Dorothy Gibson had so much trouble with her hormones she “lost her 30s,” she says. Now 44 and using a natural progesterone skin cream, Gibson says she feels like she is in her 20s.
“When I go back and look, with what I know now, every symptom I had screamed low progesterone,” said Gibson, of Fortson, Ga.
Gibson had difficulty getting pregnant. She also developed endometriosis after taking birth-control pills and developed emotional distress and migraine headaches during pregnancy. Later, she experienced thinning hair, excruciating muscle aches and such low energy she could barely walk down a grocery store aisle.
Gibson bounced from one specialist to another. Doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. Finally, she learned about progesterone cream from a friend and researched everything she could on the subject of hormonal balance.
Now she talks to anyone who will listen — women’s groups, pharmacists — about what she has learned.
Meanwhile, a 50-something woman from Columbus, Ga., wrote a personal account of her quest for hormonal balance, which the Muscogee County Medical Society bulletin published anonymously in September 1996. Another piece by “The Messenger,” as she signed her essay, will be published soon.
The Messenger wrote about feelings of hopelessness, frustration, guilt and inadequacy that often left her sobbing. She found doctors in Atlanta and Augusta who put her on natural progesterone in an oral micronized tablet and on a testosterone gel.
She will be in the front row when an expert on the subject, Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet, visits Columbus on Tuesday to spread her message: Many women’s health problems are hormonally related and doctors need to listen to women’s wisdom about their own bodies.
Vliet will find a receptive audience.
Already, she has helped a Columbus woman deal with mood swings.
Inspired by the Messenger’s account and looking for a solution to the mood swings, Maggie Bloodworth read, “Screaming to Be Heard: Hormonal Connections Women Suspect . . . And Doctors Ignore.”
Bloodworth consulted by telephone with the physician who wrote it: Vliet.
Say “hormones” and most people think of post-menopausal women having hot flashes. But young women experience hormonal imbalances as well. And Baby Boomers, notorious for demanding solutions to their problems, are entering their 50s in droves.
Between now and the year 2000, more than 4 million women will enter the perimenopausal (time around menopause) age range of 35 to 55.
Their experiences–and solutions–are as individual as they are.
Bloodworth, 38, is the mother of four. A nurse who home-schools her children, she is married to a physician. Still, she can feel intimidated at a doctor’s office.
But she needed help and persisted until she got it.
“I always had mood swings associated with my menstrual cycles, for as long as I can remember,” Bloodworth said in a recent interview. “I felt better during my child-bearing years, and from the second pregnancy on I had a tendency toward postpartum depression.”
Even with counseling and anti-depressant medication, Bloodworth didn’t like how she felt or acted days before her period. Even after improving diet and exercise habits, she felt “horrible” those days, she said.
When she learned about Vliet’s book, “I decided I had been through so many other avenues, I decided to go ahead and contact her directly and get treated long-distance,” Bloodworth said.
Tests revealed Bloodworth’s body wasn’t producing enough estrogen, she said. After trying a low-dose oral contraceptive, then an estrogen skin patch with poor results, Bloodworth was prescribed an estrogen skin cream.
“As soon as I found the one medication that worked for me, I felt great,” said Bloodworth, who credits the cream with cutting the severity of her mood swings, increasing her energy level and reducing insomnia, nervousness and irritability.
“I’m easier to live with,” Bloodworth said with a laugh.
A common thread in these women’s stories is they were helped by hormonal products that are natural to the human body.
“Synthetic progestin, whether in birth control pills or given in postmenopause, are the most common cause of unpleasant side effects associated with `hormone therapy,’ ” Vliet writes.
Those symptoms include depression and lethargy as well as bloating, breast tenderness and weight gain.
Although they differ on some points, Dr. John Lee agrees with Vliet that women need to explore whether they should take hormone replacement therapy at all.
Lee is the author of “What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause,” now in its ninth printing.
He and Vliet acknowledge the prominent role hormonal balance is believed to play in preventing heart disease, osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s disease in women, in addition to promoting general feelings of well-being.
Women such as Gibson and Bloodworth emphasize that scientists need to continue researching hormonal topics.
Pointing to statistics showing that most women’s suicides occur during premenstrual days, Bloodworth said, “People out there are losing their lives for nothing because they’re not getting the help they need.”
During her worst years, Gibson admits to feeling suicidal.
“There were times I thought my family would be better off without me,” she said.
Now, she home-schools her daughter, creates Web pages for clients and has helped get the brand of progesterone cream she uses into local drugstores and health-food stores, where it is sold over the counter.
Although she’s sold on the product that helped her, she acknowledges that women need to find what works for them.
“I’m more concerned that women don’t have to go through what I went through.”
