Soy? How in the heck does SOY help? LOL

aprildurham23 · 06-30-2009, 04:55 PM

So....through the grapevine I've heard that taking soy pills is like taking Clomid? Is that right? Where do you get Soy pills from and HOW does it work? Any success stories??

TrentonsMomma · 06-30-2009, 05:52 PM

I recently read that taking in too much soy if you are hypothyroid can make it worse. For that reason I stay away from soy.

JenSlayton · 06-30-2009, 06:18 PM

It isn't just any soy, but specifically Soy Isoflavones that work like Clomid.

Clomid is a synthetic (man-made) Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulator (SERM). Molecularly it is shaped like estrogen, and can bind to the same things that estrogen does in your body. So it can go into your brain (the hypothalamus) and bind to the estrogen receptor. By doing that it blocks estrogen from binding to the receptor so your brain thinks that you don't have enough estrogen in your body. In order to try to get your estrogen levels up it sends signals to your pituitary gland telling it to produce more of the things that stimulate your ovaries to create hormones (FSH/LH). That causes more eggs to be grown in your ovaries.

Soy Isoflavones are a Phyto (naturally occuring) SERM, so they act like Clomid, binding to your estrogen receptors and making your body think that your estrogen is low, causing it to send more hormones in which causes your ovaries to produce more eggs.

SERMs don't just block the estrogen receptors in your brain though, they also block them everywhere else in your body, meaning that places that need estrogen to make themselves ready for a baby don't necessarily get the signal to get ready (hence the hostile cervical mucus, thinning uterine lining, menopause-like side effects, etc). That is why you can't use Clomid for more than a few months in a row.

Since Soy Isoflavones are less active I'm not sure if the same rule applies to them though, but I suspect that it might.

akillian24 · 07-02-2009, 12:12 AM

Thanks JenS-
Have you read anything about Soy actually being reported to damage female reproductive organs? Is that just for non-PCOS females?

JenSlayton · 07-02-2009, 12:33 PM

I haven't heard anything about it damaging anything...

The one concern with those who are ttc is that if you are taking Soy every day (not just for 5 days like you would Clomid), then it can delay ovulation making your follicular phase longer, and leading to fewer periods in a year. There are a couple of different studies that showed that, with the theory being that fewer cycles means less chance of breast cancer.

But I don't think that is true if you only take it for the five days.

I have seen quite a few posts on various sites from women who used it who say that it made their cycle wacky, either causing them to skip O or delay it for up to a couple of weeks. It might be similar to if you have a lot of stress and your af is late or skips from that since I think that cortisol can act on the same pathways? But I don't know for sure since that didn't happen to me... and of course, nothing works for everyone and every problem.

If you are nervous about Soy, you might want to try flaxseed lignans. They are also a Phyto-estrogen, and there is more research on them regulating ovulation and lengthening luteal phase.