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[lifeatfifty]

Hi,

I'm newish to HRT (past 5 months and am still trying to get it right).

I take 1 squirt of estrogel morning and 1 at night. I take ustrogestan for 7 days. Around 4 days later I bleed. I find I'm anxious by the end of my 7 days on Ustrogestan and even more anxious on the days I bleed. This month I've been told not to take the estrogel on the days I bleed, to see if that helps.

Has anybody else done this? Did it help?

[Cassie]

You should never stop the oestrogen, it will only cause more problems and generally breakthrough bleeding. I doubt its the oestrogen causing the anxiety, I have used one pump at night for many many yrs its really a great product and has no side effects that I have noticed, could be more likely the progesterone that is causing you to be anxious it does make me feel very "wired up!"

[lifeatfifty]

Hi Cassie, thank your reply.
I had also mentioned to her that my bleeding was light, so perhaps she felt that stopping the estrogen would ensure all the lining shed? Not even sure if that make sense?

[Hurdity]

Who told you to do that lifeatfifty ie not take the estrogel? Is this a private gynae or NHS GP, and where are you in menopause? As Cassie says - you should take oestrogen all the time when on HRT. The reason you feel rough is due to normal pms ie progesterone withdrawal. Most women will get this even if they feel fine on the progesterone itself. It's what happenes around the time of the bleed (just before and just after) in normal menstrual cycles. Stopping the oestrogen will most likely make you feel worse!

If your doc is concerned that you are not shedding the lining then you should be offered a scan to check - and also depends whether or not you are peri- or post-menopausal? To ensure the lining is shed usually demands a higher dose or longer course of progesterone and if a scan showed your lining has thickened if the dose of oestrogen is right for your symptoms? Seven days is lower than the recommended dose of progesterone - are you taking 100 or 200 mg and orally or vaginally?

Has the HRT sorted out your troublesome symptoms anway?

Hurdity x

[lifeatfifty]

Hi Hurdity,
sorry for delay but I can't get online every day.

There's more info to my story here https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,36392.msg584369/topicseen.html#msg584369

but I'll give a quick overview.

Basically I'm seeing someone privately. I take estrogel (1 pump morning & 1 pump night); testosterone (0.75mg) morning and 10mg dhea.
I add in progesterone cream (50 mg progesterone in a verbase cream) from around day 12 - 20.
On day 21 I take Ustrogestan 200mg pessaries for 7 days. (doct did suggest 6 but I compromised with 7) . It was on 8 days originally but feel I get very heavy feeling low in tummy and have to 'wee' a lot.

When I start to bleed (4 days later) I do feel anxious and wake early. This can last a few days to a week almost as if waiting for the estrogen to rise.

This month it seems to have taken longer.

Have my menopause symptoms improved. Yes and no!

Yes - My flushes (which were bad have stopped). I feel my libido has increased

No - I'm still struggling with anxiety off and on. I still have some sweaty night usually when on progesterone pessary. My skin and hair are still extremely dry and a bit itchy (I also get itchy breasts) and this month I'm very tearful.

So to be honest it's all a bit of a disappointment to me.

I did have a scan 6 months ago.