Hi Birdy,
Sorry I should have explained my situation a bit more but I'm tired and just wanted to share this information with others because so many women are struggling for answers.
If been on BCP's from the age of 14, I'm 52 now. Always had symptoms which ressemble menopausal symptoms. Severe anxiety, depression, fatigue,
heat intolerance etc even sometimes night sweats, hot flushes and incontinence. When I tryed to stop BCP's I had my first episode of cluster headache When I started again cluster headache dissapeared, But a few years later it came back while on BCP. When I was 48 my GP prescribed Microgynon, which is a more androgenic BCP and most of my symptoms and more importantly the cluster headache dissapeared. It finally felt like I was me again! If that makes sense.
Only downside; I started to loose my hair very quickly and still felt very gloomy and anxious in the early morning. So I went to a gynaecologist and she prescribed 75 estradiol patches and 200 Urtogestan daily. I still remember hearing alarm bells ringing but I didn't listen... I've only used the patches and Urtogestan for 3 weeks but it changed my life completely. List of symptoms I experienced is too long but I felt like I was going crazy, ears started ringing, upper legs swollen up. Had to go to ER because of suspicion of thrombosis. And suddenly there was some loose skin on my belly and my breasts sagged. I started BCP's again and it helped a bit with swollen legs so I could walk a little better. But nothing else changed. And every time the gynaecologist put me on yet another kind of bioidentical hormones it became worse and worse. With the last treatment, oral estradiol 1,5 mg and a progestin I grew a beard on my chin, became so depressed I was only thinking of how I could end it all, sweating and hot flashes all day and night. And cluster headache came back with a vengeance. I'm incontinent now and yes, my skin sagged! I couldn't believe it at first but I always had tight skin and every time I used bioidentical hormones in a couple of days my eyelids sagged, my jawline etc My hands look like a 80 year old woman"s hands. My belly is now hanging on my upper legs.(And I have all 34 (?) symptoms of menopause) Guess my body tried everything to up my estrogen because I don't have much subcutaneous fat left. And I have always been slender to begin with. People often don't recognize me because I look so different. They ask me If I am ill.
I guess I have tried every BCP available but they only keep cluster headache at bay. Even tried ethinylestradiol alone but no response whatsoever. While still on BCP I've tried testosterone ( on my one, as I feel physicians just can't help me and I'm really at a loss) It made my hair stop falling and my eyelashes looked great :-) but everything else just became worse again. And no libido or relief of VA.
I don't want to discourage or scare anyone, I believe I react differently because I've been on BCP's for so long. BCP's raise SHBG dramatically. And maybe my hormonal system doesn't function anymore because it's been surpressed for so many years. I do believe SHBG is very significant
To answer your questions regarding which bioidentical hormones; 75/ 200 /400 mg patches. Estradot, Systen and Demestril .Oestrogel 2 pumps up to 8 pumps. Testogel 5 mg up to 10 mg
Albumin, like SHBG, binds to estogen among others. Explaining albumin is difficult, better read it yourself on Wikipedia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albumin