The Physical Aspects of Asperger's Syndrome
15. Hormones
A hard-to-notice symptom of the untreated autistic body is the effect that improper diet and chemical reactions have on hormones. The hormone and endocrine system is a complex system in which one organ transmits messages, via hormones, to another organ, to tell it to do something. Opiate and toxin load in the body from gluten and dairy upset the function and balance of almost all of the hormones in the Endocrine System.
I'll be honest, this is a hard section for me to write, because it's the section that I don't totally understand. No one understands this. I've been trying to figure this out for 20 years now, and have been to more doctors than I care to admit, each not knowing how to help me. There are still very few answers out there, but I'm happy to learn that the physical problems associated with Asperger's Syndrome explain the hormone and endocrine problems I've had all my life.
In brief, I have never had properly balanced hormones. Ever since the age of the onset of puberty, it has been clear by my menstrual cycles, and lack thereof, that something is not working right. All the parts are there, but something wasn't telling the ovary to actually produce the egg. No doctor has ever found out why. Also, at that age, early teens, I went from being a super skinny child to being more and more overweight every year. I was very physically active and ate a good diet in moderation. These things did not appear to ever have an effect on the weight gain; it was caused by a completely different, and as of then, unknown, condition.
Many doctors that I saw, in fact, went so far as to tell me that it was okay to not ovulate, that the only purpose of ovulating is to get pregnant. I know that's not exactly true. I know that not ovulating signifies that something else is sick in my body, it causes my body to store fat at inappropriate rates, the hormone imbalances are uncomfortable to live with (to put it simply), and it steals away my opportunity to have more children when I choose to.
I have never been able to ovulate by myself, yet. I have ovulated with the help of the fertility pill Clomid. If you are unexplainedly anovulatory and want to get pregnant, you can start with that. It worked for us and we got pregnant the first month. However, just because I ovulated once didn't mean that the chemistry in my body was properly set up to maintain a pregnancy, so that baby was lost to miscarriage two months later. The extra hormones generated from that pregnancy were enough to balance me enough to allow me to ovulate again two months after that. That allowed me to get pregnant with my first son. Somehow, the act of lactating, to breastfeed my son, brought me into complete health for the first and only time in my life. During the months of breastfeeding, I ovulated regularly, my brain worked exceptionally well, and I lost enough weight to put me at the lowest weight I'd been at since age 16. I then got pregnant with my second son, and the process repeated. After he stopped breastfeeding, my body immediately began returning to the sick state it was in before. This was four and a half years ago, and I've spent almost every free moment since then trying to return to that health.
I have shown symptoms of hypothyroidism, adrenal insufficiency, and pituitary disorders. I have begun learning that gluten, to a gluten-intolerant person, in addition to autism-related malnutrition, can wreck so much havoc on the body chemically as to prevent hormone signals from being properly generated and transmitted. This can shut down many systems, and be the cause of many problems such as lack of ovulation, female and male infertility, miscarriage, adrenal insufficiency, low energy levels, low libido, and dysmenorrhea. Other possible effects of these problems are low levels of hormone and endocrine production levels, including low thyroid hormone, low cortisol, low estrogen, low production of pancreatic enzymes, and the possibility of improper levels of hormones being generated in every organ in the endocrine system.
Sometimes lack of proper hormone levels and sufficient amino acids can erroneously instruct the body to store fat. Sometimes gluten can cause chronically high levels of insulin, or it can cause chronically low blood sugar levels. I experience dangerously low blood sugar levels, which the best endocrinologist in Austin was able to prove, but not to explain. My own research later taught me that a severe blood sugar drop signals the body to stop producing luteinizing hormone (LH). This is the hormone that signals a female body to release the egg, to ovulate. Without high enough LH levels, this will never happen. In males, LH is necessary for the production of testosterone and spermatogenesis.
To learn more about hypoglycemia, see
Section 6 of this report.
Ever since the day I stopped eating gluten and dairy, my hypoglycemia problem
has lessened and lessened. I believe that after a few more months on the
diet, and with proper nutrient supplementation and regular meals, it can be a
problem of the past. Removal of gluten, and in some people, also dairy,
from the diet, and addition of supplements to address under nourishment is the
best way to address autism-caused hormone imbalances.
If you would like to get pregnant in the future, and aren't sure right now how
likely you might be in that endeavor, I can recommend a few things. One,
get on the best diet possible for your body. If you're anything like me,
your body will not correct its hormonal imbalances until you find a way to
perfect the chemical processes that occur within it. Second, in addition
to other supplements, begin taking folic acid or folinic acid now, even if it's
years in advance. Folinic acid is a form that is better absorbed by
Aspies. You need the extra folic/folinic acid to help inflamed intestines
heal. Third, I recommend charting your cycle. Get the book Taking
Charge of Your Fertility, version 2.0, by Toni Weschler. There is also
software available here that you can use to chart yourself to see if you are
ovulating or not.
http://www.ovusoft.com/ Even if you are not currently ovulating, improvements in diet and
supplements (and many months of patience to allow those changes to fully take
effect) can heal your hormones and allow your body to work properly.
(If these things don't produce a desired pregnancy after sufficient time has
passed, your OB/GYN may want to try Clomid or some other medication to help you
ovulate.)
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