What about oestrogen/hormones? - Fibromyalgia Message Board

gnasher · 07-19-2001, 12:59 AM

I have suffered from sleep disorders for ages now and have been diagnosed with FM by a rheumatologist. The strange thing is that while I was pregnant, some months back, I slept fantastically with no medication and felt great too. Is there not some hormone medication - extra oestrogen or something - that females can take to help with sleep. I am talking about young women and not menopausal ones.

fawnmarie · 07-28-2001, 10:24 AM

The hormone you enjoyed that helped you feel so much better is known as "Relaxin". It is only produced by pregnant women, and it's purpose is to loosen the joints and ligaments, especially in the pelvis, to allow the baby to pass through. One of the reasons women get broader hips after birth is because the pelvis usually doesn't return to it's normal place before Relaxin stops being produced.

I think "Copper" found a supplemental form of Relaxin, and you can search the board for her posts on the subject. I think she found a lot of relief with it.

Fawn

07-29-2001, 08:00 AM

Pregnancy made me WORSE not better. I do suspect I have a hormonal imbalance lurking somewhere but my doc said they can't test while I'm on the pill. I'm going off the pill later this month,I finally talked my husband into permanant birth control earlier this year. Pregnancy really killed me, I'm never doing it again. Of course,the kids really wear me thin too.........

gnasher · 07-30-2001, 03:52 AM

Thanks very much for your reply. I definitely want to try it but unfortunately I don't think it is available in this country. Maybe I could order it over the web...
What are you taking for your FM?

fawnmarie · 08-02-2001, 11:08 PM

gnasher,

Is this question for me?

I'm NOT taking the synthetic Relaxin, mainly because my condition isn't bad enough to warrant the price tag. I think Copper said it was pretty expensive.

For my FM I am taking:

Doc gave me Elavil, but it doesn't really help. Note the time hack on this post - 1:00 AM. I took it hours ago.

For the muscle pains:
magnesium and malic acid - helps somewhat

heavy duty vitamin B complex - helps a lot.

BodyFlex breathing with stretches to the painful areas - helps a LOT. I get pain mostly in my shoulders, neck and chest, and with a couple of BodyFlex type breaths and stretching the area, the pain is GONE. Still a little stiff, but NO pain.

For energy:

High protein carbohydrate diet - helps a LOT

CoQ10 - not sure if it's helping or not.

I seem to have a lot of the pain under control, but I'm still kind of stiff. I'm too busy to notice it much, but it doesn't hurt, anyway. That's something to be grateful for, because a month ago I was almost completely incapacitated. I could drag to work, then drag home and go straight to bed. That was about the extent of it.

I'm much better now.

Fawn