Hormones and fibromyalgia?

I am trying to read up on hormones and fibro...

Can you share anything anyone has learned on this topic, your personal experiences...have you been treated and did it result in less symptoms?

When I was younger, I used to get horrible migraine headaches 'like clockwork' every month (both premenstrually and during 'that time.')  Nothing I did seemed to help. These headaches disappeared with menopause.

However, I now get a slightly different type of headache fairly often, especially when the air is cool or cold (fall, winter, and early spring are the worst). It seems more related to my sinuses, though some feel like migraines.

Really, I don't know if the hormonal migraines were related to fibro or not, but I have to wonder if my very sensitive body (because of fibro) played a part. I really think it did.

Hormones absolutely have EVERYTHING to do with Fibro. They are all related for the central nervous system so there. When I had my full hysterectomy (giant fibroids) ten years ago at 44 yrs old (no kids, 25yrs on pill) I had a terrible time finding HRT that would work afterwards.I was a raving Lunatic and a lab rat. I was in fast paced menopause and it was killing me. Night sweats and hot flashes like crazy. Everything new the gyno came up with she threw at me. Finally after three plus yrs we found something and she hates that the dose is so high but it works (FemHrt). Then the Fibro happened a few yrs later/ five yrs ago and I'm on piles of meds, some of which I as already on for DDD/back pain, stomach, depression and anxiety, TMJ, heart, etc. Got the meds straightened out to remedy the Fibro pain and issues, ThenSuddenly a year or so later, I started having serious menopausal symptoms again. Swore to gyno my testosterone/progest were off and she didnt think so but tested me anyway. Well my testosterone was in the tank, way negative. So I'm on DHEA and a testosterone cream now amd feel much better. Sweats have subsided for the most part besides living in the hottest darn part of the country!! So it's hard to get cool sometimes, but ii know the difference between hormonal heat and temp heat. So don't let anybody tell you your hormones aren't connected to your Fibro cuz it's bull. Mine made a HUGE difference !! Remember Fibro is your ENTIRE sympathetic nervous system, and my gynos husband is a researcher at UTSouthwestern and studies it so she's quite understanding of how much my symptoms are all related and affect each other. She's amazing and I'm blessed.

You are right LJm2014. Tumeric is great, and a wonderful middle-eastern/Indian seasoning as well ! I put it in dishes with chicken and rice and lots of garlic (always!) if I'm out of my B-100 tablets, I make sure to take a Tumeric capsule in the morning. It does help with strength first thing in the morning, and because I've had such horrendous hormone issues over the past 11 years since I was thrown into instant menopause (hysterectomy) I find the tumeric helps there as well for "balance". Since I've had Fibro, (about five years) it seems to have sucked the testosterone and progesterone right out of my body. I'm on prescription supplemental creams and DHEA, but I also read the stuff about tumeric and when I started it, I felt better almost immediately.

When I was reading Dr. Clauw's interview earlier, he said something about hormones so I thought I'd add this. He said:

Four different gene variants are found in higher levels in patients with fibromyalgia, including a variant of the COMT gene. This gene is associated with pain sensitivity in a number of pain conditions. There was just a nice study in Arthritis and Rheumatism showing that in a big database of people with osteoarthritis of the knee, the presence or absence of this gene variant was strongly associated with pain sensitivity, especially in women. The gene is known to be estrogen-sensitive.

Estrogen-sensitive! Not sure what all of this means but, still, I didn't see a difference when I was taking HRT and now that I have stopped that.

Sherrine