[roro]

Hi roro,

I wish you good luck! Do you plan to introduce herbs or buy a breast pump?

Hi!! Thank you! I will answer your question underneath together with blessedbreasts' quote

Welcome, roro! Good on you, deciding to just do it. Massage is a good place to start. I second peggy's question. What else do you plan on adding to your routine?

Thank you!

Okay, so after a fair bit of research, doing that online hormonal test and my latest blood test results I have gathered a few pieces of vital information:

- I am oestrogen dominant and progesterone deficient.
- This made total sense to me because my blood test a few months ago indicated that I had abnormally high levels of prolactin (900). My doctor was concerned and asked me to do another test a month later or so, which I haven't done yet because my doctor got sick and has not yet returned.

After some research into being deficient in progesterone, I read about Premenstrual dysphoria which is essentially the severe version of PMS. This is a snippet from wikipedia about the symptons:

emotional symptoms are generally present, and in PMDD, mood symptoms are dominant.[6] Substantial disruption to personal relationships is typical for women with PMDD.[6] Anxiety, anger, and depression may also occur. The main symptoms, which can be disabling, include[8]
Feelings of sadness or despair, or even thoughts of suicide
Feelings of tension or anxiety
Panic attacks
Mood swings or frequent crying
Lasting irritability or anger that affects other people
Lack of interest in daily activities and relationships
Trouble thinking or focusing
Tiredness or low energy
Food cravings or binge eating
Trouble sleeping
Feeling out of control
Physical symptoms, such as bloating, breast tenderness, headaches, and joint or muscle pain
The symptoms occur during the week before menstruation, and go away once it starts. A diagnosis of PMDD requires the presence of at least five of these symptoms

I can say that I have all these symptoms the week before my periods. I couldnt believe it when I read all of this, I was actually so ecstatic to learn about this problem because this entire time I thought I just had anxiety and that's it. It's crazy because little did I know that hormonal levels can affect me so intensely! It really does all make sense now! My mother was diagnosed with depression, but now that I read all these symptons I think she just has premenstural dysphoria as well, it is quite common for women who are about to go through menopause due to changes in hormone levels.

So after learning about this, I looked into herbs etc. So as you guys may already know the thing to take/eat is chasteberry for progesterone during the luteal phase and to use PC as well at the same time. However, an article I read about progesterone stated that you shouldnt eat/take anything for this hormone because the progesterone goes straight into the blood stream and is not produced in the stomach. It said something about the stomach and liver breaking it down to virtually a small percentage left for the body to intake. I can't remember where the article is, but if I find it i'll link it. I thought that that was a valid point, so I'm a little hesitant with chaste berry, but thoughts on that one? Anyhow, I like the idea of PC, im just trying to understand where to apply it because in that same article it indicated that applying it in the vaginal region will allow the body to absorb it most effectively, thoughts on that one? I mean all other articles suggest rotating the location of application so you can't really just apply it in the vaginal region the whole time right?

To sum up, I will add PC for now and continue massaging. Probably won't look into the pump right now. But let me know what you think about chaste berry! Thanks guys!