Hi Estelle
I'm just catching up with the threads - and I think Dancinggirl has answered all your questions very well but just wanted to say hi as a Utrogestan user.
I am a bit confused about all your treatments and blood tests and whether you were confirmed as being peri-menopausal?
It is difficult to ascertain menopausal status from blood tests and especially from only one as estradiol levels vary throughout the day as well as from day to day throughout the cycle. As far as I understand Proff Studd is treating you for low oestrogen, as evidenced by your one blood test and low mood/depression as well as the scan showing low bone density?
As you probably know Studd attributes much PND to low oestrogen and especially if this is borne out by low mood/depression in the second half of the cycle which worsens just before the period. Some women have lower oestrogen levels generally - after all there is a range of what is normal. It sounds like he is saying you have low oestrogen which he is treating along with the testosterone which is supposed to contribute to mood as well as libido and other things.
He is most definitely the expert on these things - and we are all amateurs, albeit sometimes better informed than some GPs. It struck me though that your single oestrogen level for Day 1 of your period wasn't particuarly low - if you look at the reference range for Day 5 on Wikpedia - it is between 110 and 220 p mol/l for most women. Yours was at the lower level but on Day 1, but Day 5 it would have been higher. However because you were low in the other hormone (T) thas well as because of your symptoms I presume that's why you have been given oestrogen - and particularly because of your bones. Also Testosterone is not given unless a woman is also having oestrogen as part of HRT.
The other thing is your last reading - the oestrogen level is definitely high but within the range for what is known as the pre-ovulatory peak. It depends when in your cycle the blood test was done? Also if as Dancinggirl suggested, your own cycle is still working, even if it becomes irregular if you are becoming peri-menopausal, then not only will they break through and cause bleeding at erratic times as you are experiencing, but also your levels could become very high indeed at their peak.
It is very tricky to get the balance right especially in peri-menopause and in your case. You want to keep the levels high enough to protect your bones, and improve your mood, but I can't imagine having oestrogen levels permanently as high as they are at ovulation, as this would probably be too much all the time. HRT usually is trying to average out the oestrogen levels over the whole cycle - but without the peaks and troughs.
Re the Utrogestan - I use it vaginally, 200 mg for 12 days every 6-8 weeks but I am well post-menopause and have almost no oestrogen of my own! Although there are meant to be fewer side effects when used vaginally, I do experience some: it affects my bladder from the start and I have to get up in the night twice to pee (normally only once at other times); by Day 5 I begin to get a foggy head and wake up feeling especially tired (more than usual) and get foggier as the course wears on. Sometimes I get a headache and sometimes a migraine but not always. When I stop taking it I experience the usual pmt progesterone withdrawal symptoms for a few days (experienced by most women) and then a day or two after the bleed starts the fog lifts and I feel myself again!
This has turned out to be a long post and apologies if I have repeated anything that Dancinggirl has already said - it took a long time to read and I'm not sure I took it all in!
By the way I do find Studd's website informative but not intuitive to use - when you click on the menu on the left, for some of the tabs there is a whole lot of new tabs within that section on the right - like chapters - which I missed when I first started reading the website.
I hope this is helpful and do come back if you have any more questions
Hurdity
