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[Mary G]

Chrislm and Maryjane, you have hit the nail on the head, one size very definitely does not fit all.  If you don't have any problems with any type of progesterone then obviously this does not apply to you but if you do then you need to have a tailored dose otherwise you will stop taking HRT altogether because you can't cope with it and then you will have to face the endless problems of oestrogen deprivation.

I have tried practically all types of progesterone and don't get on with any of them but Utrogestan is the lesser of several evils and it works extremely well when used vaginally.  You do not have to be progesterone intolerant per se to have problems with it, you can be just sensitive to it or simply not feel good when taking it in large quantities.  For what it's worth, I think the NHS are over-prescribing the progesterone part of HRT because they don't offer scans but obviously this does not affect women who do not have a problem with progesterone.  The NHS recommended dose is completely out of the question for me and if you look at it closely, by the time you have taken the 12 days of progesterone and had a bleed it only leaves you with just over a week of the month left before you have to start the whole process again.

It should also be noted that overdosing on progesterone also comes with problems and my gynaecologist said it can cause womb erosion and told me not to take any more Utrogestan than I do now.  I am on the Professor Studd regime of 100mg for 7 days but I now stretch my cycle to about 5 weeks but I know I can safely do this because I have regular scans and my last post period scan measurement was just 2mm so clearly I do not need to take any more progesterone than I do now and could end up with problems if I did.  Utrogestan is strong stuff when taken vaginally and I would urge women who don't get on with it to try and find how much they need by having a scan.  You can't guess how much you need to find out and you could be taking too much (most likely) or too little.

[Sunnydays]

Good thread. As mature and intelligent women that we are I think it can still be easy to err towards something that seems to be working well for (what appear to be) the majority.
I was prescribed Provera but felt I should try Utrogestan as it was considered natural, unlike the others.
I think it's important that ladies report on what goes well and what doesn't as it helps give others more choice and know there's something out there that might work for us.
Some of the feedback on this thread highlights that there are custom hrts that can make such a difference.
Mary g I think what you say about not being able to guess how much to take is quite true. The only thing is, I don't have the confidence that there are GPs or even 'specialists' who really know. When I saw my gynae he was brill for dealing with a physical problem but when he started talking about hrt I just knew that he wasn't 'clued up' on variations.

[Chrislm]

Mary G, I too have been thinking that the current guidelines are simply over prescribing progesterone for many women!

I have tailored my own dosage through trial and error, but I could tell right from the start that the prescribed dosage was very much too high for my body.

From reading this forum it is clear that many women aren't able to do this - because they don't feel confident in doing so, or because they can't access scans to check what is right for them. And that is such a dreadful shame. I am sure many women are having to put up with a poorer quality of life as a result.

The NHS sadly is significantly underfunded and as things stand this is only going to get worse. Unless we, the voters, accept that we need to pay for good services, then I doubt that things like tailored HRT regimes will ever be anything more than a vain wish.