Posted by katekite on July 15, 2002, at 9:55:08
In reply to Re: PMS- Anyone, posted by hildi on July 9, 2002, at 12:44:51
Estrogen is somehow required for serotonin to work, ie, you may have enough serotonin but your brain somehow can not see it. PMS happens to occur right when estrogen levels are decreasing. Not thought to be due to the absolute level of estrogen but to the fact it is changing so quickly that the serotonin system can not adapt.
Two ways to approach: make more serotonin with ssris, or get more estrogen.
Taking lots of estrogen routinely, long term, is a bad idea as high dose hormones seem to cause lots of increases in cancer, etc.
However, a birth control pill might be an option. The doses in birth control pills are different from those used in hormone replacement therapy post-menopause. Each type of Pill is very different in what forms of progesterone and estrogen they use and in what dose and in what ratio. It all matters. Just because one had side effects does not mean another will. One may worsen depression and another cause nausea and another be perfect. Needs to be prescribed by an endocrinologist or obgyn though, regular docs and pdocs likely have no clue how to artfully match hormones to an individual.
kate
poster:katekite
thread:111749
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020709/msgs/112406.html