I've phoned my GP and left a message telling her what's happening, which has been emailed to her. But she might not get it until Monday because she has a full surgery today apparently... In my message via the typing away receptionist, I asked if she thought it might be a good idea for me to have a referral to cardiology. I don't think they will put someone on blood pressure meds if they have had fine blood pressure all their life, are slim and healthy - and then suddenly acutely get what I have. And I don't think I want to consider BP meds at this point, long-term. That isn't treating the cause. So maybe checking my heart out and a chat with a cardiologist is a good idea.
I'm not allergic to soy in any other way, I've eaten it all my life. I've always eaten tempeh and soy products off and on.
I'm a bit stuck with the progesterone idea - I need progesterone to suppress endo. (Yes, it's continuous at 200mg.) So I can't not be on anything, or I will be hit by heavy periods and endo pains. If I go back on desogestrel (which I've been on for 9 years without this happening) I will end up with low estrogen again, although perhaps I could do it for a few weeks without that, just to test the progesterone theory. At the moment it's premature to change anything having only stopped the patch 36 hours ago.
Besides, it doesn't fit with the picture in the article marchlove, where they describe someone who has had high blood pressure from a young age who gets it worse if they take any progesterone or progestin, including utrogestan. Because I've been fine for 9 years on levonorgestrel and another 9 years on desogestrel and never had these blood pressure symptoms before.
I wasn't on any hormones for 5 years from 30-35yo and didn't have these symptoms.
The only time I've had anything like this, was on a combined pill - Microgynon. I was a uni student. I have memories of lying on my bed in my student accommodation, feeling like I was pulsing at night. And of sitting in the library, trying to write a paper on the computer there, feeling throbby and weird. I switched to a POP which had the same progesterone (levonorgestrel) as that combined pill. The blood pressure and pulsing stuff went away shortly after I cut out the estrogen. I can't remember how long it took to go, I really wasn't that bothered about it at the time because I knew it was the pill and that if I stopped, it would go away - and there are many other ways to not get pregnant besides a combined pill, so I didn't need it...
So I'm pretty sure it's the estrogen. With the HRT, the symptoms also got worse, the more estrogen I took - and better, the less I took. Until these last few weeks where my body has just gone into feeling like this all the time. Once I am through all this for now(!) I need to figure out what the heck is going on because at some point in the near future I will probably need estrogen again. I think I might need to be ridiculously gradual about phasing it in and perhaps never get higher than 25mcg or some low dose.
I am pretty angry about the gung-ho attitude from the meno doctor about just casually increasing it, even after I told her I went to A&E with these symptoms... These big fluctuations and (for me) huge doses have just created all this, I think.