Hi, a few years ago when I was about 30 yrs old I suddenly developed swollen inflamed joints which were extremely painful tests showed my rheumatoid levels were high but I was never diagnosed with anything particular just given ibuprofen and after about 6 months they settled down. My concern is though after about 3 months of the onset of this inflammation I developed acne on face and back constant recurrence of candida every month and my hair thinned dramatically..over time everything settled apart from my thinning hair. All my blood tests for iron etc come back fine but I started having terrible period pains swollen tender breasts and heavy bleeding..I found out I have fibroids and am starting to wonder if my thinning hair which is all over scalp not just on top is due to maybe a hormone imbalance. I have never been ill apart from that one bout of inflammation but it was from then my depression began too...do you think it could be that that one bout of chronic inflammation could have started the onset of either oestrogen dominance or low progesterone.. I have read a lot that hormones can affect the thyroid but although tests say they are fine a hormone imbalance can cause you to have symptoms similar to under active thyroid like hair thinning and fat gain... I have started to use a little natural progesterone cream to see what happens. Please advise me thanx..lisa