Progress is there. I hung out with friends for 5 hours last night, with no crash. Sleep and digestion are still slow in coming. I am pretty sure I am low in stomach acid, and my bowels don't move as much as they should. Have to take RX meds for sleep as well, but I would rather take those, than not sleep at all. I am going to start setting goals soon too. Good luck with everything too. There are several at home test's for aldosterone you can do too, w/o needing bloodwork.

At Home Tests For Evaluating Adrenal Health

These tests may be used to gain some additional insight to the status of your adrenal health. They should never be used in place of diagnosis by a licensed health professional. If you have any questions regarding your health please make an appointment to speak with your doctor, naturopathic physician or other preferred health provider.

Positive tests may be an indication that your level of adrenal fatigue has progressed past the early "acute" stage and into either "resistance" or "advanced" failure.

Pupil Dilation - Test for Moderate to Advanced Adrenal Fatigue: zone 4+

A description of the Pupil Dilation test can be found in the book: Adrenal Fatigue, written by the well known adrenal fatigue specialist Dr Wilson. Pupil dialation response provides an indirect assessment of aldosterone levels where low levels are a marker of adrenal fatigue. When aldosterone levels get too low, as is the case with adrenal fatigue, your pupils are unable to remain contracted for an extended duration. There are other disrelated conditions that also cause this same condition to occur, hi dopamine for example. The pupil dilation test will not differentiate between conditions. Here is the test as described by Dr. Wilson:

"Stand in a darkened room and use a mirror to check the size of your pupils. They should be dialated.
Next, shine a bright light at your pupils, a flashlight for example, hold it there for about one minute.
Now, observe your pupils - did they contract or did they contract but then re-dialate.
With advanced adrenal fatigue aldosterone levels are too low to sustain pupil contraction over an extended period of time. Pupils will initially contract but then after about 30 seconds will enlarge again or flutter, enlarging and collapsing alternatively. This occurs because the low aldosterone causes an imbalance in the ratio's of sodium and potasium inside your body. There is too little sodium and too much potasium. With this imbalance the sphincter muscles of the eye are too weak to retain dialation in response light."

Ragland's Sign - Postural Hypotension - Test for Advanced Adrenal Fatigue: zone 5+

This test is also out of Dr. Wilson's book.
It checks for an abnormal drop in blood pressure on rising from a recumbant position, the abnormal drop indicates adrenal fatigue. The test is conducted as follows:

"Lie down, rest for five minutes, then take a blood pressure reading.
Stand up and immediately take a second blood pressure reading.
Compare the two values, especially compare the systolic (top) numbers."

In a healthy individual blood pressure can be expected to INCREASE on standing. If instead, the blood pressure LOWERs, adrenal fatigue should be suspected. Dr. Wilson states that "the degree to which the blood pressure drops is often proportionate to the degree of hypoadrenalism."

hey Amber,

I agree, the monthly hormonal rollercoaster ride makes the AF symptoms also rollercoaster. I too feel like death before mentruation and throughout. I am leaning to the belief that it's super low estrogen causing this. I also get night sweats around that time...menopause symptoms due to low estrogen mirror the symptoms i get around mentruation. Estrogen is lowest around that time naturally, but i think if one has low estrogen anyway - then menstruation would be severely low causing worsening symptoms.

The salt thing will forever confuse me.
I've been trying to wrap my brain around the renin-aldosteron-angiosten axis.
I don't have water-retention at all, no longer experience it before menstruation either - i'm peeing frequently. But my sodium in my pee is 0.29%, very low. My pee is 8.5 PH. Specific gravity 0.15, Low blood pressure average 64/42. It's like i can't consume enough salt but my body isn't excreting it. I'm not particularly thirsty and have to force myself to even try to consume 2 ltrs a day. It's like my body is breaking all the salt/fluid balance rules.
My kidneys ache as if Tyson has punched them in!
I think the renin axis is way out of balance due to ?...many possibilities.

I wish there was a test for a proper FULL hormone panel. Only having sex hormones without other endocrine hormones just leaves us having more questions than answers. With a full array starting from hypo/pituitary hormone markers through to all glandular and sex hormones is more helpful to see where deficiencies lay and point to more accurate possible causes.

The anti-D you're on might be off-setting dopamine as Nor. and DA are synergistic. That might be why you're better on them 'stress response'-wise due to the increased Nor., but have no energy or focus, anhedonic etc due to down-regulation of dopamine due to increased Nor? As neruotransmitters are paired on a 'see-saw'...the upregulation of one will lower the levels of the other. So perhaps dopamine low levels for you are causing your lethargy, disinterest etc - but you're stress response AF stuff has improved due to the improved Nor. from the SNRI?
There's talk of ADHD treatment being one-sided due to the use of SNRI's without dopamine, so Nor and Dopa are suggested to be preferred for better balance of symptoms.

Both neurotransmitters are made from Tyrosine - have you tried supplementing that? Yet as im learning more and more, the enzymes required to convert tyrosine to useable brain neurotransmitters can often be genetically mutated, hence why people seemingly struggle with these imbalances for life, and find it hard to wean off of SSRI's, SNRI's etc However, bypassing the mutations is possible.