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[Becr]

I've copied my enquiry across from the new members bit as I think I put it in the wrong place - apologies for the duplicate post.

Hello, I have found this forum really useful and I would love to read your thoughts on my HRT experience. I have been on femoston 1/10 for a year now, I am 48. Before that I had years of erractic bleeding with long gaps between periods. I got to 6 months without a period then my beloved dog died and I decided that toughing it out was no longer an option. I was exhausted.

Femoston seemed to work for a few months but then I started to notice my shape change with a few pounds of fat gained around the belly and thighs. I also started to feel very very tired again and would sleep in the day time at the drop of a hat. I lost interest in exercise (something I have always enjoyed since youth) and I also experience terribly aching joints. I reported all this to my doctor and after a clean bill of health on my blood test I asked to change HRT because I wondered if I was getting too much of oestrogen or progesterone?? She prescribed Utrogestan 25days and I have oestrogen gel but no instructions to take it - getting to talk to the doctor at the moment is like finding a four leaf clover.

While all of this was going on I started to take the femoston every other day incase I was planning to come of it. So one day on one day off. What I notice is the days I don't take it I feel more energised but sleep terribly. The day I take the oestrogen I feel very tired but sleep well at night. I haven't got to the progesterone/oestrogen bit yet but will tell you all now that I dread the progesterone part of the HRT. This phase I sleep badly on, feel depressed and basically want to leave my husband for two weeks of the month even though he is a good man.

So reading all that, would you recommend I take the Utrogestan every day for 25 days with the oestrogen OR sequential as i have been doing with Femoston?? Thanks for reading.

[Hurdity]

Hi Becr

 

Your posts seem to have got missed. Please don't apologise - the new members section is just right for introducing yourself although very specific queries tend to be posted in All Things Menopause as you have done. It's still holiday time-ish so I expect members haven't been around to answer. I know I haven't!

It's a tricky one - getting the two hormones right. Oestrogen is the uplifting hormone - our natural female hormone. Progesterone is sedative and therefore can make you tired and at worst depressed - like you seem to be finding? Low oestrogen can also cause anxiety, palpitations, low mood, tiredness, lack of oomph etc.

My suggestion actually would have been to try Femoston 2/10 before changing product. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what you need when you are peri-menopausal because sometimes your own cycle takes over so  what you asre feeling may not be due to the HRT itself.

As you are only 48, personally I wouldn't want to go onto a continuois regime - ie with the utrogestan for 25 days as this may make you feel more sedated for more of the time and especially judging by your reaction! 

If you want to try the gel - you take it every day - 2 pumps would be the standard dose although this might need to go higher or lower depending on how you feel. To take the progesterone cyclically you then take the utrogestan 200 mg per day for 12 days per cycle which could be 28 days or sometimes a calendar month, especially if your natural cycle is now weak and ovulation is sporadic?

How does that sound? Good luck and do ask if you have any more questions!

Hurdity x

[Becr]

Thanks Hurdity, I really appreciate you taking the time to reply.

So I have been using 1 pump of the gel and 100mg of the Utrogestan for around 4 nights now so I will try increasing the gel to 2 pumps. I think my doctor put me on a continuous regime because I started peri-menopause early at 44 noticing symptoms when I came off the contraceptive pill. I managed for a couple of years with flushes and eratic periods until I was 6 months without a period and very depressed after losing our dog. I then decided to try HRT. I have been on Femoston for a year. I find the progesterone phase really tough and can only manage 10 days at most before I am climbing the wall with irritation and sleeplessness. The positive of the progesterone phase is it seems to make me feel more alert as opposed to sleepy.

Would a conti regime with the lower dose of progesterone be more tolerable? It's only day 3 of the gel and Utrogestan so early days to see if it suits me. I've had a headache all day today and noticed the odd mild flush but I have been taking the femoston every other day for the last 3 weeks so have probably knocked my baseline of HRT out. x