Post natal hormone crash/ depression

Hayley

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In 2019 I gave birth to my son, and never felt quite right since. The two years prior to giving birth to my son I was thriving. Good mood, good mental energy, glowing skin, luscious hair, etc. that has never quite recovered.
In June (2021) I had a miscarriage and absolutely crashed afterwards. Depression worse than I’ve had in my early 20s (I’m 29). Anxiety attacks. No mental energy. No ability or desire to engage in relationships. Extremely emotionally fragile. Hair falling out. Oddly enough I still have energy for physical activities, such as surfing and weightlifting, but my iq seems tanked compared to before.

I’ve been Peating since early August and I’ve had moments of relief but still very bad depression and mental energy overall. Here’s what I have tried :

-Eating more calories: seems helpful. I’m averaging around 2500 a day.
-carrot salad: awesome for regularity.
-Eating more sugar: not helpful, leads to crashing and more fragile emotional feeling.
-eating oysters and liver: seems to bring a better mood afterwards.
-niacinimide: leads to crashing in the afternoon
-Sun: I live at the beach and get tons of sun, doesn’t seem to help that much.
-shilajit: can’t really tell. Don’t think it did anything
-more salt: helpful for working out and not getting headaches
-progesterone supplementation (suppository)- I’ve been using 100mg 2x a day for the past 4 days. the first day I tried 100 mg prescribed by my OB I felt a moment childlike hopefulness and well-being that I haven’t felt in who knows how long. The last few days have been some of the lowest moods I’ve had since miscarriage. Don’t know if it’s related. I’m using it as recommended with my menstruated cycle, ie after ovulation.

if anyone has anything to suggest I’d be grateful. Feeling a bit desperate at the moment.
 

L_C

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Joined
Aug 17, 2018
Messages
554
In 2019 I gave birth to my son, and never felt quite right since. The two years prior to giving birth to my son I was thriving. Good mood, good mental energy, glowing skin, luscious hair, etc. that has never quite recovered.
In June (2021) I had a miscarriage and absolutely crashed afterwards. Depression worse than I’ve had in my early 20s (I’m 29). Anxiety attacks. No mental energy. No ability or desire to engage in relationships. Extremely emotionally fragile. Hair falling out. Oddly enough I still have energy for physical activities, such as surfing and weightlifting, but my iq seems tanked compared to before.

I’ve been Peating since early August and I’ve had moments of relief but still very bad depression and mental energy overall. Here’s what I have tried :

-Eating more calories: seems helpful. I’m averaging around 2500 a day.
-carrot salad: awesome for regularity.
-Eating more sugar: not helpful, leads to crashing and more fragile emotional feeling.
-eating oysters and liver: seems to bring a better mood afterwards.
-niacinimide: leads to crashing in the afternoon
-Sun: I live at the beach and get tons of sun, doesn’t seem to help that much.
-shilajit: can’t really tell. Don’t think it did anything
-more salt: helpful for working out and not getting headaches
-progesterone supplementation (suppository)- I’ve been using 100mg 2x a day for the past 4 days. the first day I tried 100 mg prescribed by my OB I felt a moment childlike hopefulness and well-being that I haven’t felt in who knows how long. The last few days have been some of the lowest moods I’ve had since miscarriage. Don’t know if it’s related. I’m using it as recommended with my menstruated cycle, ie after ovulation.

if anyone has anything to suggest I’d be grateful. Feeling a bit desperate at the moment.
I'm guessing you must be going through lot of stress. I'm sorry you lost a baby. I can see why you are being depressed.

Progesterone is good but it does have its moments. Have you actually had a hormonal blood work done? It would help.
I would add good b-complex. Hair loss can be also due to low zinc or iron but more complete blood work would help.
 
OP
Hayley

Hayley

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Joined
Sep 15, 2021
Messages
112
Location
United States
I'm guessing you must be going through lot of stress. I'm sorry you lost a baby. I can see why you are being depressed.

Progesterone is good but it does have its moments. Have you actually had a hormonal blood work done? It would help.
I would add good b-complex. Hair loss can be also due to low zinc or iron but more complete blood work would help.
Thank you. Strange as it may sound, I wasn’t too emotionally distraught at the pregnancy loss because I knew almost immediately that something was “wrong” with the pregnancy. Hard to explain, but the hormonal bonding, hunkering down feeling that came with my first pregnancy wasn’t there at all this time. I was almost relieved since it was a very uncomplicated miscarriage and that it resolved itself.
Thank you for your suggestion, I have gotten my TSH, LH, T3, and one other checked and they were all very normal. Do you think I should get something else checked?
 

InChristAlone

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Sep 13, 2012
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The dose of progesterone is very high and not recommended by Peat. He recommends a small glob of progest-e, a more physiological amount. And that if you need large amounts it can mean not enough protein or hypothyroidism.

I wish I had taken some advice I got when I was really struggling postpartum with two kids about really practicing self care. It was so bad I was getting rage attacks. I needed more support. And also just to stop obsessing over my health spending hours on the internet talking about health and nutrition. Hope you find some relief!
 
OP
Hayley

Hayley

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Joined
Sep 15, 2021
Messages
112
Location
United States
The dose of progesterone is very high and not recommended by Peat. He recommends a small glob of progest-e, a more physiological amount. And that if you need large amounts it can mean not enough protein or hypothyroidism.

I wish I had taken some advice I got when I was really struggling postpartum with two kids about really practicing self care. It was so bad I was getting rage attacks. I needed more support. And also just to stop obsessing over my health spending hours on the internet talking about health and nutrition. Hope you find some relief!
The dose of progesterone is very high and not recommended by Peat. He recommends a small glob of progest-e, a more physiological amount. And that if you need large amounts it can mean not enough protein or hypothyroidism.

I wish I had taken some advice I got when I was really struggling postpartum with two kids about really practicing self care. It was so bad I was getting rage attacks. I needed more support. And also just to stop obsessing over my health spending hours on the internet talking about health and nutrition. Hope you find some relief!
Okay interesting. The thing I’m taking is called endometrium it’s prescribed progesterone suppository, but maybe the dose is too large. The day I felt that momentary bliss I only took one capsule, so maybe I’ll go back to that.
And yes I hear you about about the rage, that’s another piece of it is being a new mom is just hard and a very lonely feeling. It’s hard to admit the whole issue may just be environmental and me needing to get more time to myself. Would seem easier if it were a purely chemical issue, you know?
 

InChristAlone

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Okay interesting. The thing I’m taking is called endometrium it’s prescribed progesterone suppository, but maybe the dose is too large. The day I felt that momentary bliss I only took one capsule, so maybe I’ll go back to that.
And yes I hear you about about the rage, that’s another piece of it is being a new mom is just hard and a very lonely feeling. It’s hard to admit the whole issue may just be environmental and me needing to get more time to myself. Would seem easier if it were a purely chemical issue, you know?
Yep I wished my issue was just something I could fix with hormones or food. But in the end it was learning how to deal with stress better. Expressing my emotions either to my husband or in a journal, practicing gratitude, allowing my nervous system to regulate without trying to run away from the intensity of my experience.
 

Atonewithme

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In 2019 I gave birth to my son, and never felt quite right since. The two years prior to giving birth to my son I was thriving. Good mood, good mental energy, glowing skin, luscious hair, etc. that has never quite recovered.
In June (2021) I had a miscarriage and absolutely crashed afterwards. Depression worse than I’ve had in my early 20s (I’m 29). Anxiety attacks. No mental energy. No ability or desire to engage in relationships. Extremely emotionally fragile. Hair falling out. Oddly enough I still have energy for physical activities, such as surfing and weightlifting, but my iq seems tanked compared to before.

I’ve been Peating since early August and I’ve had moments of relief but still very bad depression and mental energy overall. Here’s what I have tried :

-Eating more calories: seems helpful. I’m averaging around 2500 a day.
-carrot salad: awesome for regularity.
-Eating more sugar: not helpful, leads to crashing and more fragile emotional feeling.
-eating oysters and liver: seems to bring a better mood afterwards.
-niacinimide: leads to crashing in the afternoon
-Sun: I live at the beach and get tons of sun, doesn’t seem to help that much.
-shilajit: can’t really tell. Don’t think it did anything
-more salt: helpful for working out and not getting headaches
-progesterone supplementation (suppository)- I’ve been using 100mg 2x a day for the past 4 days. the first day I tried 100 mg prescribed by my OB I felt a moment childlike hopefulness and well-being that I haven’t felt in who knows how long. The last few days have been some of the lowest moods I’ve had since miscarriage. Don’t know if it’s related. I’m using it as recommended with my menstruated cycle, ie after ovulation.

if anyone has anything to suggest I’d be grateful. Feeling a bit desperate at the moment.
I am sorry for your loss. I don’t know any peaty ways to deal with what you are going through. I had a miscarriage, a mid term loss and escalating post partum depression with 3 births. I did therapy and with my last took Zoloft. It was that or I couldn’t handle another pregnancy. By then my hormones were making me extremely depressed and I had very dark thoughts. At any rate. I’m glad I did both. Supplements, diet and exercise didn’t cut it for me. I didn’t know about progesterone or pregnelone back then or I would have happily tried that first. I would say that I had uncontrolled anemia and hypothyroid and if those had been treated, who knows. However, I’m a counselor now because of my experience so there’s that. Best wishes on your healing.
 

youngsinatra

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I‘d take some simple labs, specifically vitamin D (25OHD), serum copper and plasma zinc.

Zinc deficiency and high copper levels are commonly associated with post-partum depression - leading to anxiety, emotional instability, racing mind, insomnia, low libido, blood sugar dysregulation, inability to engage in relationships, blunted emotions and perception.

Zinc is also needed for progesterone synthesis. High amounts of carbohydrates and coffee also burn through a lot of zinc. The typical pro-metabolic diet lacks this mineral so often and is too rich in copper.

Vitamin D is often deficient so it‘s a no-brainer to check it, when mental health is off.
 

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