MBower, your tender young age doesn't necessarily rule out low hormone levels, FWIW. I was treated for pernicious anemia during my teens; the family doc didn't believe in "women's troubles," so ignored the other signs like truly excessive bleeding where I wore two super pads and still couldn't get through a 50-minute class without having blood run down my legs on the way to the nearest rest room. Periods also lasted three weeks. As soon as I was 18, I went to an OB/Gyn, who immediately put me on birth control pills, although he didn't say that's what they were because, gasp (in 1960), they were only for married women. Again, I had two episodes of hearing/balance issues during my 20s (trying to get pregnant) and 30s (was divorced so didn't "need" birth control pills--nice statement, that). The hearing/balance problems disappeared as soon as I got back on pills. It was only after I went off in my 40s that I lost hearing/balance in my right ear; because it took four years of misery before we found a suitable form of HRT, I lost both hearing and balance permanently in that ear. So, I was really surprised to regain some hearing in my "good" left ear when I started heavy doses of HRT after 11 mos. of being nearly totally deaf. I had already begun to wear an aid in that ear due to age-related deafness. My father was profoundly deaf, wore early hearing aids, which were worn in a harness over his chest in the late 40s, 50s. I remember how excited he was to get one of the first hearing aids that were part of the big clunky bows of his glasses! He died before aids were small, somewhere near the ear; earlier ones had a receiver, sometimes that was carried in a pocket, with a wire going to the earpiece.

I only mentioned the hormone connection because it is present for a surprisingly large group of women, and not just "mature" women. My family has a history of women having excessive bleeding; my ggrandmother died of a hemorrhage. In addition, I had a ruptured appendix at age 8, which means that I only have one ovary, and it is damaged. For me, it's a combo of bad genes and bad luck. <g> I view abnormally low hormone levels as being like my diabetic husband's inability to make insulin: the stuff you take isn't as good as what your body should make, but it's far better than nothing. I have two children...but I also had six miscarriages, perhaps because my body didn't produce enough hormones to sustain pregnancies.

Do you have any balance issues, even slight ones? Are you uneasy going down stairs? Do heights bother you? Are you clumsy? Do you have to concentrate to know where your fingers are? One of the signs of imbalance is reaching for something on your desk by spreading your fingers out so that at least one of them will bump into the pen or pencil. Another sign is walking with your feet apart, looking at the surface ahead of you instead of at the world out there. If you do, that is more likely to point toward low hormone levels.

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