Estrogen and Serotonin
Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 6:16 amWell, that was fun. Three days of biochemically induced depression, paranoia and molehills looking like mountains. That was some of the worst pre-menstrual mood fuckery I’ve ever had. Bad enough to be scary. When it comes in that intensity, I can’t remember what normal feels like. I remembered reading that estrogen and serotonin are somehow related, so I did a bit of searching.
I found this article, which explains that in order to produce serotonin (the happy chemical), the brain needs estrogen — serotinin needs estrogen for its metabolisation in the brain. The pre-menstrual drop in estrogen therefore lowers serotonin levels. It also causes the politely termed “cognitive changes” women experience before their periods (you know, when you lose 100 or so IQ points and feel like the guy in “Flowers for Algernon” for a day or two).
But why was this month particularly bad? My best guess is that it had to do with weight. I lost a couple of kilos when I had my tooth out (it was a very big tooth…). Not only does estrogen help create fat, fat creates estrogen. So I’m guessing that I made less estrogen this month. However, I don’t exactly want to put the weight back on again. I mean, for the first time since I was 17, the gap between my thighs goes all the way up. Which makes me happy in a way that has nothing to do with serotonin and everything to do with socially-programmed vanity.
Another possible factor might be that because I was feeling delicate, I wasn’t doing my morning tai chi. I don’t know if tai chi affects serotonin, but I’ve found it lifts my mood (of course, just going for a walk in the park in the comparatively fresh morning air might have the same effect). I’m now tai chi-ing again, so I’m going to see whether — if I can keep the weight off this month — things are any different mood-wise next month.
If not, I think I’ll just go to the doctor and say, here, I have this problem, give me something I can take for a couple of days each month to fix it.
N.B. The original studies on estrogen and serotonin were done in the ’90s. In 2005, we find a paper whose abstract states that the interplay between the two is still not fully elucidated. All I can say is, elucidate! Elucidate, and don’t spare the horses.
October 10th, 2008 at 7:16 am
When I did my reading for going off the pill, I discovered that there’s apparently a buttload of estrogen in soy products. If your period is nice and regular, you could try eating more soy in the week before hand to soften the drop in your blood.
I’m still waiting for my first gone-off-the pill to arrive (it should have been here two weeks ago), so I haven’t been able to test this theory yet.
October 10th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Exercise in general produces lots of various mood-enhancing endorphins and what-not, so getting it regularly definately helps stave off depressive episodes.
Well, the second episode of Kuroshitsuji is out, and that was sure a mood lifter for me…
(You have a gap that goes all the way up?! I didn’t know real people had those!)
October 10th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Tessa - I drink soy milk in my coffee (cow’s milk=blech), but I guess that isn’t a whole lotta soy. I love edamame, though, so I’ll try your suggestion and make sure I have them in the week before.
Will be interested to hear what happens with you (er, if you feel like sharing).
Laurie - Endorphins, them’s the things. KS is all in Japanese with no subs as yet, right? I take it you can still understand what’s going on?
Well, the top of the gap is very small… and normally an inch or two at the top touches, but I really couldn’t eat much for about a week, and couldn’t eat properly for a week after that. Nothing like damn starvation for losing weight, I guess… The only other explanation is that there’s a black hole inside the crater in my gum where the tooth used to be, and some of my thigh fat got sucked into it (also possibly some serotonin and brain cells).
October 10th, 2008 at 8:10 am
What does soy milk taste like? I imagine soy sauce and milk for some reason. Please it isn’t so?
October 10th, 2008 at 9:56 am
“cognitive changes” women experience before their periods (you know, when you lose 100 or so IQ points and feel like the guy in “Flowers for Algernon” for a day or two).
Ah, the Luteal Stupids, where you will say yes to nearly anything, drop a fork six times in one meal, and walk flat into concrete walls. A remnant from cavewoman days, perhaps, so we will be slow and dumb enough for cavemen to catch us. :-/
Much sympathy on the fuckery, though. Hang in there. Organic (no outside cause) hormone swings tend to run in short cycles, so next month will likely be better for you.
October 10th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Crube - it depends. Some brands taste like the sole of a hippie’s shoe. Some taste like slightly nutty milk, without the sourness that (I find) milk has.
Kirby - I shall from now on think of it as the Luteal Stupids. The article didn’t mention the fork dropping, but I know that part of it too. Except that my hand is more likely to flail involuntarily so violently that the fork is actually thrown across the room. The only thing is, why would nature want a caveman to catch us just before our periods, when we’re not fertile?
I’m better now — once bleeding starts, the hormones normalise. You’re right about the swings, too — but I wonder why that happens? I know it’s a different, random ovary that fires off an egg each month — maybe one ovary also tends to make more estrogen than the other…?
October 10th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I see… I am considering switching to soy juice.
October 10th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I suggest drugs and lots of them. leagal illegal they all do the same thing ruin your insides for 15 min of happy.
Or you can do what I do when my emotions get out of hand. Stop listening to emotion and push on through using bastard logic.
Bastard logic the only way to go for me
October 10th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
No subs on KS yet, no - I only understand it because I’ve read those chapters of the manga, and thus already know approximately what’s being said, haha.
Crube: Soy milk isn’t as tasty as cow’s milk but you get used to it. It’s al right. And no, it doesn’t taste anything like soy sauce. XD
October 10th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Crube - soy juice? You mean soy milk?
Colin - the problem with PMS hormones is that bastard logic doesn’t work on them. You can sit there being as logical as you like, but Satan possesses you, y’see?
Laurie - someone I know thinks there’s a sub on aarin fantasy. I used to drink So Good Lite. Now I live here I drink a cheap, sweetened local brand, but I remember the So Good having a mild flavour.
October 10th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
There’s several subs for episode 1 out, maybe that’s what they mean? It’d be unusual for them to have episode 2 subbed already, since it hasn’t even been 24 hours yet since it broadcast.
I drink Silk - I don’t think I’ve seen So Good around here. There’s a couple of other brands that are slightly cheaper than Silk, but they don’t have the same smooth texture, and it gives me the willies to drink something that looks and feels like dairy milk starting to curdle.
October 11th, 2008 at 8:34 am
It was ep 1.
I don’t remember seeing Silk in Australia or here — I think I would have noticed something that comes in all those flavours. I tend to avoid any soy milk that makes a thing out of being fresh, natural, un-this and un-that — those ones tend to be curdly and hippie-tasting.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Laurie: I guess I can get some tomorrow! To… work… auuugh…
KJ: Soy milk as in the word just seem… weird… XD I’ll get used to it.
October 11th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
“Soy juice” just sounds kind of ghastly.