QUESTION

Valerie asks:

I am a 47 year old peri-menopausal woman who has been experiencing chronic pelvic pain that began approximately two and 1/2 years ago. Just recently, through an MRI, I was diagnosed as having adenomyosis along with extremely heavy periods. Over the course of these past several years I've gained much weight, developed skin allergies, experienced loss of libido and struggled with depression, which increased after a week of using synthetic hormones (doctor prescribed). I decided this was definitely not the route I wanted to take. I am trying to avoid a hysterectomy, and basically just tired of feeling sick and tired. Do you think your protocol could help me?

ANSWER

Dear Valerie,

It certainly can.

First of all, do not presume that all of the heavy bleeding is due to your adenomyosis (which is when the tissue that lines the inside of the uterus finds its way into the uterine muscle). The treatments below help heavy periods in general and can help adenomyosis as well. In addition, much of the pain may be secondary pelvic muscle pain from the adenomyosis, which responds well to the SHINE protocol [1]. In addition, this is the kind of pain that can respond well to Motrin or Celebrex (avoid for arthritis, but great taken 2-3 days before your period for menstrual and adenomyosis pain). The End Pain [2] herbal (2 tabs 3x day—begin 2-3 days at the point in your cycle before the pain usually starts).

Begin with a holistic physician who can optimize your bioidentical hormone treatments (including testosterone). Have them use the lower dosing of natural progesterone as progesterone helps anxiety but can worsen depression if the dose goes too high. Optimizing iron (drive the ferritin blood test up to at least 60) and thyroid treatment (even if your labs are OK ) can help slow periods. If heavy bleeding persists, I often give vitamin A 50,000 units a day for 3-6 months and this can stop heavy periods (called dysfunctional uterine bleeding) but this treatment must be monitored by a holistic MD. You may also find that when you treat with the thyroid and testosterone, the NATURAL bioidentical progesterone (not Provera or progestins which are dangerous) will be well tolerated, and you can take a high enough dose to simply stop your periods. Birth control pills you do not cycle can also help here, and as the problem will stop with menopause, I would stop the periods with the hormones before I would do surgery if we can avoid the depression.

The doctors at the Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers [3] are bio-identical hormone experts, as are many Board Certified Holistic [4] physicians.

L&B,

Dr. T