Ovarian Cysts & Phytoestrogens
I hear you - what is she talking about now? Phytoestrogens ke? She don come again o!
Hear me out.
Phytoestrogens are, simply put, estrogen found in plants. Yeah, since when did plants have hormones? Apparently they do. How did I find out?
I've always had polycystic ovaries - a condition where the ovaries have multiple immature cysts at any point in time. This condition lends to hormonal imbalances, infertility and weight issues.
When a woman ovulates, the egg grows within a cyst (of sorts) and the egg is released when it is mature by the rupturing of the cyst/encasement. Sometimes, the cyst/encasement doesn't rupture for a variety of reasons - one of which is an imbalance of hormones.
For the reproductive cycle, there is always one hormone decreasing in levels for another to increase in levels (or vice-versa) in order for one thing or the other to occur.
This imbalance can be caused by any of many reasons - stress, illness, medication, food.
And it is about the food I want to tell my fellow ladies, and anyone else who is interested.
Mid-2009, I started taking Soy milk (chocolate flavored soy, heh heh heh) in a bid to eat healthier and get my daily calcium without having to drink regular milk which I loved but, alas, had too many calories for my own good. NO, I will only drink skimmed milk if it were the only thing that would bring me back from the brink of a certain death, and even then, I would consider my options!
I took my one glass a day and diligently too. Soy was meant to be healthier than most foods, delivering the necessary nutrients and was a high-protein food. I knew it was also a source of plant-estrogen but did not think that would be of much importance.
By the end of that year, I started having really painful cycles - the times I ovulated were accompanied by excruciating abdominal pain. I'd always had discomfort at this time in my cycle but the pain was way beyond that. The first few times, I would use Ibuprofen/Advil or any anti-inflammatory medicine I could get my hands on. By the 6th month, I went to my Primary Care doctor. He also gave me anti-inflammatory meds.
I wasn't having bleeding between periods nor was there any change in anything down there (trying to be polite here!) or anywhere else; no unexplained weight losses or gains either so I consoled myself it wasn't cancer. Looking back though, I should have ruled that out but nothing in my scans pointed at the possibility of cancer so...
All this time, I was drinking my soy milk. Then in 2011, the chocolate flavor of the brand - Alpro - that I preferred temporarily went out of circulation for a couple of months so I took a break from my soy-milk habit. It was only later that the significance of this would become clear.
That year, I had less bouts of severe ovulation pain but did not think anything of it until the pain came back full force in the summer of that year. I had to text my OB Gyn at 4AM to beg him to please see me that morning. At the clinic, a scan showed a large cyst. I was given a shot to rupture it. He said it was my hormones - I'd always had hormonal imbalances so that wasn't a surprise, but I was beginning to wonder, why will the imbalance be causing such painful cysts now?
The following month, same excruciating pain but this time, I saw the Primary Care doctor who said the cysts were probably because of my fertility treatment. Wait, What??? I was not doing fertility treatments any longer! The last one was in 2008! So, again, it was a question of hormones. but what was causing my estrogen to be so high that it was causing all this trouble?
So, I sat down to think about changes in medication, stress (I'm pretty laid back and my attitude to most stressful situations always has been "why worry when you can pray?" and "worrying never solved any problems"), changes in weight (nothing there - I've been trying to shift 10kg for over 10 years and my weight had been pretty consistent, so, that certainly wasn't it). I went through the whole gamut of possible causes and finally I figured out the one change I had made that coincided with the "cystic" episodes. Soy Milk. And in retrospect, I did not have the episodes when I wasn't taking the milk when the flavor I liked was unavailable or when I travelled and did not take soy.
My research taught me that Soy has really high levels of Phytoestrogens, and is recommended for menopausal women as a natural way to replace depleting estrogen levels and help with menopausal changes. In Asian women, studies have shown that their risk for breast cancer in later life is reduced by soy consumption in adolescence. Interestingly, the study of non-Asian women, results are mixed!
For many or most people taking soy, the benefits are many. For a few like me, extra estrogen in any form just throws the "pepper-less", "age butter", overly sensitive balance out of whack.
Estrogen is necessary in the body (even men have some) but elevated levels are also responsible for some bad things - tumors, cancers.
Anyway, I decided to do an experiment. I stopped the soy milk for 4 months. And had nothing other than the vague discomfort and "fat days" associated with my normal ovulation period.
In the 5th month, on the 1st day of my period, I decided I was going to take soy milk again. Sure enough, the pain came, and a scan confirmed a large cyst that took almost two weeks to resolve because I refused the shot to rupture it. I stopped taking the soy 2 days after the pain started.
The next month, I waited for my ovulation time to go by before taking the soy - no pain.
I experimented, taking soy at different times in my cycle just to be sure. The conclusion? It was definitely the soy - I was one of those for whom soy held no benefit.
I have since cut soy - and any food derived from soy - from my diet. I'm confused as to whether to give my children either since I am unsure of what the long-term effect could be for them.
But, the story doesn't end there - I started eating lentils and the pain came back. I went online and sure enough, lentils contain phytoestrogens, though you won't find it on the regular list of phytoestrogen foods. I had to be specific in my search - "do lentils contain phytoestrogens?" was the question that brought answers. A surprising number of foods that I did not know about contain phytoestrogens, albeit in varying quantities.
I thought to share my experience, just in case there are others like me out there.
Below are a few links to sites that talk about phytoestrogens.
Doing a search on "foods that contain phytoestrogens" will bring up many more sites.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
http://paleoforwomen.com/flax-marijuana-and-44-other-phytoestrogen-sources-you-might-not-know-youre-consuming/
http://www.breastcancerfund.org/clear-science/radiation-chemicals-and-breast-cancer/phytoestrogens.html?referrer=https://www.google.com.ng/
http://www.womenlivingnaturally.com/articlepage.php?id=107
http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/04/08/20-foods-high-in-estrogen-phytoestrogens/
https://www.dietaryfiberfood.com/phytoestrogen-hormones/phytoestrogen-food-sources.php
Hear me out.
Phytoestrogens are, simply put, estrogen found in plants. Yeah, since when did plants have hormones? Apparently they do. How did I find out?
I've always had polycystic ovaries - a condition where the ovaries have multiple immature cysts at any point in time. This condition lends to hormonal imbalances, infertility and weight issues.
When a woman ovulates, the egg grows within a cyst (of sorts) and the egg is released when it is mature by the rupturing of the cyst/encasement. Sometimes, the cyst/encasement doesn't rupture for a variety of reasons - one of which is an imbalance of hormones.
For the reproductive cycle, there is always one hormone decreasing in levels for another to increase in levels (or vice-versa) in order for one thing or the other to occur.
This imbalance can be caused by any of many reasons - stress, illness, medication, food.
And it is about the food I want to tell my fellow ladies, and anyone else who is interested.
Mid-2009, I started taking Soy milk (chocolate flavored soy, heh heh heh) in a bid to eat healthier and get my daily calcium without having to drink regular milk which I loved but, alas, had too many calories for my own good. NO, I will only drink skimmed milk if it were the only thing that would bring me back from the brink of a certain death, and even then, I would consider my options!
I took my one glass a day and diligently too. Soy was meant to be healthier than most foods, delivering the necessary nutrients and was a high-protein food. I knew it was also a source of plant-estrogen but did not think that would be of much importance.
By the end of that year, I started having really painful cycles - the times I ovulated were accompanied by excruciating abdominal pain. I'd always had discomfort at this time in my cycle but the pain was way beyond that. The first few times, I would use Ibuprofen/Advil or any anti-inflammatory medicine I could get my hands on. By the 6th month, I went to my Primary Care doctor. He also gave me anti-inflammatory meds.
I wasn't having bleeding between periods nor was there any change in anything down there (trying to be polite here!) or anywhere else; no unexplained weight losses or gains either so I consoled myself it wasn't cancer. Looking back though, I should have ruled that out but nothing in my scans pointed at the possibility of cancer so...
All this time, I was drinking my soy milk. Then in 2011, the chocolate flavor of the brand - Alpro - that I preferred temporarily went out of circulation for a couple of months so I took a break from my soy-milk habit. It was only later that the significance of this would become clear.
That year, I had less bouts of severe ovulation pain but did not think anything of it until the pain came back full force in the summer of that year. I had to text my OB Gyn at 4AM to beg him to please see me that morning. At the clinic, a scan showed a large cyst. I was given a shot to rupture it. He said it was my hormones - I'd always had hormonal imbalances so that wasn't a surprise, but I was beginning to wonder, why will the imbalance be causing such painful cysts now?
The following month, same excruciating pain but this time, I saw the Primary Care doctor who said the cysts were probably because of my fertility treatment. Wait, What??? I was not doing fertility treatments any longer! The last one was in 2008! So, again, it was a question of hormones. but what was causing my estrogen to be so high that it was causing all this trouble?
So, I sat down to think about changes in medication, stress (I'm pretty laid back and my attitude to most stressful situations always has been "why worry when you can pray?" and "worrying never solved any problems"), changes in weight (nothing there - I've been trying to shift 10kg for over 10 years and my weight had been pretty consistent, so, that certainly wasn't it). I went through the whole gamut of possible causes and finally I figured out the one change I had made that coincided with the "cystic" episodes. Soy Milk. And in retrospect, I did not have the episodes when I wasn't taking the milk when the flavor I liked was unavailable or when I travelled and did not take soy.
My research taught me that Soy has really high levels of Phytoestrogens, and is recommended for menopausal women as a natural way to replace depleting estrogen levels and help with menopausal changes. In Asian women, studies have shown that their risk for breast cancer in later life is reduced by soy consumption in adolescence. Interestingly, the study of non-Asian women, results are mixed!
For many or most people taking soy, the benefits are many. For a few like me, extra estrogen in any form just throws the "pepper-less", "age butter", overly sensitive balance out of whack.
Estrogen is necessary in the body (even men have some) but elevated levels are also responsible for some bad things - tumors, cancers.
Anyway, I decided to do an experiment. I stopped the soy milk for 4 months. And had nothing other than the vague discomfort and "fat days" associated with my normal ovulation period.
In the 5th month, on the 1st day of my period, I decided I was going to take soy milk again. Sure enough, the pain came, and a scan confirmed a large cyst that took almost two weeks to resolve because I refused the shot to rupture it. I stopped taking the soy 2 days after the pain started.
The next month, I waited for my ovulation time to go by before taking the soy - no pain.
I experimented, taking soy at different times in my cycle just to be sure. The conclusion? It was definitely the soy - I was one of those for whom soy held no benefit.
I have since cut soy - and any food derived from soy - from my diet. I'm confused as to whether to give my children either since I am unsure of what the long-term effect could be for them.
But, the story doesn't end there - I started eating lentils and the pain came back. I went online and sure enough, lentils contain phytoestrogens, though you won't find it on the regular list of phytoestrogen foods. I had to be specific in my search - "do lentils contain phytoestrogens?" was the question that brought answers. A surprising number of foods that I did not know about contain phytoestrogens, albeit in varying quantities.
I thought to share my experience, just in case there are others like me out there.
Below are a few links to sites that talk about phytoestrogens.
Doing a search on "foods that contain phytoestrogens" will bring up many more sites.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
http://paleoforwomen.com/flax-marijuana-and-44-other-phytoestrogen-sources-you-might-not-know-youre-consuming/
http://www.breastcancerfund.org/clear-science/radiation-chemicals-and-breast-cancer/phytoestrogens.html?referrer=https://www.google.com.ng/
http://www.womenlivingnaturally.com/articlepage.php?id=107
http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/04/08/20-foods-high-in-estrogen-phytoestrogens/
https://www.dietaryfiberfood.com/phytoestrogen-hormones/phytoestrogen-food-sources.php
Interesting. Even from a male point of view
ReplyDelete