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[matildamouse]

  Any Australian women who are currently using or wants to use micronized progesterone in the future, there is some good news. From 1 Sept it will be available on a script from pharmacy's as Prometrium! No need to longer have to use the more expensive and less reliable versions only available from compounding pharmacies.

[Dana]

Interesting. Do you have a link to this information? Will it be covered by PBS, and is it licenced for HRT? The AMS site is still saying it's not available, but maybe they won't update it until it is available.

Utrogestan has always been available through a select number of gynos, via Lawley Pharmaceuticals, but only for fertility issues. I probably still won't use it though, because I really didn't like it. I will stick with Provera.

[matildamouse]

Hi Dana. I do not have any links or anymore info. I was told this by a GP who had authority to prescribe Utrogestan under the current laws. She specialises in womens health. She vented a lot about the current system and is using Utrogestan herself as HRT. But as you say, it is not for everyone but at least it is available now for women who want to use it or try it.

[Dana]

Okay. I think I'll take a "wait and see" approach, and check with a pharmacist. They usually know more about current TGA approvals than doctors do.

[Suzi Q]

Im too old now sadly at 64 its passed me by 20 years since my last period
Atrophy is immensely difficult now to control with even using 10mg vag daily
Its not tne same dont know why? But going over my diary my atrophy hit full blast
With in a month of discontinued 25mg . Mind over matter nope too m7ch pain
I can go a week ok the bam for no reason i can be in agony chronic pain gp calls it.
Maybe vagi 25 would have failed by noe
But if i knew 24 years ago what i know now id have walked over broken glass to take hrt

[andius]

I do not believe you are too old for HRT. Women with osteopenia/osteoporosis take ultra low dose hrt after 60 for their bones.

 Get info on an ultra low dose estrogen patch licensed only for osteoporosis-they should allow this for post menopausal women in AUS. This will raise the overall estrogen blood levels in your body very slightly which you can still top off with the vagifem and it may work better (like it used to). You will have to take some progesterone probably. As you can now take prometrium in AUS (this is what I take and I am almost 60) you can get on a regimen getting yearly scans or of only taking it every 6 mo. to keep lining thin...either vaginally or orally as your doctor recommends.

OR

Ask the doctor for some premarin cream (if they have it in AUS) and try it out instead of the vagifem + ovestin. It is a mixture of equilen estrogens (including the equine versions of estradiol, estrone and estriol) that will be stronger than ovestin but will stay local. You only need a pea sized blob or grape sized blob 2x week (depending on your needs).  I thought it worked a lot better than vagifem when I tried it. It will treat the other tissues also as it trickles down. The regular estradiol cream is a lot chunkier in texture and clumpy. Vagifem is easily administered but if it doesn't work......

Best wishes on getting this solved. VA is truly awful as I know you know very well. You clearly need more estrogen or are aggravated/allergic to something you are using now (or possibly both).  Once I got on the patch and was able to stop the vagifem (even though it wasn't working well) my burning has mostly resolved.

A

[Dana]

Hi matildamouse

Did you see the thing on Channel 7 news last night saying Prometrium is being released today?  I needed to go to Chemist Warehouse today to get some new Estradot so I asked them what they knew about it. She didn't really know anything, but she did look it up for me, and it's not cheap.

Currently it will be $65 for 30 x 100mg, and that's a discount chemist. It will probably be more expensive at the other chemists. She said it might be too early to know if it's going to be covered by PBS. Of course if you have private insurance coverage for prescriptions you should be able to claim about $30. It's still a lot cheaper to buy Utrogestan online from Goldpharma.

I am due to see my doctor at the beginning of the year so by that time she might have more information on it. I'm still dubious about using it, although I might give it another trial, but I'm still not keen to use it all the time. At most I might end up alternating it with Provera to be sure I'm getting full protection.

[matildamouse]

Yes I saw that. Big hoohaa on the news hey! Yes that is expensive. What version of Utrogestan did you get via goldpharma? My first was from Greece with Greek instructions and my second batch from Germany. If I remember correctly it was about $30.00 for 30 caps but not sure now.

I did not get along with any BCP or the Mirena so plotting along with the Utrogestan for the moment. Not feeling on top of the world but also not in the gutter. Sort of making peace with that...The only one I have not tried is the progesten in Femoston but trying to stay away from the oral hrt's. Only issue with current regime(estradot and utrogestan) is ongoing periodlike cramping and backache but no spotting so will ask for an ultrasound just for peace of mind.

How did you find utrogestan as oppose to the provera?

[Dana]

I think when I was ordering it it was coming from Spain. I couldn't read the instructions of course, but that didn't bother me as I already had a pretty good idea how to use it. Yes I think it was about $30 for 30 caps, and of course the more you ordered the more you saved on postage. As I have private insurance, if I got my GP to prescribe it I would probably be able to claim the gap payment, which would then bring it down to roughly the same price as Goldpharma.

It's hard for me to compare the side effects with provera because when I was using Utrogestan I was also tapering off diazepam (a benzodiazepine), and benzos and progesterone affect the same GABA receptors which means the benzo can exaggerate the side effects of progesterone, and vice versa.

For me any kind of hormonal issues always gives me insomnia, which was the same side effect I got from tapering diazepam. Now that I am more than 2 years free of diazepam, and I feel my GABA receptors are now fully healed, I may not get the same side effects because Provera doesn't affect me at all.

However, I'm reluctant to use Prometrium all the time because I know it wasn't doing as good a job of keeping my lining thin as the provera does, so that's why I would probably alternate the two if I was to start using the Prometrium.

[matildamouse]

Very interesting. Yes it might be worthwhile to give it another go. Did you use the Utrogestan as a cycle or continuous?

[Dana]

I used it as a cycle, 100mg vaginally for 10-12 days a month. I did try it continuously for a while, but I was still getting spotting after about 2 months, so I lost interest..lol....

I'm not that keen on taking it orally, mainly because I would probably have to take 200mg if I kept to a cycle (and that would get very expensive very quickly), but I'm also not that keen on doing the shoving up thing either. Oh the joys.....

btw - I did think it was funny when they said last night that the reason it hadn't been available here was because the manufacturer didn't think Australia was a big enough market until now. (a) the size of the market hasn't changed, (b) it's a big enough market for all the other kinds of HRT we have and (c) if they're worried about the size of the market why have they been supplying it to NZ which has about a fifth of our population.

The main reason is because TGA hasn't been convinced of its long term safety, but have now obviously conducted their own studies, which is what they usually do with new meds. They tend to not "trust" studies done in other countries.

[matildamouse]

Yes that reason was hilarious!

I some days dream I could just wish my uterus away. My GP's words were "progesterone is an annoying hormone when it comes to hrt" She also said she immediately knew all 4 times when she conceived even before she missed her first period due to the increase in progesterone which she struggled with.

[Mary G]

My friend in Adelaide buys all her HRT in Spain - she visits once a year.  Luckily, she has had a hysterectomy so she just buys the Oestrogel which she cannot get in Australia.  Utrogestan is much cheaper than Aus, about €4.00 per box of 30 capsules. 

[Dana]

You can get sandrena gel in Australia.

[Pam Madra]

Hi Just interested in knowing if anyone tried to get hold of microinsed progesterone in Australia. I am interested to know if it works and if peri menopause is of some help as well