It's all difficult because in my experience too, what you feel best on and what your blood results are, can often be two different things.
For eg, my estrogen on the 50 patch was 233nmol. So my Newson doctor was all about increasing - slowly if necessary - and so, despite already having some difficult symptoms of too much estrogen at 50 (heart palps, insomnia, throbbing at night in bed, anxiety at night due to this) I went up to 75. Then everything got a bit crazy after a week at 75, and I went to A&E I was so worried about the throbbing, high blood pressure and heart palps!!
I then reduced back to 62.5 and stayed there for 7 weeks. I fought against reducing down to 50 because my bloods were only 233nmol at 50 and I thought they needed to be more. But eventually I had to concede defeat because I couldn't live on 2 hours sleep a night. So reduced to 50 - for just a few days - because I'd had these problems at 50 on the way up, and because I had 3 consecutive nights with 2 hours sleep and couldn't function...
Reduced again to 37.5 and everything is now much much better. I dread to think what my estrogen blood levels are, but am doing a Medichecks test on Monday. I may have to reduce further to 25 as I still have a bit of throbbing and palpitations although it is now very slight and I can sleep through it.
It is worth saying that Newson Health and the BMS have completely different takes on all this. Newson seem to think everyone needs a lot of estrogen - typically 75-100 or even more. They want to see bloods at least 300nmo + and don't seem to pay much attention to your symptoms if they get worse in this process!! They appear to assume you will need a lot of estrogen (ie my Newson doctor said I would probably need a lot because I was 'quite young' still (44yo)) and then seem to be obsessed with estrogen blood levels over symptoms.
The BMS advise starting low (25mcg) and remaining at each level for 12wks. Only increasing if your peri symptoms continue. If you increase and your symptoms don't get better or go, to reduce back to previous dose. They don't recommend ANY blood tests until you get to 100mcg and still feel you have symptoms - in which case you should do a blood test to check you are absorbing the estrogen - but there is no recommended minimum blood estrogen level in their eyes, it is all about symptom control. They believe that even low levels of estrogen are protective for bone health. (And actually there is a lot of research for that, I posted it in another thread.)
I started out being a huge fan of everything Newson and to some extent I still am. But you need to be aware of this bias on their part with deciding what to do...
I keep finding women online who have relatively low estrogen levels on bloods (as I do) but still are reacting as if they are high in estrogen, in terms of side effects when taking estrogen. Unfortunately some women just stop HRT in this situation because they think it's not for them or doesn't suit them - and then lose all the benefits of it, so I do think as an approach it backfires if the objective is to help women.... Of course some women need high estrogen to function and feel normal but there seem to be an equal number who are being overlooked here, who just need a small amount... and don't get a chance to learn that, because they are escalated ever upwards or started too high....
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Topic: Confused with blood results/symptoms and everything!! (Read 1532 times)