Your story sounds so much like mine. It feels like a long story but I’ll try to keep it as short as I can. (Rereading-I didn’t!)
I was in my late 30s and needed a Mirena to control post-coital bleeding. After about 3 years, I had some crazy roller coaster symptoms that in hindsight were peri menopause (but the drs said I was too young). I wanted off the roller coaster, so I went on the birth control pill, taken back to back (and for a few months, I still had the Mirena in place, until I was able to have it removed; the strings had gone inside). This seemed okay but I gained a tiny bit of weight and felt hungry often. I got engaged and decided to go on Weight Watchers (starting weight was 127 lbs; honestly they shouldn’t have let me join). WW absolutely messed up my relationship with food, causing restriction-binge cycles (because I just was not eating enough, and by the end of the week my body made up for it). I was getting chronic constipation, to the point that I saw a pelvic floor physiotherapist to see if she could help me (didn’t really get anything out of that).
Kept that up for a few months, then had enough. Went off the diet (at 122 lbs) and leaned into Intuitive Eating (which I recommend highly for anyone and everyone). In this, there is an understanding that you may gain weight (or lose it) while you reestablish hunger, fullness, and satisfaction cues. Just ride it out and let your body be, as difficult as it can be. So I did, and I ate lots of ice cream. Stopped forcing myself to exercise, and rested my body instead of punishing it/working out to “earn” food.
At this time, I was sick of decades of being in charge of birth control, so I convinced my partner to get a vasectomy, and I went off the pill. I got daily headaches for months and very rapid weight gain. Yes, I was being lazy and indulgent (for me), but this was otherworldly weight gain. Very very quick, and as you say, like a switch was flipped. I was hungry all the time (I attributed this to recovering from the diet restriction, but you know it was also the same feeling as that PMS craving, there’s not enough food feeling, primal hunger). Still constipated. I gained weight so quickly, I was alarmed and saw a dr. They found no issues with thyroid, but low ferritin, which was treated.
I kept thinking that once my period came, things would regulate; some weight would drop off. I read about how the pill can put your ovaries to sleep, so I tried to be patient. I wasn’t though. I pressed the dr, who once he saw my weight had climbed to 155 lbs in just a few months, ran all kinds of tests, a full thyroid panel, cortisol test, referral to endocrinologist, MRI. Nothing was ever out of range. But I looked and felt pregnant. People thought I WAS pregnant. I was always, always a waif, except when I was pregnant—I gained a lot of weight when pregnant, which I lost pretty easily.
Still no period. I saw another dr and asked for a course of Provera to reset/kick start my period. She said no, not until we run some tests. That’s when the early menopause diagnosis came, just before I turned 43. High FSH, repeated several times over several months.
I realized all the symptoms that I had that seemed like pregnancy or hypothyroid were menopause. I pressed for HRT, and started it eagerly. I continued to gain weight, up to 165lbs. So 127-165lbs in about 6 months. I was always tiny. I looked like a different person. I had to get all new clothes. I didn’t recognize myself.
I’ve been on HRT now for 2 years and things feel a lot better, but I think, in hindsight, a lot of symptoms were from too high estrogen. I have a Mirena again and use estrogel minimally (I have tried up to 4 pumps a day). I’m down to 142 lbs and feeling very well overall and happy with my relationship with food and exercise.
If I’m not mistaken, you were taking the pill back to back in an effort to overrride your own hormones, is that correct? I wonder if both of us really did put our ovaries to sleep, if that’s even a thing. I don’t have the answers, but I can relate so hard to having hypo symptoms but not testing as such. To getting some relief from HRT but feeling like metabolic rate has stopped dead.
I still wish I could flip the switch back, but after 3 years, this seems to be the new me.
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Topic: Weight gain - hormones, thyroid or something else? (Read 4589 times)