A few years ago I asked a doctor about my severe chronic pain that left me mostly bedridden for half of every month for most of my adult life, obviously connected with my hormone cycle. I listed all the failed advice I'd tried, supplements that were supposed to work but didn't, elimination diets that were supposed to work but didn't, pain relievers that were supposed to work but didn't, eliminating stress, etc.. I told her my period was always on time, no other pms symptoms, in fact my reproductive system is highly consistent and predictable and otherwise easy, 4 day periods, nothing unusual, no cramps even. I have no other signs of hormonal imbalance at all.
She suggested antidepressants?
Ah, the old, diagnosing women with crazy instead of actually diagnosing their physical pain. Even though my chronic pain comes with VISIBLE inflammation that anyone can see with their own eyes, swollen as fuck, and she hadn't even seen it or taken any tests before assuming I have a mental health problem. I mean, sure, probably lol, but not one that has anything to do with this excruciating physical pain. Obviously, I never emailed the unhelpful gaslighty misogynist gyno ever again, and fortunately she's not my primary care doctor, who is wonderful.
But, I made quite the discovery this week! I identified the cause of my severe chronic pain, finally! It's a goddamn ALLERGY. Turns out I didn't need antidepressants at all. All I needed was allergy medicine!
I already have some weird allergies, one of them being a histamine reaction to aerobic exercise lasting longer than 40 mins or so. But at some point I noticed that it's fine when I take allergy medicine. I suspect this might be due to hormones released during aerobic exercise that my body reacts to as if its a foreign invader, although science isn't sure why yet (because we know how little the medical community includes females in studies because they're more worried about potential fetuses than women. Eyeroll.)
Anyway, as an experiment, when my chronic pain started to flare this month, I tried taking allergy medicine. And guess what. PAIN VANISHED!
I am allergic to my own hormones! Strange yes, but fortunately, that's SO easy to treat!
Mystery solved. For the first time ever, the pain 100% went away and all it took was one allergy pill. I can't believe it. YEARS of suffering for no reason, sleeping on frozen bags of vegetables, crying in pain for weeks on end, trying all manner of mistaken suggestions, being gaslit by an incompetent doctor, and all it took was one allergy pill.
Un. Fucking. Believable. I am so happy. I only wish it hadn't taken this long to figure out what was wrong with me. Wow.
5:12 p.m. - 2022-01-09