Lichen Schlerosis, Diet & Listening to Your Body?
Posted , 7 users are following.
I was diagnosed with lichen schlerosis about 4 years ago now. It completely freaked me out but it was most certainly a big stop moment. I've started this discussion based on just reading an older discussion on Lichen Schlerosis and diet which ended on a note that felt worthy of exploring further and that was about listening to your body and what that means. My experience so far is that listening to your body and trusting what it is communicating is key but when you are completely freaked out that is not necessarily and easy thing to do.
One of the great things we do as women is share our experiences and when we aren't in comparison with each other can offer a wealth of wisdom and understanding that no two women's experiences are the same but we can learn from each other, share what we have in our wardrobe so to speak, try on an outfit or two to see if it works but not get down on ourselves if it doesn't fit.
When I was first diagnosed I was already gluten and dairy free and pretty much sugar free because the symptoms I thought I was experiencing was thrush. I had been dealing with having thrush since I was. a little girl so cotton underwear was always a must and later in life I reduced sugar intake and later carbs to assist the symptoms of what I thought was thrush. I also stopped drinking alcohol. All of this probably assisted in the fact that my LS was not as severe as some cases (my specialist actually recommended I not go online because that may only increase my levels of anxiety and stress seeing all those images).
I am at a point where I am able to manage my LS with the steriod cream and know that sometimes my diet choices have contributed to a blow out. Sometimes I also can experience a blow out when I have taken for granted how I have been taking care of myself and my body and kind of go onto auto pilot without continuing to discern what feels right for me in the moment, from day to day, as it does vary.
So I feel like I am at a point with the LS where I understand diet works as well as using the topical steroid cream to support when needed but one thing that has never been able to escape me is the fact that the symptoms of the LS felt like they were showing me a shutting down on my sexuality as a woman, like a way of protecting what I felt was true from me by not expressing.
I know I can use food as a form of protection which is why I used to eat carbs and still gravitate to that when I feel an assault on my expression as a woman which not only comes from the clitoris, vulva and vagina but also from the depths of my heart. Long before the symptoms of the LS appeared for example my relationship with my then husband was deteriorating where the depth of intimacy between us during the day was merely what I would call functional and our sex life became a reflection of that. We had just gotten ourselves into a routine, an arrangement of you do this for me, I'll do that for you which discounted deeper matters of the heart which is where we connected in the first place. This may seem like going off topic in talking about treating the symptoms of LS but when I reflect back further than when the LS appeared I feel my body was trying to communicate to me a lot earlier and I wasn't listening so it delivered me a pretty big message to pay attention to deeper matters of the heart and soul.
So yes, agreed diet most definitely is a great support but there feels more to be discussed injunction with the support we find works from the outside and take a deeper look within ourselves about what our bodies were and have been communicating (the psychology of LS so to speak).
2 likes, 7 replies
Starlight8 suzanne25846
Posted
Hello Suzanne,
I was diagnosed with LS over 3 years ago but I suspect I have had LS much longer. As you say, there are many facites that drive the LS, I have noticed emotion and stress are a big factor in keeping LS in check.
I am one of the ones who said to listen to your body because we are all our own microbiom. What works for me may not work for you.
In the years of living with this disease I have noticed that sometimes if I cheat on my diet for too long, I will flare. Sometimes I have noticed that I can be strictly on my diet but am completely stressed out and the result is a flare. I can no longer keep my emotions bottled up and that is a good thing.
Keeping my body healthy has become about balance and knowing how to take care of myself; emotionally and physically.
TME Starlight8
Posted
I was diagnosed in 2016 thru biopsy and i totally agree that stress is a huge factor! i have other immune disorders like Raynauds and antiphosphilipid syndrome and they flare under stress!
suzanne25846 Starlight8
Posted
yes, we cannot suppress how we feel even if we don't like the feeling. And yes, it is very beautiful to be able to share how we feel with the understanding we may not be experiencing the same things with the LS.
One of my biggest learnings at the moment, not only to listen to my body but to be aware of how I am expressing from my body and that's not just what and how I say it but how I am moving also. Stress is such a big factor and there can be a tendency to shut down and protect rather than say how I feel.
brigitte_27336 suzanne25846
Posted
Suzanne... hello...i'm so with you on the topic of. """ the psychologie of LS"". Ive been on this group for almost 3 years...diagnosed about 6 years ago. I have been linking my LS to childhood because i was diagnosed with exzema back then but was actualy faced with the true diagnostics at 41. It so happened that the diagnosis came out when i was going threw a very hard séparation....the séparation of the Man with whom i had been able to love intamacy and not just....be ok with it. What im saying is that i think the shock of thinking that this comfort in intamacy was over...got my body in a protection mode and sort of closed itself. i think this ls was dormant and just made a real coming out with this dépression or despair....im doing good and cobtroling it well. im with a good man but the damage got done on that major flare up so sensitivity is not great but mentaly always working on me as a women....a women that can open up and continue to blossom in life in all aspects....i tell myself that im normal and désirable....so that my mental doesnt make my women parts close even more. i think the psychologue is key in this LS. Good evening and chin up thankyou for your post courage Suzanne 😉
suzanne25846 brigitte_27336
Posted
I can so relate to what you share brigitte_27336 and I too am working at being "a women that can open up and continue to blossom in life in all aspects" ... so beautiful xx
vickie00010 suzanne25846
Posted
hi ladies....unfortunately, there is no CLEAR diagnosis for soooooooo many illnesses in life...researchers study and study some more but little is really clear....guess u could say "medicine" is a guessing game of trials and errors...as what works for one does not necessarily work for another - sharing is wonderful and amazing as it gives up a chance to perhaps have the "a-ha" moment and say - "wow, that is just how I feel"...what is for certain is "food be thy medicine"....animals know just what to eat..a cow eats grass and a monkey loves banana's....u never see a cow eating nuts...what I am trying to say is man is the only creature (so smart and yet SO stupid) that still does not know what and how to eat...when we put garbage in this machine (we call out bodies} all sorts of diseases and illnesses can occur...after all do u take your car into the gas station and say "Ill take the cheapest gasoline u have"....HECK no...but we all need to think what goes in our mouths and into this fine oiled machine...our bodies...because IF we take care of HER she will take care of us...LS will not be cured (not in my lifetime....I am 68) BUT can be controlled (though the right medications) and DIET....so start eating right and enjoying... and u will feel better...listen to your body and learn from what it tells u..and never stop sharing information with one another...
suzanne25846 vickie00010
Posted
I was talking with my specialist doctor and he was saying that although it is unfortunate that we have an increase in auto-immune diseases the benefit is that more money is being put into research. He said although this won't probably mean LS will be a part of that research he said they are discovering common links between auto-immune diseases which can benefit our understanding of LS. He was also the one who suggested I discuss how I was feeling about my relationship with my husband which were not being expressed prior to me having the LS. Everything in how our lives playout also affects our health and well being, our bodies and our food choices. Nothing can be isolated, it's all connected making it challenging for research to incorporate all the variables which is what makes opening up the conversation with other women so enriching as it adds value to what is being discovered in medical research and has a lovely immediacy about it.