Well THAT was anticlimactic.

Remember when I had thermography pictures taken a couple weeks ago? Well, I finally got the report back last week.  Something of a let-down, but interesting, nonetheless.

I guess I was hoping for something as definitive as “Nothing remarkable noted.” Would’ve been nice, but not realistic.  Actually, now that I think about it, a report like that would’ve been suspicious because there are still numerous cysts that should show up.

Anyway . . . It was not definitive either way. It did not say “You have cancer” or “You don’t have cancer.” It said (and I paraphrase), “There are lots of areas of hyperthermia that should be checked out by a qualified physician. They might be nothing or they might be something.”  So that was the let-down part.

The interesting part was buried in paragraph 7. “. . . Fibrocystic changes likely represent excess estrogen relative to progesterone (estrogen dominance). Supplementation with a bio-identical progesterone cream may be beneficial . . . Fibrocystic changes sometimes respond to discontinuing all caffeine and/or supplementing with iodine, selenium and vitamin D3.” [emphasis mine]

That’s the first I’ve heard of a known cause of cysts in the breasts. Estrogen/progesterone imbalance.  And it makes perfect sense. Why didn’t I put 2 and 2 together long before now? Duh.

(Warning: My male readers might want to stop here and go hunting or fly your RC thingamajig or do some other guy thing because the direction I’m going will probably not sit well with your stomachs.)

See ladies, I’ve been dealing with two beasts. The breast cancer – diagnosed in July – has been a walk in the park compared to the other beast – menopause.  I haven’t had your typical, run-of-the-mill hot flashes and moodiness. No, I have had horrendously vicious, raging, hemorrhaging, menstrual issues that have been steadily getting worse over the past several years. I recently discovered that this is greatly improved by taking herbs that urge my body to produce more progesterone.  Ding! (light going on) I have had an abundance of estrogen in my system for a lot of years – partly due to a diet promoting it, but ultimately because excess fat secretes estrogen. So of course the ratio of estrogen::progesterone is off kilter. Of course!

I was so focused on cutting out the estrogen that I didn’t think about upping the progesterone. It would have the same effect – bringing the ratio into line. Yes, that ratio needs to be in the lower numbers because I don’t want to be feeding the cancer, but it needs to be in balance for my body to function properly. Therefore, if I want to get rid of the cancer and the cysts and the horrible wretched menstrual issues, I need to bring down the estrogen and bring up the progesterone.

The other Ding! moment was the mention of iodine, selenium and vitamin D3 in the same sentence. I have read of the importance of each of these things individually – “selenium is great against cancer”; “iodine is vital to thyroid health”; and “vitamin D3 is an integral part of dozens of reactions in the body.” But they didn’t come together in my mind until I read this report.

So yeah, those two tidbits of information make me feel a lot better about the $135 I spent on pictures.

I guess I'm back to square one with regard to checking my progress. Not going to worry about it at this point, though. I have lots of work to do, and when the time is right, I’ll figure out how to know about the cancer. Or maybe I won’t. We’ll see.