So after giving up on getting nutritional advice from my doctor, I decided to see a local dietician. She has a lot of patients with PCOS and pretty much said that doctors tend to be pretty clueless.
Anywho, we were discussing my recent bout of migraines (6 or 7 in the last 2 weeks after nothing for a year and the nothing for 3-5 years before that!)... and she asked if I knew anything about my progesterone level. Luckily, being a lab tech, I did! My last level was a whopping 0.95 (insert amount thingie here lol) which was lower than someone who is post-menopausal! She told me that yes, Yasmin has progestin but it's synthetic (duh) and although it does what it needs to do to my uterus, it probably isn't doing anything for the rest of my body.
Doh!
I have a follow-up with her Thursday where we'll actually start outlining a "plan" and maybe I'll get lab tests (I'm such a weirdo sometimes) and maybe I'll even get proof that I do have IR! And and and... my insurance won't pay for it. Stupid insurance. But that's okay!
I believe that it's fairly common for progesterin levels to be low in women that struggle with PCOS, IR, DM II, etc. Mine sure was (I'm on Yasmin, too), and what has helped me immensely is to use a natural progesterine cream for two weeks every month.
You can get good ones over the counter so hopefully your Dr. will recommend this before having you try other expensive options.
A connection between progesterone and migraines would explain why I get a migraine 2-3 days before AF and sometimes one after. I'll have to ask the doc.
Also, Yasmin is pretty high in estrogen, which when too high or unopposed (PCOS in general or tricyclic bcp) causes bad headaches too (plus water retention, moodiness, etc). Have you ever tried a lower-estrogen pill like Mircette, new YAZ (Yasmin with half estrogen), Ring, or there's another new one Loestrin24 (spell I know)?
__________________ Whoa! bfp 11/22/08. A YAZ "reset" baby!
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I feel for you, but your post keeps you chipper
I used to get bad migraines--really bad, but they were medication-induced.
Best to you with your dietician-please let us know how it goes.
I'm trying to boost my progesterone too, my level is a whopping 1.25, b/c I'm estrogen dominant. Hope we can find a balance of both hormones. I heard yams are natural progesterone--but I figure you'd have to eat a heckuva lot of yams to boost the hormone. Who knows...
Also, Yasmin is pretty high in estrogen, which when too high or unopposed (PCOS in general or tricyclic bcp) causes bad headaches too
I have recently stopped taking Diane because when I went onto the sugar pills to menstruate I would get shocking migraines. I was also getting them about twice a week on the regular pills. Not sure whether it was the progesterone or estrogen in them but since I have been off them I only get mild headaches with my period. Yeah!
I use progesterone cream between ovulation and AF to try and help prevent further miscarriage if I happen to get a BFP again, and I get pretty bad headaches from that.
I've also just founded out I need glasses and I know that can cause headaches too, and I've definatly had an increase over the past 6 months or so, and I haven't been using the progesterone cream that long, so I'm thinking that might be the cause of my headaches as well.
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