GREAT BOOK

Start here! Share your feelings
#1

Hey all:

I just bought a book called “The Hormonally Vulnerable Woman” and I recommend it to everyone. It discusses all these various hormonal issues that many women face. He’s been in the field for decades studying these issues. Included in his book are hirsutism, alopecia, and acne–which are all due to testosterone, whether the levels are too high or your skin is just vulnerable to the normal levels. Anyway, he also discusses effective treatments, which he himself uses. The main one being Spironolactone, which he recommends combining with an oral contraceptive. He also said that 50mg daily won’t do much for testosterone. He has found that the patients who were on that much before they came to him complained that it was ineffective. He said that 75mg may do some, but the doses to effect testosterone need to be 100-200mg daily. The side effects are not so common aside from the dehydration, which he said can subside by adding more water to you daily intake. Since Spiro was originally designed as a blood pressure medication, you might think that it can effect this, but in reality it was a very weak medication which is why it is no longer used to treat blood pressure issues.

I just thought everyone should know. I recommend reading this book b/c even if you have seen an endocrinologist, they may be undertreating you. Even though they specialize in hormones, they don’t know much about hair. Hair, alopecia, oily skin and acne that are effected by testosterone are pretty much diagnosed and treated in the same way. They are looked at as cosmetic problems not “real” problems. Which is WRONG! Whether it is because of society of not that we want to be “normal” isn’t the issue. This is how we feel and many women become extremely depressed, or they don’t live their lives, but simply go through the motions. Some women even commit suicide while others think about it often. This is a medical issue. We’re told to seek therapy, and while some women do, they say that the feelings won’t go away until the hair does, or until the hair on their head grows back.

Don’t be put off by a doctor who tells you this is an issue of vanity, not medicine. If these things started happening to them or one of their daughters, you better believe they are willing to seek medical help and foot the bill for laser treatments. Keep seeking help from other doctors! There is hope. Check this book out.

#2

Are you on a spiro crusade? :wink:

Do you work for a pharmaceutical company or something? This is the third thread you have started about spiro.

#3

Actually it’s not the the third thread I have started about spiro. My first thread on here was my story and about how I am no longer letting hair issues consume my life. The second post was questions about spiro, seeing as how it’s one of the topics on this website, and the third post was about this book. I never knew about the information there was out there about treating hirsutism until I found the site for the doctor who wrote the book. I was always told that there was no hope and I just had to accept it how it was. Most women who don’t suffer from PCOS are told that. I felt it was appropriate to post the same thing in two different threads since many people come on here see that there is a prescription oral medication discussion forum, and it would be beneficial for them to read about a good book that talks about treating these hair issues with spiro and the success there has been. The other was about sharing your feelings and I thought that many women who suffer from hair issues–either too much or too little–could benefit from hearing that there are resources they can refer to and help they can seek, instead of just being told that there hormones are normal, and they need to live with their problem. If I had been told this information before, I could have spared myself so much agony and so much worrying about my future. I want people to know that there is hope and they don’t have to just rely on diet and exercise. There’s women on here and other forums who want to kill themselves over it. Read some threads on the discussion forum at www.keratin.com. There’s women who literally don’t live life except go to work and then home, and who say they wish they would just die. Women often wonder if there is a magic pill out there or something, anything to help them. I’m not proclaiming spiro to be a magic pill, I won’t really know until I’ve started, but it’s been shown to produce results above all other things. It’s a start for people who can’t afford laser and electrolysis, and are sick of spending all their time plucking, waxing, shaving, etc.

It would be naive of you to really believe I could be a pharmaceutical rep, and that I would come on here to push my medication, b/c in reality, if I was a rep, all I would have to do is hand a doctor some money and tell them that if a certain problem arises, prescribe my company’s drug. That is how it is really done. That’s why when a doctor prescribes something to you, they don’t give you a choice, they give you what’s cheaper for them, or what they’ve been paid to endorse.

#4

I put the smiley to let you know I was teasing you. Sorry.

You are right, it was only a couple of threads.

#5

PS - I am still a little confused as to why you are suggesting spiro so strongly if you are not willing to go to a doctor for it and you (this is a guess based on your first post) have not taken it yet (or at least not taken it long enough to see any results).

#6

Well, I would have loved to have been prescribed spiro from a doctor, but the truth is that they don’t know squat. It’s not their fault, but they just don’t concern themselves with hair issues unless it’s PCOS. I can’t get my doctor to refer me to an endocrinologist or even put me on a better birth control. Even though I have not been on it long enough to see results, I have faith that it will make a difference. Even if it doesn’t, I know there are other drugs that have worked for women where spiro has failed. When I read this book and other literature and have heard stories from women on other forums about taking spiro, and how the hair on their body just stopped growing back…a direct quote of one woman “the hair just seemed like it fell off my body” (I don’t think she meant literally), it gave me some hope. It’s cruel b/c once you have hope, it hurts so much more when it doesn’t work out, but it’s incentive to keep trying. That’s what I want to give to others on here. I am mostly talking about Spiro b/c it’s available in the US. How has it been working out for you?

My point is this…
If a doctor or someone would have seen my hair issue and taken it serisously than I would have known what hirsutism was. I had never heard of it until I looked it up on the internet. I could have been treated at a younger age. I wish that I could have been given hope by knowing that there are effective treatments and I’m not alone. Thre are girls on here who are 15, 16, 17 years old and this can make a difference for how they will live their lives. Granted I am still pretty young at 23, but I probably would have lived my life differently if I was told what the issue was and been treated.

I gathered you were only teasing me about working for a pharmaceutical company, but I just wanted where I stood on the subject to be clear. I just want to help.