Hi EnglishRose
I'm glad you're back - I didn't see the other thread until you'd gone xx
Even on hrt, your own cycle can punch in through, especially in peri. And as you're reducing the cyclogest at the same time you're starting the oestrogel, it will be even more likely for you as your hormones will be roiling about a bit. Think of it like the worst pmt, on steroids! I got like this too when I swapped from one hrt (that sent me bonkers) to another hrt (felt like that one gave me dementia) - it was horrid 😞😞.
The thing with any hrt, is that it will need some time - around 3-6 months to settle. And as you're still reducing the cyclogest, you might need to ‘batten down the hatches' as it were and try to tell yourself during this turbulent time, that it will settle eventually. It sounds trite, but have you ringed a date on the calendar for your last cyclogest on the reduction regime you have yourself on? You might find it helps if you can cross off a date each morning when you get up, to know that you're that much closer to finishing xx
With the oestrogel, I'm thinking that it might be good for you to stick to two pumps for now, one in the morning and one approximately 12 hours later? Hopefully that way (if you're not already doing it) it might be a more stable delivery without peaks and troughs. Or maybe ask your gp for 50mcg Estradot patches to use instead (small and stick well) if splitting the dose isn't working, as the patch gives a steadier delivery. And stay on just two pumps until you're completely off cyclogest - if you keep raising and lowering the amount of pumps it will make this changeover period that much more turbulent for you.
And as for your flower (love that 😁), stick to vagifem if you tolerate it better - you're suffering enough without that as an issue too xx.
This can be such a brutal time for us ladies - please try to be kind to yourself. Are you taking a good vitamin B, as well as iron? Low in these and your mood can definitely be detrimentally affected.
I also found writing a ‘to do' list every morning helpful, you don't have to do it in order, and start off with three or four things, including showering, dressing, breakfast. And if you do more, such as your photos for your business, you can add them as you do them...eg Edwardian, brilliant cut (I'm not sure how they're catalogued, so you can laugh at my ignorance if you like 😂), etc. it might not make you ‘feel' better per se, but when you look at it the next morning you will see that you're not being ‘lazy', ‘useless' and all the other words that you've used to describe yourself - you are in fact getting things done xx
And as for your anti depressant question, can you up the dose of the one you're already on? Just to get you through the next couple of months? If you change to a different one in the midst of this, you may find things even worse. You can always taper off later once your hormones start coming back into more of a balance, say after a good six month settling in period?
I know you're struggling, as are we all - it has been a god awful 18months for me so far, but recently I've begun to see some sort of a glimmer at the end of the tunnel....
I really feel for you, and am really glad you're back xx