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Post by LymeEnigma on Oct 15, 2007 16:24:59 GMT -8
Okay, I'm working on this really crazy theory regarding the connections between Lyme and various hormones ... and comparing Lyme-related hormone variances to those in people with lupus and women who are pregnant. I'll explain more later. For now, I have a few questions for 1) those who also have lupus or lupus-like disease, and 2) women who have been pregnant:
Lupus patients:
1) Do/did a number of of your symptoms flare at the beginning of your period?
2) Do/did you get hot flashes before your period?
3) If post-menopausal: did you find a significant decrease in certain symptoms after entering menopause?
4) Do you find that certain times of the month your back/neck feel weaker than others, and are more susceptible to "going out" on you?
5) Do you lactate, despite not being pregnant?
Questions for Those Who Have Been Pregnant:
1) Did your feet grow when you were pregnant?
2) Would you describe pregnancy "brain fog" to be anything like Lyme or lupus brain fog?
3) Did pregnancy make your neck back feel more apt to give out on you, and not specifically because of your added carried weight? Were there specific times when your back felt weaker than others?
4) Were there specific times when you felt unnecessarily emotional or depressed?
5) Do you know if there is a hormonal basis to morning sickness?
My thanks in advance to anyone who might be able to help me out on this.
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jeezld
Established Member
Posts: 64
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Post by jeezld on Oct 19, 2007 4:38:01 GMT -8
I have had two children:
Questions for Those Who Have Been Pregnant:
1) Did your feet grow when you were pregnant?
Yes in width and length
2) Would you describe pregnancy "brain fog" to be anything like Lyme or lupus brain fog?
I have never been diagnosed with lupus or Lyme, but can tell you that there is a type of pregnancy brain fog that occurs. For me it was in the third trimester. What I remember most of that time was being very forgetful and clumsy. Bad with both short term and long term memory (like not being able to quickly recall numbers, names or words that I had known/used for years). The clumsiness didn't even have to do with the balance and weight distribution issues of being pregnant, I'd drop things and knock things over with my hands like depth perception was somewhat impaired.
3) Did pregnancy make your neck back feel more apt to give out on you, and not specifically because of your added carried weight? Were there specific times when your back felt weaker than others?
No, but hip joints got loose toward the end of pregnancy. If I used my leg to move around on a swivel chair with rollers my leg would sort of "pop" out of the hip socket.
4) Were there specific times when you felt unnecessarily emotional or depressed?
Emotional: anxious, overly sentimental, weepy
5) Do you know if there is a hormonal basis to morning sickness?
I have heard that there is. In fact old wives tales say that the presence of morning sickness is a sign that the baby will be a girl, and I have read that the scientific basis of this is that there are more female hormones present when carrying a girl. My first child was a boy and I had no morning sickness. My second child was a girl and I had morning sickness during the first trimester. But I do know of women who had morning sickness every day for most of their pregnancy and delivered boys.
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Post by itsybitsyone on Oct 19, 2007 7:52:58 GMT -8
Lupus patients: I have Sjogren's...even though I am seroneg...so I hope I qualify
1) Do/did a number of of your symptoms flare at the beginning of your period?
A few days before until a day or two after the onset
2) Do/did you get hot flashes before your period?
Yes, but this is new for me. I think its age releated to be honest.
3) If post-menopausal: did you find a significant decrease in certain symptoms after entering menopause?
n/a
4) Do you find that certain times of the month your back/neck feel weaker than others, and are more susceptible to "going out" on you?
My pain in the neck and back is worse during PMS as well. I do have degenrative disc disease of the cervical spine with spondylosis
5) Do you lactate, despite not being pregnant?
Not in a LONG time but it has happened. I DO have fibrocysts and I have since I was a teen.
Questions for Those Who Have Been Pregnant:
1) Did your feet grow when you were pregnant?
my feet shrank except that I had edema when I was prg. Seriously. My feet are a 1/2 size smaller than they were before I had my daughter
2) Would you describe pregnancy "brain fog" to be anything like Lyme or lupus brain fog?
No. Its different. I felt great when I was pregnant except for the acid indigestion and the puking. Never healthier. I already had Lyme tho. However, I was in full remission during my pregnancy with her. Now, I was VERY sick with the pregnancy where I miscarried before I had her.
3) Did pregnancy make your neck back feel more apt to give out on you, and not specifically because of your added carried weight? Were there specific times when your back felt weaker than others?
My back and neck will never be the same. I had much more pain SINCE I had her than ever before. But I am pretty sure it was the weight I carried when it hurt during pregnancy. I am VERY small. And I went full term and a day. So, I was carrying her right out front and this was a great strain. Afterward, the Lyme hit HARD and I don't know where aching from the weight left and lyme flaring began...but i think it was at about 8 months post partum
4) Were there specific times when you felt unnecessarily emotional or depressed?
A few days after she was born for a few weeks. That's all. I'd cry when I wasn't unhappy, and I was rather sensitive.
5) Do you know if there is a hormonal basis to morning sickness?
I don't know for sure but I would definately suspect it. PMS causes nausea for me...and it has for as long as I can remember.
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Post by LymeEnigma on Oct 19, 2007 9:21:10 GMT -8
Thanks for the replies! I know that this might be grasping at straws, but....
I had to buy a new pair of sneakers (because it is getting cold out and my only other "good" shoes are my Birkenstock's), and I noticed that my feet have grown a half a size. Now, sometimes I have had to buy size 10, but never before have my feet completely filled a size 10; upon noticing I realized that my feet fit differently in my Birks, too, my toes and heel really coming up on the edges. I remembered that my twin sister's feet grew each time she was pregnant; her feet are now a size 11. I got to wondering if Lyme or its effects might screw up the levels of more than one reproductive hormone, and if it is more "effect" than Lyme, then looking at autoimmune similarities might offer some added insight.
I'm still accruing the material, but I'm finding interesting links on Lyme/other infections affecting the pituitary glands, which in turn affect the adrenal glands, which affect various hormone levels, which may very well be responsible for a number of our persistent symptoms....
I feel like I'm starting to pull out of this fog/intense fatigue, so hopefully I'll have more soon.
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cave76
Established Member
Posts: 54
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Post by cave76 on Oct 19, 2007 16:11:50 GMT -8
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cave76
Established Member
Posts: 54
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Post by cave76 on Oct 19, 2007 16:17:18 GMT -8
****According to Marylynn Barkley, women with Lyme have an exacerbation of their symptoms around menses. She associates the worsening of women's Lyme symptoms with the decline of both estrogen and progesterone at the end of the menstrual cycle. (Marylynn S. Barkley, Ph.D., M.D., Associate Professor, Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, The University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA**** from: flash.lymenet.org/scripts/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=059656
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Post by cobweb2 on Oct 19, 2007 16:30:38 GMT -8
Our LLMD told my daughter who is still of the tender age of 16 to mark her monthly lyme chart for the days when she was on her cycle-and to expect symptoms to be worse at that time.
She didn't really explain why. Carolyn always feels crummy anyway, with or without lyme ,at that time of the month.
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Post by LymeEnigma on Oct 20, 2007 8:17:59 GMT -8
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Post by LymeEnigma on Nov 23, 2007 8:14:58 GMT -8
www.umdnj.edu/pathnweb/genpath/lec_1/Class_I_Cytokine_Receptors/class_i_cytokine_receptors.htm "Most of the cytokine-binding receptors that function in the immune and hematopoietic systems belong to this receptor family. In addition, this family includes receptors for growth hormone and prolactin."
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Post by LymeEnigma on Feb 10, 2008 12:28:30 GMT -8
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Post by LymeEnigma on May 12, 2008 9:27:02 GMT -8
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Post by LymeEnigma on Jun 23, 2008 9:03:23 GMT -8
Thanks, Nyxie, for digging this up: Lyme borreliosis reinfection: might it be explained by a gender difference in immune response?. ORIGINAL ARTICLE Immunology. 118(2):224-232, June 2006. Jarefors, Sara 1,2; Bennet, Louise 4,5; You, Elin 1,2; Forsberg, Pia 2,3; Ekerfelt, Christina 1,2; Berglund, Johan 4,5,6; Ernerudh, Jan 1,2 Abstract: Summary: Lyme borreliosis is a tick-borne disease often manifesting as a circular skin lesion. This cutaneous form of the disease is known as erythema migrans. In a 5-year follow-up study in southern Sweden, 31 of 708 individuals initially diagnosed with erythema migrans and treated with antibiotics were found to be reinfected with Borrelia burgdorferi. Although men and women were tick-bitten to the same extent, 27 of the 31 reinfected individuals were women, all of whom were over 44 years of age. The aim of this study was to determine whether this discrepancy in gender distribution could be a result of differences in immunological response. Twenty single-infected and 21 reinfected women and 18 single-infected and three reinfected men were included in the study. None of the participants showed any sign of an ongoing B. burgdorferi infection, and thus the habitual response was captured. Lymphocytes were separated from blood and stimulated with antigens. The secretion of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-6, IL-10, interferon (IFN)-[gamma] and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-[alpha] was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot-forming cell assay (ELISPOT) or Immulite. No difference was detected in cytokine secretion between single-infected and reinfected individuals. We also compared the immunological response in men and women, regardless of the number of B. burgdorferi infections. Women displayed a significantly higher spontaneous secretion of all cytokines measured. The ratios of IL-4:IFN-[gamma] and IL-10:TNF-[alpha] were significantly higher in women. Gender differences in immune reactivity might in part explain the higher incidence of reinfection in women. The higher IL-4:IFN-[gamma] and IL-10:TNF-[alpha] ratios seen in women indicate that postmenopausal women have T helper type 2 (Th2)-directed reactivity with impaired inflammatory responses which might inhibit the elimination of spirochetes. pt.wkhealth.com/pt/re/immu/abstract.00004227-200606000-00009.htm;jsessionid=LfSNJ1nG1vYb8R1pJf1J1WhsthT39lN5mfTpCvbXrnkyjTPNLxNC!802840569!181195629!8091!-1 *edited to fix broken link.
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