I followed the Dr. John Lee’s 3 Rules of Hormone Balance to get well.  Dr. Lee wrote the best-selling books, “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause” and “Dr. Lee’s Hormone Balance Made Simple.”

Below are Dr. Lee’s Rules of Hormone Balance:

Rule #1: Take Progesterone Only if you Need It (If you have clear symptoms or your levels are measurably low). *Click here for Dr. Lee’s low progesterone symptoms list.

Rule #2: Take Bioidentical Progesterone Instead of Synthetic Progestins

and

Rule #3: Take Progesterone in Physiological Amounts Only.

I discovered I needed progesterone based on my symptoms. I read through Dr. Lee’s progesterone deficiency list and I realized I had most of the symptoms! Headaches:  check.  Fibrocystic breasts:  check.  Fatigue:  check, check, check!  It was clear my body needed progesterone.

I also have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), this is a syndrome where ovulation doesn’t occur regularly.  If there is no ovulation, progesterone isn’t produced.  So taking progesterone made sense to me.

You don’t have to have PCOS to have a progesterone deficiency.  You could have luteal insufficiency.  Luteal insufficiency is a condition where you ovulate, but progesterone production is still inadequate.  If you have PCOS or luteal insufficiency, you may experience heavy menstrual cramps and/or heavy menstrual bleeding.  Fertility problems are also common.

So how can you tell if you need progesterone?  Take a look at the “progesterone-deficient” symptom list found here. And discuss these symptoms with a doctor who has experience correcting hormone imbalances.

If you don’t know a doctor who does this type of work, try contacting your local compounding pharmacy.  Many compounding pharmacies keep an associated list of doctors who use their pharmacy.  Ask your local compounding specialist to refer you to a doctor who prescribes progesterone and specifically to one that works with people with mood disorders.

To find the compounding pharmacy nearest you, contact the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacies at www.iacprx.org or you can call their toll free referral line at 1-800-927-4227.

If you are taking medications, keep taking your medications as prescribed and work on getting your hormones balanced at the same time. Only your prescribing doctor can wean you off of your medications if and when appropriate.

Continue to educate yourself about hormone balance.  Read all you can.  The more you know, the more confident you will feel when you approach your doctor.

Best of luck to you!

Doris

Please become a fan on my “Curing Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia” Facebook fan page. I have more updates there than I do here. Check me out!

I receive lots of emails.  Some of the most common questions I receive are: ”Were you really sick?”  “Did you really have bipolar disorder?”  “Maybe you think you were sick.”  “People don’t recover from mental illness.”  ”Do they????”

I understand people’s disbelief.  I haven’t met scores of people who have recovered from mental illness.  Many of the people I meet with mental illness are talking out their heads.  Walking with plastic grocery bags filled with nothing.  Wearing wool overcoats in 100 degree weather.  Taking cough syrup to sleep.  Drinking beer to survive.  Smoking cigarettes to calm their nerves.

The people I see with mental illness aren’t thriving like the ones I see in abilify and cymbalta commercials.

So I understand the doubt.

But I had bipolar disorder.

I had the highs and lows.  There were times when I felt on top of the world. I could do no wrong.  My mind was so powerful, magic, strong, one-of-a-kind.  It was wonderful.  No one had thoughts like mine.

I was manic.

And then there were lows.  The times I dreamed of dying. The times I believed only death would free me from my suffering.  The days I planned to have a child.  I needed someone who needed me to live.  I needed someone to live for.  Because the illness was killing me.

And then there were the voices.  The voices that caused me to sleep with the radio on.  The lights on.  The television on and with both eyes open.  The voices that made me drink vodka until they stopped.  The voices that left me alcohol poisoned.

I understand why people don’t think I wasn’t sick. Because I don’t talk about it.

I wasn’t always taking pictures smiling at the sun. I had sick days.  But I wasn’t taking pictures when I was sick.  I wasn’t blogging or writing.  I was just trying to hold on.

When I first recovered I didn’t want to talk about the time I was sick.  I would cry many times, because I would think of the pain it caused.  Sometimes when I talk about it today I cry.  It’s something I know I’ll never forget.

But I don’t want to give mental illness any more of my time or happiness.  I want to live. And I want others to do the same.  That’s why I blog.  That’s why I wrote the book.  I’m not out to con or deceive people.  I’m out to spread that word that recovery from mental illness is possible.  Especially if it’s caused by a hormone imbalance.

I get lots of mail and emails.  And one of the most common questions I receive is, “How can you be certain hormone balance will help others to recover from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia?  Just because it helped you don’t mean it will help everyone else.”

Believe me.  I understand this logic.  I felt the same way.

Initially, I thought my recovery was a fluke.  But as I begin to tell my story, I ran into others who were just like me.

And so I started to do research.  And I learned that hormone balance is essential to everyone’s mental health.  Just as oxygen is needed for us to breathe.  Hormone balance is needed for our happiness and sanity.

The more I read about progesterone, the more I was amazed by it.

I learned it wasn’t just a pregnancy hormone.  It was so much more.

Progesterone, along with estrogen, helps our brain cells send and receive clear messages.  It does this by helping the brain maintain healthy levels of sodium and potassium—which is essential for healthy cell function.

Progesterone is also a natural regulator of our bodies dopamine, serotonin and other neurotransmitter systems.

Progesterone does what so many psychotropic medications try to do—it restores mental health.

Here is a link to other roles progesterone and estrogen have in the body.

So do you think you have an imbalance?  Are there any tests for it?

Well– yes and no.  Yes, you can take a test to have your hormone levels tested, but it may not be useful.  If your hormones are so out of whack that you are hearing voices or seeing things or having suicidal thoughts, chances are your levels might be too low to be helped by testing.

Also, blood tests are commonly used to measure estrogen and progesterone.  And as Dr. Lee pointed out theses tests aren’t the best measures to use when trying to check hormone levels because blood is a watery substance and progesterone and estrogen are fatty substances.  When progesterone and estrogen are in the blood stream they aren’t “hanging loose.”  They are often bound to protein hitching a ride through the body.  So when you have an actual blood test for estrogen and progesterone, you are getting a measurement for hormones not bound to protein.  These “unbound” proteins may or not be available for the brain and other tissues to use.  Because it’s impossible to know which portion of them will end up in the brain, it’s not the best measure to use.

If you must have a blood test, a good test to have is a test that measures your follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) levels.  LH and FSH regulate progesterone production, so imbalances in these hormones are often strong indicators of other imbalances.

The absolute best way to determine if you have a progesterone deficiency is to check your symptoms.  That’s how I found out I had an imbalance.

The late Dr. John Lee did a fine job of compiling a list of common progesterone deficiency symptoms.  The list can be found here.  In the list Dr. Lee has the heading “estrogen dominance.”  Estrogen dominance and progesterone deficiency can be used interchangeably.  When there is not sufficient progesterone in the body, estrogen “dominates” which cause all types of disease and illness.

If you find that you have many of the symptoms on this list you should contact a doctor in your community who specializes in hormone balance.  This may or may not be a psychiatrist.

Make sure if you are taking psychiatric medications, that you continue to take your medications as prescribed until you are able to balance your hormones and your health is restored.  Once this happens, hopefully you can be weaned off your medications with the help of your prescribing doctor.

I’ve said a lot in this post.  And there is much more to be said on this topic.

But this is a start.  We have to start facing our fears.  We have to face this illness head on and address it.  It can be done.  Hormones can be balanced.  Mental health can be restored.

Medical professionals have known for years that progesterone modulates mood.  In June 1987, Drs. Guy Chouinard, Susanne Steinberg and Warren Steiner  found progesterone to be an effective mood stabilizer for women with bipolar disorder.  The women they treated were resistant to lithium and tryptophan therapy.  They published their findings in a letter to the editor in the American Journal of Psychiatry.  You can download their letter here. Click “Begin manual download” to view.

Dr. Rodrigo Dias and his colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital have found that hormones influence mood.  The researchers found premenstrual mood changes cause more severe symptoms and depressive episodes in women with bipolar disorder.

The study explains how estrogen and other reproductive hormones influence mood through their action on the brain.

This study was recently published in the online edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry on February 15.

The abstract of the article can be found here.

You can purchase the article here.

Hormones influence our mental health.