I'm 39. For six weeks, I've been taking .375 estrogen patch with 10 days per month of micronized progesterone 200.I had a few years of heavy periods close together and endless periods and spotting, followed by two years of skipping periods 3-4 months at a time. FSH tested over 100 last year. I've been through ultrasounds and biopsies, all normal. My thyroid was stable, until I visited my gp with what I think are menopause symptoms last October. He attributed my symptoms to thyroid, in spite of normal labs, and tinkered with my dose. I became severely hypothyroid, and we reinstated my old dose of thyroid. I had my first labs drawn today since being back on the original thyroid dose.
I understand the thought behind my doctor's plans, but to me it obviously all began when my periods went scarce. For years I've followed a mostly textbook pattern of perimenopause, aside from my age, and my gp, a gynecologist, and a midwife, all want to blame my thyroid. Everytime an adjustment is made, it takes 2 months before I can have labs to prove it was a wrong move, then at least 2 more months to get it back to normal, all while I'm still suffering from the menopause issues. I'm frustrated with all this dragging on. Just for reference, my thyroid had remained stable at the same dose for 10 years, except for some months during and a few weeks after my last pregnancy, when my dose was temporarily lowered. Every other time they've made adjustments, it's been in response to irregular periods, and after trialing it for the 8 weeks, they see my labs and put me back on my original 100 mcg dose.
So, I feel sure these are, at the root, menopause issues. But if, as he says, I have enough estrogen, then what?