Female Updates

At my appointment, I told Laura all the crappy stuff that had been going on (spotting, cramping, acne, hair, hot flashes) so she ordered blood work and an ultrasound. I did the bloodwork that day and came in one week later to have the ultrasound and the follow up appointment. All would have been done that day had there not been a need to wait for insurance authorization. Anyway, at the follow up, Laura told me that I am not menopausal, that my thyroid seems fine, but that my testosterone was slightly elevated. On the test they use, normal is between 10 and 70 and mine was 76. Even the slightest increase is enough to cause acne, hair growth, and hot flashes (and grumpiness, hehe). So that explained that. As far as the ultrasound, I do still have the uterine fibroid tumor and it is pretty large. And, surprise: I have a large ovarian cyst as well, yata! NOT! Though I am grateful that they were actually able to find something wrong with me. The cyst is what was causing the painful cramping and spotting. So for now the game plan is to put me on hormonal birth control to regulate my hormones, it will also probably shrink the cyst. I go back in 3 months for a follow up ultrasound to see if it is gone. If it isn't, we'll probably talk hysterectomy.

Also, since my skin will be back to normal (with any luck) and I won't be doubled over 2.5 weeks of the month, it is a perfect time to jump back on the exercise/eat better wagon! So that's the plan for after the New Year. I'm not going to go all super crazy with the dieting, but I am going to stop eating so.much.crap. I have seriously been consuming every treat in sight and it is SICK.