I'm a Menierian (person with Meniere's Disease). Until I was able to get on a good program of hormone replacement (low hormone levels are my personal Meniere's trigger), I had bouts of vomiting that usually lasted 12-15 hours, two to three times a week. I've been sick in all sorts of places...seeing things move past can always trigger an episode. I went to a fly fishing trade show in Boston: began to have a vomiting episode on the shuttle bus to go to the show arena to set up but was able to stay on the bus and get back to my hotel before the vomiting started. Was okay for the three days of the show, but, waiting for a flight to Portland early the following morning, I knew I was headed for a multi-hour vomit-fest. Staying in the waiting area at the airport didn't seem good, so I staggered onto the plane, where my husband and I fortunately had a full three seats, enabling me to half lie down with my ever-present kitchen trash bags. When the plan stopped in Chicago, I stayed on while the cleaners worked...no way would I have been able to get off at that point. Fortunately, by the time we landed in Portland, I was able to stumble off. More than half the people on the flight were returning from the show, so the word went around that I was a serious drunk! I've spent hours lying across the longest seat in a jet boat in the wilderness of northern BC, or flying down a wilderness river in SE Alaska. Once, three miles from my truck on a wild little river on the northern Oregon coast, I actually managed to avoid having a full-blown crisis by sitting on a boulder for 20 minutes or more, eyes closed, concentrating on listening the all the bird song around me. Once, I raced out of a confrontational meeting to decide upon a cover for a catalog, in order to spend several hours in the back of my van in the store's parking lot. A client once really wanted to go to a restaurant with overhead fans; I thought I could make it through if I totally ignored them, didn't look at them. However, the framed photos on the walls reflected the fans' movement, so I barely got back to my office before the vomit-fest began--saving having defiled the client's rental car. I lived that way for four years, doing lots of fishing travel, running booths at sport fishing shows, successfully managing a small publishing company. Once I got on a good hormone replacement program, all the vomiting stopped and I was able to begin serious VRT, which I've continued to do every day for nearly 40 years. At 79, I still do data collection on that wild little river, by myself, 20 miles from the nearest place to get cell reception. I also care for a small acreage on the coast and, yes, I get up on a ladder to clean gutters and paint when needed.

I moderated an online Meniere's discussion group for many years and learned that there are many people, often women in their 40s, who have serious problems with not only the dizzies but vomiting for hours. One study has been done in China that proves there's a link between severe Meniere's and low hormone levels (i.e., menopausal women). If hormones are started early on, lost hearing can be regained. The correct ratio of hormones (i.e., doesn't cause cancer) is one part estrogen to 2.5 parts progesterone. I've taken hormones, often in very large doses, for nearly 40 years. I DID have Stage 1 slow-growing breast cancer a few years ago, but don't believe it was caused by the hormones I take. First, I'd been taking hormones for over 20 years before I had cancer, and, second, my mother had both breast and cervical cancer and both are highly hereditary.