Struggling with infertility, miscarriage? You are not alone!

Some time ago, on my page about My Story and in my posts "The Progesterone and Cortisol Relationship,"  "Progesterone and Other Reproductive Hormones," and "Progesterone: A New Post," I wrote about  my belief that my adrenals steal progesterone to make more cortisol - similar to what Dr. Rind writes about here. 

In fact, I'm convinced that was the cause of my miscarriage in September 2011, before I began truly digging deep into the causes behind my health issues. 

Through lab work, I have confirmed that at the end of my progesterone supplementation during my luteal phase, my cortisol levels are significantly higher than they are two weeks later once the progesterone was out of my system.  I realize that not all women experience this, but it is clear that I do based on my symptoms and my labs.   

I also believe that for women like me whose progesterone levels are low as a direct result of their adrenal dysfunction that it is crucial to make that connection.  And I suspect that it might be crucial to not only supplement progesterone with bio-identical progesterone, but also address the adrenal issues that are at root.

You can read here about how I have taken charge of my health issues and how I'm healing my body.

One underlying condition that can contribute largely to miscarriage is called MTHFR gene mutation.  There are five of them.  You can read about MTHFR here and here.

A word about Progesterone and Post Partum Depression:

In some of the above posts, especially "Progesterone: A New Post" and this one, I have written about the relationship between progesterone and Post-Partum Depression (PPD).  I am not a doctor or trained medical professional, but I have networked with a lot of women and read extensively on these health issues.  And I believe that in some cases, thyroid dysfunction is a large contributing factor for adrenal dysfunction and that, as I wrote before, adrenal dysfunction is the issue behind the progesterone deficiency in many women. 

In my Old Post on progesterone, I wrote about the dramatic difference that progesterone supplementation made for me in my struggled with PPD after my second (and full-term) pregnancy. 

But after my miscarriage about a year and a half later, progesterone supplementation didn't make as dramatic a difference.  I strongly suspect that was because I had moved from having slight adrenal fatigue to much worse adrenal fatigue, and therefore from slight issues with my adrenals stealing cortisol to much worse issues with my adrenals stealing cortisol.  There is no way to know for sure since I have no cortisol labs to look at from that time, but this is my belief.    

You are not alone

If you are a woman struggling with these health issues, you are not alone.  There are answers.  There are some wonderful resources out there - blogs, websites, health care professionals, and patient-to-patient forums including Stop the Thyroid Madness's groups.  Read; connect with other women who are struggling and learn what has worked for them; and try to get to the bottom of your health issues.   

Progesterone: A New Post

After my experience with low progesterone during my pregnancy and after the birth of our second daughter, I realized that I needed progesterone support.  I was on progesterone support between summer 2010 and spring 2011, but April 2011 marked a new phase of therapies for me.

Through the guidance of  Dr. Thomas Hilgers of Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha, NE (see About Me) and his Nurse Practitioner, Theresa, I began regular, cyclical progesterone support; an ibuprofen regiment from the beginning of my period through the heavy flow days; and Low-Dose Naltrexone.

Naltrexone

A relatively new therapy is Low-Dose Naltrexone, or LDN.  Unlike traditional higher doses of Naltrexone, LDN has been found to be therapeutic in extremely low doses.   

Unlike more common LDN prescriptions, Pope Paul VI Institute utilizes LDN by starting at a low dose and gradually increasing to the pharmaceutical dose.  In this manner, Naltrexone users experience fewer side effects but, due to the eventual high pharmaceutical dose, find relief of their symptoms for the following issues:

1. Premenstrual symptoms lasting for 4 or more days each cycle
2. Endometriosis or PCOD
3. Persistent Brown menstrual bleeding
4. Persistent fatigue
5. Sleep disturbance
6. Low mood
7. Excessive Anxiety
8. Personal or Family history of
9. Autoimmunity – MS, Rheumatoid
10. Arthritis, Insulin dependent Diabetes,
11. Underactive Thyroid, etc…

See here.  

Progesterone

Pope Paul VI Institute has informed me that all-natural, bio-identical progesterone is the ideal form.  It is available in intra-muscular shots, vaginal capsules, oral capsules, and cream - which are most effective in the order listed.  PPVI prescribes these various forms through a compounding pharmacy. 

In my experience, the capsules were not nearly as effective as the IM shots.  I highly suspect that I have a digestive issue, which is extremely common with thyroid dysfunction sufferers, so that may have been part of my issue.

I took the oral capsules for quite a while.  I switched to a combination of oral capsules as well as vaginal suppository capsules while pregnant from July 2011 to September 2011.

After my miscarriage, I suffered from post-partum depression, just as I did with daughter #2, and switched to IM shots which, in agreement with PPVI, I found to be much more effective.

Miscarriage

As I mentioned above and in previous posts on this blog, I miscarried at the end of September 2011.  My progesterone had plummeted.  PPVI and I had been regularly monitoring my levels and even put me on their very strict protocol the weekend I miscarried, but baby had already died.  While I was getting my levels tested before the baby actually died, my lab here kept having mix-ups.  Instead of shipping the actual blood to Hilgers' National Hormone Lab according to their specifications, with their specific equipment, they ran the labs here.  One time they even lost my blood and to this day no one has ever informed me of what happened.  It would be easy to blame them for losing my baby, but honestly, there's no use.

After the post-partum depression dissipated, I dealt with plain old depression.  (There is a difference!)  By January, I had hit rock-bottom.  I knew that something was wrong.  I remember laying awake in bed at night (because I had insomnia) thinking, I'm dying.  There must be something terribly wrong with me to make me feel this bad, and I'm dying.

One Sunday after Mass, a friend and I got to talking.  She said, "You've got to get on dessicated thyroid."  The next day, I called the doctor's office and got an appointment for the following day.  Wednesday morning, I took my first dose of natural dessicated thyroid.  It all went from there.

Finding Relief

I now realize that my diabetes, thyroid, adrenals and reproductive issues are all related, and I'm hoping that by chipping away at each area, a bit at a time, they will all eventually come to a point where they are easily manageable.

For my endometriosis, PPVI recommended high doses of ibuprofen from the beginning of my period through the heavy days, and that has helped. They said it would cut the heaviness of my periods by 1/3, and I believe that it has certainly helped.  However, I also believe that my endometriosis has worsened and despite lighter periods, I have more pain..

Another source that has been extremely helpful to me has been Couple to Couple League's book "Fertility, Cycles and Nutrition" by Marilyn Shannon. From it, I learned about vitamins and supplements that can help. I hadn't been ovulating since my miscarriage in September, but I read in there about taking high doses of omega-3.  (PPVI had recommended that I start taking omega-3) I started taking 10-1,000 mg capsules a day right before I was supposed to ovulate, and I did ovulate. I've kept taking it and it's definitely helped my cycles and my quality of mucus.

She also talks about caffeine and synthetic sweeteners.  I had been relaying on caffeine heavily due to my adrenal fatigue.

UPDATE on 6/18/2012: Since I went on NDT in January and since I've been using CT3M to heal my adrenals, most of the reproductive issues I've been facing have started to diminish.  My periods are no longer heavy; my periods are not 14 days long anymore, but rather 5-7.  This past period, I had only about 1 hour of stomach pain and some slight back aches - as opposed to the intense endometriosis pain I had been having for months; and I had no PMS which I used to have before ovulation AND before menstruation. I feel very strongly that my reproductive issues have been directly related to my hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue. 

Progesterone: an old post

This was a post I wrote a while ago for my health/food blog.  I wrote it before I realized the bigger picture of connecting thyroid and adrenal functions to the progesterone problem which leads into post-partum depression.  Still, it contains some important information, not the least of which is the way I came to realize all of this.  

 

The miracle of all-natural progesterone support - Part I: Post-Partum Depression

I've never had problems with miscarriage, but with both my daughters' births, but especially my second-born daughter's, I felt awful.

I was outrageously angry and short-tempered all of the time.  And at the end of every day, I felt like I had the flu - I couldn't stand for anyone to touch me, my muscles and skin ached so badly.  My progesterone was certainly low - not low enough that I was ever in danger of miscarrying my baby, but low enough that I did not feel well.  As a result, I also suffered adrenal fatigue, which lasted months after my baby was born. 

After my daughter was born, my progesterone levels dropped.  This is normal, so it normally wouldn't be a concern, but because my progesterone was already low, the drop brought on a serious battle with severe post-partum depression (PPD). 

Dr. Thomas Hilgers of Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha, NE maintains that it is progesterone deficiency is the cause of Post-Partum Depression which occurs in 15-20% of women who have given birth full-term, suffered a miscarriage or a tubal pregnancy or an abortion (see physician comments in In Their Own Words: Women Healed, ed. Jean Blair Packard).

The solution?  All-natural, bio-identical progesterone support.      

Thankfully, my Napro Practitioner saw the warning signs and encouraged me to contact Dr. Hilgers regarding natural progesterone support.  Within HOURS of taking my first dose of this all-natural, bio-identical progesterone, I felt like a completely different person.  I can't even begin to describe this to you other than to liken it to walking out of a pitch black closet into the sunshine. 

My family, especially my husband, was shocked at the difference.  I had gone from:

• Guilt, especially "mommy-guilt"
• Feeling inadequate in taking care of my preschooler and my baby
• Low or no energy
• Becoming easily frustrated
• An inability to handle normal, daily stress
• Social withdrawal
• Anger
• "Foggy thinking" paired with difficulty in conversation and writing
• Suicidal thoughts
• Sadness
• Hopelessness
• Low self-esteem
• Overwhelmed
• Lack of appetite at some times, extreme hunger other times
• Inability to be comforted
• Exhaustion/Fatigue - different from the normal post-partum tiredness
• Emptiness
• Decreased sex drive

to completely well in hours.  The same day I took my first dose, I cleaned the entire house, organized a few rooms, cooked dinner, cleaned the entire kitchen, and played with my girls without yelling - all in the same day! 

Suzanne Temple is a blogger and a NaproTechnology Practitioner.  She graciously shared an email of mine on her blog last year. 

You can read more of what Dr. Hilgers has to say about natural progesterone support during post-partum depression here.