Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Jaylow]

I’m hoping to find others with a similar experience, and for ideas from anyone who can help..

I’m on estrogel and utro. Earlier this year I decided that the pros of hrt possibly weren’t outweighing the cons for me (painful bleeds) and so I decided to wean off it. I’d been on it for around 2 years by this point. I lowered the gel first to 1.5 pumps a day (from 2) and gradually down to 1 pump a day, and lowered the utro to 1x100 a night for 10-12 nights, vaginally.

At first I felt quite good, then the symptoms that were the reason I went on hrt in the first place crept back - dry skin and dry eyes. Dry eyes so bad that they damaged and I have to see a specialist yearly. During this time a natural period also broke through my cycle so I had 2 bleeds that month (might be of relevance to the mystery).  Before I had chance to make a decision what to do about dry eyes and whether to continue hrt, I suddenly started with hives all over , non stop for 7 weeks, constant night and day. Now, 4 months later I still have them daily but not as bad as they were. However I now also have swelling (angioedema) and asthma (I presume), can’t breathe properly, inhaler helps but not totally goes away. Chest feels compressed and I have itchy back of head, swollen neck, etc etc.

When I saw a gp about this I mentioned the dosage lowering of hrt as I presumed it was linked, she brushed it off totally as not being connected. So for the last few weeks I’ve been searching online for what this might be. After following leads for many things I’m back to actually believing that this IS hormone related.

So, I’ve read up on histamine intolerance which sounds like what I have. But I’ve also read a lot about how estrogen or estrogen dominance can cause histamine. In my case I’m not sure about this as it seems to have started when I lowered estrogen. And also, on the days of taking utrogestan it is worse. Especially the breathing problems. I can’t breathe in very deeply, I cough if I try to breathe in more, feels like not getting enough oxygen, chest tight.
So I’ve searched utrogestan intolerance. There’s a few posts on here with similar, but I do have these symptoms all through my cycle, just worse on the utro days.

Or progesterone intolerance? Although I’m taking less than I used to. I don’t know where to go from here. Do you think I should come off hrt? (Very nervous about changing my hormone levels again now). Btw after this started I upped my estrogel again to just under 2 pumps a day thinking low estrogen was the problem. Should I change to patches? Increase the estrogel? (I’ve never felt that I’ve benefitted from the estrogel, although my heavy painful bleeds show that I must be absorbing it, just without the benefits I hoped for).

Sorry how long this is, really hoping for some advice , and if anyone wants to pm me please do. X

[sheila99]

It's likely it's connected, it isn't unusual to start with intolerances and allergies at this time. Unfortunately once they start you usually have them for life. If you can definitely link utrogeston to breathing difficulties you should stop using it. There's a recent post about allergies with some good link in, it might be worth having a look.

[Jaylow]

I also forgot to mention my rapid heart beat and palpitations that also happens when the histamine kicks in.

Oh no I don’t think I can deal with this for the rest of my life. Mind you it doesn’t feel like I have much life left right now.

I can’t 100% link utro I guess I’ll have to come off it to find out.

[Jasmine20]

There are a number of practitioners that approach histamine intolerance from the perspective of how you metabolise your hormones. It involves mapping out your genetics using a saliva sample and running results through particular software.

Using certain supplements and tweaking your diet can help without having to come off the HRT necessarily (unless that's what you still want to do of course).

Feel free to message me. I fell foul of the admin recently because I posted links to a few products so I'm reluctant to give more info here. Unfortunately it will have to be done privately so there's a cost involved.

[Jaylow]

Thanks, have messaged you