Hey Mini! First and foremost, I apologize that this is so long. But I was in a similar boat recently and getting on spironolactone (spiro) has literally changed my life and alleviate or resolve at least 5 other medical conditions (e.g: hairloss, hair in odd places like my toes and knuckles, etc.). I think that women like us, who have severely abnormal hormone levels, can benefit from spiro. Regardless of what you decide, I wish you the best in your NBE journey!
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Sweetie, your hormone story sounds almost identical to mine. After years of not having a "real period" and persistent acne, I had my hormones tested and whoa. No one expected that because I am not insulin resistant, have always had an athletic looking build (I barely move and sometimes go on an exercise frenzy but maybe like once a year).
I'm a 32C but my breasts just look small unless you examine closely and know what you're looking for, you'll see that they're tuberous (out of my 8 first aunts on both sides and my grandmothers and my 5 great aunts, all of them used to be rail thin with glowing skin and a minimum of a full 34D cup. It's likely I've these genetics activated especially since I have so many other features -- we all look freakishly related to the point that people can spot my 90+ year old great aunt in a crowd since she looks so much like me).
With all of that being said, no one suspected me to have such out of sync hormone levels until I pressed to have them tested this past July since the hairdresser didn't want to cut my hair the way I wanted it because she felt bad for the "bald like male spots" (male pattern baldness, but her English isn't the best) and insisted on cutting and styling it to help hide this. And my doctor refused to test me for it until I began to (quite literally) harass him and purposely act crazy, to do so. After 3 separate visits (I'd purposely keep him there chatting his ear off so he'd lose patient time and then be subsequently reprimanded, the longest visit was for 3.5 hours with an hour visit being the average) per week for a month, finding him on Facebook and his girlfriend's too and just trying to be as crazy as possible but not so crazy to the point where I'd get in trouble, I knew he'd reach his threshold and just ask me what I want to get me to leave him alone and just to --his words-- "calm down. And stop acting so weird, because he knows I'm not" and then BAM. Within 15 minutes, I was walking out of the place with a bandaid and waiting to hear back my hormone blood test results.
We got them back. The NP asked me my sex and gender. They also asked if I had any procedures as a child that I knew about. Yeah, they thought something was going on as I'm a born female with no genetic abnormalities with hormone levels so off the wall that I (as a naturally born female) should look way more masculine than I should and have other very apparent symptoms, not just slight hair loss (they attributed that to styling it and my straight perms...all of which I had a total of 2 in my entire life and 2.5 years apart. I don't even blow dry or color my hair!).
After trying a low carb diet and herbs to try to naturally decrease my testosterone levels and having very minimal to no results for a month (I was gassy and hungry all the time. But that's not a plus, lol), I went to an NP at my old dermatologist's office, since she once casually mentioned during my first visit to her doctor's office ever, that she doesn't think accutane would work well for me because she's pretty sure it's something that's underlying causing my acne and other skin issues, including my very puffy gums even though I'm a dental hygiene tyrant.
She started me out on 100 mg of spiro a day and within a month, oh my God, my world changed and I actually felt kind of normal for the first time in over a decade. 100 mg was not enough for me and she was hesitant to put me on a higher dose since I'm 5"5 and about 120. After a couple if more visits, we settled on 200 mg a day. It's typically considered the max dose for most females and typically reserved for overweight and obese females (I guess spiro's dosage system is typically based on weight? I don't know).
I lost a small amount of weight since being on 200 mg but am not too sure how much. My jeans don't feel as tight now that the small bit of tummy fat that I could never get to go away was finally gone. And I got an actual real like we are talking not only using 1 regular tampon and forgetting about it until 24 hours later and it's not saturated kind of period. It lasted for almost 3 full days and finished entirely in about 6. I GOT MY PERIOD! And I, literally, celebrated and had a mini "period party" with some friends at a bar. That's how much spiro will change your life.
Oh. And my facial skin "glows" now, like how it does with the rest of my aunts (olive skin that's slightly oily so it looks dewy). I actually have to use facial moisturizer since it's getting colder and I'm in New England (my aunts live in either Sicily or in the US where it's typically about 10-15 degrees warmer any day of the year). I'm sure that my skin wouldn't be so dry if I lived there like they do.
And while my boobs actually look slightly smaller since getting on the spiro, it's int because I've noticed that they're now more proportional than before since my breasts used to lack anything in the upper region and would be all contained at the base of it, so I looked like I had (what i call) a Snoopy looking boobs. This isn't as apparent as it was before and while I still lack fullness on the top, my boobs don't seem as spaced apart any more as I noticed that they look like as if some breast tissue has developed on the inside portion, closer to my chest. So, my bras are beginning to fill out a little better without my having to scoop my breasts into the correct position and adjusting as needed. And I haven't taken anything for breast growth or any massage since late July. So, I'll contribute this to the spiro.
Seriously chika, if you were in the same boat as me, check out spiro. It's only $1 month copay with my insurance, so I'm assuming it's cheap even without insurance. If it does wonders for you like it did for me, then we can try to get our overall health on track, be happy and then consider NBE and probably have great results. Cheers and good luck, I'll keep you in my thoughts