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I'm what you'd originaly call a self diagnoised celiac because I initially
discovered it myself... after being sick for about 3 years and looking for
everything I could on the net.. I took the info to my doctor and he then
gave me a diagnoisis.  Before this I was tested for everything.  Had the
scopes but never did they look into my small intestines.  Stool samples came
back with high fat content. At the allergist I was allergic to wheat amongst
others such as milk and eggs.  I had diarehha constantly that was made worse
by dumping syndrome.  I pretty much was bed ridden as I was so weak that I
could hardly make it to the bathroom on my own.  I was sure that I was going
to die before they found out what was wrong.   After about a week of gluten
free I was so much better that I decided that I was going to live.   The
reason I am writing is because of this disease I am sure that it has caused
alot of other problems for me.  I went through early menapause ( complete by
41) with that I have completely lost my libdio.  I was on hormone replacment
for a while until that started causing problems.  Went off and was retested
and was told I no longer needed to be on them anyway.  I read somewhere that
Estrogen binded with Tetestrone and that it got binded up in the liver and
then was not able to be used by the body and they say that testerone is what
gives us women our libdio.. My problem is that that also seems to cause
stomach problems.   I was also wondering about malabsorbon.   Maybe I wasn't
getting what I needed to make my own hormones.
what about anemia.  They've never said that I was anemic but could I be low
on iron.  I read somewhere that you could be low on iron with out being
anemic.    Has anyone else had this problem and are their any sucessful
treatment for it.  This is hard on my marriage and my husband thinks it's
something that I can just choose.  well if I could I would... I remember how
good it can be... just not working for me now. another thought to another
subject:   I quit smoking several years ago and never felt good.  Started
smoking again and it seems to have helped my stomach alot... I suspect that
maybe I have low stomach acid and that the smoking is making me make more
acid.  I don't really want to smoke but I don't want to feel like I did
without smoking.  I think I read somewhere that low stomach acid can be a
problem with celiacs and that their is medicine that can help.   any
comments or suggestions would greatly be appreciated.   Thank you

Pepper L. combs

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