The wife

[Mp859]

Hi ladies.

This question is for my wife. She is 25 and in very good shape and eats very healthy. He had been on birth control for a couple years and came off it completly about one year ago. The problem is she is tired all the time and sex drive is really in the dumps. I'm just wondering what our next step should be. A doctor gave her vaginal estrogen cream but that was without any blood work or anything. Any opinions about what we ahould do next are welcome.

Thank you

[redz]

I dealt with this with my ex, we never figured out a solution. Good luck.

[Lunk1]

Like anyone else. Bloodwork is needed. It could be a number of things but long term BC use can have long term negative hormone effects. Some will bounce back but it may take a good amount of time. Get blood done. Ask for a full hormone panel including thyroid and lipids.

[run_n_fool]

Is she seeing a general practitioner? I don't have any experience with estrogen creams but my ex wife was prescribed basically every anti-depressant imaginable by her GP for what was self diagnosed as PMDD (google it for a good description, could be the same issue your wife is having). Long story short, I am very leery of GPs prescribing anti-depressants. In her case, the doc was pretty clueless/unhelpful and was like "oh, still feeling shitty? try this instead" rather than trying to dig deeper and get to whatever the real issue is/was. Simply a pill pusher. The whole depression and lack of sex drive contributed to the demise of my marriage.

[run_n_fool]

Like anyone else. Bloodwork is needed. It could be a number of things but long term BC use can have long term negative hormone effects. Some will bounce back but it may take a good amount of time. Get blood done. Ask for a full hormone panel including thyroid and lipids.

Reminds me of something. I've heard after 6 months if things are not "normal" there is probably something else at play.

[Lunk1]

Is she seeing a general practitioner? I don't have any experience with estrogen creams but my ex wife was prescribed basically every anti-depressant imaginable by her GP for what was self diagnosed as PMDD (google it for a good description, could be the same issue your wife is having). Long story short, I am very leery of GPs prescribing anti-depressants. In her case, the doc was pretty clueless/unhelpful and was like "oh, still feeling shitty? try this instead" rather than trying to dig deeper and get to whatever the real issue is/was. Simply a pill pusher. The whole depression and lack of sex drive contributed to the demise of my marriage.

Most GP's unfortunately will dismiss the possibility of hormone issues and push anti-depressants instead. It's a horrible practice and I can't help but think it's driven by kick backs from drug companies.

[GirlyGymRat]

^^^ so true unfortunately.

OP. Wife needs to see an OBGYN. BW should be ordered as other suggested. Estrogen Cream is a first start but not going to address the low libido. Good luck. It sucks to lose sex drive, but can be restored. Keep the faith and make another doctors appt!

[Mp859]

Thanks guys and girls. I'm going to try to get her in and get some bloodwork

[run_n_fool]

One other thing, she's probably to young to be menopausal but Dr Drew (Loveline, etc.) says that women on estrogen often need a low dose of test to offset the loss of their natty test production that comes either from menopause or the HRT drugs themselves.

[Mp859]

One other thing, she's probably to young to be menopausal but Dr Drew (Loveline, etc.) says that women on estrogen often need a low dose of test to offset the loss of their natty test production that comes either from menopause or the HRT drugs themselves.

Test or progesterone?

[GirlyGymRat]

Test or progesterone?

Not sure what op suggesting. From my personal experience it was estrogen and test. But really depends on your WIFE'S blood work results. BW is the first step. Doc will prolly run thyroid panel too.

[Mp859]

Not sure what op suggesting. From my personal experience it was estrogen and test. But really depends on your WIFE'S blood work results. BW is the first step. Doc will prolly run thyroid panel too.

Thanks

[run_n_fool]

Yes, as GGR said, test and est. Apparently too much estrogen in the absense of any test causes many unintended issues.

[ElectraMaddox]

I bet her test levels are on the low end. Coming off bc sometimes you get and estrogen rebound. That's happened to me and my progesterone and test were low normal and I felt like garbage. I was lethargic, and my sex drive was floored.

Negative feedback system.... When one hormone that corresponds with another increases dramatically it's causes a drop in another hormone and the pituitary gland sends out signals to rebalance the hormones. My Dr. Said it takes 30 days to reset.

Example: low estrogen (no more synthetic estrogen) the pituitary sends signals to sex hormones to produce higher amounts than usual to restore balance but while that's being elevated the signals being sent to other hormones like test and progesterone are surpressed until the body feels that it has enough estrogen.