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Re: Lupron ShotFrom: Anne-Marie (anonymous@obgyn.net)Tue May 11 21:23:52 2004
Its the same when you start taking vitex which is a natural alternative to the lupron. At first all the cells in the body become estrogen sensitive and this means your symptoms can become slightly worse. Then as the estrogen levels drop you get less symtposm. However, there is a huge difference between lupron and vitex. Lupron takes you in the completely opposite direction and you actually lack estrogen to the extent that you have the menopausal symtoms and lose bone. Not good. Whereas vitex balances the ratio between progesterone and estrogen and lessens the symptoms. Vitex works by rasing luteinising hormone which in turn raises your progesterone levels naturally. The symptoms of endometrisosi are caused by unnopoosed estrogen or too much esteogen and not enough progesterone to balance that. Thats how menopause symtoms are also caused. All you have effectively done with a lupron shot is switch down--and then you get other health problems cropping up. With vitex however, it keeps the balance of estrogen as a reasonable amount and your progesterone levels are brought up to match the estrogen levels. So if anything you start to build bone again and actually swelling and pain can be broguth down to more acceptable levels with your endo. Vitex works in a variety of conditions that have been caused by too much estrogen and not enough progesterone. Think of estrogen as fostering growth of cells and consider that progesterone actually causes cells to die and birth of new cells. Same with bone, estrogen builds bone, but we also need progesterone to build bone. If the favor leans towards mor estrogen in your body, then you get lots of cell growth and not enough cells dying or being replaced as there should be. Thats why cancer or tumors will grow in such an environment--because cancers have been shown in studies to regress when estrogen levels are lowered or balanced. Well the same is said of the endo lesions in your body. You need the progesterone to keep those from getting out of hand. Normally if estrogen levels are too high you get an over thickening of the lining in the uterus and lack of preogesterone means it doesnt shed the liming as effectively. Imagine that happening on a smaller scale to any lesions in your body and you have a problem. First of all if you can keep the growth of said lesions from getting out of hand they are less of a problem. If Lupron actually shrank lesions to the extent that when you have been on it for say 4-6 months they disappear then it would possibly be a strategy that you could use. However, as yet I dont know if there is any study that proves that such lesions are completely gotten rid of. So when you stop Lupron you have a large production of estrogen in response to withdrawing from it I'd imagine and a very nasty attack of Endo upon withdrawal at some point if negative feedback mechanisms in the body is anything to go by. Also, you have in turn lost a substantial amount of bone. You could take calcium supplements to try to prevent bone loss, but studies in Danish women have shown that you need estrogen to help with uptake of calcium to bone or stop calcium loss from bone. If I were on Lupron I would definately be getting atleast a gram of calcium per day in supplement form because if you dont have a gram's worth in your blood daily, your body takes it from bone. Not really sure if you would get more rapid bone loss on lupron though. Not really studied that far as yet as the minute I heard how Lupron works, because of my joints and problems last year I immediately felt it wouldnt be something that I could personally try to be honest.
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