Print

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

[Rosj]

Hi all  , I’m new to the forum, 48 abd have experienced some pretty extreme and widely varying peri menopause symptoms.
I’m currently on pretty high doses of everything, but still having huge episodes  of depression And anxiety. I’m on 4mg (4 sachets) of sandrena daily, 1.5ml androfem (or roughly 3.5 days per tube of testogel) I have a marina coil, I use prasterone, and blissel vaginal oestrogen . My gp has just started me on sertroline because my anxiety is still out of control. My private menopause specialist kept telling me to up my oestrogen and testosterone, even though my oestrogen was over 3000. My free T and Androgen index is continuing to drop, in spite of increased dose. I went back to my gp who has re done bloods, and the T is still on the floor but I’m waiting on oestrogen. What is going on? I should be feeling on top of the world with all these hormones but instead I’m feeling wired, anxious, or depressed, I have insane health paranoia, memory loss, heart palpitations, chest pain (I’ve had every scan under the sun and nothing is wrong) dizziness, cognitive dysfunction generally, adhd symptoms though the roof,  et etc…could high levels of oestrogen suppress the T levels? Surely I don’t need more T than I’m getting. Why aren’t my t levels rising?

[Perinowpost]

High doses don’t necessarily make you feel better, I’ve seen it time and again on this forum. The best thing to do I have found is aim for an average dose. Why are you taking extra progesterone when you have the mirena? I think you could do with a reset.

No time to answer fully but hopefully others will be along to advise x

[Hurdity]

Hi Rosj

 

Sorry to hear about your problems.

Please could you tell us a little more about where you are in menopause and what led you to start HRT ie what were your cycles and periods doing in the months ( years?) leading up to starting HRT?

If you've had a Mirena coil for some time then you won't know what your natural cycles are doing but I would agree with Perinowpost - youre tking far too much progestogen - with a Mirena and utrogestan - no wonder you're feeling rough. I am surprised that the private specialist is happy with you taking all that progestogen!!

Also yes those oestrogen levels are far too high if they are accurate and sustained! You could be experiencing a phenomenon known as tachyphylaxis ("Tachyphylaxis is the appearance of progressive decrease in response to a given dose after repetitive administration of a pharmacologically or physiologically active substance; the symptoms could appear also during treatment with antidepressants.... ") which is known to occur at what is known as "supraphysiological" levels of estradiol ie consistently much higher than would occur naturally.

I agree with Pnp - a reset sounds like it is definitely in order! Taking all that and an anti-depressant - what a mixture - no wonder you are not feeling quite right!

I do hope you are able to find a solution and one that does not involve taking quite so much of all those different hormones and treatments so that you feel better. If we can help further please ask.

Hurdity x

[Nas]

Hi,
I’m inclined to agree with Perinowpost. These high doses aren’t always the solution and also, HRT doesn’t necessarily fix all issues.

Definitely do a reset. Strip everything down to minimum/ low dose and work upwards if need be.

What symptoms do you want to alleviate first?

Can you try other things for anxiety? Cbt, meditation, yoga, cbd oil?

3000 Oestrogen? That’s a serious amount of hormones. It would be okay if you felt better on it, but you don’t. Which MS tells you to increase? Newson?
Also, anti depressants on their own, can take some weeks to stabilize. This means that you could potentially feel rough for a bit anyway.

I have sleep issues. I’ve been on 100 patch or 2mg sandrena and it didn’t make a blind bit of difference. So now I take 25mg Amitriptyline nightly abs can get some sleep. I have also started eating a banana with peanut butter before bed and addressing my diet. I’ve incorporated cbd oil into my daily regime too. What I mean is, sometimes, we need to look at other options to help us address these symptoms.

Best of luck 

[Rosj]

Hello, abd thanks for the welcome!
So, a little more history. I was under Newson Health, and it’s prasterone , rather than additional progesterone. It’s a pessary containing dhea.
I started hrt at 1 pump oestrogel and the mirena 4 years ago for cognitive issues, anxiety heavy frequent periods and night sweats. I immediately felt better. I have not had a period since then. I bobbed along on that for ages, until I started to get heart palpitations, insane levels of anxiety and chest pain. I then got covid then long covid, and that seemed to be the nail in the coffin for my hormones. I was off work for months, couldn’t walk or read a book even for weeks. I was suicidal as I felt I would never get better and would slip into a black hole . Gp tried hard but didn’t know what to do. I contacted Newson and after a consult and increase of oesteogel and intro of testosterone, felt loads better. I had less and less episodes of anxiety and felt stronger mentally and physically and more like me. I was great until last autumn when I started to get symptoms again. It seemed to be oestrogel manufacturing issues and inconsistencies that caused the breakthrough symptoms, so I switched to sandrena. I was on 10 pumps of oesteogel, as my ms kept advising I up my dose, even with the 3000 blood concentration. I switched slowly but a month in I had 2 full blown migraines, with aura. Terrifying. I had never had a migraine before. That was November and I haven’t had another.
My t abd free androgen index have continued to drop and are now at 0.6 and 0.7. In spite of 1.5ml androfem.
Physically I’m so so much better than I was. But mentally The anxiety and health paranoia is pretty awful.
I started sertroline in December at 50mg. I think it has helped a little. The gp advised go up to 100mg and I had an absolute meltdown, suicidal, horrific dreams, nausea, awful. So, back to 50mg.
I just feel wired a lot of the time to be honest.
I meditate, do breathing exercises, yoga, as well as being super active (run bike climb). So much better than the shell I was last year, so Hrt definitely has had a positive effect, but the dose isn’t right at all.
Im thinking a reset is the way to go too, and my gp feels the same. Although I’m scared of reducing my oestrogen and going back to how I was physically and feeling suicidal.

[Rosj]

The other question, what symptom do I want to improve first? The anxiety and paranoia and hopeless d. Hands down. The heart palpitations, chest pain,insomnia,  brain fog, general cognitive dysfunction, dizziness, memory loss, all comes in lower down the list.
Thanks so much for taking time to reply
Ros

[Perinowpost]

A belated welcome to the forum Rosj I was rushing when I replied and missed that. I don’t know anything about prasterone/Dhea so can’t comment on it, although I believe other ladies on here take it so maybe they can advise.

Yours is a complicated case cos of the amount of hormones and medication you are taking. A few things that occur to me maybe the sandrena isn’t suiting you and could you switch back to oestrogel in either gel form or patch. Also, you seem to be on a high dose of testogel which could be contributing to your anxiety/irritability. I can only tolerate it in small doses (3 x petit pois blobs per week) could you cut down on this?

Hurdity has a good point re the taxyphylaxis, and like everyone who has responded it looks like you could benefit from a reset.

Wishing you well, and please let us know how you go on x

[Rosj]

Thanks so much for the replies, I really appreciate your time
I stopped the oestrogel because I had no faith in the product due to all the manufacturing inconsistencies. It took me ages to work out that I was having breakthrough symptoms when I had a differently labelled bottle.
I’m pretty sure that a reset is the way forward, so thanks for that. Im currently waiting for another blood oestrogen level result. Although I know this result won’t be a clear Indication of what’s going on.
I wish really that I’d followed my instincts a while back, and hadn’t kept upping my dose. I feel like my body is completely confused!
Thanks again x

[Flan747]

Hi Rosj! I’ve been quite settled on Oestrogel but all symptoms have returned since having my new batch which is the one without the orange swirl on it! I too am thinking of switching to Sandrena! Waiting for a response from my specialist! Would you say you have responded well on it?