Alternative Choices

I’m sure some of you have read my previous posts, but for those who haven’t, I’m 23, female, on spiro for almost a year now.

I was curious about alternative choices, such as diet, for the treatment of hirsutism. I already drink about 64oz of water per day, which I’m gradually working up to more. However, what about food? Everywhere I look it only talks about PCOS. What about for the majority of us who only have sensitivity to hormones rather than abnormal levels? I’ve read about refined sugar and starches, but I never know what that means or why. Are we supposed to cut out all sugar in anything where it isn’t produced naturally. For example, yogurt, bread, cereal, etc.? Can we eat a certain number of grams?

I’m just looking for some suggestions and an explanation. Since I don’t have PCOS, should I even bother?

Hey, there is such a thing as over-doing water, be careful! :slight_smile:

I have found for me, diet does nothing. It works so well for the PCOS women because of the related insulin problem. Certainly eating healthy is the thing to do whether it helps or not. I have read in a number of places that exercise is a terrific hormone-balancer. It will not, however, stop androgen-sensitive skin from being androgen-sensitive. If that were the case, I would not have the least bit of trouble. I exercise, weight train, etc. and still have the same dumb ole trouble so I stick with my Spiro. Everyone tells me that I will be on it until after menopause. So be it. The stuff doesn’t bother me, and it gives my skin a very youthful/feminine appearance. There IS a reason transgendered people take the stuff all their lives!

(I’m biological female FYI)

Don’t worry about counting carbs and such. It won’t change anything.

NOTE: I read somewhere on the net that alcohol will cause facial hair to grow faster, though it won’t cause it to become terminal. I have no way to validate this. But the last thing I need is for anything to grow faster.

One of the justifications for paying the higher prices for the organic foods is that they contain more nutrition and less (or none) of the bad ingredients that cause reactions in the body.

The meats we eat pump more hormones and antibiotics into our bodies than anything else we injest (unless your water supply has been compromised – but you do have a purification system at home don’t you? DON’T YOU? You need one just for the chlorine/bleach and fluoride added to the water, to say nothing of the zebra muscles and crypto and giardia.) Speaking of water, it is a balancing act. One can not increase water intake without increasing electrolyte intake. If one is eating 5 fruits and 5 different veggie servings a day, no problem. If one is a meat and starch existing American, one could pass out from having flushed one’s electrolytes out of the body.

Everyone would be better off if they never injested another refined sugar, period. High fructose corn syrup is not your friend, avoid it as best you can. White flour and bleached flours (or bleached anything for that matter, nobody say Splenda/Sucralose) are also not good for you.

And then there is fiber. The so-called foods most Americans eat is so devoid of fiber that they can’t even eliminate the toxins from their bodies. How is one supposed to get 20 to 40 grams of fiber a day when everything one eats has only 2 grams of fiber?

Having a healthy diet will help with your health in general, and will certainly affect other aspects like hormonal health along the way. You may want to buy a book on this. James, which one do you usually recommend that talks about healthy diets?

As James mentioned, most of the food at grocery stores, fast food places, etc has a lot of chemicals pumped into it to make it either last longer, look nicer, be bigger, etc. Trying to eat things that haven’t gone through these chemical processes will help already - i.e. organic foods. Of course, avoiding fried things, things with fake sugars, etc helps. Eating wheat and multigrain bread instead of that fake white bread (think WonderBread), etc. Drink organic milk, eat cereal without much chemical coloring and with more fiber, etc.

Healthyliving,
How has Spiro worked for you so far? How many mg are you on a day? When would you say you started to notice results on facial/body hair,terminal/vellus hair? I’ve been on it for a little over a month so I was just wondering what your experience has been like so far.

I want to say it’ll be a year on Spiro in June. I take 200mg/day. I can’t really say when I noticed differences in facial and body hair. The first thing I noticed was that my face wasn’t as oily and I don’t sweat through my STRONG antipersperant anymore…I was actually able to switch to a naturally made deoderant. I guess after a few months I noticed that the hair grew slower. I don’t think it has had any effect on my vellus hair though. Some areas that I’ve noticed a difference in terminal hair are; my face and chin, it seems thinner and grows slower, my “happy trail” isn’t as thick and the hair on my left inner thigh is a lot thinner, which makes it easy to shave and not get any bumps. So far the experience has been good, however, the only downfall, which some might say isn’t related to Spiro, is that my sex drive isn’t as strong as it used to be. It could also be due to my birth control as well.