I feel biologically depressed. Nothing external effects it. Something inside me is not working. Is there hope for me in trying to find help in functional medicine?
TW: abortion
I need advice on what is the most natural / least harmful / least toxic abortion option esp. as I am still breast-feeding a 1.5 year old (who also eats solids but has breastmilk every 2-4 hours and overnight to comfort back to sleep). I don’t want to be talked out of this. I am already devastated that I need to do this, I cannot take more guilt, judgment, preaching, criticism, etc. I’m hard enough on myself about it.
I only now need to decide which is the most natural / least harmful of the following two abortion options available to me:
Option 1: medical abortion at home, where you take mifepristone and 24 to 48 hours later you take misoprostol and you basically bleed out the baby.
Option 2: in office option where you have to take antibiotics, pain medications, anti-anxiety relaxants like Ativan / lorexopan, then they put lidocaine on your cervix and put a tool through through, and suction all the tissue out.
The first one felt like a more natural option because women report that it feels more like a natural miscarriage and I don’t want anyone probing through my body and I certainly don’t want to take antibiotics that in the past messed up my microbiome, and most likely led to a very serious digestive issue which I suffered from for several years.
But these two pills may be disastrous and too systemic /unsafe for my nursing baby. Is there 100% proven evidence that this will not negatively harm my 1.5 year old who I am still breast-feeding? Of course the conventional medical system never wants to commit to that. Risk is on you!
I asked what type of antibiotic is given and at what dosage but I haven’t heard back yet. I asked if I can take natural antibiotics and apparently there is no flexibility on this.
I will only be about 6 weeks pregnant during the procedure so it’s just like a tadpole at this stage but I also wonder if there’s any possibility of pain and if so, which would be less for the embryo. Some research says I believe pain starts at 9 weeks, but really, how do they know? So I would want the method where their death is more instant.
I almost wish there was some kind of natural herbs I could take at home to just do this entirely on my own, which would also bypass the required ultrasound which I hate to do, but I don’t know if I want to mess with that when it comes to something this serious.
I also read that the chance of breast cancer goes up with abortions, but that could be because there’s extra breast cells created that don’t have a job anymore, I don’t think that applies in my case since I’m breast-feeding.
My friend said she did both options and that the first option was way more painful, like as if she was in actual labor for like four hours, but she thinks that her situation might be specific, like something getting stuck maybe. In general, it seems like a foreign object being inserted into your body unnaturally (like without a natural cervix dilation process) has a much higher risk, but I don’t know, I’m just confused at this point.
Thank you very much for the guidance.
hi, I applied a couple drops (not a spoonful) of castor oil (organic, hexane free, stored in dark glass bottle) on my lower abdomen. Then 30 minutes later my nose seemed to have a red spot and a pimple.
Then a week later, I tried applying castor oil drop on my finger, and nose appeared pink with another pimple showing up.
Anyone else experience breakout/nose symptoms after applying castor oil on a different body part?
Why is it most functional medicine Dr's aren't covered by health insurance?
i’ve been looking into regenerative care for the last 3 weeks , and the hardest part isn’t finding clinics, it’s figuring out which ones are transparent, and realistic.
The biggest thing I’m trying to avoid is the 'same protocol for everyone' approach or clinics that promise too much before they’ve even looked at labs or my history.
if you’ve worked with functional medicine providers, what were your biggest green flags or red flags?
After 2 years of thinking the bloating was due to hormonal imbalances and disorders, the digestive symptoms became increasingly worse and after some research, I concluded that it's methane SIBO/IMO (the unexplained weigh gain was the one who convinced me), which, looking back, it was caused by extreme dieting and lots of sugar-free sweets.
I just did the following:
- 14 days of Rifaximin 400 mg twice/day
- Berberine 500 mg once/day (I had already been taking it for insulin resistance from PCOS)
- NAC 300 mg once/day
- ginger 400 mg once/day
- Iberogast twice/day
- simethicone at every meal
- very low fermentation diet
- eating at every 4 hours distance
- overnight fasting of 12 hours minimum
During this course, there were less stomachaches, no longer nausea, less bloating in the upper belly, but still bloated in lower belly.
I tried eating yesterday oven baked potatoes and it triggered all the symptoms from before starting the medication and low fermentation diet. I can only eat chicken, fish, eggs, olives, polenta and dark chocolate. Although I have no hunger cues, I am starving. Considering that underfueling was a cause for SIBO, and I cannot eat enough, I don't see how am I supposed to fix the root cause.
Why, even on empty stomach in the morning, drinking tea immediately triggers lots of gurgling... what does it mean? There are bad bacteria in my stomach, not just in the lower intestines?
How should I continue the protocol?
I don't exactly trust myself to make my own yogurt!
will taking the probiotic pills at least do something even if the total count is lower...
btw if anyone lives in Memphis, TN - I would love to try making it together with someone...
I am going through a lot of symptoms.
Hormone, histamine, gut.
I’d love to hear your experiences with doctors in the area and ones you’ve felt are worth it. I’m from Palm Springs, CA. So LA/SD even Mexicali.
Thank you
My teen was diagnosed with depression.
We got bloodwork done to test his Vitamin D, B and iron and all they all came deficient.
Did anybody else experience depressive symptoms that improved after vitamin and iron deficiency was addressed?
Mid twenties female. I have bled for 100 days straight. Sometimes it has been heavier, sometimes lighter, but always true period bleeding, not spotting. It’s awful and I feel only half alive. I have no idea what’s going on and I would love any and all hypothetical causes. Never been sexually active.
I have seen countless doctors, had countless tests (blood tests, MRI, ultrasounds), and attempted almost all of the treatments, from clinical to super crunchy. I have not gone on birth control yet because I really wanted to find a root cause. I couldn’t get a doctor to do an endometrial biopsy because I was told that this much bleeding was ”just a normal symptom of PCOS”. I do have multiple follicles in my ovaries but don’t necessarily have the other symptoms of PCOS. Maybe I do have PCOS but is this much true bleeding really just normal? And should I just accept that I need to go on birth control? I am just worried that if I don’t figure out what’s going on then it will make it really hard to have kids and also that I will miss something important that is wrong with my body.
Made lots of other posts all along the same line, so you can go back and look at those for more info. I am too tired to go back and put all that there. Sorry if my words aren’t making sense, I just can’t seem to focus anymore.
TL;DR I have bled for 100 days straight…what the heck???
PS I am not anemic, surprisingly. Been keeping careful track of my iron and ferritin and everything and it is all doing well at the moment. Have become anemic in the past, though, and needed an expensive iron infusion. I don’t want to do that again, so I will go on birth control if I can’t figure this out soon.
I have been digging into the specs for a home hyperbaric chamber and I keep hitting a wall. It feels like every unit is stuck at 1.3 ATA. That seems fine for relaxation, but is it enough for real recovery?
I want a legitimate hard shell hyperbaric chamber that hits 2.0 ATA. I noticed Oxygen Health Systems has some hard-sided units that reach those clinical pressures.
Has anyone here moved from a soft 1.3 unit to a 2.0 ATA system? I want to know if the results are actually better or if I am just overthinking the numbers.
Long story short i took glycine for close to a week and experienced better sleep and calmer demeanor for a good while. It was a honeymoon period that ended up making me very anheidonic, flat, and moody. Was wondering if there is something I can take to reverse what ive done. Kind of how taking H1 and H2 blockers reverses cholinergic depression, I need the antidote to this situation. Anyone know? Thanks
After a series of health events, I found the the cause may be due to low ferritin so I've been working on that since October 2025. It started at 5 in October, Jan 2026 was 14, April 2026 is now at 26. I'm supplementing and following the Iron Protocol group on FB. I read that low copper may contribute to low ferritin so I had that tested - results were copper - 102, zinc - 84, ceruloplasmin - 24. So my unbound copper is at 29%.
My question is how would high unbound copper affect ferritin? What do I need to do to increase the ceruloplasmin? I know I need to take Zinc. I've been told to increase Vit A. I'm already taking organ supplements which supposedly are high Vit A, but also high in copper? So should I stop those? I take Vit C with my iron supplements. I know to support my liver - I've read taking bitter herbs, milk thistle, NAC ... anything else?
I'm working with a functional medicine NP, but this is an area that she's not an expert in. She is learning along with me and she is willing to do any testing that I ask for and she's open to all that I'm doing so I don't want to leave her to find someone else at this point.
I'm trying to learn about how this is all connected, but I'm having a hard time understanding the connection between ceruloplasmin and ferritin, especially since LOW copper is supposedly what can contribute to low ferritin. If anyone has a good grasp and can explain to me like I'm 5 years old, I would greatly appreciate it!