Thanks for your replies.
I started having symptoms at the very start of 2012 with feeling very tired in the day and had no libido at all (never really had any all my life anyway). I saw my gp who then arranged a blood test and it showed that my hormones were dropping so he prescribed the Sequi 50 patches which did absolutely nothing and he took me off them after a month. I was still having regular periods.
I then asked him if I could try some testosterone for the libido so he referred me to a meno clinic in October who prescribed the Testogel (a quarter of a sachet a day measured out using a 5ml syringe). Within a few weeks the libido shot up and all the tiredness vanished at the same time. This continued until December 2013 when my periods suddenly stopped and then restarted in May 2014. They stopped again 6 months later in November along with the libido so I saw my gp again who retried the Evorel sequi. They worked this time and the periods returned a few weeks later, the libido came back even higher than before but that only lasted a few months then vanished again in May 2015.
I kept on with the patches but the periods were getting lighter and closer together, around 25 days apart. I started getting tiredness again along with sleep problems and waking up at 3am so assumed the patch dose was no longer high enough to help. I had to wait till September for an appointment at the meno clinic and she put the dose up to 75 by using 1 and a half Sequi patches. This did help improve the libido a bit but nothing like it was before unfortunately.
Lizab, my sleep gradually got worse until I was waking up around 4 times a night (as I still am doing now) and my hair started falling out so the gynae increased the patch dose to 100 in February this year and started me on the Utrogestan vaginal 200mg pessaries. My hair loss then got ridiculous on this dose and the sleep was no better plus what little libido I did have completely vanished so I went back down to Evorel 75 patches (along with the Utro) after only a month and the libido started to come back again. I started using Regaine along with Nizoral shampoo at this time and within a couple of months the hair loss stopped and has been fine since and growing back again.
I reckon the 100 dose was too high hence the big increase in hair loss at that time.
I saw the gynae again but she said she can't understand what's going on with the sleep and she's never come across it before. I assume she meant why the hrt wasn't doing anything to stop it. My gp now thinks it's not hormones causing it and I've had blood tests which show up nothing. I am totally confused because both high and low estrogen can cause the same symptoms, hence trying out all the different doses. I'm still no further forward in knowing whether it's too high or low so I'm stuck in this state with no idea what to try next.
I asked my gp if I could be tested to find out the estrogen level in my body but he said it would be inaccurate due to the hrt, but I would have thought we'd get some idea what the hell is going on.
Hurdity, I asked the gynae if I could increase the Testogel dose a bit and she said I could try going from a quarter sachet up to a third but advised against it incase of side effects. I've been on the quarter dose 4 years now with no side effects apart from a slightly husky voice and more body hair but it's not excessive. I just shave it off and pluck the few upper lip hairs out when needed. The sex response is fine and the libido seems to increase mostly when I'm on the progesterone.
Mandee