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[Dancinggirl]

Both oestrogen and progesterone decline when peri starts but they fluctuate. I'm not that clued up about the biology - Hurdity is a the one with the science background who can explain it more clearly.
My understanding is that oestrogen will fluctuate and decline, whereas progesterone won't be produced when we skip ovulation- and ovulation will  be erratic, sometimes for several years, through the peri stage. This is why periods and bleeding will be erratic. DG x

[Hurdity]

Utrogestan is a love it or hate it. You have to try it.  It made me comatose and not in a good way. Even my eyes looked foggy. The progesterones that seem to agree with me are the third generation ones: desegestrel, gestodene and norestimate. Unfortunately none of these are yet available in HRT. There are some other progesterone if utro doesn't agree with you.

Hurdity, I asked my consultant about using utro vaginally when I was struggling with it and he said no that it wasn't licenced for use like that and couldn't be guaranteed to be safe. I even had a study from Europe on it, but he wouldn't budge.

In my opinion your consultant is remiss in telling you that it couldn't be guaranteed to be safe. This may be the case for dosages of some progesterone regimes (like reducing the number of days per cycle) but the studies have shown that it does work for protecting the uterus when used vaginally and as far as I know nothing that has been published hint at any danger. The only thing is that very large studies haven't been done, I don't think? It wouldn't be licensed in the rest of Europe for this purpose if it wasn't safe (to use vaginally as part of HRT). It is already used vaginally for fertility purposes. In this particular instance you can just ask for the oral capsule and use it vaginally yourself if this is what you want to try - especially if you have read and understood the studies. Many consultants (and NHS doctors in my case) prescribe it to be used vaginally ( or either route).

Hurdity x

[Hurdity]

Thanks DG
My doctor knows all about this site and Dr  Currie and knows I find all my information from here and is all for it.
I hope taking the oral route works as I don't think I have a problem with progesterone. I never had pms or pnd and took oral and depo contraception over the years no problem so I don't know if that is a positive sign.?
Is it true that progesterone is the first hormone to decline in the lead up to peri ? As I think this is when all.my problems started well before any change in my periods x

Both oestrogen and progesterone decline when peri starts but they fluctuate. I'm not that clued up about the biology - 
My understanding is that oestrogen will fluctuate and decline, whereas progesterone won't be produced when we skip ovulation- and ovulation will  be erratic, sometimes for several years, through the peri stage. This is why periods and bleeding will be erratic. DG x

This is my understanding too.

There is a lot of information out there about the gap between oestrogen and progesterone production at the beginning of and during peri-menopause, and the idea "oestrogen dominance", leading to menopausal symptoms. As far as I know this lack of progesterone (in large quantities) is only due to anovulatory cycles leading to erratic and heavy bleeding as you say Dancinggirl, but not other menopausal symptoms that seem to be attributed to low progesterone.

I'm not sure whether progesterone production declines in the years leading up to peri-menopause when cycles are still regular? This would mean that the corpus luteum produces less progesterone during the late reproductive stage.  I have no information about this - did try to look it up once but drew a blank ( or maybe didn't spend long enough searching!).

I haven't yet read anything to substantiate the idea that adding progesterone alone (in low dosages) will alleviate menopausal symptoms, although when used as a drug and given in pharmaceutical doses, there are studies which show that some progestogens can relieve some symptoms ( flushes maybe?) - but I think most women would suffer worse side effects from these sorts of doses than the symptoms they are trying to relieve?

Sorry this is going slightly off topic but just wanted to mention these points....

Hurdity x

[HopeAlone]

Thanks Hurdity
I should really read up about what happens during a cycle, I remember doing it at school many years ago lol
Like I've mentioned before I had no pms or pnd and have taken various contraception over the years so I'm hoping that means I will be ok with the utrogestan.
I am reading up about perimenopausal depression  in trying to understand how it hit me so hard 3 years ago and how not one of the health professionals I saw made the connection .x