Anxiety and other hormonal issues

You know you've been blogging a while when you google a question about your cycle and the very first result is a fellow blogger's post about this topic from 2009 and you are the first commenter. I actually answered my own question, which I had long-ago forgotten the answer to. I gave myself medical advice online, from the past.

Anyways, the topic I was searching about was tail-end brown bleeding. I have it. And I hadn't had it in years. A blood test from September showed my progesterone was pretty low, but I've been on 100 mg prometrium since then, going up to 200 mg this month. But I didn't take it as early as I was supposed to because I wasn't charting. I thought I could just keep track in my head. I know, that's silly.

Let me back up. I went to my doctor, Dr. B, in September, at which time he tested my progesterone (it was low) and estradial (it was normal), along with my thyroid (it was normal, on my meds). I took home a saliva test kit for my adrenals, and completely expected them to be low. Turned out they're normal. Go figure! I was really counting on them being super low like two years ago because I partly credit the hydrocortisol with me conceiving. Not to mention feeling great. And the alternative, if my adrenals were normal, was that I needed to eat more protein and less carbs to curb my extreme afternoon fatigue. Ugh. I'd MUCH rather just take a pill.

I found out these results at a follow-up appointment with Dr. B a few days before Thanksgiving, at which time he also took a picture with my babies:

Clara is hard at work on the iPad... the only way I got through this appointment

I also mentioned to Dr. B that I was having anxiety. At that point it seemed to be only during the second two weeks of my cycle and so he increased the prometrium to help with that. I was to take 200 mg that cycle, 300 next cycle and 400 the next. That is, unless a lower dose did the trick.

So I started on the 200 and it seemed to be working. The anxiety was better, and I even had an instance where I spotted one single time and was totally and utterly convinced it was implantation bleeding. Seriously, will I never learn? I honestly think implantation bleeding is a huge myth, and in fact my husband's immediate response when I giddily told him that I was convinced an embryo was implanting as we spoke was, "Isn't implantation bleeding a myth?" Yes. Yes it is.

This time, when I eventually started a new cycle a couple days later, the anxiety returned. Along with some tail-end brown bleeding. I think I'm on day seven and have had the spotting (if you can even call it that) for about three days now. According to the comments from that post I found from two years ago, that is a sign of low progesterone from your previous cycle. So, that would mean, my progesterone was low even on 200 mg of prometrium. It helped my anxiety but not my hormones.

And now I'm left wondering why the anxiety is back, this time pre-ovulation. It seemed a lot neater and tidier when it was only during the two-week wait. Isn't progesterone supposed to be low now? Could there be other hormonal reasons for my anxiety?

In the meantime, to combat this uncontrollable worry, I'm trying to focus on those in need instead of myself, and there a lot of people in need. But I think that sometimes only increases my craziness.

Prayer Buddy, can you please say a prayer that this anxiety goes away? I'm driving everyone close to me nuts.

And any advice on low progesterone would be great, if anyone has any. Dr. B actually had mentioned injections, like I had during pregnancy, but I thought that seemed a bit extreme. Is it? Should I just continue with the plan to increase the prometrium by 100 mg each cycle until I (hopefully) find that it's working? Oh, and he also wrote me a prescription for prozac. He said he has seen it help women who are having anxiety due to hormonal imbalances. He said to hold on to the script and only fill it if the 400 mg of prometrium doesn't do the trick (which, at this rate, will be in February). I'm not a big fan of those types of medications (for me, personally), but he said it's much more closely tailored than when used for psychiatric purposes (and it's a tiny dose). I just really hoping I don't have to get to that point.