estrogen and me.
 

I had a surgical menopause many years ago. After the removal of my ovaries/uterus I slipped instantly into the heat and it took years to get over. now more than 15 years later, I have been night sweating like no body's business. thru the years I have had many MDs surprised by the removal of my ovaries and after, your skin changes, and other things that normally happen, didnt seem to be affecting me. Two made mention that they bet a peice of my ovary got left behind. I am 48 now, and right in that change range.

I have recently undergone multiple tests to figure out why I am so sweaty. The MD at the end of the tests still has no answer, so he asked me if I had anything to add. I asked for the tiniest bit of estrogen to see if it would have any effect. He ordred it and I took 0.5mg last night and woke up DRY! Wahoo! its amazing how disturbed your sleep can be when you are drenched and miserable. I dont just night sweat, I have been day sweating too. The MD feared the worst and had me checked for a lymphoma. Its really rare this far away from a surgical menopause to hit a natural one. Maybe those others MDs were right. Maybe a peice got left.

Anyway you shake it. ONE pill stopped the sweats. Lets see if it continues or if its just a fluke. :cool:

Estrogens are also made in the adrenal glands, fat, and sometimes even muscle.

http://www.menopause-weight-gain.com...ogen_101.shtml

Estrogenlike compounds are now considered common in our environment as pollutants, and we encounter them everywhere. They are thought to be bringing on puberty in girls in some locations as early as 8yrs old (in Michigan which is one example)

All foods contain phytoestrogens, but those are weak compared to human ones.

I am more than 10 yrs past menopause and if I wear the wrong clothing/sleepwear to bed I can have a sweat. Sweats come also with caffeine, low blood sugar situations, and if you take NSAIDs or aspirin.

I found it possible to reduce sweating by using fabrics that breathe, and keeping my hair shorter, and off my neck. ( for example, no more flannel, even in really cold weather, and no more sweatshirt fabrics to bed). The test fabrics are waffle weave type, and tank type tops, even with AC. The new long underwear I've discovered at WalMart is very thin, and adequate for sleeping when temps are say below 60...I thought they were "cheezy" but in fact are perfect for being warm but avoiding sweating. I only use the upper. None of them are glamorous, sort of like how my shoes have become for me with PN too... but they fix the problems well. When it gets really cold, I use leg warmers instead of socks to bed.

There are some medications that cause sweating too, like SSRIs. And Cymbalta and its cousins...which are mixed norepi and serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Opiates for pain cause sweating too.

Of course sweating my indicate an inflammatory situation in your body...I'd get a c-reactive protein level done to see if you have major problems. With your GI challenges you might find that marker elevated in your case...which would be a huge cause of sweating.

I had surgical hyserectomy; complete at the age of 30. They put me on estratest for 8 years then on estragen. I have sweat outbreaks from time to time. Not sure what to think either. I wonder too if I will go thru 'regular menopause' though they tell me I won't. It seems like I am currently going thru it. Do not know what to think.

After reading what you wrote Mrs. D it has made me rethink a few things as to what we put into our bodies.

Things in life are very strange in the medical field.

Everyone should be very mindful of what goes into their bodies.....via the food we eat or the medications we take.

Unless you're eating organic veggies and fruit, milk and meat that has not been treated with growth hormones and antibiotics you really have no idea how many pesticides and additives you're ingesting. Many of them can cause sx such as excessive sweating and other metabolic disturbances.

With milk, you'd be shocked at the growth hormone that's given to cows in order to produce more milk. Same with chickens to grow fatter and larger in record time. If they get it.....and then you eat it.....then you get it, too. And they wonder why young girls are hitting puberty at 8?? :rolleyes:

UGH! I just came home from a jewelery party at a friends house, and I was sweaty, hot, flushed and generally didnt feel well. I had pinned great hopes on estrogen to fix this, but it appears as tho I may have to keep hunting. I wont quit after just one dose, but today was a hum dinger.

Simply cant figure out what is causing this. I have a clean diet. My hair was just cut short, and i wear cotton fabrics. Actually i have on a sleeveless shirt today when others were wearing sweaters. It felt like I had an oven inside me. not that I was reacting to any outside influence, the heat comes from within.

im tired of this. :o

There is one other cause I forgot...

Elevated thyroid. So do get that checked out the next time you give blood for testing.

Dej, do you consume alot of soy products?

my thyroid is fine, and I dont eat soy.

im stumped. :confused:

My TSH was 1.279 last year and I wasn't having sweat attacks then, so maybe i'll get it rechecked. C-reactive protein is new to me do guys have issues with it? I know blood psi sure can make a person sweat but mines 90-100/60. I take prazosin (minipress) 2mg 5x/day to control spikes from autonomicdysreflexia (guessing spelling) due to my mostly complete c6 1/2 spinal cord injury. I started taking a estrogen a few months back but sweating started a month before. I asked my Dr if major pain i cant feel would do it and he didn't know. I think yes since hot coffee on my lap on time made me sweat. Dej whats your blood psi? and .5mg must be some strong estrogen. I tried estriol 4mg (for MS & it didn't help) now I take 4mg progesterone cause the estriol cut the prog level in 1/2. You may need to be taking progesterone with the estrogen. I had the prog checked cause I read somewhere if your bod doesnt have to make estrogen, it doesnt make prog (so I read) and proved true for me.

Edit - actually the 1st time I had these sweat attacks from sitting still was after my 1st ever IVSM. Was soaked!

Dej, you must get soy in some foods. Even restaurants.

I am allergic to it (major hives and throat swells and closes) and every package in the super market has either, soy protein, soy flour, soybean oil, some cellulose is soy, some glycerin is soy, some Mono and Dyglyserides (sp?) can be soy. Fiber or protein bars. Ensure drinks and other drinks for nutrition.

All salad dressings in a bottle, mayonnaise, some margarines, all packaged breads too. So I make my own cookies, breads, cakes, etc. Read labels you'll see it.

That, IMO, is why men are getting man-boobs, and losing their head hair so much earlier than any of the last generations ever did. It overrides the male hormones.

Women don't need it unless they had a hysterectomy, and I did at 32 too. I had 70 hot flashes a day. Horrible. So I took Estrogen. Some don't need it. Without a Uterus you don't need progesterone at all.

When they took me off it, I took thirty days to get the 70 flashes back. I went on it again. It takes about 30 days for any med to start working proper in your body. JMO

Natural or unnatural Menapause. The heat comes up from the bottom and works it's way up the body until you break out in a drenching sweat. You want ot run and take your clothes off, rip off your pantyhose if working, you can't stop the feeling wtihout Estrogen replacement.

Whew! I feel for you Dej. :( Remember when I was going through the "change" (HA!) I'd be sleeping so well and all of a sudden the heat would start building until I'd throw off all the covers and whip off my T-shirt! Unbelievable!

Doesn't our MS cause our internal thermostats to go crazy? I wonder if that has anything to do with this? Good luck finding a way to chill! :)

We dont normally eat at restaurants. Maybe once a month or two we eat at a local place that makes home made food. I may be getting soy in there some where, but 99% of what I eat is home made by my hands.

my CRP or C reactive protien is always above 10 and has been known to bump 18. Its a measure of inflammation in your body, and they use it on normal folks to measure your risk of heart attack and stroke. If you have sprained your ankle it will soar, or if you have MS it will soar. under 5 is optimal. 7 to 9 and they put you at high risk for an event. over 10 they start to consider other factors like a fracture, arthritis, or MS.

For the last few days this whole hot/cold thing has swung out of control. Im hot enough to sweat, then 10 mins later I am cold enough to have goose bumps and chills. bizarre! then again, we are talking about me tho.

I just did a huge battery of blood tests and all were normal. My thyroid is flat and even. my LFTs were normal, my white/red counts all normal. my chest xray was normal. My urine test was normal. They even cultured it to be sure. I am wondering if my body isnt just over reacting to a bug after being on copaxone for 3 years, and now being off of it. I wonder if my body isnt learning how to balance.

ok, now im hot...:(

That is a really high C-reactive protein!

Mine jumped from .5 to 1.5 during a root canal procedure!
My doctor was alarmed. She says anything over 1.0 is serious.

One can reduce C-reactive protein with Vit C!
Here is a study on that:
Eating smaller meals, more often may help. This controls insulin release. Avoidance of sugar, caffeine, alcohol may help with sweating too. See if eating a small protein dense snack (with low carb content) before bedtime, helps some. That would point you in the metabolic direction.

Heavy sweating may be:
1) hormonal
2) metabolic (pancreas, thyroid)
3) dietary (sugar highs/lows)
4) inflammatory/infectious
5) drug induced -- many drugs cause sweating

Dej,
Maybe you are thinking of the ESR test, not the C-Reactive Protein test. The ESR blood test, stands for erythrocyte sedimentation rate. It is a test that indirectly measures how much inflammation is in the body. That level can vary to the numbers you quoted.

I have had 7, and at one point 78 ESR, then 29 another time, all in the past.

My CRP was normal, the two times I was tested for it, again in the past.

Just a thought.:)

nope, my ESR is 37.
My CRP is 14 last check. (my md assures me its MS inflammation causing this)


btw, it turns out that our house had a bug of some sort. Hubby is crabbing about being hot/cold/hot/cold/sweaty/shakey...so, I am giving this a few more days.

I did notice last night, while I woke hot, I was not drenched in sweat. That was a pleasant change. I am going to hold out hope that estrogen replacement in such a tiny dose will fix me right up. its just wierd to go this long with no estrogen only to find myself changing at the right time. I wonder if all that endometrial tissue spread out in my tummy is holding onto estrogens from foods. weird, weird weird.

I would just like to add: .5mg (500mcg) is not a tiny dose.

Estradiol comes orally in .5mg (500mcg), 1mg and 2mg for hormone replacement. .5mg just happens to be the smallest of the 3 doses used for hormone replacement. The patches for this drug bypass the liver and are much lower in dose. They are in the microgram range.

Compared to most birth control pills which have about .035mg of estradiol which is 35mcg. (Ortho Cyclen) or like the newer Yaz which is 20mcg, and LoEstrin which is 20mcg also.

I believe that the .5mg dose is a considerable amount of potent estrogen (estradiol is the most potent biologically active form).