[SarahSchilling]

Don't laugh. Not necessarily ghosts per say, but the spirit world really is a real thing. There are both evil and good spirits. "Ghosts" of a traditional sense and "devils", spirits who never have had and never will have a physical body.

Do I think that your problems are spiritual in nature? Probably not. But you still shouldn't laugh at the idea.

Sorry. I had a more detailed response, but I guess this is pretty much arguing about religion....which I'd find pointless.

The thread however, has been quite helpful. Didn't mean to derail it.

[SarahSchilling]

As far as the breathing difficulty, it’s called dyspnea. It started with a lot of yawning, then it became like I couldn't get enough air. Then the anxiety started (probably from the feeling like I couldn't breathe).

It was much worse at night. It took about two months to clear up completely after stopping everything (I didn't discover why until much later, so I went almost vegan straight edge for those two months). Didn't give up gluten, should have.

After a while of water and vegan, I took 5-htp to get to sleep and reduce anxiety. It helped a lot.

My doctor gave me the same inhaler some of you were given. It helped. I am not sure if it really “helped” or if it was psychosomatic. Probably a bit of both.

Woah....mine only happens at night, too. Not even when I'm laying down either, just at nightime. The yawning fits in too. Did you burp up air?

Oddly enough my response to it was the same lol....stopped smoking and eating redmeat. What the hell is 5-htp?

But yeah just having the inhaler gives me some peace of mind, haven't had to use it yet, but just having it makes me feel better.

Thanks for your post! PM *should* help with some of your issues, and if the AA gives you problems, remember tagamet may be enough on its own.

[Marina Kits]

If the acid blocker you end up on doesn't work either, you might want to try Protonix (pantoprazole). My evening cocktail is 40mg Protonix, 320mg SP, 500-1000 PM and one calcium chew from GNC - all down the gullet at the same time right before bed. They all seem to be getting along fine and working as they're supposed to.

I know what you mean about not wanting to part with the acid blocker. I hate taking a synthetic drug every day but my heartburn nearly brings me to tears if I don't and then my lower GI tract goes into fits.

[JustEmily]

5 htp (5 Hydroxy-Tryptophan) is the precursor to either melatonin or serotonin.

It helps with my anxiety, depression, and insomnia.

Two of the wonderful side effects of prescription proton pump inhibitors are depression and insomnia.

This is due to the fact that you don’t digest as much of the nutrients from the food you eat because of the reduction in stomach acid, so you don’t get enough of the vitals you need to produce enough of these very important neurotransmitters.

You could take Zoloft or Paxil or any of the other drugs to even it out, but these are reuptake inhibitors and they don’t help to produce more (deficiency is the problem here, not reuptake!)

Also, they have their own series of side effects; it’s like swallowing the spider to eat the fly… where does it stop? Zoloft causes a whole list of new problems… no thank you.

I started taking it for the insomnia, and it helped with the other stuff, too. The sleep is great and I have no trouble getting going in the morning.

Web MD doesn't like 5 Hydroxy-Tryptophan, but there are a lot of other reputable sites with good things to say. Plus, I think WebMD is in the pocket of big Pharma. Meh.

Here is a good link: http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/5-hyd...000283.htm

[MonikaT]

I've always been led to believe that 5-htp doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier so it never made sense to me that it allegedly works for people. I prefer to use L-Tryptophan and melatonin for sleep. Most of the time, that works for me. If I can't shut my mind off, I'll resort to 25 mg of diphenhydramine (Sominex, Benadryl, etc.), but I wake up groggy and can't shake the grogginess for many hours. After a few days the medication stops working for me; I seem to build a tolerance to it very quickly. The tryptophan should also help with depression, if the problem is a lack of serotonin. If the depression is related to dopamine or norepinephrine, L-Phenylalanine or L-Tyrosine or mucuna pruriens (a source of L-Dopa) might be needed since all three are precursors to dopamine and norepinephrine.

Proton pump inhibitors definitely reduce how much one absorbs from the food ingested and can lead to osteoporosis as well. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but most of the natural remedy sites seem to claim dilute apple cider vinegar helps treat acid reflux, though I can't see how more acid can help. Also, adding lipases and proteases (digestive enzymes that break down fats and proteins) is supposed to help. Honestly, a low-fat diet should help a lot since fat is acidic and floats on the top of whatever is in the stomach. Personally, I would try everything I could find that isn't a prescription (or former prescription) drug to treat acid reflux before deciding to use a PPI because of the side-effects.

[Misty0732]

Honestly, the main thing I am looking for is a reduction in the very high level of obsessive Gender Dysphoria I have. I have read a lot of posts that refer to “rewiring,” although I am not sure that is the right term. I want to think about other things, and the need to cross-dress and all the other trappings are hard to put away a lot of the time.

Quite a few of the posters on this board (some active and some not) have seen the gender dysphoria all but disappear with PM. Some others, although far fewer, I think, have had the opposite reaction (that is, an increase in the desire to express as female). I am one of those who saw the very strong desire decrease significantly. I can honestly say I am far happier with myself than I can ever remember being, and as you put it, I "got my brain back."

If it does work, though, it posits that GD is indeed some kind of imbalance that can at least be tamed by chemistry. That would be a great doctoral thesis. I don’t know, the research papers I have read online on PM tout a laundry list of benefits, I hope the claims are real. I want my brain back.

In my case I am sure that hormones cause my dysphoria. The very interesting thing, however, is that it I need female hormones to relieve the dysphoria. That seems counter-intuitive, but it is absolutely true for me. If I try to increase my testosterone the dysphoria and anxiety literally skyrocket to the point that I seriously consider transition.

I also think you can get the mental benefits of PM with using any T-blockers. I have tried PM with and without SP and the mental benefits do not seem to change either way. Given the problems you've had with SP I would definitely consider trying PM alone if I were you.

In any case, good luck and best wishes, and keep us informed of how things work out for you!

Misty

[AbiDrew85]

Quite a few of the posters on this board (some active and some not) have seen the gender dysphoria all but disappear with PM. Some others, although far fewer, I think, have had the opposite reaction (that is, an increase in the desire to express as female). I am one of those who saw the very strong desire decrease significantly. I can honestly say I am far happier with myself than I can ever remember being, and as you put it, I "got my brain back."

And then there's me, and the use of estrogens both PM and estradiol have not changed the fact that I'm female in spirit and mind either to the less or the greater.

Though I do agree that I no longer "need to transition". In my mind I already have and now it's just a matter of correcting the birth defects. The sooner the better. But of course money has to get in the way.

EDIT: And yes. IF Emily gets the mental benefits they're looking for, it'll be PM alone that'll do it. T-blockers are for those interested in actually having serious physical changes. That said, there's nothing wrong with trying pygeum instead of SP... Especially since Emily did say they're experiencing hair loss. It may not give any additional mental benefit, but it does certainly help with hair loss if you catch it early enough.

[MonikaT]

As far as the breathing difficulty, it’s called dyspnea.

Dyspnea is just a fancy Latin word used by doctors, and it means shortness of breath. It can be brought on by all kinds of things--COPD, allergies, asthma, exertion, etc. It is a symptom of something bigger. The key is to find the cause, not just treat the symptom, though treating the symptom is important because it can be serious when you can't seem to catch your breath.

[AbiDrew85]

As far as the breathing difficulty, it’s called dyspnea.

Dyspnea is just a fancy Latin word used by doctors, and it means shortness of breath. It can be brought on by all kinds of things--COPD, allergies, asthma, exertion, etc. It is a symptom of something bigger. The key is to find the cause, not just treat the symptom, though treating the symptom is important because it can be serious when you can't seem to catch your breath.

Yeah... A lot of doctors today seem to think their job done after just treating the symptom. But that's only the first, emergency, step. After that you've gotta figure out what's behind the symptom and treat that as well. And if that, too, is only a symptom...

Many doctors today are either stupid and therefore negligent or wontonly negligent in an attempt to "retain" their "customer". Sometimes I have a hard time trying to figure out which.

[MonikaT]

As far as the breathing difficulty, it’s called dyspnea.

Dyspnea is just a fancy Latin word used by doctors, and it means shortness of breath. It can be brought on by all kinds of things--COPD, allergies, asthma, exertion, etc. It is a symptom of something bigger. The key is to find the cause, not just treat the symptom, though treating the symptom is important because it can be serious when you can't seem to catch your breath.

Yeah... A lot of doctors today seem to think their job done after just treating the symptom. But that's only the first, emergency, step. After that you've gotta figure out what's behind the symptom and treat that as well. And if that, too, is only a symptom...

Many doctors today are either stupid and therefore negligent or wontonly negligent in an attempt to "retain" their "customer". Sometimes I have a hard time trying to figure out which.

Just keep in mind half of all doctors graduated in the lower half of their graduating class. However, there are other issues at play such as insurance providers that refuse to pay for a better level of care because it isn't profitable and the fact that medicine is a business so the more customers a doctor sees in a day, the more profit s/he makes. Then there are doctors like mine who can't see the forest for the trees. He's so hung up on all the symptoms, each of which is a treatable medical condition with all kinds of expensive medications and frequent, expensive blood tests, that he can't see there is an underlying condition that can cause every one of my symptoms and that is easily treatable with a comparatively cheap medication. Sadly, this is the fourth medical professional in two years who can't see it or get it right, and I'm ready to give up.