not my favorite week

I just got back from my appointment with gynecologist #3. She said she had never heard of someone having mid-cycle mood swings for only one day, and wanted to know why I couldn’t just take an SSRI for one day. Even if I could tolerate SSRIs, which I can’t, I don’t think they work on a PRN basis, do they? Then she suggested a sedative, but I stuck up for myself and told her that the Xanax I was already taking wasn’t enough to stop the crying jags, the urge to spend money, or the suicidal thoughts I have on those days. Eventually she said she’d be willing to prescribe bioidentical progesterone cream, although she wasn’t sure it would work. However, she would not, no way, check my hormone levels, even though she wasn't sure how much cream to tell me to use. I asked her why -- sticking up for myself again -- and she said it would be too hard to catch the hormone fluctuation, since it happens in one day. Well, not really, doc -- I just wait till the day I have the crazy and go to the lab with the nice slip you've written out for me… She said she’d check it if the progesterone cream didn’t work. Great, but then you won’t have a BASELINE! She didn’t even look at the 4-page questionnaire she had asked me to fill out and bring to my appointment, so she didn’t see any of the other stuff (like the 7-10 day super-heavy periods). She smiled and said brightly that we could do our follow-up by phone. At that point I gave up and tuned out. No point in being present if she wasn’t.

As you can see, this left me muttering to myself, and typing in italics. Feh. It also wore me out enough that I needed a nap. The thing is...it really seems to me that it might help to get a baseline to learn which hormones might need to be adjusted and how much. I know that if I use progesterone cream and then get tested, it could bias the results. I thought about it all day, and ended up deciding with gritted teeth to hold off on the progesterone cream this month. This leaves me with Xanax to manage the next mood swing, which is less than ideal. I emailed my internist to ask if she'd be willing to check my hormone levels for me before I go looking for gynecologist #4.