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Update after procedure and Low oxalate diet

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Wil816
Wil816

I had my hysteroscopy yesterday. Doctor removed some endromertris "fluff" as she called it and thinks everything is okay. Of course I have to wait on the biopsy results but she's not worried. Doctor put me under to I wouldn't feel much pain due to the LS.  However, because of the LS and everything is do tender there I was sore from the speculum used for the procedure. The doctor called me to f/u and told me use lidocaine before applying the halobetasol. Well it worked no pain. 

0 likes, 5 replies

5 Replies

  • Morrell1951
    Morrell1951 Wil816

    Posted

    Glad to hear the results were OK, Wil. What is a low oxalate diet? Was there any comment from the doctor on that? I have my second visit of this year next month.
    • Willie816
      Willie816 Morrell1951

      Posted

      No  my doctor did not recommend the diet but I came across it on the internet when I  was researching LS and vulvar pain. Here's a brief description I got from the internet.  Oxalate is a very simple sort of molecule. It links up with calcium and crystallizes under some conditions, including when it encounters damaged tissues. The crystals formed this way can be quite irritating and painful to tissues where they cause or increase inflammation. It seems that it's in natural plants such as certain vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts and fruits, etc. High oxalate foods are believed to be linked to autism, kidney stones, prostate issues, thyroid problems and vulvar pain. There is list of low, moderate and high oxalate foods. What I hear it's hard to find a list that's accurate. Some list will categorize certain foods as high and another list will say they are low. The yahoo low oxalate information website seems to be the best place to start. 

      Good luck with your biannual appointment. Jeep me posted. Much luck!!! 

  • Morrell1951
    Morrell1951 Wil816

    Posted

    From what I've seen now about this diet, I should be a complete mess, which I'm not now. I eat seriously whole grains, a lot of rhubarb and red berries and grapes, minimal meat. (Not massive quantities of the fruits that would raise my sugar load, but significant in terms of oxalate.) It's recommended in some circles for vulvar 'pain', which I don't have unless I try to have sex and that's simple round-peg-in-square-hole physics.

    The controversy on this diet rages on the internet, expressed by one 'aspie' woman blogger – because, she admits, people on the autism spectrum teld to be like a dog with a bone (my simile) and keep trying something that hasn't worked, it's hard to sort out the science. She seems to be saying we should be absolutely sure we aren't sensitive to certain things first and eliminate them before trying the low oxalate diet.

    When I was eating a vegetarian diet I read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. In it he explains how after his work on various possible food-based causes of cancer the research was co-opted by a burgeoning supplement industry which missed the key point: "Nutrition represents the combined activities of countless food substances. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." For this reason I'm not inclined to try to subtract certain chemicals from my diet as if I had a firm foundation in science. (If you Google Campbell you'll see lots of Weston A. Price Foundation trolls trashing him. The meat industry sees him as its mortal enemy.)

    • Wil816
      Wil816 Morrell1951

      Posted

      Thanks for the information. It seems there isn't much hard data on low oxalate diet being effective in lessening vulvar pain but I guess when your in pain you're looking for anything that helps. I guess it's trial and error.
  • Morrell1951
    Morrell1951 Wil816

    Posted

    Case in point (adds hugely to my confusion): Here's a blogger (Mad Peach) with LS who's arguing against the low oxalate diet:

    • The original study linking oxalates to vulvodynia involved one woman. Initially this woman had abnormally high oxalate levels. After three months of following a low-oxalate diet and taking calcium citrate, she saw a reduction in her vulvar pain. After a year, she was pain-free, and she'd see a flare if she missed her calcium citrate. But again, that was one woman.

    • A follow-up study involved 130 women with vulvar pain and 23 without. Of the women with vulvar pain, only 59 had elevated oxalate levels in their urine. These women followed low-oxalate diets and calcium citrate routines for three months, after which only 14 saw an improvement in their pain and only 6 were able to have pain-free sex. In other words, the data didn't favor a vulvodynia-oxalate causal link, though it indicated that some women's symptoms might improve with the diet.

    Then down in the comments is Heidi who has the blog Low Oxalate Family saying she's wrong.

    Bottom line for me is I have no pain during urination, so I suspect I'm not a candidate anyway. There's a woman on another thread whose doctor attended a big conference on LS. There's a device for peeing through so you don't get any on your flesh. If I had the problem, that's the solution I'd try first.

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