Dizzy in Dallas:  Dear Dr. Roby, I am 26 yr old female with 2 small children.  I have experienced dizziness and vertigo for the past year.  I’ve had all practical tests done and the only conclusion my physician can come to is Meniere’s.  I am on and off dizzy throughout the month,  but I am MOST dizzy right before and during my period.  I linked this problem to after I stopped nursing my last baby.  I am so frustrated!  I can’t go anywherebecause I am so sensitive to light, sound, and motion.

I read about birth control maybe helping stabilize my hormones and although I HATE birth control,  I went on Mircette.  Been on it for 2 months now and can’t tell a difference either way in how I feel.  I have lost 25 lbs. over the last year also, just from eating healthier and very moderate exercise as everything makes me dizzy.

Do you think my dizziness could be related to my hormones?

Dr. Roby: The most notable sentence in your email is, “I’M MOST DIZZY RIGHT BEFORE AND DURING MY PERIOD.” This is a big HELLO. We see quite a lot of this same type of problem in our offices. It is almost always because of a hormone imbalance.

It is quite likely that you are having a true allergic reaction to one or more of the hormones that you produce, as well. When you become allergic to a hormone that your body is producing naturally, a few things happen. The hormone cannot perform it’s natural functions, and it causes your body to perceive itself as an enemy invader.   As a result, your body starts an attack… on you! The more that it happens, the more confused your body becomes. You start to produce and use more adrenaline, which causes stress, the stress causes pain, pain causes more stress and so on, and so on.

Allergy also causes soft tissue swelling (seen by your docs as Meniere’s). Unfortunately, they are looking for a disease. What I see in your case is a symptom of hormone imbalance, not a disease.

Can we fix it? Yes, because we are really looking at the root cause of the problem. Once we address the basic imbalance, and the allergy, all of the symptoms start to go away.