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Women with bipolar, please read this . . .

Posted by constance on October 4, 2002, at 17:44:37

Hi

I've been suffering from treatment-resistant bipolar II for at least 6 years. I've tried every drug or so it seems and am presently on wellbutrin, effexor, & seroquel. It has just been OK.

Many of us who are ill also have physical symptoms as well but sometimes they seem to just be side effects or related to the mental illness. I urge you to look into the possibility that you may have PCOS, short for polycystic ovarian syndrome. Mutiple cysts on your ovaries prevent you from producing the correct balance of hormones, often overproducing androgenic hormones and sometimes excess estrogen (which can be agitating). 6-10% of women have it (though some are asymptomatic) but generally doesn't get diagnosed until you try to get pregnant and find that you can't. I don't have any desire to get pregnant but had a hunch that something was "off." I took it upon myself to start applying an OTC progesterone cream (Emerita) and unbelievably, my moodswings DISAPPEARED. My boyfriend and I were in complete shock--when I would go off it, the depression and anxiety returned, it was unbelievable. Turns out, progesterone decreases epileptic seizures in women (and mood disorders are now treated with anti-epileptics!). I certainly don't suggest doing the hormone cream thing on your own as hormones are tricky business and you could put yourself at risk, but I am encouraging women to consider the possibility.

A few days ago, I saw a reproductive endocrinologist who did an ultrasound and found numerous cysts on my ovaries. The bloodwork will come back in a few weeks and will be more conclusive. While I don't think that the PCOS is the cause of my BPII, I think it certainly exacerbates it to a very very significant degree. I might be the first person to be overjoyed to find that she has PCOS as it often means one is infertile, but I don't want to have kiddies, so that is fine.

The symptoms are different for every woman but here are some:

-excess facial hair
-aggression
-male-pattern balding/hairloss
-acne
-lack of period or irregular period
-blood sugar problems/glucose intolerance
-depression/mood disorder
-obesity, particularly around the waist

I have all of the symptoms except the last but as you can probably surmise, the disorder results in hyperandrogenicity (more testosterone even if there are also high estrogen levels), which is itself cause for anxiety and depression.

It isn't the answer to everything, but do some research on the net and check yourself out!!!
try:

pcosupport.org for starters. Its not the best site but the only one I remember off hand.

Good luck and feel free to contact me if you have questions. It is very hard to find the right kind of doctor for this--what you need is not JUST an endocrinologist or a gynecologist, or even both, but a REPRODUCTIVE ENDOCRINOLOGIST.


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