Hi jasper - sorry your latest post with questions seems to have got missed.
Not sure what specifically you are asking. I do know that some gynaes seem to prescribe additional oestrogen without progesterone for women who still have regular cycles - but if it were me I would want to be reassured that my lining was shedding sufficiently each month.
Yes as you have said Studd (and others) prescribe high doses of oestrogen to suppress ovulation and it has to be sufficiently high to reduce FSH. If it is not high enough then you are assing to your own oestrogen - which maybe could get too high (I'm not familiar with this) at the ovulatory peak, but it would prevent the crashes that lead to the mood dip at the end of the cycle because you are taking a constant background amount. Theoretically this should help with mood swings even if ovulation is not suppressed.
Re the oestrogen dominance thing - this is promoted by the alternative lobby to sell progesterone cream!!! Incidentally if your regular doctor says that your progesterone is low then it may not be sufficient to oppose the extra oestrogen so I am confused here
. Progesterone varies throughout the menstrual cycle, and is usually only measured to check if ovulation is taking place, and also to see if fertility treatment is needed.
During peri-menopause some cycles are anovulatory ( no ovulation) so a period is skipped and the next one is heavy - so in this sense oestrogen in dominant in these cycles, so additional progesterone can prevent thickening of the endometrium and reduce bleeding.
There is an article here which explains it:
http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/article-perils-of-the-perimenopause.phpRe the CCP - there is one now called Qlaira which contains estradiol - the same oestrogen in HRT - and nothing like the strong synthetic oestrogens in the traditional CCPs. This might be a possibilty although you might be sensitive to the synthetic progestogen. if you tolerated it, this might help with the hormonal migraines because it suppresses the cycle and also there are only 2 tablet free days - unlike the 7 day break of normal Pills.
I'm not sure if any of this is helpful but hopefully a little!
Hurdity x