I read several articles that claim estrogen can help treat symptoms, like this one:
“The estrogen hypothesis tries to explain why women have a later age of the onset. According to this hypothesis some therapeutic treatments associated with estrogens could be useful for improving symptoms and cognition, especially in women.”
Estrogen can be obtained through eating soy or using red clover as a supplement amongst others.
I’ve heard eating too much soy causes you to gape your mouth open and point at things.
Never heard of estrogen as a treatment for sz before. I assume it would only really be beneficial for women?
I take testosterone shots, and they help a great deal with mood. Would the estrogen work for females only? Just curious
I took a SERM adjunctive to an AP as part of research trail. My PANSS scores decreased in a statistical significant way by the end of the trial.
I like to think of myself a quite in tune with myself and that I have good insight. It was a vs placebo trial so I didn’t know I was on it until the end. I did necessarily notice any acute effects and was actually surprised to be told I was on it. That was sort of a wake up call for me interms of thinking my insight trumped the observation of clinicians. Obviously they get a different perspective seeing things from the outside a provide a complimentary view which can facilitate better understanding of yourself.
Over the 12 week period I was on the medication I improved dramatically. However the improvements were a little confounded by the fact that I swapped to latuda right before the trial which I think works heaps better for my symptoms. So I can’t necessarily delineate where the improvements came from but yeah it happened. That was the period I think I made the most functional recovery gains in my entire journey so maybe there is something to it. If you are a woman there are probably estrogen therapies out there that you can take. As a man the SERMs have a lot of side effects, and they are still in research phase. Messing with hormones isn’t something to be done lightly and is well beyond my sphere of knowledge. The professor who debriefed me at the end of the trial said that if I get a good response from estrogen modulators that latuda would be the medication that she would recommend. I haven’t seen studies on any estrogen effects of latuda but I trust that she has a better working understanding of the medications then I probably ever will. I got the impression from her that only a subset of the population will respond to estrogen therapies. More of a research space to watch with interest then it is something to actively explore at this current point in time.
While I tried to be as honest as possible I also think that I got better at answering the PANSS test in a way that would provide favourable scores. They also changed interviews with me half way through and I think the second girl scored my interviews differently. So yeah I don’t know. Personally I’d need to see solid evidence come out about specific agent before I went down the rabbit hole of trying to modulate my hormones with SERMs. You can’t get too ahead of the research.
I can’t take hormones of any sort because of the increased risk of blood clots. I’m actually worried about menopause because I can’t take any of the medication for it.
I did for other reasons and it caused multiple mental health issues.
I am still undergoing testing but am so looking forward to the testosterone shots. I have hypogonadism apparently and my T levels are very low, which I was told could also be a big contributor to depression.
I think you’ll find it works for depression quite well. It was a breakthrough for me, nothing else worked. I take 0.5 mg by injection once a week, and it seems to work wonders. I still get a little depressed at times, but it’s nothing at all like it used to be. Wishing you the best of luck with it
Yes, thanks @Cragger , I really am excited about the prospects of it.
Not sure it’s a good idea to mess with hormones unless it’s really necessary. Our body’s entire ecosystem depends on hormones, and destabilizing this system might cost a lot.
Yes. I wouldn’t recommend trying unless suspecting a imbalance that might be corrected by adressing it.
No thank you. It might improve my schizophrenia but I look too much like a woman as it is.
I’m also trying to get back on trt for same reasons. It should actually increase estrogen as well, though not by too much.