I’ve decided I will try adding on birth control with estradiol in it and see how well it helps me with my schizophrenia… it says new users can’t post links; so in order to read about what I’m talking about, try putting into google “estrogen schizophrenia” or “estradiol psychosis” there are a lot of articles on estrogen and the positive effects it has on psychosis and schizophrenia
I was on birth control when I developed schizophrenia but it wasn’t anywhere near as bad, I had no delusions and the voices were tolerable and not the constant mean hearted comments that I sometimes have arguments with by yelling at the walls. The voices used to be like from an occasional “spirit” rather than the delusions that it’s my neighbors, and maybe like a”vibe” of what they were thinking or saying instead of hearing it. My cognitive functioning was better and my negative symptoms were almost nonexistent, it used to seem like mild psychosis until I stopped my birth control then I started with all the symptoms pretty intensely.
Anyway what do you guys think, would you be willing to try birth control or estradiol/estrogen of some kind? Ps estradiol is a type of estrogen, and within most birth controls is ethinyl estradiol with a type of progestin ( I think that’s synthetics progesterone; drospirenone, norethindrone etc.)
I wish they’d look into it a little more and come out with a good anti psychotic because most of the anti psychotics that work on dopamine receptors don’t work for me (hoping to try karXT, but it feels like I’m waiting forever)
Welcome to the forum. I I have been looking into using some form of estrogen to help me with perimenopause. I had a milder case of sz since I was young but the last 2 years my symptoms have increased and the keto diet I am currently on is not working good enough. I hope you are able to get the help you need.
@Vinegar I’m hoping to add a form of estrogen to my regimen when I hit menopause. If you do add it, let us know if it helps you any.
@shutterbug I tried diet and exercise before but it didn’t help (this is when I psychotically believed I had diabetes, but I didn’t) it didn’t do much for me, but maybe I tried the wrong diet? Which diet is best for schizophrenia?
I’ve been on birth control before and it helped with symptoms, but I wonder if it will work as well as it once did for me. I wish I could post a link to the studies.
Whatever your doctor or dietician recommends based on your own needs. My doctor recommends Mediterranean Diet tending towards pescatarian over classic Keto Diet because of my bum ticker. I also take probiotics, Sarcosine, and Amyloban 3399 (Lion’s Mane Mushroom) as my main supplements.
It does feel like we are waiting forever, doesn’t it?
Anyways I almost joined the trial for a type of estrogen but I ended up doing the Iclepertin trial instead. So yes I have heard of estrogen to treat schizophrenia but I didn’t know much about how so.
Also I found that my hormones had become unbalanced. I had suicidal ideation so frequently and a feeling of numbness, alongside other symptoms you would have with unbalanced hormones and I realised that hormones play a huge part in how we feel. I am on birth control and it helped the depression but not as much as I’d like. Better than nothing.
I’m not sure what the statistical data says, but I’ve seen a few trans women on here say that taking estradiol helped their symptoms. So it at least helps some people.
Taking birth control made my mental health symptoms worse, so it might just depend on the person.
When I tried for months doing diet and exercise, it didn’t do anything for my psychosis, still had voices, believed my delusions to the point of still believing that they were fact (that stopped after invega which is when I first realized they were delusions), I wish those things would have worked for me
Exercise increases my energy and helps me push back against voices. I push back using the CBT techniques I learned. Stress management learned in therapy also helps me dial my positive symptoms down some. I still need meds to maintain insight.
@Turtle43 It is good that progesterone can help you. I had tried it a few years ago and it made me terribly moody. I cried all the time on it which is unusual for me.