Right you bloody lovely bunch of women....... I need some opinions on what you would do if you were me as I can’t get any help/knowledge or advice from anyone medical until April, (my gosh is absolutely clueless!)
Here’s goes ... bear with!.....
40 year old, full hysterectomy (the lot) 5 years ago. Been on estrogen and testosterone pellets for 3 years and they are bloody brilliant.... usually. So I have them put in every 6 months, my levels around 4 weeks before this start to drop to a level not suited to me (around 650-750) (I’ve always needed high E levels as my hysterectomy was for PMDD) so for the last 4 weeks I put an everol 50 patch on, this gets me by.. just due to patch problems etc. Bear in mind before pellets on was wearing 2x100 patches !!! But patches are the lesser of the evils!
So my pellets usually last 4-5 good months and my E levels at the new insertion with a 50 patch on for the last month are around 600-700.
Last year I had my pellet in January and I normally get the next at the beginning of July but I didn’t get it until late august. My E levels were 670, I can’t remember if I had a patch on.... but because it was at the 8 month point and I felt not to bad at that level she booked me in for April this year which is the 8 month point but since January I have felt absolutely bloody awful 😞 muscle fatigue, depression, anxiety, extreme tiredness, irritability all the usual suspects. I got my bloods done the end of January and they showed 0.4 testosterone and 800 E. I got some patches in 25, 50, 75, 100 and some T gel and I applied the 25 patch after 4 days I realised it wasn’t enough so changed to 50, feet blurgh for the 3 days then it settled. And I felt like me again, this last 14-18 days then the symptoms started again, so I changed to the 75... same as before... felt crap for the first few days then I felt amazing for 7-10 days...... now the symptoms have started again, low mood, anxiety, fear, panic, weird sleep, insomnia but daytime fatigue etc.
I forgot to mention, I train CrossFit quite hard, I burn 2500-3000 cals a day and I lift pretty heavy weights and do high intensity sessions, which I do think have a huge impact on estrogen in that it depletes it, I also had some major martial issues and horrific stews from it last summer into October and the stress definitely took its toll.
My query is......
Am I now taking on board too much estrogen?
Now in theory the pellet will only ever decrease in volume so It should never increase and get too much, it just gets weaker every month.
So the low symptoms would be right at 5-6 months, but I suppose I’m freaking out because I’ve never needed more than a 50 patch for a few weeks before the new pellet goes in.
I’m worrying about tachyphalaxis but I know that realistically it’s not that !
I was going to up to the 100 patch on Wednesday on change day but part of me thinks I’m somehow now too high with E 😫
I’m losing my mind trying to second guess what’s happening to me. I don’t think my symptoms are too from too much but who knows .
I don’t absorb patches amazingly, when I was on them alone... 2x 100 I was still only at 450 which is low for that amount!
I’m just looking for opinions/reassurance really, feeling lost
Sarah x
