »

I have a friend with diagnosed PCOs who is taking vitex & her periods have normalised. I am taking it now (aka agnus castus) in tincuture form from Holland & Barratt but am brewing a batch of my own now as it will work out cheaper PLUS it's much more natural/I know there are no hidden pharmaceutical chemicals in it.

If you make herbal infusions you are not risking anything as you are using dried herbs and hot water - nothing more.

But herbs do have chemicals in them; they're made of chemicals. Even water is a chemical!

Wikipedia says that Vitex contains, amongst other things, flavonoids, alkaloids, diterpenoids, vitexin, casticin and steroidal hormone precursors.

Something like aconite is entirely natural, and is used in various traditional Chinese remedies. It does have genuinely beneficial medical properties. It'll also kill you in minutes if you overdose on the stuff, and you need a *tiny* amount to overdose.

OP - please go back to your GP. For most healthy people eating a healthy diet, vitamin supplements are unnecessary. If you're not a healthy person, then you may well need to supplement your diet - but there's no point taking supplements for one vitamin if you're actually deficient in a different one.

rita-rabbit

Annisele wrote: »

But herbs do have chemicals in them; they're made of chemicals. Even water is a chemical!

Wikipedia says that Vitex contains, amongst other things, flavonoids, alkaloids, diterpenoids, vitexin, casticin and steroidal hormone precursors.

Something like aconite is entirely natural, and is used in various traditional Chinese remedies. It does have genuinely beneficial medical properties. It'll also kill you in minutes if you overdose on the stuff, and you need a *tiny* amount to overdose.

OP - please go back to your GP. For most healthy people eating a healthy diet, vitamin supplements are unnecessary. If you're not a healthy person, then you may well need to supplement your diet - but there's no point taking supplements for one vitamin if you're actually deficient in a different one.

herbal infusions are not vitamin supplements and are much safer/more natural. It's good to discuss things however but not good to scare people unnecessarily.

OP - do go back to your GP to get confirmation of your physical symptoms. However do not EXPECT traditional medicine to cure your symptoms - for one thing NHS rationing is rife now & you may well be told "it's your age you will have to live with it/accept these developments as natural" or, in my opinion worse have HRT :eek: suggested/recommended which is basically flooding your body with artificial hormones to `control' it.
I think doing some research of your own is not bad advice & it worked for me.

A_Phoenix_of_Tangerine

I always wonder in these debates, why people automatically think something being "more natural" means that it can do no wrong?

There are plenty of "natural" things (arsnic, certain fungi species, etc etc etc) that are very harmful or even deadly when consumed; medicines on the other hand have been specially formulated over very many years to cure and treat thousands of ailments (and generally if you die due to the medicine alone, you're a very unlucky anomaly!)

Just some food for thought. Modern medicine after all has developed off the back of old herbalism practices, and shouldn't be shunned in the misconception that "natural" is somehow superior...

Ames

You have my sympathy. I'm 31 and over the last year or so I've started growing a beard. I've also just found the first hair of a moustache. Why is it that I was warned two decades or so ago that I was about to start growing hair in unusual places, but no-one mentioned it starts again later!

In my case I think (hope) it's connected to having the Mirena coil fitted two years ago as the problems seem to have started then. I'm going to ask at my next checkup.

Can I just point out though that I've had threads pulled in the past when I've asked about vitamin supplements as they deemed it to be health advice.

conradmum

rita-rabbit wrote: »

herbal infusions are not vitamin supplements and are much safer/more natural. It's good to discuss things however but not good to scare people unnecessarily.

OP - do go back to your GP to get confirmation of your physical symptoms. However do not EXPECT traditional medicine to cure your symptoms - for one thing NHS rationing is rife now & you may well be told "it's your age you will have to live with it/accept these developments as natural" or, in my opinion worse have HRT :eek: suggested/recommended which is basically flooding your body with artificial hormones to `control' it.
I think doing some research of your own is not bad advice & it worked for me.

Sorry, but this is complete rubbish. Herbs are not safer than conventional medicine. Herbs are untested for safety and their active ingredients can vary hugely from plant to plant, so you cannot control dosage.

There is a herb that was once commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine but is now banned because it can cause kidney failure and urinary tract cancer.

Herbs are not safer because they're 'more natural'.