No Longer Trying to Come Off HC

This was likely my last experiment. I guess I have adrenal insufficiency of unknown origin and I need to be done with it. Lowering my dose caused major high DHEA symptoms and my emotional well-being started to deteriorate. I finally just went back up to 15mg and am just done with it all. I really wish my doctor had done the appropriate testing to see if I really had a problem because now I cannot come off of it to test. Thanks doc! There is really only 1 thing I can test for while on HC and that is 17OH progesterone. You have to test it first thing in the morning, BEFORE taking your HC for the day. You want to see if this is elevated in the AM because if so, then that's pretty telling the pathway is getting backed up.

Once I went back on the 15mg of HC, not taking DHEA gave me major depression. It took about 3 days for it to appear (probably the amount of time it took for all of that extra DHEA to go down) and I felt like dying.

Now I'm back on 12.5mg DHEA and my normal 15mg of HC. Glad the latest experiment is over with.

Stopping the DHEA For Now

Ever since coming off the Pred, I decided to just keep going with the HC too. If I can get off of this then in a few weeks I can get the appropriate testing done for late onset congenital adrenal hyperplasia (LOCAH) as well as looking into getting a stim test done.

For those who do not know what LOCAH is, basically your body has enzymes which are needed to convert your hormones into cortisol and aldosterone. You can look at this hormone pathway chart on this page to see every step takes an enzyme. 

If you are deficient or missing one of those enzymes, then the step before it gets "backed up" and you are unable to create enough cortisol or aldosterone in the body. Your body starts dumping this extra hormone into DHEA and you grow extra hair on your body. Some have it so severe, the hair growth is very thick, their periods stop and some women (if they have it at a young age) have weird changes to their genitals due to the androgens. If I have this, mine is not severe as I did not have the really thick hair growth, but I am definitely more hairier than most women.  

This testing I should have had done in the beginning. My natural doctor conveniently had no idea what he was doing when he said my 17 OH progesterone was normal even though it was slightly elevated during my follicular stage of my cycle.This should NEVER be elevated and I should have immediately been referred to an endo. A slight elevation means serious issues needs ruled out. There is no way around this and this doctor failed.

Off the Prednisone

Well I am off the prednisone and back on my regular dose of hydrocortisone. I am soo glad. I think I am finally back at my baseline as far as symptoms go. It took a couple days to make sure I was getting enough HC in me from the transition. I tapered much quicker than originally intended because I knew I would just go back to my normal HC dose. It wasn't like I wasn't on steroids in the first place. My adrenals are already suppressed, so the risk of further suppression is not there.