Painful ovulation and bad pms help!

[Albuquerque]

Hi.
I'm 38, my ovulation now consists of at least three days of pain and water retention along with irritability that lasts about a week.

Then I get a week respite before the pms starts and continues until at least half way through my heavy period.

So for a minimum of two out of four weeks I am moody, snappy, Irritable in pain have bad water retention and bloated etc.

I'm very overweight and not on any contraception (youngest is 4)

I'm getting night sweats for a week before my period and again when I'm ovulating.

I'm on fluoxetine for anxiety and am on meds for

Crap, sorry posted too soon.

Meds for underactive thyroid.

Is there anything I can do to help? I never used to be this bad.

I'd love some advice please x

Have you thought of the CCP even though you don't want contraception (presumably)? This would at least suppress ovulation and even out mood swings. Also if your anxiety is hormonal and due to the start of peri-menopause you shouldn't have been given fluoxetine anyway - rather - some sort of hormonal treatment, at least initially.

I recently found some interesting info regarding hormones/menopause/hot sweats/PMS on this site happyhormonesforlife.com There is a short free mini course you can get and it has really helped me. There is a lot you can do yourself to balance out your hormones naturally. I feel so much better already...

Yes it's great to make improvements to your diet and lifestyle (eg exercise and body weight, smoking and alcohol consumption) as you reach this age - but none of this can replace oestrogen once you are post-menopause and HRT is the most natural way proven to eliminate sweats and flushes as well as giving protection to bones and cardio-vascular system as we age. We might spend 40-50 years post-menopause so starting with the ideas in that link re diet and thinking about HRT are important steps to giving us good health and quality of life.

Hi Albu, I don’t find the idea of taking fluoxetine so good if your anxiety is due to hormonal changes. Its better to try to change your daily habits and not to look for magic or quick solution.
I absolutely agree with Bella!

Bellaciao I disagree with your statement about HRT, it isn't natural, it's synthetic oestrogen which your body finds much harder to process and get rid of the excess. read this blog page: happyhormonesforlife.com/oestrogen-dominance-need-know/ why put drugs/synthetic hormones into your body if you can avoid it?

Hi curly, the usual estrogen that is used in the newer hrt prescription is bio identical. That means that it’s more close to our natural estrogen.
The estrogen that is used in older forms of hrt was from horses urine and it was synthetic.
The bio identical estrogen isn’t exactly the same with ours (we cannot make exactly the same!) but is very close to the estrogen our ovaries produce and our body recognize it as well.

curlyLJ I’m afraid this is an American style site – and the information provided on there is designed to sell you her products and services available at very high cost. The information is inaccurate. She talks about bioidentical HRT – which is what is often talked about on here – but there is a distinction between bio-identical or body-identical hormones, and the practice of prescribing BHRT = bioidentcial hormones replacement therapy – unregulated privately prescribed compounded hormones using EXACTLY THE SAME (body-identical but synthesised in a lab) hormones ie estradiol and progesterone that are available on NHS at minimal prescription cost.

It’s best to read the websites of the medical or menopause societies such as British Menopause Society, or practitioners who don't charge or charge only a small amount for their services eg Menopause Matters, or My Menopause Doctor, (Louise Newson). There are so many myths about hormones and sites and practitioners like Happy Hormones only serve to confuse ( and try to sell).

Oestrogen dominance is a red herring usually put out to sell progesterone creams, but the problem of xeno-oestrogens in the environment that she mentions is a separate issue. However the lifestyle and dietary suggestions she gives are excellent – although I would say all those supplements are not necessary

Emerald bio-identical = biologically identical molecules/hormones which we produce in our own bodies which is why they are termed body-identical.

Most HRT now contains only estradiol ( a few contain estradiol valerate which is converted to estradiol in the body. Most of the progestogens are synthetic except for Utrogestan which is micronised progesterone.

Hi Bella, thanks for sharing. Can I ask you if you know the difference between estrogen valerate and estrogen hemihydrate? Im on Femoston 2/10 and it contains estrogen hemihydrate and dydrogesterone.

Estradiol hemihydrate - from what I recall is two molecules of estradiol bound together by a water molecule - Wikipedia says this:

"A hemihydrate form of estradiol, estradiol hemihydrate, is widely used medically under a large number of brand names similarly to estradiol.[147] In terms of activity and bioequivalence, estradiol and its hemihydrate are identical, with the only disparities being an approximate 1% difference in potency by weight (due to the presence of water molecules in the hemihydrate form of the substance) and a slower rate of release with certain formulations of the hemihydrate.[148][149] This is because estradiol hemihydrate is more hydrated than anhydrous estradiol, and for this reason, is more insoluble in water in comparison, which results in slower absorption rates with specific formulations of the drug such as vaginal tablets"

Estradiol valerate is different in structure breaks down in the body to estradiol and valeric acid. Chemically it is known as an estradiol ester and a pro-drug of estradiol.

As I understand it, the true synthetic oestrogens like ethinyl estradiol do not break-down into estradiol in the body so are not bio-identical.

Thank you Bella, so there is no a crucial difference between the two types if my understanding is good. My biggest concern is about their safety.

No crucial difference! I am not in the least bit concerned about estradiol hemihydrate because one molecule becomes two estradiol moelcules + 1 water molelcule in the body! ie body-identical estradiol.

Sorry OP - bit off topic but hope the info earlier is useful?