Question:
WANTED TO SHARE WHAT I'VE LEARNED ABOUT HORMONES

Hello, I've been going nuts lately. Everything gets on my nerves and I want to cry all the time because things irritate me so much. I can't stand to even look at my husband anymore. It's been really bad and I hate feeling this way. I switched from my birth control patch to the Nuva Ring, thinking that may be the problem. Things got worse. So I went to my Gyno and through my tears I explained what has been going on. She explained to me that the more you weigh the more estrogen you have and it is stored in your fat cells. When you lose a dramatic amount of weight your estrogen level drops dramatically and your hormones go crazy. Then in my case, the Nuva Ring had even less estrogen in it which was a double whammy for me. She said it was like I was put into Menopause, YIKES, I'm only 35!!! So now I'm going to start The Pill with a higher estrogen to get my level back up and also I started Wellbutrin XL for the depression. I can't wait for things to kick in because I really feel like I'm losing it! At least now I know there's a reason for all of this craziness and I'm not really losing my mind. I wonder if all women go through this after surgery, there are so many people on anti depressants, they really should prepare us.    — Kelly* P. (posted on April 4, 2004)

April 4, 2004
Okay, you post confirmed what I had heard before. It also confirms that I need a new OB/GYN. I told her about problems I was having and she said weightloss (even -97#) would have nothing to do with hormones. Thanks for confirming this and helping me to decide to find a new doc.
   — candylnd24

April 4, 2004
Hello Kelly, I experienced the menopause thing too. My doctor had prepared me at this possibility. But, silly me thought that because I had already went through menopause( I'm 42) that I couldn't go through it again...WRONG ! Have a blessed day, Loriann
   — Loriann J.

April 4, 2004
I also think that this is the reason that women that have WLS tend to have more hair loss than men that have WLS. I wish they would do some research on this maybe doing hormone levels on WLS subjects to see how they relate to loosing weight.
   — jenafwife

April 4, 2004
I am having my surgery Tuesday, but my PCP prescribed Wellbutrin XL 300mg. daily and I want you to know I felt better after about 5 Days. I feel like I can join the world again. Good Luck
   — Angel E.

April 4, 2004
I'm surprised any GYN would say that losing lots of fat would not affect your estrogen. It's a known fact that the reason we must take calcium citrate for the rest of our lives is because we no longer have the very high levels of estrogen to protect our bones from osteoporosis. That was the one advantage of being way overweight. <p>In my case I must have been producing so much estrogen that it became necessary to put me on Depo shots are 6 week intervals to get my body to balance out. BCP's sent my body into a tizzy and I had constant bleeding for 9 months. This was all pre-op. I did 6 week shots for about 2 years and then we worked up to 8 week shots and I stayed there for about 5 years. After I had lost 150 lbs, and thinking a lot of the fat was gone and therefore estrogen gone, we tried slowly stretching out my shot intervals. I did okay on 9 weeks but 10 weeks was the loser. I had breakthrough bleeding which I haven't had since 1996. So I going to go back to the 8 weeks shots. So in my case it would appear that my estrogen levels have not dropped that much, otherwise I should have been able to get by with less Depo. It's got more to do with my wacked out body and the severe PCOS I have suffered from for over 25 years. Most likely I could have been skinny all my life and still had tons of problems. <p>Even being on the Depo shots right though WLS and everything, I still experienced a shift in hormones about 3 months PO. I could tell things were getting strange in my body. I could have sworn I was pregnant. It took about 3 weeks to finally settle back down. I'm glad you are trying some depression meds as most likely that is a part of what is going on. That is very common after WLS or for that matter after any major surgery. It's very common after major heart surgery. The only comment I would offer is that you are being put on a extended release drug which us port-ops are known to have trouble absorbing fully. Same thing with the BCP's. So be careful and don't assume you are fully protected against pregnancy. The patch, assuming you were below 200 lbs, was technically a better choice as it's absorbed through the skin. Maybe you could use that and supplement with some additional estrogen. Just don't want you to suddenly end up pregnant if that is what you are trying to avoid. I know some will say they have done fine on BCP's since surgery but the truth is they have been lucky. It is a known fact that typically full absorption of BCP's after RNY and I believe DS, does not occur. Obviously the degree of malabsorption will vary by person. It look about 9 months for me to realize I was slightly malabsorbing some of my depression meds. The symptoms started surfacing around 6 months but I didn't recognize them. It wasn't until something more significant was going on in my life and I wasn't dealing with it well that we figured it out. It only took a 10mg increase, but without it I was definitely not as well controlled. Good luck and I hope you are feeling better soon!
   — zoedogcbr

April 5, 2004
Kelly, we always make sure to cover this in our support groups, especially to warn the pre-ops in advance. With the rapid weight loss, the hormones go crazy and many post-ops experience a couple of months of depression and emotional swings. It does pass and it sure does help to know this ahead of time. The surgeons should all provide this info to their patients as part of their pre-op preparations.
   — Cindy R.

April 5, 2004
Hi, i just wanted to remind you, if you didn't already know, that wellbutrin xl is an extended release medication. something to keep in mind, it has the potential to not be totally absorbed? do you know what part of the intestine it is absorbed in? hopefully not part that was bypassed. my doctor just swiched me from zoloft to paxil. i start is tomorrow. huggs, keri
   — Keri P.