[pascalef]

Hi Everyone,

I had a recent period that lasted 17 days and was extremely light, and I am 100% positive it has to do with my regiment, because in the 13 years I've had a period I've never experienced this before. Has anyone else experienced anything similar? I would appreciate any feedback.

Here is more info on me:

I've been taking Booty Boost Extreme (which contains many herbs that should also enhance breasts, like fenugreek, pueraria, maca, etc) for about 6 months or something like that. Here is a link to information about it:

http://bootyboostextreme.com/ingredients/

Before that I was loosely taking fenugreek and rubbing Naturday cream on my breasts.

I also had been taking pueraria mirifica powder, 2 scoops a day, by Ainterol.

And last but not least, I was taking Swanson's bovine ovary at 1200 mg per day. I started with 200 mg per day and gradually worked my tolerance up 1200 in the span of about 2 months.

For the past 5 or so months my menstrual cycle has not been normal. Almost each of these months my cycle would arrive either one week late or one week early. Then my last cycle was scary. For the first time ever in my life, I had an extremely light period for 17 days. I normally have a light period, with one heavier day, for 3-4 days, every 28 days or so. But this one just kept going. It was slightly heavier than "spotting" for most of this time, with about 4 days here and there (not consecutively) that were slightly heavier.

After the 7th day (which is too long for me) I was feeling very fatigued and "off". My libido also suffered. I felt much malaise and depression. My depression got pretty severe the 2nd week and even a week after I got it to stop, but I'll explain how I got it to stop below.

I have used a Diva cup for 8 years (it's great), and it allows me to see how much blood I'm loosing. The cup actually has 1 mL and 2mL lines marked on it. And for this last period, I lost at the most about 1/4 mL in a given day (the "heavier" days).

Finally I got fed up with waiting for my period to stop on its own, and my boyfriend was very concerned. I stopped taking all my herbs and BO, but after 3 days, still no change. So I got an acupuncture treatment the day I decided to really do something about it. The treatment focused on stopping the bleeding as well as tonifying (if you're into Chinese medicine, tonifying Qi and Blood, supporting the reproductive organs). I was also given herbs to stop the bleeding, and by that night I hardly had any spotting at all, and by the next morning, my period stopped. I feel way more normal again.

I also made an appointment with a gynecologist, and it's next week. I need to make sure I don't have anything abnormal. I have a copper IUD (never given me problems in the past 3 years that I've had it) and had an ovarian cyst once.

I am planning on seeing a Naturopathic doctor at my workplace (I am a receptionist at an alternative integrative medical clinic), and getting my hormone levels tested. I want to ask her to help me with breast growth in the safest way possible. I feel, at this point, that I can only continue NBE if I actually know what hormonal picture I have to work with. I am scared now that I can take these seemingly harmless, yet powerful herbs and animal substances, and cause myself damage to my body and/or create an environment that is prone to cancer, etc. Our reproductive organs are more at risk for cancer than ever before, so we should be careful.

Does anyone have any experience like this and/or any advice, speculations, ideas?

Thank you.

[EllaC]

Hi there.
You are at a huge advantage working where you do. Id suggest you consult with them asap and ask them how to address what you are going through, who better than them! Doctors wont agree with using herbs or bovine for breast enlargement.
In addition you could update us here on what they suggest for breast enlargement.
I don't believe its safe to use both bovine and herbs, do some research on that.
But yes for now do stop all that you are doing and give your body a break until you get some professional advice.
I can tell you from personal experience I had regular periods my whole life until I started taking herbs firstly but the real kicker for me was taking a mere one capsule of maca per day which is meant to balance your hormones. Well for me it made my cycles ALOT shorter which was really scary. So you see, even something that's semmingly harmless can affect people in different ways.

Like I said you have a great advantage by consulting a physician at your work. Please do let us know how you get on.
Ps you can always be creative when you tell them about trying to grow your breasts by saying something along the lines of, you were much bigger in the past and have recently lost fullness and shape, that would prompt them to give you a hormone test too so you can do this the safest way possible.

[Wishin]

Ella is right - no herbs and BO at the same time! Were you taking PM all month long or cycling it? Either of these (PM all month or mixing BO with herbs) could severely mess up your cycles. Good luck, I hope you can get it figured out and go about NBE safely from here on out.

[2ndTimeAround]

Definitely watch the pm. My personal experience with it was not good. When I was taking Ainterol as directed, I skipped my period 3 months straight (I'm very regular). When I did finally get it, I had extremely heavy flow for 3 weeks straight. I went to the doctor and after blood testing, I was told I was anemic. I stopped the pm immediately and started taking fenugreek as it's balancing for your cycles. Everything ended within a matter of days. While pm works for some, you couldn't pay me to touch it now! Hope you get some answers and things get back to normal for you!

[sweetpea]

I would stop the BO and just try PM. For me, BO seemed to have a much stronger effect on my body and it's kind of scary! I think you definitely should not do BO if you had an ovarian cyst before. If you still have the same problem with PM alone, try a weaker phytoestrogen.

[pascalef]

Hi Ladies, thank you for all of your responses.

I agree with what a few of you said. I am taking this very seriously because I noticed my emotions correlate to my hormonal changes, and my emotions can become quite dangerous for me. I am not ready yet to take herbs or supplements that affect my hormones at the moment.

Yesterday I went to a gynecologist and had a pelvic exam, pap smear, urine test, also got my blood drawn to test certain hormones (like TSH, androgens, estrogens, etc.). Also being tested for anemia.

However, routine Western blood exams are limited in what they test for. So I'm also going to have a consult with the Naturopath where I work today. I will ask her about having a very detailed hormone panel done. Especially since even for thyroid they usually only test one form of TSH and miss the other forms. We'll see what comes up. I want to take the right herbs and supplements for me, rather than play around, guess, and mess with my emotions and menstrual cycle.

[pascalef]

And honestly I'm doing this more to address my emotional irregularities that I've experienced for the past few years, which seem to be worse with stress. My lifestyle is so irregular and stressful because I'm a graduate student and also work. So that's hard to change, but I want to keep watch on my hormones.

Also, I don't want to take herbs and supplements that would aggravate an imbalance or if my body wouldn't respond to them anyway. It's better to know what you're working with, you know?

Plus, I get an employee discount for my services at my workplace. And any test that we order, I just pay for the test (not the price patients pay), which usually ends up being half the price a non-employee patient would pay. Woo hoo!