Author: kathleensimonds

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? Whoever first uttered that must have been thinking about fibroids. Lately, mine seem to be slowly doing me in.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was diagnosed with four uterine fibroids (benign tumors to the uterus) last summer: 9 cm, 7 cm, 5 cm, and 3 cm respectively. Either I am odd, or my body likes odd numbers, but I digress.

So, I made all of these changes in my life (eating and drinking more cleanly, taking supplements, even exercising), but my doctor was most worried about the anemia caused by the excessive bleeding of my cycle. Unfortunately, after one cycle with Slow Flow (see Fun with Fibroids 2 on my blog for more information), it was not reducing the bleeding enough to improve the anemia much. So, her next option, much to my distaste, was to give me a prescription for oral progesterone.

Now, let me say that I have NEVER taken birth control pills. I am utterly against disrupting the natural hormonal process of my body, and I don’t believe it is necessary to do so to avoid pregnancy. Condoms and having an awareness of the signs my body gives me at various stages in my cycle has always worked well for my husband and I (Please read Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler or visit her website, http://www.tcoyf.com  for more information on this).

So, you can imagine my negative reaction to taking even a modest amount (100 mg) of progesterone that I should up to 200 mg after a week. I mean, doesn’t hormone therapy and birth control cause cancer in women over 40? Not to worry, she said. The hormones I was going on would be bioidentical, the same as those my body produced. Still, she probably would have received a more favorable reaction from me if she had asked me to drink a herbal tincture of deadly nightshade. Even though it was against everything I felt and believed in, I reluctantly agreed to try out the progesterone because the bleeding seemed to be the biggest problem that needed to be controlled, and she thought it would help.

It didn’t help much, though. In fact, during the first month, I had a period that lasted THREE weeks! I had a normal period (6-8 days for me), a couple of days off, then another 10 days or so of bleeding, at least half of that which was steady, not the blissful little nuisance of a light day, but not the horrendous gushes of a heavy day either. The experience literally drained me. My lips and toenails are more pale than they ever used to be, and six months later, my body still hasn’t entirely recovered.

During this bloodfest, I stopped taking the progesterone and called my doctor, who quickly explained that not taking the hormone wasn’t a good idea and was probably making it worse. Apparently your body doesn’t like it when abruptly change your hormone levels, and it could lead to more bleeding. She said that I could, however, reduce the dose back to 100 mg. Like an obedient little patient, I obeyed. This was new territory for me, and I was definitely not the expert here.

At last the bleeding subsided. Yet, even after several months of progesterone (100 mg), there wasn’t that noticeable of a change in the bleeding. So, my doctor upped the dose back to 200 mg. This did seem to slow my night bleeding, and I was able to get through the night on one heavy long domino pad (http://www.dominopads.com/store.php?crn=212). More on fabulous menstrual products coming in a later blog.

While I enjoyed sleeping through the night on my heavy days, there were other side effects I did not enjoy. The higher dose of progesterone shortened the length of my cycle, and my 28-31 day cycle was now about 22-24 days. Plus, there was often mid-cycle spotting—definitely a new and annoying phenomenon for me. Also, the bloodflow on the heavy days still seemed quite heavy, although I think I am using one less heavy pad per cycle than I used to, which is a bit of progress.

But the worst side effect of all was what the progesterone was doing to my emotions. It was making me numb and apathetic. I mean that I literally did not give a shit about anyone or anything. For those of you who know me, I’m a very passionate person, and I care too much about too many people and too many things. I’m used to riding the wild roller coaster of my emotions, and I welcome the highs as well as the lows. But on the progesterone, I completely flatlined. It was nice to not feel while on the phones at work, but I really missed feeling in other areas of my life. I’m an empath, and feeling is my gift. It tells me what is going on in the world and with other people around me. I trust it more than any of the other five senses because it tells me a truth that goes into the deep parts of my soul. I felt myself slipping away, and I was scared.

To be continued…

I have been quiet on social media for some time now, but I think it’s time to break the silence. Last year was a big year in my life. I closed my business because it was dying, and I ran out of both the ideas and willpower to save it. I’m not sorry I closed it. It was the right decision, but it is still a difficult loss to bear. It was my baby, and a year later I’m still at the edge of tears every time I think about it, the work I did, and the beautiful people who let me be a part of their healing journey. But, closing that door has enabled me to focus on my own self-healing.

Please stop reading now if you do not want to read about my female health issues. I’m about to be quite candid and break some taboos by talking about things I certainly was not reared to discuss in public. Yet, I also feel the need to do my part to de-stigmatize female health problems that we women often feel ashamed to discuss.

My healing journey began after feeling a lump in my lower abdomen back in 2015. I finally went to the doctor and got diagnosed with several uterine fibroids in the summer of 2016. I also found out that the excessive menstrual bleeding I had endured since puberty, now a gushing spring due to the fibroids, made me anemic. The news came as a shock. I had four non-cancerous tumors, and the biggest one about the size of an orange. I would probably have to have a hysterectomy because they were too large to try to shrink, and too big for a less invasive surgery. These are not the words you want to hear from your young, naturopath student doctor. I mean, they’re supposed to help you heal, naturally, right?

I looked back at my student doctor and told her that I didn’t care if she thought my tumors were big to shrink. I told her that I wanted every little secret, supplement and bit of nutrition advice she could muster. I told her that if anyone could shrink these fibroids, I could, so she should give me everything she had in her arsenal of natural health.

She gave me instructions on how to clear toxins from my body and environment. All of the sudden, I was going through a whirlwind of odd directives: drink only out of glass, no plastic or foam; eat only organic produce and meats; stop using commercial menstrual products; go to EWG.org to find the least toxic body products and makeup (by the way, the Environmental Working Group IS a great resource that will rate the toxicity of all your personal products, and I highly recommend checking out EWG.org); and don’t touch receipts (They have BPA in them).

But, the worse thing about it all was the isolation I felt. I tried speaking about it to some female coworkers with the intention of informing them about better and safer menstrual products (more on those later), and I got mixed reactions, but I felt like a leper for bringing up such personal topics to youthful women. As women we can be pretty open and graphic about many things, but when something is going wrong with our “lady parts,” it is usually not discussed.

Still, I feel a need to reach out to young women with healthy uteruses, and a longing to learn from the women who have had fibroids. I long to hear what works, what doesn’t, what women’s experiences are with these little tumors, and how they endure them. While there are many support groups for many different issues and ailments, I have not found one for gynecological problems or fibroids. But there really should be one, considering that 70 to 80 percent of women get fibroids at some time during their lives, although only about 1/3 of women have symptomatic fibroids like mine.

So, what’s a girl to do? Where nothing exists, we create it, right? So, that’s what I’m going to do. I am going to start doing written and video blogs to document my healing journey, in the hope that doing so helps someone else. And, I’m thinking that a private facebook group may be a great forum where we can connect with other women who are on their own healing journeys, so that we can all learn from and strengthen each other. So, if you’d like to participate in that private facebook group, please let me know in the comments, or send me a private message. Good health to you all!

Continue reading:

Fun with Fibroids 2: Fun with Supplements

Fun with Fibroids 3: Fun with Hormones