Prempro? Effexor? Ambien? Nothing???
Denise Evans
17 years ago
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Comments (19)
zoezoe
17 years agogoldensmom
17 years agoRelated Discussions
Can we talk? I'm 54 and going crazy.
Comments (75)Unfortunately, I agree w/auntjen. My family has doctors in it back several generations (including one ancestor who treated people in both the Union and Confederate armies, believing that people are people no matter what), but they'd all be spinning in their graves/urns to see what's become of "medicine" and associated industries today. Big pharma doesn't feel it really has to "prove anything with science", either, as evidenced by the rampant cheating, misreporting, ignoring side effect reporting, balancing how many lives they can lose before the damages payments become overwhelming, before they have to do a recall, etc. Or maybe they feel the right to prove anything they want with 'science', is another way to look at it. Basically, as auntjen said, profit conquers all. Kind of funny to be warning against alternatives when some big pharma products have *just above* been revealed to be horrendous and decptively advertised. If I had waited for conventional medicine to address my hormonal issues adequately, I'd probably be in a mental hospital by now. Geting a friend's mom's reference to Emerita pro-gest when I was about 40 was the best medical thing to happen to me next to having cancerous moles taken off and a heart attack stopped with incredibly high levels of nitroglycerine. OH, and last month my pharmacy which has known me for about 5 years once again messed up my prescription for something I take every day, giving me a yet-cheaper generic rather than the somewhat-less-cheap generic they had been giving me before, even though I've told them every single month to order the somewhat-less-cheap one for me because the yet-cheaper one just *doesn't work*. Did I check this last month? NO, because I was harried and I guess I trusted them. I know them all by first name, one mom's daughter is on my daughter's XC team...but I was miserable for a MONTH because of human error in mainstream medicine, and because the so called generic "identical" meds, with loads of "science" stats behind them, are anything but. I don't trust any of it anymore....See MoreHormones or antidepressants for intolerable Perimeno symptoms????
Comments (4)I have a similar story. My gyn told me in my 30s that I had started perimenopause, but since I had very few symptoms except for some long periods, I thought nothing of it. About eight months ago, I woke to ringing in my ears, vertigo, and depression. Just one morning out of the blue. I'm now 47. I couldn't drive, go to the store, and had lost all interest in just about everything. I developed TMJ and back and neck pain. After many doctors and ents, I finally stuck with one doctor who put me on a low does valium and told me I would get better. I also have a physical therapist that works with me once a week. I took the valium for three months, then quit. And even though all my symptoms are all still here, I'm now managing. If you go down the list of peri symptoms, I have most of them. The doctor told me that depression will make symptoms worse, and if I needed to go on Xanax or valium, I would again. I understand where you are coming from and sometimes no matter how strong we think we are, we all need alittle help....See MoreSearching for help!
Comments (20)Mrs. H, you mentioned that perhaps some of those women are on antidepressants ... you may very well be right! I am 3-1/2 weeks off Effexor XR, and I have been through the most hellish withdrawal symptoms (I've read online that Effexor withdrawal is not unlike heroin withdrawal - yikes!). Effexor is commonly prescribed for menopausal women because it does seem to help with the depression and the flashes/sweats. I had taken it for over 6 years (I initially went on it to help with some anxiety/depression issues I was having), and tried four times to get off of it (both by weaning and going cold turkey) but could not bear the withdrawal, so always went back on. I finally determined that I was going to rid my body of this drug once and for all and take a natural, holistic approach to my well-being, and that's when my flashes/sweats/chills started to the point of being near-debilitating. I have just found a holistic doctor who told me that she doesn't think I'm in the full-on throes of menopause yet (although we are testing the ol' hormones, so it will be interesting to find out what's revealed there), but that my flashes/sweats/chills are directly linked to Effexor withdrawal. She's started me on a program of amino acids to help restore balance to my brain chemistry, and hopefully, my body will learn to regulate itself normally once again. At any rate, my experience with antidepressants is that they do indeed "work" (at least they did for me), but I'd rather have gone through some of my darker moments unmedicated than suffer the withdrawal that I've gone through for closing in on a month now. For anyone who may be considering antidepressants, please, please, please research thoroughly and don't just take what your doctor says at face value. (My doctor who initially prescribed the meds only told me that many of her patients take them, and that some people choose to stay on them for the rest of their lives ... yeah, because they can't get off!) I wish you all a wonderfully relaxing, happy, and sweat-free weekend. :-)...See Moreencaustic tiles, wowee!
Comments (37)[swoon] How emotional was I just to read igloochic's name? Bless you Sweet Woman for your words. Even though I don't even know your real name I have thought of you so freaking often on this journey. We were at Johns Hopkins and you know I thought of you there! And no, no one there thought to do this kind of testing and knew about Penelope. GW hasn't let me log on for the past few days, and I've tried on a few dif't computers. But tonight = paydirt! The floor is down and will be grouted Thursday a.m. -- no pics on this computer. I like it a lot! I really miss being able to do laundry, though. I was planning on smoothcoating the walls / ceiling in there (as I did in our powder room) but on a whim called the plaster men who did the rest of our house. It'll cost less than $400 to do the laundry room so I nearly knocked them down, afraid they might leave. "DO IT!" I practically screamed at them. After the powder room project it cost me at least that much in hand therapy due to the radial tunnel that project induced, plus, and this is not a joke, I also developed arthritis in my Middle Finger. I mean, how perfect is that?!? Of course I love showing everyone my arthritic middle finger .... I am one classy lady! flyleft -- I was so happy to see your name! I know you are our mosaicist / tile expert, so thank you so much for taking a peek! So the story is this: I was clueless as to what was happening in our son, wondering if maybe a brain tumor or could this be a transition to Autism? Not a tumor and all the "experts" agreed (along with my gut) that it wasn't Autism. A volunteer who works with my son (he does hippotherapy, therapy on horseback, 2x a week and requires three volunteers and one therapist to make this possible) talked to her neurologist about my son (bless her), and her MD said "sounds like Landau Kleffner." So she and I got busy researching LK and by golly, it sounded like a great fit! I became obsessed with it and luckily the lead neurologist with whom we were then working (at the Children's Hospital in Denver) agreed. He said the only way to definitively dx LK is with a specialized EEG, so that's what he did. Well I'll tell you: lightning struck twice. Once for this to happen to my son and then once again because the week before my son's procedure the lead neurologist was at a conference with the lead researcher from Bologna who "discovered" and named Penelope. Our MD came back, did the operation, studied the results and knew immediately "it's not LK but it absolutely is Penelope." I'm telling you it's a miracle. I have since contacted every single medical, therapeutic, educational professional who has ever crossed my son's path and not a single one, not a single one has ever heard of ESES Penelope. Not even the super-duper pediatric neurological / developmental specialists. That is incredibly telling, and not about Penelope but how much we really need to be advocates for our children / our family members / ourselves. I told my support group I'm tired of being the smartest person in the room, and by that I mean that I'm tired of steering this ship. But of course that's what we have to do, because lightning doesn't always strike, and no one has a more vested interest than we. So it's either take to my bed with a bar of chocolate and suck my thumb, or tackle home projects and sally forth. I'm still on the fence which I'll choose ... but since our bedroom / bath are now the only unrenovated rooms in the house it's not as salutary hanging out in there. But when I can afford to do them I am looking forward to a long nap and bout with depression! Ha ha on me. Oh! And about ordering the tiles: the way I did it was with Lundy at Villa Lagoon, requesting all patterns (no solids) and bright colors. I think it's now possible to order the designs you want from her, so you can be assured of the patterns you'll get. When we received our initial shipment I liked them but I noticed there was no black and not as bright as I'd hoped. Lundy agreed: these tiles had been picked and packed down in Cuba, she'd not had a hand in it, so it wasn't her fault. She then sent me a bunch more tiles with lots of black and bright colors, so it turned out really well. And I believe now she has tile in stock in Alabama, as opposed to having to come from Cuba. That would make it easier to choose the colors / patterns, plus the wait time will be greatly reduced....See Morecarla17
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