ATTENTION MEDIA & OTHERS SEEKING INTERVIEWS!
If you represent a media company, are a student writing a report or anyone interested in interviewing our visitors, please seek permission (see email address at the bottom of the page) before posting your requests or emailing solicitations for any talk show, magazine, thesis, census or other interview on any message board on this site. If not, your posts WILL be removed. Please respect the privacy of our members.
First of all let me say that you sound like a wonderful caring mother and I applaud you for all you are doing right to try and get the best help for your daughter. She is in good hands with you.
Of course this is all unfamiliar to both of you right now. You are doing right by going to the message boards and talking with people who have been dealing with these same issues, some of us for years. You may also want to try (if you already haven't) www.caresfoundation.org where you can find many medical and scientific answers to your questions. There are also numbers to support groups in your area.
Your daughter was diagnosed at a rather young age, so that's a good thing. Well, when I say young, I mean prior to her adult years. I had all the symptoms, but wasn't diagnosed until I was 30, and that was initially a self-diagnosis.
If you want to start some form of treatment, I would suggest you try one method at a time. If you start combining treatments and you see side effects, you might not know which one caused them. Yasmin is a popular bcp, but so is Ortho Tri-cyclen. Yasmin has a derivative of spironolactone in it, so it may raise potassium levels. Make sure you keep them in check -- her doctor should be performing regular blood tests to check for hormonal levels and increases in potassium. Dexamethasone is another option, usually the treatment of choice for CAH and sometimes LOCAH, but it can raise blood sugar levels and blood pressure in some people. It can also cause weight gain, although some has actually lost weight on it. Everyone responds differently. I found the Dex to increase my anxiety levels so I stopped it. The pill didn't increase it, but it didn't reduce it either.
As for your daughter's weight, try to keep her to well-balanced diet with lots of fruits and veggies; she should drink lots of water and get plenty of exercise. When I did all these things, weight loss came much easier. I have had a weight problem all my life; up and down, up and down. I know how frustrating it can be and family and friends don't always understand -- criticizing doesn't help.
Finally, if you're not satisfied with your Endo, change him/her. Most don't have an idea of the real anxiety symptoms that accompanies LOCAH and to be honest they don't seem to be that interested in finding out ways to treat it correctly. Also, I believe there is still much the medical community doesn't know about it, so we just have to keep trying to find out what works for us.
