Sugartits Is Hopeful!

[Sugartits]

Greetings all! I am calling myself Sugartits. I just think somebody on this forum ought to be called Sugartits. I'm 40 years old, and I live in the American Southwest. I am here because I have a couple of giant tumors on my ovaries called teratomas. Teratoma means "monster tumor" since it is the kind that can contain things like teeth, hair, even brain tissue. Yuck. I'm hoping they find a thumb in mine! I have been here trying to educate myself about hormones because the surgery to remove these tumors will likely leave me without ovaries. My surgery is scheduled for next February.

I learned about Ray Peat through Paul Jaminet, whose diet I try to follow. Paul is one of the best people I've ever met. Anyways, the more I learn about hormones, the more I realize that my whole life has been derailed by my hormones. Apparently these teratoma cells are with you from birth, screwing with your hormone levels. Since hitting puberty early (at age 10) I have had PCOS symptoms and brain symptoms severe enough that I actually believed for many years that it was Aspergers.

For a long time I worked as a caregiver for my grandfather, and I still live in his house, but as far as a career, or dating, or higher education; I have never experienced those things. I have been stunted by the anxiety and learning disabilities that I now realize my hormones created for me. It sounds dismal (sorry) but discovering all of this is actually really hopeful, because now I know that if I can just get my tumors removed and straighten out my hormones somehow, maybe I could have all of the normal human experiences that seemed impossible before. Wish me luck! I am looking forward to learning more from all of you.

 

[CalmAmygdala]

Hi sugar ***s

 

[Nicole W.]

Greetings all! I am calling myself Sugartits. I just think somebody on this forum ought to be called Sugartits. I'm 40 years old, and I live in the American Southwest. I am here because I have a couple of giant tumors on my ovaries called teratomas. Teratoma means "monster tumor" since it is the kind that can contain things like teeth, hair, even brain tissue. Yuck. I'm hoping they find a thumb in mine! I have been here trying to educate myself about hormones because the surgery to remove these tumors will likely leave me without ovaries. My surgery is scheduled for next February.

I learned about Ray Peat through Paul Jaminet, whose diet I try to follow. Paul is one of the best people I've ever met. Anyways, the more I learn about hormones, the more I realize that my whole life has been derailed by my hormones. Apparently these teratoma cells are with you from birth, screwing with your hormone levels. Since hitting puberty early (at age 10) I have had PCOS symptoms and brain symptoms severe enough that I actually believed for many years that it was Aspergers.

For a long time I worked as a caregiver for my grandfather, and I still live in his house, but as far as a career, or dating, or higher education; I have never experienced those things. I have been stunted by the anxiety and learning disabilities that I now realize my hormones created for me. It sounds dismal (sorry) but discovering all of this is actually really hopeful, because now I know that if I can just get my tumors removed and straighten out my hormones somehow, maybe I could have all of the normal human experiences that seemed impossible before. Wish me luck! I am looking forward to learning more from all of you.

Hi Sugartits, welcome to the forum. I had a dermoid cyst on my ovary that was the size of a large grapefruit. It had curly brown hair ( like mine), skin tissue and a few teeth inside. I had to have a c section-like incision to have it removed because the cyst was too large to have it done any other way. Surprisingly, they were able to save the ovary.
Up until that point, my hormones and cycles were normal and regular. I had had two kids and was wanting a third but my husband was not in favor of it. Strangely, I ended up with this weird cyst instead. I think that my hormones had become imbalanced after my last pregnancy.

Ray Pest says you can sometimes shrink ovarian cysts with progesterone but with something huge like what you have, I would be cautious. Those cysts tend to keep getting bigger of you don’t remove them.

The surgeon that helped me with my cyst had been volunteering in an undeveloped nation and had removed a similar cyst that was 26 lbs (!!!) from a poor village woman. She had been ostracized because the people in her village thought she was possessed: she looked hugely pregnant but never gave birth to a baby. They couldn’t understand how that could be. The surgeon saved her life in multiple ways: once the cyst was out the village welcomed her back. Anyway, good luck with the surgery , I feel for you.

 

[Sugartits]

Hi sugar ***s

Hi CalmAmygdala!

Hi Sugartits, welcome to the forum. I had a dermoid cyst on my ovary that was the size of a large grapefruit. It had curly brown hair ( like mine), skin tissue and a few teeth inside. I had to have a c section-like incision to have it removed because the cyst was too large to have it done any other way. Surprisingly, they were able to save the ovary.
Up until that point, my hormones and cycles were normal and regular. I had had two kids and was wanting a third but my husband was not in favor of it. Strangely, I ended up with this weird cyst instead. I think that my hormones had become imbalanced after my last pregnancy.

Ray Pest says you can sometimes shrink ovarian cysts with progesterone but with something huge like what you have, I would be cautious. Those cysts tend to keep getting bigger of you don’t remove them.

The surgeon that helped me with my cyst had been volunteering in an undeveloped nation and had removed a similar cyst that was 26 lbs (!!!) from a poor village woman. She had been ostracized because the people in her village thought she was possessed: she looked hugely pregnant but never gave birth to a baby. They couldn’t understand how that could be. The surgeon saved her life in multiple ways: once the cyst was out the village welcomed her back. Anyway, good luck with the surgery , I feel for you.

Hi Nicole W., wow, that story makes me feel like I don't have it so rough, poor person. It's a pity we can't decide for ourselves where in the world we will be born, since it decides so much about the kind of life one will live.

If I remember right these tumors measure about 10 cm and 21 cm respectively, which classifies them as large and giant. So they will have to be taken out the same way as you had, with an open surgery. The smaller one isn't connected to anything, I can manually scoot it back and forth across my abdomen like a party trick. Sheesh. I'm afraid what happened was the whole ovary twisted and cut off its own blood supply. I do remember a night of pacing around in pain, but by the time I decided to go to the emergency room, the pain was gone. So I am probably already flying with only one engine, hormone-wise. I hope the remaining one can be salvaged like yours was, but I don't know if it ever really functioned properly to begin with, so maybe losing it won't be so bad. I already bought some progesterone cream to experiment with, but I notice it is made with wild yam, and that seems to be the wrong kind. So far it has done nothing but make me fat and angry.

 

[Nicole W.]

Hi CalmAmygdala!



Hi Nicole W., wow, that story makes me feel like I don't have it so rough, poor person. It's a pity we can't decide for ourselves where in the world we will be born, since it decides so much about the kind of life one will live.

If I remember right these tumors measure about 10 cm and 21 cm respectively, which classifies them as large and giant. So they will have to be taken out the same way as you had, with an open surgery. The smaller one isn't connected to anything, I can manually scoot it back and forth across my abdomen like a party trick. Sheesh. I'm afraid what happened was the whole ovary twisted and cut off its own blood supply. I do remember a night of pacing around in pain, but by the time I decided to go to the emergency room, the pain was gone. So I am probably already flying with only one engine, hormone-wise. I hope the remaining one can be salvaged like yours was, but I don't know if it ever really functioned properly to begin with, so maybe losing it won't be so bad. I already bought some progesterone cream to experiment with, but I notice it is made with wild yam, and that seems to be the wrong kind. So far it has done nothing but make me fat and angry.

Unless the product says on the ingredient list progesterone USP, then I would avoid it. Language and descriptions are intentionally deceptive. Wild Yam is not progesterone although it can be the starting material. Most people around here use Progest-E or Idea Labs Progestene. Both of those products use Progesterone USP. Another thing to keep in mind is that if you are estrogen dominant, progesterone use can aggravate those symptoms tremendously.

Your focus should be improving estrogen clearance while using progesterone. This fine point was lost on me at first and I can’t tell you how dependent success with progesterone is on proper estrogen metabolism/ clearance / detoxification.

When using progesterone, it supposedly kicks estrogen out of your cells and into your blood stream. There it has a risk of being recycled in your body if your liver is not functional enough to neutralize it and clear it. Liver health is essential to balanced hormones. There are many ways to support estrogen clearance and many ways to bring down estrogen levels/ symptoms. These subjects have been discussed extensively on this forum but the main idea is to increase your progesterone levels... while lowering the estrogen levels...while clearing the estrogen that is left as efficiently as possible from your body. 1,2,3. Those three things are equally important.

 

[Sugartits]

Woah, OK thank you so much, it sounds like I have a lot of homework to do. I don't know what state my liver is in, or how to detoxify. I do know cortisol is a big problem for me. I can't handle even a little stress without blanking out like a deer in the headlights. That's my worst learning challenge. If I push it too far (like trying to learn how to do a new job) I have ended up stuttering for weeks afterward. It's like my language circuit board gets fried. Maybe somebody around here will recognize what causes that and know what to do about it. That would change my life.

 

[Nicole W.]

Woah, OK thank you so much, it sounds like I have a lot of homework to do. I don't know what state my liver is in, or how to detoxify. I do know cortisol is a big problem for me. I can't handle even a little stress without blanking out like a deer in the headlights. That's my worst learning challenge. If I push it too far (like trying to learn how to do a new job) I have ended up stuttering for weeks afterward. It's like my language circuit board gets fried. Maybe somebody around here will recognize what causes that and know what to do about it. That would change my life.

Start with Ray Peat’s articles on his website. He discusses how to manage cortisol and the hormones safely and appropriately. I wouldn’t rely on everything you read here. There are lots of voices, lots of different views and biases shared here, but by no means is everyone right. It’s not worth risking further damage to your health. Start with the basics which, around here, is Ray’s articles. They will give you a foundation with which to judge anything you read here. You’ll be a much better informed consumer of the wealth of information on this site.

 

[Sugartits]

Good advice, I will do that. Sometimes his writing is tricky for me, but I will come here if I have questions. Just now I did a quick search of this forum regarding liver detoxing, and they were talking about how glucuronic acid detoxifies estrogen. That is a huge coincidence, because just the other day I was randomly given a Kombucha mushroom, and guess what, it turns out kombucha is one of the best sources of glucuronic acid! I actually just made the tea last night and started brewing my first batch. What are the chances!

 

[Nicole W.]

Syn

Good advice, I will do that. Sometimes his writing is tricky for me, but I will come here if I have questions. Just now I did a quick search of this forum regarding liver detoxing, and they were talking about how glucuronic acid detoxifies estrogen. That is a huge coincidence, because just the other day I was randomly given a Kombucha mushroom, and guess what, it turns out kombucha is one of the best sources of glucuronic acid! I actually just made the tea last night and started brewing my first batch. What are the chances!

Synergy!

 

[Michael Mohn]

Good advice, I will do that. Sometimes his writing is tricky for me, but I will come here if I have questions. Just now I did a quick search of this forum regarding liver detoxing, and they were talking about how glucuronic acid detoxifies estrogen. That is a huge coincidence, because just the other day I was randomly given a Kombucha mushroom, and guess what, it turns out kombucha is one of the best sources of glucuronic acid! I actually just made the tea last night and started brewing my first batch. What are the chances!

Glucoronic acid as a supplement is overrated. Your liver needs sugar and protein to do its work of detoxifying estrogen and waste products. Avoiding seed oils is the most important step. They're very carcinogenic. Vitamin E and progesterone are the most anti carcinogenic substances. Aspirin, coffein and thiamine are all very helpful reducing fat oxidation and jumpstarting glucose oxidation. This forum is a good place to get started quickly. Studying all of Peat's work takes a lot of time. It's up to you how long you want to wait to turn the ship around.

P.S. Kombucha turns glucose into lactic acid, which is carcinogenic in itself and antimetabolic. The trash can is the best place to put it to good use.

 

[Peater]

I hope it all works out for you @Sugartits seems like you have a winning attitude which is half the battle

 

[Sugartits]

Glucoronic acid as a supplement is overrated. Your liver needs sugar and protein to do its work of detoxifying estrogen and waste products. Avoiding seed oils is the most important step. They're very carcinogenic. Vitamin E and progesterone are the most anti carcinogenic substances. Aspirin, coffein and thiamine are all very helpful reducing fat oxidation and jumpstarting glucose oxidation. This forum is a good place to get started quickly. Studying all of Peat's work takes a lot of time. It's up to you how long you want to wait to turn the ship around.

P.S. Kombucha turns glucose into lactic acid, which is carcinogenic in itself and antimetabolic. The trash can is the best place to put it to good use.

Let me see here. I think I am off to a good start because I've been doing the Perfect Health diet, so I'm already avoiding PUFA's. At least I know enough to do that. I have started homemade gelatin daily, so that should help increase sugar and protein. I'll have to buy Vitamin E, does it matter which kind? Thiamine, too, I will research that. I've got coffee and aspirin.

Peat has so many recommendations you couldn't really do all of them, but it seems the idea is just to tailor them to your specific needs. My first plan of attack should probably be to lower estrogen. Avoiding carcinogens is always a good idea no matter what. I don't know if these tumors are malignant, but with teratomas the chance is very low, only like 1% or 2%.

So with the kombucha, you think the antimetabolic effect outweighs the antiestrogen benefit in my case? Crappo. Well, I've got some brewing already, maybe I will just try a little bit at first to see how it affects me, like an experiment. Might as well.

I hope it all works out for you @Sugartits seems like you have a winning attitude which is half the battle

Hey, thanks man!

 

[Nicole W.]

Glucoronic acid as a supplement is overrated. Your liver needs sugar and protein to do its work of detoxifying estrogen and waste products. Avoiding seed oils is the most important step. They're very carcinogenic. Vitamin E and progesterone are the most anti carcinogenic substances. Aspirin, coffein and thiamine are all very helpful reducing fat oxidation and jumpstarting glucose oxidation. This forum is a good place to get started quickly. Studying all of Peat's work takes a lot of time. It's up to you how long you want to wait to turn the ship around.

P.S. Kombucha turns glucose into lactic acid, which is carcinogenic in itself and antimetabolic. The trash can is the best place to put it to good use.

I have to disagree with you about glucoronic acid. I have been using Calcium D Glucarate for about a year now and I have lowered my estrogen levels dramatically according to the DUTCH tests that I take every six months to track my hormone status. It definitely aided in estrogen clearance for me and I was doing all the Peat recommended things for years before I started CDG. CDG helped me turn the corner. It’s just another tool in the tool box for achieving hormone balance.

 

[lampofred]

I would recommend checking out Dr. Peat's article on aspirin (Aspirin, brain, and cancer) and any other articles which catch your eye. For long-term systemic hormonal problems, Dr. Peat has recommended grams of aspirin daily (5-6 grams, along with 1 mg vit K per 325 mg) for weeks at a time, as long as there are no side effects. As the aspirin helps to release stored poisons into your bloodstream, getting lots of protein from milk, cheese, liver, oysters and keeping body temperature as high as you can sustain via thyroid and coffee would be necessary to support your liver to detox your blood.

 

[Tarmander]

Welcome Sugartits. I never knew there was a thing called a Teratoma tumour, I learned something new.

Looking forward to the great things that will happen for you after you get these things taken out.

 

[Sugartits]

I have to disagree with you about glucoronic acid. I have been using Calcium D Glucarate for about a year now and I have lowered my estrogen levels dramatically according to the DUTCH tests that I take every six months to track my hormone status. It definitely aided in estrogen clearance for me and I was doing all the Peat recommended things for years before I started CDG. CDG helped me turn the corner. It’s just another tool in the tool box for achieving hormone balance.

Interesting, so that CDG is like kombucha but without the drawbacks of kombucha? That sounds good.

I would recommend checking out Dr. Peat's article on aspirin (Aspirin, brain, and cancer) and any other articles which catch your eye. For long-term systemic hormonal problems, Dr. Peat has recommended grams of aspirin daily (5-6 grams, along with 1 mg vit K per 325 mg) for weeks at a time, as long as there are no side effects. As the aspirin helps to release stored poisons into your bloodstream, getting lots of protein from milk, cheese, liver, oysters and keeping body temperature as high as you can sustain via thyroid and coffee would be necessary to support your liver to detox your blood.

This is useful, lampofred. I'm trying to get ready, so I found some vitamin K to take with the aspirin. I suppose that prevents GI bleeding from the aspirin? I got smoked oysters though they are in olive oil (should I not eat them?), and I have organic chicken livers, I will try to find beef liver next time. How much coffee do most people drink daily for Peaty purposes? I have a bottle of dessicated thyroid glandular supplement, I don't think it is standardized or anything, but I will only be taking a little of it anyways I assume. So much to think about.

Welcome Sugartits. I never knew there was a thing called a Teratoma tumour, I learned something new.

Looking forward to the great things that will happen for you after you get these things taken out.

Yay, thank you Tarmander. I never knew about teratomas either. At least if I have to have a major surgery it is for something weird, not boring like - I don't know, a kidney stone.

 

[Lana]

Oh my god . This is nuts . Tumours with hair and teeth . Isn’t that crazy I’m glad you’re so hopeful and will be saying goodbye to these visitors lol. Hope u find it funny somewhat but seriously Power to your healing

 

[Lana]

Oh my god . This is nuts . Tumours with hair and teeth . Isn’t that crazy I’m glad you’re so hopeful and will be saying goodbye to these visitors lol. Hope u find it funny somewhat but seriously Power to your healing

And I just checked that out. I empathize with you and wish u so well. Very interesting journey ure on xx

 

[Michael Mohn]

I have to disagree with you about glucoronic acid. I have been using Calcium D Glucarate for about a year now and I have lowered my estrogen levels dramatically according to the DUTCH tests that I take every six months to track my hormone status. It definitely aided in estrogen clearance for me and I was doing all the Peat recommended things for years before I started CDG. CDG helped me turn the corner. It’s just another tool in the tool box for achieving hormone balance.

Dutch test (pee test) is very unreliable and expensive. Glucoronic acid is formed by the liver from glucose. The calcium in cdg is probably the most beneficial factor. Eating fruits, dairy & eggs (with the egg shells for the calcium bicarbonate) would produce the same or better results. CDG is overall harmless but not worth the money same for the dutch test.

 

[Sugartits]

Oh my god . This is nuts . Tumours with hair and teeth . Isn’t that crazy I’m glad you’re so hopeful and will be saying goodbye to these visitors lol. Hope u find it funny somewhat but seriously Power to your healing

That's kind of you, thanks! Yeah, it's so nuts, since they originate from germ cells (eggs) they have the ability to grow into any human tissue. Sometimes if they grow brain tissue the woman's immune system will freak out and attack her own brain. I can't remember the name of that, but it is what happened to the girl who wrote "Brain On Fire". She had schizophrenic symptoms, seizures, catatonia, and almost died before they figured it out. Teratomas are not as common as ovarian dermoid cysts, but they can both get the creepy hair and teeth. I hope I haven't given you nightmares, LOL.