Gained 25 lbs in one week

Question
Hello Melissa, I really hope you can help me with this one.  I had my second and currently last child, born naturally in 2002, after a week I was back in my "skinny clothes" but when the second week came, I gained about 25 pounds in that week alone.  I had been bleeding after delivery for two months.  I went to the doctor, he did many blood tests and they came out abnormal, it seemed that my hormones were crazy at that time.  He suspected after pregnancy thyroid problems, but then diagnosed me with too much stress.  A year later he performed the same tests and they seemed back to normal.  For some reason, lately I started doing online research on this problem to see if this has happened to many women.  I heard one case in the Montel show.  About 3 months ago, I went to my OB-Gyne. because now I have very irregular periods and lumps in my breasts, have been very moody, and didn't want much to be with my husband.  He prescribed me some contraceptives because he said I needed progesterone he said due to missing this hormone was the reason that I had big lumpy breasts and the irregularity of my periods.  During my research I thought it could be after pregnancy hypothyroid, but they say people usually loose the weight in the next few months, which in my case has been almost 4 years now and am still the same heavy chick.  I discarded that thought even though I have all the symptoms you could imagine; like loss of hair, very low energy, sleepiness, memory problems, trouble concentrating, pain, ugly skin, thin nails, and many more.  I then thought it could be either my pituitary or hypothalamus that someone is not sending the right signal to the thyroid as I kept on researching, I thought it could be with my adrenal glands because they have something to do with the kidneys and since December 2005 until April 2006 I had been in the hospital many times, because I had a huge kidney stone.  They did blood tests and could not figure out why my potassium was so high.  During the research I found out that this is caused by all of these glands not working right, the kidneys not being able to get rid of the sodium which then accumulates inside and forms that "terrible rock" it was a 12mm one.  So, I kind of started connecting the dots, and realized that I may have "estrogen dominance" which could cause all of these problems and could also bring on cancer.  Could this really be the cause of my problem?  Do you think if I take progesterone I will lose that weight? I had always been an active person, very healthy, I am only 25 years old, but feel like a 60 year old woman.  All I want to do is sleep, can't concentrate, don't remember simple things like I used to and this all happened after this second and last pregnancy.  No matter how hard I exercice and care about calorie intake, I cannot lose it.  I feel stressed all the time, even at times that I should be relaxed, anxiety, it's weird and bad to feel all of this at the same time.  It's terrible, I have two kids to care for!  Please help me get my life back.  I have started to use a natural progesterone cream that I found online, after hearing of all the bad side effects of the synthetic form, I heard this is supposed to work.  I am also taking DIM-plus which is supposed to help you metabolize the bad estrogen.  I started about 2 weeks ago, haven't really felt much difference yet.  What can I do?  I feel that if I don't do something now, my health is going to get worse.  Could this really be due to a hormonal imbalance?  How can all this be corrected?  I hope you can help me out.  Please tell me as much as you can to educate me and other women on this problem.  I really need an answer.  Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,
Vicky
Chicago, IL

Answer
Vicky,
You need to see an endocrinologist, rather than your family doctor or OB-Gyn. The endocrinologist can do special testing and evaluation that your other doctors may not be as familiar with.
Also, you should stop taking any kind of over-the-counter herbs, creams, pills, etc immediately. Anything sold as a "dietary supplement" or cream is not regulated by the FDA, and so you have no idea what's in it. It's completely legal for the manufacturer to label something "progesterone cream" that doesn't have any progesterone at all in it. The other reason you need to stop is that many of those products can hide your true diagnosis from the endocrinologist.
I hope you feel better soon!
Melissa

1. Prev:Low potassium foods; vegetables other than green ones
2. Next:acid/alkaline ph of your body.