Help For Endometriosis

[angelina]

Hi Everyone,
I am trying to help my 21 year old daughter who was recently diagnosed with endometriosis. To give some background, she has never had trouble with her menstrual cycles other than some irregularity in the early years. We have eaten a very clean diet for the last decade (no GMO, dye, gluten, best meats we could afford)We have transitioned into a more Peat friendly diet over the last year and a half. She has been reluctant to add much sugar in her diet and still enjoys salads more frequently than I would like....She has a history of tampon use.
Two months ago she had an episode of pain on the first day of her cycle that landed us in the ER. They gave her morphine and sent us home with an order to follow up with an OB/GYN. We did this and he sent her to a fertility specialist to consult with for surgery. We pushed for labs to no avail, and so we paid for our own panel outright. Here are some values:
Free T4-2.1
T3 reverse-12
T3 uptake-29
T3 free-2.8
T3 total-107
T4 total-7.4
T4 free- 1.0
Thyroglobulin antibodies <1
Thyroid peroxidase antibodies 2
Glucose- 85
Estradiol- 125
Estrone- 98
Progesterone-5.7
Her vitamin D was low at 24, and we are supplementing that now.
She has always, and still does, have lower iron values.

This suddenly is affecting her bowls, and gives her trouble when even urinating. I am not necessarily against surgery, but am afraid of the mainstream medical community pushing a hysterectomy. I have ordered Progest E, but am not sure if it is needed in this case because here levels seem to be in range? Maybe I'm missing something? She says that it hurts her endometriosis when she eats meat? We have been pushing a few more eggs onto her and encouraging seafood and milk. We are shutting off Wifi when it isn't needed for late night schoolwork and such. She has reluctantly given up tampons and switched to natural products.
She has switched out one of her jobs as a lifeguard to avoid more exposure to chlorine. She has two brothers diagnosed with Autism, so immune issues are not out of the question given our whole family's health.

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts related to her lab values or suggestions for us to help her along further. Any experiences would be valuable for us. Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[HDD]

East West: Energy And Metabolism

Josh Rubin: Do you think endometriosis is more of the inability to be classified as excess estrogen versus a low progesterone?

Dr. Ray Peat: Yes, it involves the liver and the pituitary but estrogen is very central to the actual lesion or abnormal tissue of the endometriosis. Simply by reducing estrogen exposure, you can alleviate the symptoms of endometriosis The cells begin producing estrogen, they contain the express the enzyme aromatase which manufactures estrogen which they used to think existent only in the ovary, then it turned out to exist in fat cells, breast cells, skin cells, bone and muscle everywhere that's under stress will begin to produce estrogen molecules. And when that happens in the endometrial tissue, it should be exposed to estrogen for only about 12 hours each month and then progesterone should surge up to 50 or 100 times higher concentration and cause the cells to give up their production of estrogen and release what they had. But instead of that the aromatase keeps turning out estrogen and the estrogen excites the tissue turns on these cyclooxygenase enzyme which turns polyunsaturated fatty acids into prostaglandins creating inflammation that causes the pain, contractions and all of the symptoms, and the inflammation from the prostaglandin in turn creates more aromatase and so it gets a vicious cycle going. And the simplest most physiological way to stop it is to eat a diet with adequate protein and sugar and trace minerals and vitamins but to make sure your thyroid is functioning. I've seen people who had been constantly for months or years suffering painful endometriosis who in two or three days completely stop the symptom permanently just with quick acting thyroid and a good diet and aspirin or other blockers of prostaglandins production it all by themselves can greatly reduce the formation of estrogen and break the cycle.

 

[Miguel]

Her Vitamin D is low yet I assume she gets plenty of sun b/c she is/was a lifeguard? Low Vitamin D or 25(OH)D (which is the test they usually do) can be caused from not enough calcium in the diet so supplementing Vitamin D might not be the wisest thing. Check out this short ~5min video of pHD Chris Masterjohn discussing this very topic.


My former sister-in-law had endometriosis and she had already had multiple surgeries before I started to give her advice. Progest-E was one of the things she did that helped a lot and AFAIK, she hasn't had a surgery since.

 

[Luann]

I have period pains that probably can be classed as endometriosis, and dairy makes them especially bad. I think it has something to do with stomach acid, not making enough. Sometimes soft drinks with their little bit of acid help the pain, but not always.
During my period I usually throw up. It's painful the whole day, through my thighs, back, and bikini line. Not sure if this is what she has.

 

[angelina]

Her Vitamin D is low yet I assume she gets plenty of sun b/c she is/was a lifeguard? Low Vitamin D or 25(OH)D (which is the test they usually do) can be caused from not enough calcium in the diet so supplementing Vitamin D might not be the wisest thing. Check out this short ~5min video of pHD Chris Masterjohn discussing this very topic.


My former sister-in-law had endometriosis and she had already had multiple surgeries before I started to give her advice. Progest-E was one of the things she did that helped a lot and AFAIK, she hasn't had a surgery since.

Thank you. That was an interesting video and something that I hadn't fully considered. When my D was low, I just supped and it shot up. I think I had a biased perspective. I was baffled at the amount of time that she spent in the sun versus those levels. This offered another avenue of investigation and I am always open to labs. That is great new about your sister in law. I'm a little nervous about the Progest E, but were going to forge ahead. Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

[angelina]

I have period pains that probably can be classed as endometriosis, and dairy makes them especially bad. I think it has something to do with stomach acid, not making enough. Sometimes soft drinks with their little bit of acid help the pain, but not always.
During my period I usually throw up. It's painful the whole day, through my thighs, back, and bikini line. Not sure if this is what she has.

No, she has excruciating vaginal pain and bowel spasms during her period and even sometimes when she doesn't have her period. Sadly, she ate a fast food egg sandwich the other day, came home crying, and had to use a heating pad for two hours to bring down the pain. She only tolerates eggs from the farmer....
It is interesting that you mention stomach acid as I found it curious that meat is such a problem for her. I suffer from low HCl and use Betaine HCL myself.
I will see if a soft drink helps her. Thanks for posting and the tip.

 

[angelina]

East West: Energy And Metabolism

Josh Rubin: Do you think endometriosis is more of the inability to be classified as excess estrogen versus a low progesterone?

Dr. Ray Peat: Yes, it involves the liver and the pituitary but estrogen is very central to the actual lesion or abnormal tissue of the endometriosis. Simply by reducing estrogen exposure, you can alleviate the symptoms of endometriosis The cells begin producing estrogen, they contain the express the enzyme aromatase which manufactures estrogen which they used to think existent only in the ovary, then it turned out to exist in fat cells, breast cells, skin cells, bone and muscle everywhere that's under stress will begin to produce estrogen molecules. And when that happens in the endometrial tissue, it should be exposed to estrogen for only about 12 hours each month and then progesterone should surge up to 50 or 100 times higher concentration and cause the cells to give up their production of estrogen and release what they had. But instead of that the aromatase keeps turning out estrogen and the estrogen excites the tissue turns on these cyclooxygenase enzyme which turns polyunsaturated fatty acids into prostaglandins creating inflammation that causes the pain, contractions and all of the symptoms, and the inflammation from the prostaglandin in turn creates more aromatase and so it gets a vicious cycle going. And the simplest most physiological way to stop it is to eat a diet with adequate protein and sugar and trace minerals and vitamins but to make sure your thyroid is functioning. I've seen people who had been constantly for months or years suffering painful endometriosis who in two or three days completely stop the symptom permanently just with quick acting thyroid and a good diet and aspirin or other blockers of prostaglandins production it all by themselves can greatly reduce the formation of estrogen and break the cycle.

Thank you for posting. I am looking at her protein levels and will pick this apart. I'm really hoping the Progest E makes a difference.

 

[Luann]

No, she has excruciating vaginal pain and bowel spasms during her period and even sometimes when she doesn't have her period. Sadly, she ate a fast food egg sandwich the other day, came home crying, and had to use a heating pad for two hours to bring down the pain. She only tolerates eggs from the farmer....
It is interesting that you mention stomach acid as I found it curious that meat is such a problem for her. I suffer from low HCl and use Betaine HCL myself.
I will see if a soft drink helps her. Thanks for posting and the tip.

So sorry for her!! That sounds awful and I hope you find something works for her.

 

[Peata]

I used to get bowel spasms that would wake me in the night and keep me in agony. I would eat some salt or baking soda, and it calmed it down. It's been a while since this happened, but I think the sodium make the pain stop within 20 min or less.