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Period pain

Plum

Senior Member
Messages
512
Location
UK
Would you be so kind as to expand on this a little? What diet factors do you find lower estrogen? What xenoestrogens have you managed to avoid and how? Thanks!

Xenoestrogens are in everything. We try to never use plastic storage containers. We distil our own water to remove any nasties including xenoestrogens. We use all natural, organic soap to wash with. I use body lotion that has very little junk in it. We use very little chemicals at home for cleaning. I'm sure there's more.

Riding xenoestrogens from the body - get detox pathways working well first. Skin, lymphatics and liver. Only eat organic. Get bowel working properly and drink enough water in a day.

Lowering oestrogen is difficult especially if you carry excess fat. For me it's a constant issue that I'm working on. But I am starting to get a reduction in beast cysts.

There's a good book on this and female hormones in general which I found very good - WomanCode Alissa Vitti
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
Xenoestrogens are in everything. We try to never use plastic storage containers. We distil our own water to remove any nasties including xenoestrogens. We use all natural, organic soap to wash with. I use body lotion that has very little junk in it. We use very little chemicals at home for cleaning. I'm sure there's more.

Riding xenoestrogens from the body - get detox pathways working well first. Skin, lymphatics and liver. Only eat organic. Get bowel working properly and drink enough water in a day.

Lowering oestrogen is difficult especially if you carry excess fat. For me it's a constant issue that I'm working on. But I am starting to get a reduction in beast cysts.

There's a good book on this and female hormones in general which I found very good - WomanCode Alissa Vitti


Maybe a stupid question but how do you distil water, in practice?
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
Yup, that's the one I have. The most important thing with distilled water is that it lacks minerals which we need. I overcome this by eating unrefined sea salt and as I have severe adrenal fatigue I probably get through more than most people.


Thanks - I'll look more into that. I might also have adrenal fatigue (only just suspected) but I use a lot of sea salt for OI.
 

PDXhausted

Senior Member
Messages
258
Location
NW US
I would recommend at least trying DIM and see what it does for you. I tried it for 2 cycles, and it made the length of my cycle longer. I've heard that it can also lighten your flow, but my flow was already light to begin with after getting off long term birth control, so I can't speak to that.

This thread has some interesting information:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/inde...ogens-link-to-cfs-fibromyalgia-success.17874/
 

L'engle

moogle
Messages
3,196
Location
Canada
I've been reading about xenoestrogens too. Earlier in the year I did an audit of my clothes and bedding and got rid of a lot of things made of syjnthetic materials. So at least what my skin is in direct contact with is made of natual materials. Still have a conventional mattress though underneath the natural toppers. Getting away from toxins is so hard.

By the way the raspberry leaf also delayed my period a couple of days, ithink because it has some progesterone effects and lengthens the luteal phase. So don't be alarmed if it lengthens your cycle. I haven't tried progesterone cream myself, otherwise I could tell you if the raspberry leaf reacts in a similar way. The raspberry apparently has some progesterone and some estrogen like effects so I am wary of taking it all the time.

From what I have read of xenoestrogens they can even block normal estrogen reception so a person can actually be low in estrogen and still have estrogen dominance. Makes my head spin, it does.
 

Plum

Senior Member
Messages
512
Location
UK
I would recommend at least trying DIM and see what it does for you. I tried it for 2 cycles, and it made the length of my cycle longer. I've heard that it can also lighten your flow, but my flow was already light to begin with after getting off long term birth control, so I can't speak to that.

This thread has some interesting information:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/inde...ogens-link-to-cfs-fibromyalgia-success.17874/

That link has some pretty cool stuff on it - I'm especially liking the diagram. I don't have the energy right now to go through it all but I've saved it for a time when I am a little more awake than right now!

Thx for sharing the link :)
 

ahimsa

ahimsa_pdx on twitter
Messages
1,921
I was wondering what women are using for period pain - cramps, as well as heavy flow and bad clotting.

Plum, I used to have very bad pain from endometriosis. Fortunately, I was able to take NSAIDs for the pain -- ibuprofen (Advil) for most of the month, when I was not having my period, then ketorolac (Toradol) for the really bad pain during my period. Eventually, pain meds did very little for the pain. I finally had surgery which solved the problem for me. It was not a hysterectomy but more specific surgery that removed (via excision, not laser) all the visible endometrial lesions in my abdomen (the abnormal endometrial tissue outside the uterus).

This type of surgery does not work for all patients. But it is one option to explore in case it might work for you.

If you decide on this surgery you should try to find a specialist who does this type of work, not a doctor who is an OB/GYN who mostly deliveries babies and only does this surgery once or twice a year. I hope there are such surgeons in the UK but I have no idea. I only looked in the USA, and my research was done many years ago, so I have no idea who to suggest (e.g., the surgeon who operated on me has since retired).

I also have a few diet suggestions and supplements that might help but these are more of a long shot.

As you mentioned in one post, the pain causing endometriosis (according to theories that I've read) appears to come from one of the prostaglandins (forgot which one, there's more than one kind). Some foods make the body create more of these "bad" prostagandins. I think meat and dairy are two examples of food that adds to these prostaglandins in some people and causing more inflammation.

When I first read this I actually didn't believe it was true at all. But finally, in desperation, I tried cutting out all dairy (I was already vegetarian) and my pain did get a bit better. So, maybe there's something to it, or maybe it was placebo, who knows.

The supplement which helped me is Evening Primrose Oil. I get the kind made by Efamol. Not sure about generic versions but I think they should be the same.

Endometriosis pain can be very difficult to treat. I wish you all the best!

Edited to add a couple of links that I found:

http://endometriosis.org/treatments/endometriosis-surgery/

http://endometriosis.org/treatments/painkillers/
(mostly about NSAIDs but the last paragraph mentions diet and supplements)