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[Emo10]

Hi,

Some context:
I lost an ovary in 2015 to a cyst aged 35. Aged around 38 I started to experience night sweats and some other symptoms which only do I now recognise as peri symptoms. By Dec 2020 I was is in crisis due to palpitations, numbness, heavy extended periods and adrenalin rushes. Finally in April 2022, after private appointments and numerous tests for a plethora of other things I was prescribed HRT and had a mirena fitted.

For 3 months after the mirena fitting and hrt I'd felt much better. Then at the end of June some symptoms returned and I'm now feel like I'm back at crisis point. My bleeding is under control due to the mirena but my palpitations and adrenaline  rushes are extreme. I'm jittery, my vision is blurry and when the adrenaline rushes happen I feel totally out of control. I have correlated these extreme symptoms to ovulation and what would be my period.

My life isn't very stressful at the moment as I'm on summer holidays and my daughters are away with my sister. I feel OK within myself most of the time but these symptoms are causing me some anxiety.

I'm considering stopping hrt as I can't cope with the symptoms but wondered if anyone had experienced similar and might be able to offer some further insight before I call it quits.

I have had some recent bloods which were:

FSH 4.0 iu/L
LH 5.0 iu/L
Oestradiol 1839 pmol/L (500 pgml)

Thanks for reading.

[Marchlove]

Hi Emo10

Your estrogen levels are too high.
Start cutting back slowly as your body won’t like severe fluctuations.

Do you take testosterone? X

[Emo10]

Thank you, Marchlove. I thought they seemed high. I am speaking to my nurse tomorrow and presume she will suggest the same.

No, I'm not taking testosterone.

[joziel]

All those symptoms you list are what I felt like when I accidentally had too much estrogen as well.

Estrogen should be around 250pmol to 800pmol-ish. 300-500pmol is ideal.

How much estrogen are you taking? It probably is that your one ovary is still functioning intermittently, so when it does you are getting much more estrogen from that, plus the HRT. A similar thing happened to me recently, when I accidentally ended up taking too much because my own ovaries started to work again and contribute more(!) after 9 years of suppression on the desogestrel POP.

Your FSH is still low there, which means you are not post-menopausal yet - your own ovary should still be contributing something...

[Marchlove]

It might be a good idea to get your testosterone levels checked as well.

It’s not just a question of testing testosterone, you need to test for SHBG (Sex hormone binding globulin) so that you can work out your FAI (free androgen index).
They might not do it, so tell your Gp that your libido is low, even if it isn’t!

Good luck and let us know how you get on. X

[Emo10]

Thanks for the advice, Joziel.

I am using 2 pumps of oestrogel. It's funny what you say about intermittent functioning of ovaries because before HRT I was convinced that I could tell when my one ovary was working or not because of my symptoms and bleeding.

I'll start reducing.

[Emo10]

Thanks, Marchlove.

I will definitely look into the testosterone testing. My libido is very low but never really mentioned it as I've focused more on the other more debilitating symptoms. Thanks for alerting me to this.

[Marchlove]

Testosterone is more than just libido!
Energy, focus, strength are some of the many benefits.
But just tell the doctor it’s libido as they haven’t caught up yet! X

[joziel]

Very interesting you're only on 2 pumps, as that's not a high dose at all. I don't think you can be getting all that from just 2 pumps of gel....

So I think your remaining ovary must be working again, heck it might even have just ovulated with those levels 

[CLKD]

Also if the stump of the ovary is left behind it will still activate ;-)