Estrogen Dominance

Sounds like a radical-feminist punk band.

So here is what's going on with me, in regards to my terrible mood swings.

I had another crying fit and ended up venting to a friend about it. I started with saying, "It's mostly a reactionary depression. The dismal weather takes a heavy toll. And my best friend's medication has stopped working, and I have to deal with his upsetting mood swings where he doesn't want to hang out with me or talk to me anymore [as I've said a number of times, just him letting me know we're still friends helps, but the hormones make me keep doubting my status]. And, you know, throw in some PMDD and endometriosis, and you've got a big ball of tears."

She replied "Oh hun. Get a sun lamp and progesterone cream [and] Hagen Daaz and we an bitch."

I do have a sun-lamp, which I haven't needed since early winter, thinking that any mood shifts I have are due to my moon-sickness and I should just ride it out. But I'd never heard of progesterone cream. She explained that a progesterone deficiency (or estrogen dominance) is the culprit for PMDD (and insulin resistance and pre-diabetes, which causes a mess of other things, and makes you moody as fuck due to unstable glucose levels).

I said I'd already changed my diet to confine my sugar intake to only my moon-sickness (but I've noticed my symptoms are ranging outward before and now after). She said the insulin resistance isn't diet-induced. It's hormone-induced.

In short, she says, essentially, I have way too much estrogen relative to my progesterone. Either normal amounts of estrogen and really low progesterone, or really high estrogen and normal-ish progesterone.

Eventually, we switched to a phone call (this was over Messenger). She talked about everything for an hour and a half before her phone died.

I got a lot of good information, and felt relieved that yes, I am going crazy, but there is something I can actually do about it.

So here is what she suggests. Start with the over-the-counter stuff. And make a few small-but-key lifestyle changes for a while (it'll work slowly, but I'll really see a difference in about four months). I may have to move onto prescription drugs, which she fully covered, but also said some people have been able to rewire their systems and ween off everything after a few years.

OTC stuff includes DIM-Plus, which she suggests I start for a week before adding the next one, Vitex, and work on these two for a couple of months before working up the dosage, if I need it. They will help me properly metabolize my estrogen. Then add in the progesterone cream. She also suggests taking vitamin supplements- a good multi, or specifically D3 (which I'll raise by using the sun lamp) and Magnesium Citrate (for headaches, which radical hormonal changes may induce).
My starter pack:
2 Dim-Plus
2 Magnesium Citrate
2 Vitex (spread through the day)
1 D3 (2000UI)

Lifestyle changes include avoiding soy (in food, wash-things and cosmetics), parabens (in cosmetics), and containers with BPA. And to drink bottled spring water, which I already do (tap-water purification process is required to filter out pathogens and dirt and stuff, but not medical waste run-off). I am gonna have a tough time with cutting out soy, having about an 80% vegan diet where my main protein is tofu. But the rest are things I tend to avoid already.

This is essentially hormone therapy. I'm starting hormone therapy. God... I don't want to, because it's gonna burn a huge hole in my wallet. But I'd rather not go insane with hormone-induced mood swings.

I've started a new (paper) journal to record doses, moods, stuff to avoid, mishaps, and other notes, which I'm hoping to keep up every single day.