curious wonderings of the science genius girl

[baratron]

So what IS the link between female hormones and gallstones? I know that they are considerably more likely to occur in women, full stop, and then within the subset of women, more likely to occur for: women post-hysterectomy, TS women who didn't have a uterus to start with, and women who are estrogen-dominant. But why?

I've had these fuckers for five menstrual cycles now, and the pain always gets terrible before my period. It coincides splendidly with the time when progesterone is dominant in my body, and I am therefore nuts (day 24-28) . (My most loony day is day 26, when for health and safety reasons I am not allowed to wield knives or stand on step-stools. Even going up & down the stairs is hairy). I also get deranged irritable bowel upset stomach thing going on, which I don't have the rest of the month as long as I stick to my ultra-strict gallstone diet. WHY?! It seems unfair - I'm already miserable from what my hormones are doing - do I really need the gallstone pain as well? Yay, body!

Also, my breasts have swollen up to the approximate size & shape of a Galia melon. I think that's what they're called - the little yellow ones. Not watermelon, anyway (god. that *WOULD* be painful!) ;). I can't wear a bra because any bra presses against my gall bladder, so I'm wearing a crop top thing that has no support in whatsoever - well, not for enormous swollen breasts, anyway. They are all stuffed with ouchiness. I have no idea how I'm going to get any sleep tonight. Bah!

Comments

[ailbhe]

Fascinating - I would be interested to be able to tell my sister possible reasons she had gallstones as a skinny (underweight, even) vegetarian 21-year-old. None of her doctors had any idea, and it took ages to get diagnosed because "you can't get gallstones if you're underweight". This is 15 years ago mind you.

[barakta]

You can get gallstones if underweight. In fact rapid weight loss/gain; or persistent underweight/overweightness are known risk factors. Being underweight screws with your cholesterol levels which is a known risk factor, it also probably screws with hormones and other things.

My partner couldn't give a family history when she had her trapped gallstone as she is adopted. We suspect her gallbladder issues were triggered by the steroids she took for acute asthma problems two summers running. I know the doctor checks her cholesterol because of other medication that she's on, and they were concerned. We realise now that my partner had gallstones passing through and causing transient symptoms. As they quickly passed we decided they were weird muscle spasms caused by bad breathing, gave her asthma meds and forgot about them.

[rowan-leigh.livejournal.com]

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallstones):

"...[I]ncreased levels of the hormone estrogen as a result of pregnancy, hormone therapy, or the use of birth control pills, may increase cholesterol levels in bile and also decrease gallbladder movement, resulting in gallstone formation."

So I'd assume that being post-hysterectomy is a risk if one is taking HRT. Otherwise it doesn't make much sense.

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

aaaAAAaaah

I have no theories, only sympathy :-(