Hello all. I haven't been on here in a long time because I have felt great the past year. Unfortunately, the reason I am back is because my cochlear hydrops has come roaring back. A brief detail of my history. I first started having the aural fullness and ringing in February 2013, a couple weeks after stopping birth control pills. I always wondered if that played a role but was never sure. I was pretty much miserable with symptoms the majority of the time up until I got pregnant in July 2013. I felt great again from then until my baby was born in April 2014. My symptoms came roaring back after my son was born and continued until May 2015, right around the time I stopped breastfeeding. Then I felt great again. I got pregnant in October 2015 and continued to feel great through the pregnancy. My daughter was born 5 weeks ago and yet again, my symptoms came roaring back about 2 weeks ago. Based on my history, I feel pretty strongly that estrogen plays a role for me. My symptoms very first started after stopping the pill, which means my estrogen dropped. I felt great during both pregnancies when estrogen goes back up. I felt awful the time entire time I nursed my son, and breastfeeding makes estrogen levels go way down. Now, here I am again, breastfeeding and feeling awful. Anyone have any thoughts or info on estrogen and menieres?
Hi Redbird, Welcome back - I totally remember you. Congrats on baby #2! Sorry to hear your symptoms are back though I had a similar pattern as you -- my Menieres symptoms began May 2011 and I got pregnant with #3 that September. I also found great relief from symptoms during the pregnancy (happily traded MM for morning sickness which I never had before). Symptoms came right back after birth and during 14 or so months of breastfeeding. I did go on the pill after that -- not for BCP as my tubes had now been tied -- but to regulate cycle stuff which was terribly heavy for the first time in my life. I can't say for sure but initially my MM symptoms did improve a bit I believe. However things crept back and my ear (possibly both, as of late) gradually got pretty bad. I'm actually still on the pill to this day but thinking of trying life without it this fall when I have another appointment. Since my ear has been doing badly I don't think it's helping much there any more... And I want to see how I cycle without it. Now as an aside, I had the Mirena Iud for a couple years and had it removed when MM started, on the off chance that was a contributing factor (hello, baby 3 lol). I guess I'll never know the answer -- whether I'd still have gotten MM without Mirena -- but I'll always be suspicious.