Hormone Replacement Therapy E4 Women

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sarahb12
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Re: Hormone Replacement Therapy E4 Women

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Well, I think what we usually call yams are actually sweet potatoes, so same thing. I just call them sweet potatoes to clarify. Sweet potatoes are from the morning glory family.
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Lulu
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Re: Hormone Replacement Therapy E4 Women

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Need help on this question! Can those with MTHFR take hormone replacement therapy? I'm currently using progesterone cream to even out the estrogen / progesterone imbalance that was giving me problems earlier this year. However, I am seeing a functional doctor and undergoing bloodwork / saliva testing to see where I'm at, I will see the doctor in January again for her recommendations on how to proceed. I'm not sleeping well (even though I take melatonin / ashawaghanda / magnesium every night, and I'm having more hot flashes now. I was thinking I will need to go on an estradiol patch, but I am reading that those with methylation problems need to stay away from hormone replacement. I am 1298C homozygous for MTHFR. Please, anyone? Susan? I take methylfolate every day (400 mcg), B12, zinc, plus a ton of other supps. I also eat healthy, exericse and try to keep stress levels down.
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Re: Hormone Replacement Therapy E4 Women

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Lulu, I'm also homozygous MTHFR and have been on HRT for 8 yrs or so (I started when I was probably early menopause). I'm using a .05mg transdermal patch with cycled micronized progesterone and have found this works pretty well for me. For more consistent sleep, I also take melatonin 1 mg nightly, 300mgs ashwaghanda (with 7% withanolides) along with 150 mgs Magnesium L-threonate. I sleep really well now.

I'll admit, I just haven't been able to clear enough time to stay current with recent threads, and so I'm not aware of studies suggesting hormone therapy is contraindicated for those with MTHFR? When you have time, could you share where you read that HRT could be an issue for us? Thanks!
Last edited by Lucy5 on Mon Nov 27, 2017 1:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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KatieS
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Re: Hormone Replacement Therapy E4 Women

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Lulu, my mom has been on estrogen 0.6 for over 50 years and is homozygous MTHFR. All three of her estrogen receptors SNPs align with decreased mortality with estrogen replacement. I have 2 of those 3 per the small French study reported earlier in this long thread.I have not read of any relationship of these receptors and MTHFR, but maybe it's possible.
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SusanJ
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Re: Hormone Replacement Therapy E4 Women

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Lulu wrote:I am reading that those with methylation problems need to stay away from hormone replacement
The warning likely has to do with estrogen metabolism, which uses enzymes produced by the COMT gene. It stands for catechol-O-methyltransferase, and being a methyltransferase, it needs methyl groups. Since you are taking B vitamins, you are likely okay with using estrogen. I'm MTHFR 677 homozygous with a boatload of other methylation variants, and doing fine with bHRT.

If you want to know for sure, use the bHRT for a few months to stabilize your blood levels and take a test to measure estrogen metabolites. I did one through Genova Diagnostics years ago.
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Re: Hormone Replacement Therapy E4 Women

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Lucy, Katie, Susan, thank you so much for your responses! You have all made me feel much better, I know from all the information here how important the hormone issue is for us Apoe4's! Susan, you hit the nail on the head, the issue has much to do with the metabolism of estrogen, but I'm gathering if my methylation is under control, then the bhrt should not be an issue.

Thanks, ladies, I think I may just sleep better tonight because of you!
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Re: Hormone Replacement Therapy E4 Women

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Susan wrote: If you want to know for sure, use the bHRT for a few months to stabilize your blood levels and take a test to measure estrogen metabolites. I did one through Genova Diagnostics years ago.
Ah...my doctor just recommended that I do a 24 hour Genova test. We were discussing family cancer history at the time but didn't get into a methylation discussion. Thanks for bringing this test up Susan, sounds like a good idea.
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Re: Hormone Replacement Therapy E4 Women

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Lucy5 wrote:
Susan wrote: If you want to know for sure, use the bHRT for a few months to stabilize your blood levels and take a test to measure estrogen metabolites. I did one through Genova Diagnostics years ago.
Ah...my doctor just recommended that I do a 24 hour Genova test. We were discussing family cancer history at the time but didn't get into a methylation discussion. Thanks for bringing this test up Susan, sounds like a good idea.
My FMD has not suggested the Genova test for me, possibly because she knows I'm careful about cost. I think the Genova test is rather pricey and not covered by insurance. She has been monitoring my serum estrone (E1) as a surrogate for the actual estrogen metabolites. After starting my bHRT, my estradiol was "ideal", but estrone was too high. I started taking a supplement called Estrosense, specifically for DIM, to assist with improved estrogen metabolism. My estrone improved but not enough. After halving my bi-est dose, my estradiol was of course too low, but estrone was still too high. I am now taking Calcium D-Glucarate as well to help with estrogen metabolism. Seems like a lot of supplements to increase the safety of the bHRT, but I'm along for the cognitive improvement ride for now. It's possible that CIRS biotoxins are driving part of my estrogen metabolism problem.

I've attached a PDF of Genova Diagnostics' Steroidogenic Pathways; The estrogen part is in the bottom right hand corner. You can see COMT in 2 of the 3 estrone metabolism pathways. If I remember correctly, the 2-OHE1 path is preferred to reduce the chance of breast cancer. As you can see, it takes more than B vitamins to have the machine running smoothly. Hope this helps!
Genova Steroidogenic-Pathways-Chart.pdf
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SusanJ
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Re: Hormone Replacement Therapy E4 Women

Post by SusanJ »

Slacker, very true that there are a lot of moving parts in estrogen metabolism, including CYP1B1 and MnSOD variants, and even taking quercetin, which according to some research, is an inhibitor of CYP1B1.

Here's a good article about all the moving parts if anyone wants to understand the complexities of estrogen metabolism: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3039007/
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Re: Hormone Replacement Therapy E4 Women

Post by philippepom »

Hello Everyone. Anyone have some information about HRT and frontotemporal dementia ? There a lot of talk about alzeihmer here but not much about STD, even if they have similar issues with the brain degeneration. Anyone have faced this issue or have a family member with this issue who got good results ? Thanks !
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