Hi,
I'm trying to work out both a process and evidence to get me on the best route towards a menopause clinic. It's becoming very clear to me that I have quite severe VA with vulval and urethral challenges because of it. However, determining what comes first in my chicken and egg scenario involves determining how much of the discomfort and outcomes is to do with nerve-endings and how much hormonal. I have an Estring. At 68, and having had a hysterectomy 25 years ago, this may no longer be enough. I have to say, it really has protected me from the sitting soreness and utis I had before it, but it has been trying intimate relations, after a 12 year desert, which seems to have caused the sh*t to hit the proverbial! I do know (from legitimate, medical saliva testing) that I have M.E.-related adrenal issues and that this will increasingly cause havoc with my hormones. Someone on an M.E. forum to which I subscribe suggested getting a DHEA test and this kind of makes sense in relation to the whole hormonal cascade. It also makes sense in terms of the potential of Intrarosa in cases like mine, but I don't want to start messing around in uncharted waters (or a dry harbour in my case!
) without a clear indication of what's what. Nor do I want to be experimenting by working my way through an exhausting supply of personal recommendations. Is a Menopause Clinic likely to do testing for hormone levels, DHEA etc or am I best to get some specific information myself first with which to go armed, if and when I even secure a referral and then an appointment? I understand a lot is being done over the phone or by video call (Yikes!) at the moment, far from ideal. Long story short, has anyone experience of DHEA testing? It costs an arm and a leg and the interpretation is the stuff of second mortgage! And are hormone levels actually tested for at the clinics? H-E-L-P!!!!!
🤞
