Re: Adrenal fatigue. LOW CORTISOL AND DHEA

I know you said you had a pituitary MRI - i assume to check for a prolactinoma? ..and the scan was clear then...yet due to the consistently high prolactin - i'm wondering if you do have a prolactinoma but it's very small millimetre in size - which potentially won't show up on an MRI in some cases.

Even in cases of women with ovarian masses - an MRI can miss small ones which are causing hormonal problems - yet the blood tests continue to show irregularities.
A wise endo would take ALL the results into account and not just rely on scans showing clear when other diagnostics show there clearly is a problem.

I *think* if i recall - for prolactinomas - IF they can be removed, they remove them and prolactin levels return to normal.
Yet if they are in a difficult position to be removed then drugs are given to block prolactin.

I'm surprised that you haven't been offered meds to block prolactin even.

I'm not saying that is THE route to go - but i think it's indicative there's a problem which general MRI scan cannot pick up.

Obviously if it is a tiny prolactinoma going crazy producing loads of prolactin - then i guess the route it follows generally is that it will get larger and your prolactin levels increase.

The only thing you can continue to push for with your doctors is regular prolactin tests.
With low estrogen i doubt you'll develop 'man boobs' but with high prolactin you might notice nipple changes, secretion from nipple - so keep an eye on that if there are changes.

Obviously so much can mess up hormones - it's never easy to find out why. It's been the bane of my life for a few years too - again, like you and many others here, without much help or support from a medical practitioner.

The Mexico infection could still be lingering?...a long, chronic, low-grade infection over time can disrupt many body systems.

It might be worth to go to the H.Pylori support forum on here and look at all the suggestions over there for natural ways to help 'kill' intestinal bugs without Antibiotics .

It's one route that's worth pursuing as gut imbalance seems to eventually lead to chronic ill health, hormone issues etc.

Time with your girlfriend will cheer you up especially as you don't often see her - it's natural that the symptoms wouldn't be so bad as you are flooded with joy, happiness, dopamine with seeing her - yet it goes to prove that for you to feel a bit better you need a very strong stimulus, and that is not normal.

I'm certainly not an advocate for the 'it's in your head' excuse for the incompetent industry of medicine.

Keep strong and work methodically with protocols - don't throw everything at your body all at once - which i did and rebounded strong in a bad way!

100mg of Vit C won't drop your cortisol to the levels you have.
Blood cortisol and saliva cortisol are 2 completely different ways to measure cortisol.
The never-ending debate is which one is more accurate.
I spent weeks researching this and trawling through study after study.
One study wanted to know exactly that answer and tested all hormones.
They found cortisol to be the MOST accurate tested with saliva out of all the hormones.
The blood cortisol readings, a formula is applied to work out the amount of 'free unbound to proteins' cortisol number.
In blood you get a value of free cortisol and bound to protein cortisol.
In saliva you get only the value of free cortisol.

Hormones in their bound state are thought not to be used by the body.
The studies done seem to confirm this.

So the blood value gives a value of both bound and free cortisol and the formula applied to work out free cortisol did not correlate to the saliva test in one particular study.
It demonstrated that the amount of free and bound cortisol varies from person to person and a formula can not be applied to get an accurate free cortisol value.

An ACTH stimulation test is when you are given ACTH to see if the adrenals respond to the ACTH by producing cortisol, as normal functioning adrenals should.

ACTH is released from the pituitary to signal the adrenals to make cortisol.

Firstly, you should get an ACTH test to see what your natural level is, before the stim. test is done.
If your natural ACTH is low, they then give you ACTH to see if the adrenals are able to make cortisol.
It's a way to determine if there is an adrenal problem or a pituitary problem with producing cortisol.

With your cortisol levels, you should have that done.

Many doctors are not well-versed in the research their peers have done on saliva testing and like robots stick to the protocol of blood tests for hormones.
It would take an 'out of the box' thinking GP to understand your saliva levels are alarming.

Maybe notify them of saliva hormone testing studies and cite that the military now use saliva testing for their employeess.
If it was completely inaccurate way to test, there is no way the military would be using such a method.

It's going to take years for protocol to be changed medically - until then it's up to us to literally print out studies, give them to doctors and help to widen their field of focus, in order to help ourselves and others.