My Lady Has BRUTAL Period Symptoms and Needs Help

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She is 26, and I try to keep our diets as Peaty as convenient...we are both super busy and cheat sometimes. She has always had excruciating pain from her period. Most recently, she has become so nauseous that she throws up. This has happened the past 2 months in a row. Other symptoms include a heavy flow, horrible cramping to the point where she can barely move, diarrhea, and tension headaches. She has a lot of problems with her digestion during this time of the month. Any ladies out there have success alleviating these symptoms, or anyone at all have some advice? It has to be hormonal problems, I would assume, since it coordinates with her period, unless she has some rare problem like a tilted uterus or something else. I feel so bad for her because she has a HIGH pain threshold, and every month, she is in tears from pain. Thanks for any tips
 

charlie

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From my understanding, most period symptoms are from too much estrogen. Of course like you said something else could be an issue. Progesterone directly opposes estrogen. Peat says to dose the progesterone until the symptoms are gone.
 
OP
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Thanks Charlie! I had read other ladies posts on here on the matter, but didn't see anyone with nausea or vomiting. She obviously wants to see a doctor about the issue, but her insurance doesn't kick in until April. I thought it was estrogen problems as well after all the time I have spent reading here. It took me a while to embrace the advice Peat gives on diet, and she is slowly coming around, but we were the people that thought dairy and added sugar were terrible so all of this has gone against our previous beliefs. She is a hair stylist and we live in the epicenter of the Vegan religion in Asheville North Carolina, so girls are always telling her to juice greens, eat raw, dairy bad lettuce good kind of stuff. I can't tell her what to do, but have much more success lightly mentioning suggestions and the science behind them and she becomes intrigued.
 

charlie

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When I hear nausea the first thing I think of is liver. I wonder if her liver is just so overloaded from the estrogen that its causing the nausea.

Hopefully some of the ladies will chime in soon.
 
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If it is a liver thing, another symptom she has is TERRIBLE hangovers. She used to be able to drink whatever she wanted, and now she has to be extremely careful with how much she drinks, and her pace or she is useless the next day. She drank 3 ciders one night and was hungover for 15 hours. She weighs about 140 so it wasn't like she was wasted by any means.
 

Shrimp

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She could look into trying Vitex. It is an herb that stimulates progesterone production. It takes a few months to kick in, though. Progest-E might be better for short-term relief, taken days 14-28 in the cycle.
 

Poppyseed13

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Hello. Just a few thoughts: the most striking thing to me in your post is that your girlfriend works as a hair stylist. If she works at a salon then she is probably inundated with lots of chemicals that mimic estrogen. Her body might be overloaded with estrogens, xenoestrogens (please google xenoestrogens and hair salons).

I am guessing that her liver is sluggish--it is overwhelmed with all the estrogens (natural and synthetic) that she is trying to get rid of (I know she needs some estrogen). I would think something like Milk Thistle --liquid, not capsules) daily for a minimum of 3 months--and remember herbs work slowly. And maybe Calcium D-glucarate. These might help her excrete excessive amounts of estrogen as well as support the liver.
I wouldn't eat anything with soy in it--soy functions as a phytoestrogen.

I heartily encourage the carrot salad that RP recommends just to keep things moving out without reabsorption in the gut.

Much good luck, cheers,
Poppyseed13
 
OP
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Very informative! Thank You! She works in a really nice salon that uses as close to natural ingredients as possible so at least she has that going for her. We have greatly reduced (I have eliminated) soy. She has a little Tamari from time to time. Milk Thistle and Calcium D-glucarte eh? I'll look into that!
 

SQu

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What's helped my pms and nausea : coffee ( not what I felt like but so glad I cautiously persevered) eggs and liver ( ditto), vitamin e, b6, ice cream, vitex. Nausea has been long term companion, also migraine, also hangovers ( after 1 drink or even none) so I feel for her but tell her it can be beaten!
 

SQu

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also - when nauseous you under eat which makes things worse - so LOTS of ice cream!
 

5magicbeans

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This is a tough spot to be in :(

This is what helped to regulate things the most for me:

Aspirin
b 6
progest - e
more protein i.e. milk, cottage cheese.

I would also check into cyproheptadine and doxylamine succinate..there could be a serotonin issue.

from a post by Mastemah - "He likes doxylamine succinate. In addition to its anti histamine effects when combined w B6 it helps morning sickness. Why is this cool? The theory on morning sickness is that it's too much serotonin in the small intestine causing spasms."

I realize this refers to "morning sickness" but based on my experience it was all related.

HTH
 

honeybee

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For estrogen dominance-progest e until symptoms go away and also daily carrot salad. For the alcohol issue- I always drink some sort of fruit juice (usually oj) after I have alcohol. It helps liver process the alcohol.
 

aguilaroja

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This sounds like a situation of estrogen excess. Many good suggestions are already listed. (General disclaimer: we don't know all specifics. These guidelines are for general discussion only.)

First thing, if she is taking oral contraceptives, it would be best to stop promptly. That is, find an alternative (validated) method. Oral contraceptives have very strong estrogenic effects. Sometimes the effects of past oral contraceptive use linger for many years if there is little metabolic support. It's excellent that y'all have cut down on soy.

As Dr. Peat has frequently pointed out, estrogen (or the estrogen effect of lowering thyroid function) will make liver function sluggish. There are numerous good liver support measures. But the guess here is that the high estrogen effect is upstream.

As "Shrimp" mentions, the Progest-E/Kenogen product is a very good delivery vehicle for natural progesterone, to relieve the high estrogen effects. The Progest-E oil compares favorably with other "natural progesterone" formulations, whether OTC or not. Start with 3 to 4 drops in the evenings, during the second half of the cycle.

Among the supportive factors, adequate protein and generous amounts of salt both in cooking & as a condiment is encouraged. In trendy health "lifestyle" locales like Asheville, these measures may be out of fashion. (No knock on Ashville. It's a marvelous part of the world.)
 
OP
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Awesome sueq! Would you mind sharing your regimen you used to get you out of that terrible place? How did you figure all that out? Your own research?! Doctor? I do good experimenting on myself, but I am weary to experiment on her!
 
OP
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aguilaroja said:
This sounds like a situation of estrogen excess. Many good suggestions are already listed. (General disclaimer: we don't know all specifics. These guidelines are for general discussion only.)

First thing, if she is taking oral contraceptives, it would be best to stop promptly. That is, find an alternative (validated) method. Oral contraceptives have very strong estrogenic effects. Sometimes the effects of past oral contraceptive use linger for many years if there is little metabolic support. It's excellent that y'all have cut down on soy.

As Dr. Peat has frequently pointed out, estrogen (or the estrogen effect of lowering thyroid function) will make liver function sluggish. There are numerous good liver support measures. But the guess here is that the high estrogen effect is upstream.

As "Shrimp" mentions, the Progest-E/Kenogen product is a very good delivery vehicle for natural progesterone, to relieve the high estrogen effects. The Progest-E oil compares favorably with other "natural progesterone" formulations, whether OTC or not. Start with 3 to 4 drops in the evenings, during the second half of the cycle.

Among the supportive factors, adequate protein and generous amounts of salt both in cooking & as a condiment is encouraged. In trendy health "lifestyle" locales like Asheville, these measures may be out of fashion. (No knock on Ashville. It's a marvelous part of the world.)

Wow...I'm learning so much! I understand I shouldn't just take all of this as THE ANSWER and go experiment on her...don't worry. She wouldn't let me do that. Let me just say how grateful she was to see so many strangers offering advice that could change her life. We are both truly grateful! So Progest-e oil is what to look into? What does the OTC part mean? She already craves salt, and uses quite a bit of it in cooking and as a condiment ;)
 
OP
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5magicbeans said:
This is a tough spot to be in :(

This is what helped to regulate things the most for me:

Aspirin
b 6
progest - e
more protein i.e. milk, cottage cheese.

I would also check into cyproheptadine and doxylamine succinate..there could be a serotonin issue.

from a post by Mastemah - "He likes doxylamine succinate. In addition to its anti histamine effects when combined w B6 it helps morning sickness. Why is this cool? The theory on morning sickness is that it's too much serotonin in the small intestine causing spasms."

I realize this refers to "morning sickness" but based on my experience it was all related.

HTH

Is the aspirin a regular thing? She would need some convincing to do that. Is b6 hard to get from diet alone? She has really bad reactions to shellfish which I have heard could be a histamine response, so the doxy could be helpful? Do doctors have to prescribe these kind of things?
 

5magicbeans

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Yes. Aspirin is a regular thing for me and I'm pretty sure many others here. Up to 2000 mg a day (non-coated, dissolved in water). B vitamins can come from eating liver or supplement. doxylamine succinate is available otc. Dan's website toxinless.com is great for learning which supplement brands have the least additives/excipients.
 

SQu

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I'm not out of the woods yet - it's a journey and trying to understand in as much depth as possible is the key. It's a bumpy journey too. My regimen is simply as peaty as possible plus listening to your body, adjusting, backing off a bit sometimes, keeping an open mind, being really well informed whenever you walk into your doctor's office. RP 's articles - even on seemingly unrelated topics. The people here are very helpful and supportive.
 
OP
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Quick update on her. So everything started to subside about a day ago. She made us some chicken breast, well cooked rice, and well steamed broccoli with butter all over it. Next day she noticed her flow stopped, she had an egg, oj, a tiny bit of yogurt, some GF granola, and some berries and went to work. She felt fine most of the day and didn't get a chance to take a lunch break till around 3pm. She came home and re-heated some of the dinner we had, and went back to work. A little after that, she got terrible stomach pains and felt like she was going to sh*^ herself and then was followed by extreme nausea and felt on the verge of vomiting for hours. She is a complex creature!
 

Blossom

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If I may suggest some reading on the subject I would start with Ray Peat's articles: Progesterone summaries and Progesterone deceptions. If you have already seen these please disregard. If you have not they do help build a firm foundation for understanding how Progest-e can help. Some people do opt for uninterrupted use for a while when problems are severe enough to warrant messing with the cycle. This is obviously a very personal decision that only she can make. I would check out RP's estrogen related articles while your at it, can't hurt! I am not advising just pointing out some options, hope you don't mind.
 

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