Lupron Slump

Yesterday was my last birth control pill and I'm already feeling my hormones plummet. The interesting thing is why I'm feeling this way. It's all about the mechanism of action that Lupron has on the body.

Lupron was originally developed as a hormonal therapy to be used with patients with prostate cancer. Reproductive Endocrinologists saw how it could switch the brain's hormonal production on and off and adopted it for certain cycles (both in egg retrieval and embryo transfer patients). Normally the brain sends hormonal signals to the gonads (testes or ovaries) in the form of FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) and LH (luteinizing hormone) in order to facilitate the production of sperm or eggs. When the gonads are "turned on" by the stimulating hormones -- they will produce other hormones (testosterone or estrogen) which affect the body in many ways -- sex characteristics and mood most notably. The levels of estrogen or testosterone are communicated back to the brain and the brain will stop sending messages to the gonads if the hormones are at an appropriate level This is normally referred to as a negative feedback loop. This is very similar to how a thermostat works -- there are internal adjustments that are made depending on the external temperature. In my case -- Lupron is being used to suppress my own ovulatory cycle so that way it can be completely manipulated by external hormonal control. The trick is getting my estrogen level to rock bottom first.

A birth control pill keeps the production of estrogen from the ovaries at a very stable and stagnant level -- but estrogen is still present in your body. When Lupron is initiated - it needs to be overlapped with the birth control pill in order to keep the estrogen low and to prevent a sudden spike. The idea is to stop the birth control pill and thus allowing the estrogen to fall. The Lupron will now mask the negative feedback loop and the brain won't get the signal that the body is low on estrogen. This will ultimately shut down ovarian participation and subsequently wipe out all warm, fuzzy feelings that estrogen normally contributes to. In layman's terms -- I'm a complete bitch.

Basically -- if my mood could be represented visually...I feel like this:

Let's hope this hormone train doesn't stay in Slumpville too long. Although I still have my period looming on the horizon... Saturday can't come fast enough.