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[Guest guest]

With all due respect, did Dr. Chen tell you that the author of SLM,

Wiley, hasn't even a college degree and that no formal tests have been done

on the safety and efficacy of her protocol? Did he tell you that women get

horribly overdosed on progesterone and that it takes months to years to get

it out of tissues. Some even got a pregnancy stripe from too much

progesterone. Oh, and did he mention that even the hugs gobs of

progesterone cream may not protect your uterus from hyperplasia?

Val

-----Original Message-----

From: rhythmicliving [mailto:rhythmicliving ]

On Behalf Of gini56

I am 56 and menopause finally kicked in big time this year.

Dr. Chen has required that I read " Sex, Lies and Menopause " , which I

will as soon as the bookstore gets it. I am looking forward to

gaining valuable first hand information from the women on this site.

Thanks-Gini56

[Guest guest]

Hi, If this is the Dr. Chen in Santa Cruz (woman), I have to pipe in.

She was my doctor. She was the one who said, do NOT consult the women

on Rhythmic Living or the Wiley watch. I was with her for almost one

year. she started treating me for adrenal fatigue but only a short

term (adrenal fatigue should be treated much longer and tested quite

more often and slowly weened off of cortisol). Anwyay, i was only

treated about a month or so on cortisol and she only used morning

blood serum levels to retest cortisol which i now know was a bad move

for my own health. Once my " blood " levels turned up normal, we turned

down the cortisol and she tested my sex hormones, which of course

were all tanked EXCEPT progesterone. My, E, my T, my DHEA...all

tanked, below normal for a pre-menopause woman. (I was 37 at the

time. I'm now 39.) My periods on the other hand were spot on every 28

day and lasted 2-3.5 days which is about normal for my body (an

athlete).

anyway, she quickly put on the WP and told me to ignore all the

internet advice about it and not read it. big mistake on my part. in

5 months on WP I gained 18 lbs, my insomnia (my main symptom, my

secondary was chronic fatigue) was worse, my energy in the toilet, my

brain fog so bad, i couldn't work. I seriously thought i was having a

mental breakdown. up until the adrenal fatigue, i had been happy and

energetic. even with adrenal fatigue, i was still generally happy.

but on the WP, it messed with my brain and thinking and emotions. Not

to mention my body had a rash over 40% of it. I itched everywhere. a

dermatologist told me i was allergic to dust mites... which i had

known before i did the WP but never had a reaction to them. all of

the sudden 40% of my body is covered in allergic reaction to dust

mites (my house has no carpets, my husband didn't have this and my

dog didn't have mange or mites...i checked). after researching, i

found out Progesterone lowers immunity. at the WP levels, i'm lucky i

didn't contract something worse than dust mite reaction.

when i mentioned these concerns, she said some women get itchy and it

would pass. when i mentioned the weight gain (and that i was busting

out of my bras), she said i was a bit obsessive/controlling and then

mentioned i should try a raw diet. my whole life, i managed to keep

my weight at about 130-135 lbs whether i was athletic or not for a

5'5 " frame (not heavy not skinny...so i wouldn't say i was NOT

controlling over my weight or weight-obsessive) and i never need

a " raw diet " to keep it that way. I healthily for sure, but not

totally raw. but to gain 18 lbs that quickly, for NO reason, well i'm

sorry, half of America should be that concerned with their weight

being a major symptom of something wrong in their body. this advice

made me immediately stop the WP and look for another doctor.

What i did was this: I ran my own blood and saliva labs. I asked

around for people using MD's who prescribe bioidentical hormones. I

also considered NDs. I interviewed them on how they'd treat me with

these labs and my history. I now use an MD and ND approach. my ND

monitors my metabolism more than MD, but my MD montitors the effects

on my female anatomy (breasts, ovaries, uterus, all of which i

have)...and she's much more up to speed with homepathic than most

MDs. she didn't flip when i decided to use iodine for my subclinical

thryoid symptoms.

I like Dr. Chen, she's very nice and has the right ideas about using

natural hormone balancing or even iodine. But i thought she wasn't

listening when i was on the WP. The advice about the raw diet is not

bad, its just that, hello, i didn't have a weight problem before the

WP. The whole time i was on the WP she kept saying " hmm... I still

think your adrenals are involved " and i kept thining " then why aren't

you doiing more testing or sending me to someone who would know how

to test for it? " and I also knew about saliva testing for adrenals

then but at that time felt like MD's had a secret knoweledge to

everything... so i didn't push having her test for more. i mean, why

would she keep suspecting it and then just leave me with that as if i

knew what to do about it (other than not exercise or have stress,

which i was doing)?

I now know the WORST thing i could have ever done for my adrenal and

sub thryoid problem is the WP. The best advice i got from this list

is: treat adrenals first, then thyroid, then sex hormones. because of

the adrenal hormone pathway (sex hormones are converted last in the

adrenal gland pathway). Ovaries make the sex hormones too, but if

your adrenals of suffering, your sex hormones will also be tanking

horribly. if you bring the cortisol up, it's possible E will go up on

its own.

since being off the WP, and being on only adrenal support and iodine,

my Estrogen has been normal (or sometimes now too high, but remember,

it was totally tanked) but its now normal, just from normalizing my

cortisol. I had one result of my progesterone being 40X higher than

it should about 5 months AFTER stopping the WP, because the

progesterone from the WP stored inside my tissues and sat there until

i detoxed it. once that got detoxed...all my clothing fit again.

I'm still suffering a bit from fatigue now... but now i believe i'm

addressing it properly. one hormone at a time. i tried DHEA because

it was low. it made my E go up so i stopped. my T is still low and

this month after results are in, my T may be the thing i try. i'm

also re-running thyroid serum tests and some other tests (like Lyme)

to rule out things causing my chronic fatigue.

at this point it is so nice just to have the fatigue to deal with and

not the itchy, brain fog, weight problems, tearfullness, depression,

anxiety i had on the WP. oh and that pregnancy stripe (linea niegra)

val mentions below...i got that several months AFTER stopping the

WP... right before i detoxed the progesterone. ya, how's that for

wacko? it's gone now. I do now also have ovarian cysts that i'm

pretty sure were caused by WP but since i never had ultrasound before

can't prove it. but i can say, i never had them earlier in my life!

Hope this is helpful. I don't discourage using Dr. Chen or the WP,

but i would encourage you to be in the driver seat of your health.

if you're in the South Bay area, i do see a women's health MD who I

like a lot. she does my pap and yearly exam and uses bioidentical

hormones. she specializes in thryoid issues for women and advocates

Armour (natural thyroid). she's not as up to speed on adrenal i

think, but is open to how i'm treating it with my ND. I like her a

lot and i'd be happy to refer her off list to you. her method is

opposite of the WP, which is go low, go slow. which i think many

women would agree with on this list!

best of luck,

>

> With all due respect, did Dr. Chen tell you that the author of SLM,

> Wiley, hasn't even a college degree and that no formal tests have

been done

> on the safety and efficacy of her protocol? Did he tell you that

women get

> horribly overdosed on progesterone and that it takes months to

years to get

> it out of tissues. Some even got a pregnancy stripe from too much

> progesterone. Oh, and did he mention that even the hugs gobs of

> progesterone cream may not protect your uterus from hyperplasia?

>

> Val

>

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: rhythmicliving

[mailto:rhythmicliving ]

> On Behalf Of gini56

>

> I am 56 and menopause finally kicked in big time this year.

> Dr. Chen has required that I read " Sex, Lies and Menopause " , which

I

> will as soon as the bookstore gets it. I am looking forward to

> gaining valuable first hand information from the women on this site.

> Thanks-Gini56

>

[Guest guest]

Welcome to our newest members. Below are the anonymous intros.

Please feel free to introduce yourselves when you feel comfortable.

Laurel

______________________

Comment from user:

I am 51 & just went off prempro. I am looking for alternatives

Comment from user:

Concerned about Wiley Protocol levels of progesterone now experiencing

withdraws looking for help with detox and other BHRT ideas.