Unpleasant side effects of some meds.

[Sarah]

So, i  havnt been on here in ages, but i thought i should post this and come back and check in because there have been some changes in my life and i thought this was releveant.

I have personally experienced some rather nasty side effects of estradiol, and medrodroxyprogesterone.

Also, spirolactone.

basically i'll lay them out simply:

estradial: severe short term memory loss, recovered after stopping the med. it got so bad that i remembered events that had happened earlier in the day as if they had happened weeks ago. Everything seemed to have happened "so long ago"

medrodroxyprogesterone: sadness and moodiness al the time, plus occational mood swings, and general crazy behavior. symptoms stopped after stopping the med.

I did some research on this, and it seems the problems are common for many women who take this drug, Genderqueer or not. it has to do with the fact that it is not a bioidentical hormone and there are numerous side effects with this drug compared to alternative drugs that are more bioidentical. a lot of women apparently have tried the better alternatives and hav enot gotten the symptoms that this one has, i myself used to take a micronized version that was very pleasant, before my doctor put me on the medrodroxy progesterone, and the micronized version was fine.

Spironolactone: Organ pain (kidneys, side pain), severe headaches. These symptoms stopped once again after stopping the drug and switching to an alternative.

I think the problem with spiro, is that it is primarily designed to be a diuretic, so it hits the kidneys hard, the way it works as an anti-androgen, as i understand it, is that it basically pretends to be testosterone, so your body absorbs spiro instead of testosterone. As i understand it.

Maybe this is true, mayb enot, but it seems no doubt that one's body absorbs lots of spiro, and we don't have much data on the lng term effects. The FDA site reccomends against long term usage. I think the thing that since it is a diuretic, primarily and  an anti-androgen as an afterthought, bring problems with this drug compared to drugs designed to be promarily an anti-androgen such as androcur in the UK and most of the world other than the U.S. I don't know if this is ture or not, i'm not a biochemist, but it seems reasonable.

anyway, thought i would post this, we have so much information out there on how to get meds, and the bennifits of the drugs, i thought it would be a good idea to post a bit about their more creepy side(and side effects).

hope you are all well!

-sara

[Asfsd4214]

So, i  havnt been on here in ages, but i thought i should post this and come back and check in because there have been some changes in my life and i thought this was releveant.

I have personally experienced some rather nasty side effects of estradiol, and medrodroxyprogesterone.

Also, spirolactone.

basically i'll lay them out simply:

estradial: severe short term memory loss, recovered after stopping the med. it got so bad that i remembered events that had happened earlier in the day as if they had happened weeks ago. Everything seemed to have happened "so long ago"

medrodroxyprogesterone: sadness and moodiness al the time, plus occational mood swings, and general crazy behavior. symptoms stopped after stopping the med.

I did some research on this, and it seems the problems are common for many women who take this drug, Genderqueer or not. it has to do with the fact that it is not a bioidentical hormone and there are numerous side effects with this drug compared to alternative drugs that are more bioidentical. a lot of women apparently have tried the better alternatives and hav enot gotten the symptoms that this one has, i myself used to take a micronized version that was very pleasant, before my doctor put me on the medrodroxy progesterone, and the micronized version was fine.

Spironolactone: Organ pain (kidneys, side pain), severe headaches. These symptoms stopped once again after stopping the drug and switching to an alternative.

I think the problem with spiro, is that it is primarily designed to be a diuretic, so it hits the kidneys hard, the way it works as an anti-androgen, as i understand it, is that it basically pretends to be testosterone, so your body absorbs spiro instead of testosterone. As i understand it.

Maybe this is true, mayb enot, but it seems no doubt that one's body absorbs lots of spiro, and we don't have much data on the lng term effects. The FDA site reccomends against long term usage. I think the thing that since it is a diuretic, primarily and  an anti-androgen as an afterthought, bring problems with this drug compared to drugs designed to be promarily an anti-androgen such as androcur in the UK and most of the world other than the U.S. I don't know if this is ture or not, i'm not a biochemist, but it seems reasonable.

anyway, thought i would post this, we have so much information out there on how to get meds, and the bennifits of the drugs, i thought it would be a good idea to post a bit about their more creepy side(and side effects).

hope you are all well!

-sara

I'm very sorry to hear you've had so many side effects. But I'm on Spiro and I have experienced no side effects except if I'm not careful I drink way too much water.

I've experienced no pain or headaches.

Something to remember though, is that a drug is just a molecule that happens to do whatever it does. It's not "designed" in the same way as say a machine is designed. What its "intended purposes" are is simply whatever we most use it for. There's no "afterthought" aspect of spiro, it just does what it does, and what it does includes anti-androgenic properties. So we use it for that.

Spironolactone has been cautioned in over use because it has demonstrated carcinogenic effects. But it's worth remembering those effects were found in rats being given up to several hundred times the dose humans take. Ive never heard of any spiro related cancer risks outside of that. So it's pretty much a better safe than sorry warning.

Most of what I've heard suggests that Cyproterone (andocure) is much worse in potential side effects, and has been shown to have liver toxicity to far greater an extent than Spiro, but everyone's different, obviously what works for someone might not work for you.

I've been very fortunate as far as drug side effects go. I've been on 4 drugs in the past year, 2 of which are unfortunately for another medical condition I have. And so far the only serious side effects of anything have been relatively mild, and not painful.

[Janet_Girl]

I must be another odd one.  I had no side effects from Spiro, nor Estradiol.  I am not on just Estrafem, but still no side effects.

I generally don't have side effects from drugs.


Janet

[sylvie]

I take estradiol, and haven't experienced the memory loss.  I've had some headaches but that is about it.
And yes I too frequent the bathrooms more often these days due to the spiro.  If it weren't the fact that I drink enough water I'm sure my kidneys would hurt as well as yes it is a diuretic. 
I'm sorry that you had those problems Sarah.  I hope things get better for you

[lisaolsson]

I take estrogel and androcur and has not experienced any side effects. But I did have an attack of panic a few weeks ago.

I got moderate pain in my right side, by the lowest rib, a sign of liver-toxicity. I really really didn't want to stop taking androcur.

Lucky me I had "just" sprained my lower right rib.

[gothique11]

No side affects for me, other than growing boobs.