I have to get this thread out again to report something truly bewildering and amazing. For the last 2 months, I have felt dramatically, spectacularly BETTER for the week before my period instead of like death warmed up. After 26 years of feeling like a walking corpse, this change is absolutely astonishing. I don't just mean that I feel better than I used to do in that week, I mean for that week I actually feel better than I have in ages, better than I do the rest of the month, well enough to want to go out for walks and shop for clothes, really amazing stuff like that.
The only thing I have changed is adding in a few supplements. I bought the book called "Adrenal Fatigue" by Dr. Andrew Wilson and found out that all the nutrients he says you need for your adrenal gland to work properly, I was already taking, except for vitamin E. Some of the others I was taking were in a tiny fraction of the dose he tells you to take. So I increased some dosages and added vitamin E.
One of the things he says is that, if your adrenal gland is not managing to make enough hormones (your own top-up female ones, and the male ones) then your period blood is dark or brownish rather than bright scarlet, which it should be. I vaguely remember having red periods when I was a teenager but they have been dark for so long I thought that was normal. Well, this month, I am scarlet.
Another indication, according to him, is that your period is very heavy, then fizzzles out after about 4days or so, sometimes even stopping altogether for a half day, then starts up again. This used to happen to me some months.
He says in the book that the amount of female and male hormones the adrenal gland makes is very small compared to what is made in your sexual organs, but that the medical profession is beginning to think the fine tuning it carries out makes a huge difference to how well things work. The adrenal gland is the sole source of male hormones in females, and vice versa, and this role is extremely important. He says this is an area where there is still a lot of resdearch to be done.
This made me wonder if this could be why some of us have tested within normal range on hormone tests, yet there really seems to be something wrong with our hormone balance?
I also wonder if this could be why some of us feel awful when taking hormone supplements: Maybe taking more hormones just makes it even harder for the adrenal gland to fine tune the the exact right level, rather than helping it?
If anyone is curious to try something else, another test he says which is a certain indication your adrenal gland is under producing all its hormones (this includes cortisol etc as well as the sexual hormones) is this:
Go into a darkened room with a mirror
shine a torch sideways across your eyes (not into them)
You will see your pupils contract.
If your adrenal gland is underactive, the pupils will dilate again within two minte, instead of staying contracted as they should.
Mine re-dilated instantly and constantly went in and out like yo-yos when I first did this.
After two months of his treatment, today, I tried again and they stayed contracted for about six seconds, then slowly expanded, then contracted rapidly, slowly expanded, etc. So they are still not normal, but holding out better then before.