Treating hirsutism: case #5
Background
She has mild hirsutism and has a common occurence of acne. Acne can be reduced.
Hip and breast growth are secondary goals. Hip growth is aligned with treating hirsutism, so long as hormone balance is established according to symptoms. Her cycles are long, but this is ok as long as there's hormone balance.
Her starting cup size is AA. By late January, body and facial hair is growing back more slowly than before, which is an improvement.
Body hair lowered, and menses regularity may have improved. There hasn't been recent breast growth. It's possible that supplements interfered.
Her hips have increased from 86cm (33.85") to 92.5cm (36.41") from April until the end of July. That's an increase of 6.5cm (2.56").
At the beginning of her program, she had more swelling and bloating, but it has lowered since a few months ago. She still has nipple and areola puffiness, which seems constant. When puffiness goes away, upper body temperature lowers. She mentioned other symptoms which may have been estrogenic.
During her menses in August, brown spotting also didn't occur, which is an improvement over previous cycles.
Menses
She didn't take anything for this menses. Bloating occured after menses seemed to stop. Brown spotting may have started afterwards. Bloating may have indicated that proliferative hasn't started yet.
The herb recommendation for the first dose of menses depends on signs; it can be taken days late as long as there's relevant symptoms, but it's better to take it sooner. If there's acne or if menses is heavy, take 1 fenugreek and 1 sunflower seed. If there's bloating, brown spotting or breast swelling, to take only 1 sunflower seed. If there's no signs, and menses is light, take a break.
Additional sunflower seed can be used for the rest of this phase when there's bloating or brown spotting. Sunflower must be used in minimal amounts and cautiously as it can cause cramps and discomfort. Use breast massage and perhaps eat foods with fiber when there's cramps and discomforts.
This menses, she didn't have brown spotting, which is an improvement over previous menses. She still had swelling for this menses, which is very common for this phase. Areola and nipple swelling is also still common for her.
Proliferative
This proliferative phase, breast puffiness and swelling has lessened.
When there's puffiness or swelling, she's taking 20 sunflower seeds, no more often than once every hour. When hips grow, she'll take olive oil or saw palmetto with 20 sunflower seeds. Then, she'll take 20 sunflower seeds at a time, until hips grow.
Nipple and areola puffiness has been an issue before, and she mentioned that this was before the program started. There have been some improvements: nipple puffiness still occured, but there were less instances of it. On the plus side, body hair has lowered.
Limited sunflower seeds seemed to have a delayed effect on reducing puffiness. Though, puffiness came back hours afterwards: this is when a progestin herb/seed wasn't taken. Limiting arousal was also a major concern, though, this seems to be due to a balance of androgens, and perhaps not attributed to estrogens. This has been a major issue before, but it wasn't so for this time. Minor improvements will be made to the herb schedule regarding sunflower seed to compensate for puffiness (and other swelling).
She's trying to master the current herb schedule for proliferative phase, and to learn to see the effects of it. So far, she's had nipple area puffiness instead of growth. Puffiness is the same sign as swelling/bloating. She's taking ½ handful of sunflower seed at a time every few hours until puffiness goes away.
Because of the difficulty for those with hirsutism, olive oil or saw palmetto amounts can be reduced to a smaller amount when suggested with the herb schedule. The lowered suggestion for when there's no signs is half a capsule of saw palmetto, or about ¼ tsp of olive oil with 15 sunflower seeds. The herb schedule could be adapted for those with hirsutism, so that ½ handful of sunflower seeds can be taken with one of the first doses of proliferative. For consistency and simplicity, adding more sunflower to one of the first doses isn't necessary, as it can be added when swelling/puffiness/bloating or acne occur.
For the first dose of proliferative, she took ½ tsp of olive oil and 15 sunflower seeds. Sesame and fenugreek were left out. There was breast sensitivity but no noticeable changes in hips or breasts. Topical olive oil was used and could have [contributed to] minor bloating. Minor breast hair came back. Sunflower by itself will be used gradually to see if there's an improvement.
Bloating has lessened. This may have been after taking varying amounts of sunflower seed. No noticeable hip or bust growth.
Luteal
She took fenugreek and 20 sunflower, then it caused breast puffiness. Then, she took 20 sunflower seeds for that. Menses started for her. She has had a history of puffy nipples. The amount of sunflower will be lowered next time for luteal. Either something interfered, it was too much sunflower for her.
When there's acne, she'll take 3 fenugreek seeds, 20 sunflower seeds and 10 sesame seeds. For swelling or bloating, she'll take ½ handful of sunflower seeds with no other herbs/seeds. Phytoprogestins and phytoestrogens won't help when there's swelling/bloating. Vitamin C and half a glass of water can also be used for when there's swelling/bloating.
From 6 fenugreek seeds and 3 handfuls of sunflower seed, there was nipple soreness and [a sign of] increased androgens. This [symptom] needed breast massage. It also needed 10 sesame seeds. From 2 fenugreek seeds, 10 sesame seeds and 1 handful of sunflower, there was minor breast growth. Less hairs came back, and they grew slower.
Later, there was brown spotting without other signs such as acne. The amounts of sunflower and fenugreek may need to be minimal amounts, rather than the increased amounts of the same proportion. For that, she took up to 20 sunflower seeds, then later 20 sunflower seeds and 1 fenugreek seed. Soon, after the suggestion that included sunflower, or sunflower and fenugreek, in response to spotting, menses started. It may have happened anyway or the sequence of the suggestion may not have helped.
The next luteal phase, she took 1 fenugreek seed, and ½ handful of sunflower seed. Acne, breast puffiness and bloating started afterwards.
She may start her program during late luteal phase.
Acne has lessened, but it still remains, after she took: 1 fenugreek seed, 20 sunflower seeds and 10 sesame seeds. A later day, acne lowered from about: 3 fenugreek seeds, 25 sunflower seeds and 10 sesame seeds. Neither of these caused noticeable hip or breast growth, or a noticeable reduction of body hair.
There was temporarily breast swelling, after she took 3 fenugreek seeds, about 2 handfuls of sunflower seed, and 10 sesame seeds. Facial and body hair thinned a little. No noticeable changes in hips.
After 1 handful of sunflower, and 1 fenugreek seed (no sesame seed), there was a feeling of more breast mass, but no visual difference. Her body hair and facial hair lowered slightly.
Then she later got pimples and acne again. She also got signs of nipple sensitivity.
From indications of acne, she'll take the recommendation of 10 sesame seeds, 1 fenugreek seed and over 20 sunflower seeds.
Sidenote
There was another program that was meant for hirsutism05, in November 2021. Though through my error on the HTML form, I wasn't able to get the email address, so I apologize for this. It was eventually moved to hirsutism2111. Hopefully, it can continue. I hope the person can read this, and know I wanted to contact back.