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[GypsyRoseLee]

Saw my new GP on Xmas Eve and she was so lovely and supportive. Explained all my trials and tribulations with the Meno Clinic and how it had forced me to go private. She seemed genuinely concerned that I felt forced to see a private consultant and said she really hoped she would be able to help me through the next 10 weeks until I see Annie Evans.

We had a long chat about which regimes I had tried since spring this year, and how I had responded. She openly ad.itted that some women could 'go a bit psycho' on certain types of progesterone, and she agreed I should stay away from Norethisterone.

She had a good look through her drugs book and suggested I try Femostan 1/10 as a stop gap.until I see Annie Evans. She assured me it has a much nicer progesterone in it than most other regimes. She wants to see me again in 4 weeks to see how I have responded to it, with the option to increase to 2/10.

She also insisted that my bloods from Autumn 2014 were definitely not borderline, as the doctor at the Meno Clinic mentioned. But she thinks the reason I haven't had a period in just over 5 weeks is most likely the start of my periods going erratic or AWOL, though we'll not know for sure now because of the Femostan.

She seemed genuinely interested and very open to discussion and at the end of the appointment actually asked if I was from a medical background because I seemed so knowledgeable! I told her that you guys on here had taught me everything I know!

I left the appointment feeling really listened to and taken seriously. I went on to really enjoy Xmas Eve and Xmas Day and felt on quite a high. But I wonder if this was due to having applied a 75mg patch 2 days earlier and the higher dose was lifting my mood? It does seem very coincidental doesn't it?

I nervously removed my 75mg patches this morning and took my first Femostan at lunch.

I have no idea what it will do or how I will feel. I feel quite flat and rather detached today, and extremely tired but I know that can't be the Femostan yet!

I must say I much prefer just taking a tablet rather than faffing with patches etc. I suspect that when I see Annie Evans she'll swap me to gel and Utro but that's fine. Just seems neater somehow. But I really hope it at least lifts my consistently low mood that I've had for the last 5 weeks.

Wish me luck and hope you're all enjoying Xmas xxx

[Milamam]

Hi GRL,
You will find that Femoston is a very good preparation. The progestin in it, dydrogesteron, is indeed very kind . Good choice to try during this interim period. The 1/10 may be too low for you though. So you might not see immediated mood improvement. I started Femoston 2/10 age 43. It took about 3-4 months for moods to stabilize. But I feel great on it now and have no intention to change in the near future. I am 45 now. Wish you luck - you've been through a lot!

[GypsyRoseLee]

Thank you milamum

I started with hormonal depression and anxiety when.I was 43 too and I'm now 45. For me it's all been about mood swings, one day I'm fine, the next day filled with despair etc

Is this how you were before starting Femostan?

I also think it won't be a high enough dose although she assured me that 1/10 contained more oestrogen than the 50mg patches I have been using. But I don't think that's right?

She said my patches contain 50 micrograms whereas 1/10 contains 1milligram so it's twice as much?

But it sounds like she is happy to increase me to 2/10 when I see her in 4 weeks if I haven't felt an improvement. I would be over the moon if this regime actually worked for me and perhaps saved me having to see Annie Evans, but it's hard to feel optimistic when you feel so drained and low.

My natural period arrived just after I took the first Femostan tablet so that won't be helping as presumably my own oestrogen level will be at it's lowest right now too.

[Milamam]

Hi GRL,
Yes your estrogen will be low now but Femoston is adding to what you produce so overall you should feel better that without . Think of it this way!
Yes, at 43 I all of a sudden started suffering with panic attacks, shaking, dizziness, low mood, low confidence. These will come and go until I figured there is a pattern ( two weeks before period). Then I will be back to normal. I went to see a neurologist, and I remember my husband told him I am OK for about half of each month then bam panic sets in. He was able to see it, not me, haha! I wonder what a weirdo I must gave been.
I started Citalopram , which helped a bit but not much. No one connected the anxiety with meno and hormones. For a year I somehow managed, but then the shakes and anxiety started to last the whole month, and I also got night sweats and insomnia. I barely could function! I was affraid to be left alone at home, woke every day with unexlainable dread, could not go out. Stopped driving, stopped going on the metro, horrible!
Then an older woman one day said to me : You look like I was lookin/feeling at menopause! And I laughted because my periods were still regular, although shorter, and I didn't even think about hormones! This was as if a lightbulb was turned on! Could this nightmare be because of hormones?

I went to see a gynae who specializes in hormones, he did some tests and said that definitely all I was experiencing is due to perimenopause, and that only HRT will help me. He said: don't worry, in three-four months you will be a new person! I was soooooo relieved, I can't describe it! It was like - yes, finally, a light in the tunnel!

I started Femoston 2/10 in April 2014. Firstly, the night sweats were gone and I slept much better. Over the summer months period didn't show up for two months, the other times I only got brown discharge when a normal period was due. It tells me now how estrogen depleted I must have been. Moods stabilized by the end of August, and panic went away gradually. I now have energy, I do all the stuff I used to do before, and feel great! There are blips here and there, but I don't even notice. Phew!

I hope this regime will work for you, just don't get disheartened in the begining, as it wasn't a magic cure overnight! I did get some gastric upset during the first month, and also some palps and blood pressure rise in the second month. All these went away relatively fast. I am soo grateful, it is hard to be described! Women here helped me a lot, too, and I have learned a lot!

Good luck!
Milamam

[GypsyRoseLee]

That's really interesting to read Milamam, thank you. We sound very, very similar in the way the perimenopause has manifested for us. Only difference is, I have never had hot flushes or night sweats. Like you, I noticed that my PMS started getting worse and lasting longer each month. Then in November 2013 the PMS got even worse, and didn't go away when my period started. It just stayed and stayed.

I started to experience mood swings, early waking with dread, hating to be left alone, panicky about socialising or going anywhere, random insomnia (and I'd always been a really good sleeper, even during stressful times).

 It never occured to me, at first, that it might be hormonal fluctuations as my periods were still regular, albeit much lighter and only lasting 2-3 days. Some months it was really just a brown discharge with hardly any fresh blood (didn't know this means low oestrogen levels?). But I would still typically get around 10-12 normal/good days each month.

Somehow I struggled through the next several months but I was so scared, thinking I was having some sort of nervous breakdown. I took Amitriptyline during this time but it only helped a bit (mainly by making me feel quite sedated) and my symptoms kept breaking through.

Then I remembered how I'd suffered with very similar feelings of panic, anxiety, dread when I had PND years ago. That was my lightbulb moment and I researched hormonal depression and discovered Prof. Studd's website. I actually cried as I read his case studies because he could have been describing me to a tee! A long history of PMS, followed by PND, followed by worsening PMS going into my late 30s, resulting in severe anxiety and depression during Perimenopause. I am a text book case.

I did try HRT for several months over the summer, but looking back I never really got to grips with it or used it properly, due to my own impatience and poor advice from my GP. He started me on a too low a dose, mid cycle, so I had to deal immediately with progesterone symptoms. Then I increased my patch dose, but we went on holiday and I had issues with absorption from the patches due to sunscreen and fake tan.

I was very up and down with my symptoms and panicking that HRT wasn't working for me. I guess you know how that feels?

I really feel like I've been pushed from pillar to post these last 18 months. I am encouraged by your experience of Femostan and hope it works as well for me.

[pepperminty]

Hi GRL,

You know I am on Femeston 1/10 and I too panicked as I still got all my mental symptoms initially which were very much worse during the PMT phase of the cycle as I started my period . I felt like I was dying mentally and physically , I couldn't stop crying. But it got less and less and yes there were a few blips , but now I have taken it for several months and my periods are lighter and my mood is better , I cope much better generally.
 I am going to increase my does very slowly by half an oestrogen tablet every other day to start with ( using a spare pack) and see how I feel. I have learnt that chopping and changing just messed with my system and I couldn't see clearly what was working. Also I was a bit impatient. But the trouble is when you feel so low and so crap you get desperate.
If the extra half tablet gives me no bad effects after 3 months ,I will then increase it to a half every day and see how I fare. Increasing the dose to double didn't work for me and I felt worse for some reason, so I am thinking that a gradual increase may be the answer as I still feel I could have a bit more energy.

I am confident that you will find the answer and I think regardless of whether you feel better soon you should see Annie anyway perhaps. At least your GP is now listening.

You will be fine I know it, as you are a survivor!!

Peppermintyxx

[GypsyRoseLee]

Thank you so much PM, what a lovely supportive post.

It's odd that doubling the Femostan dose didn't work for you? But, if your own hormones are still in play, the timing might have been all wrong? In Perimenopause you can easily have cycles where you don't ovulate, so HRT might feel like it's not really working. Then other months when you do ovulate the HRT might be far too much? I am.sure I have read that too much oestrogen can cause anxiety and insomnia too.

I have had a very bleak and low 5 weeks since stopping the BCP. I guess my body had got used to the much stronger oestrogen dose? Such a bitter shame that I couldn't tolerate the higher progesterone too.

It's bizarre that GPs are pretty happy to hand out the BCP (3 x the oestrogen in HRT) to healthy women in their 40s. But they completely panic at giving high dose HRT and see that as the preserve of specialists?

Why?

[Milamam]

GRL, you will see that the progestogen in Femoston is really a very good one - at least it works for me and I don't feel down when on the prog pills or after . You are right about own cycle breaking in in peri , this happened to me in the past three months. I began to have a bleed mid-packet and then again, end of packet, ie every 14-15 days. Not that it disturbed me but I figured perhaps I was producing more of my own estrogen and then Femoston was adding to it. Other symptoms included sore breasts, almost constantly, water retention, general feel of being tired but cannot relax. My gynea then doubled the progesterone dose by adding 10 mg of dydrogesterone to take days 11-25. With this double dose the problems were resolved and I feel now back to normal, so do my bleeds. So what he did in fact is balance back the extra estrogen with more prog, rather than decrease the estrogen dose. He said there is no way I need less estrogen at this point, it is more a question of imbalance that needed to be corrected.

There is always a solution, the best thing is you now have a knowledgeable GP and then you also have the option to see Dr. Evans. It is also very important that you have started Femoston on Day 1 of cycle, this is the recommended way to go, in order to get your own cycle in synch with the HRT.

Milamam

[GypsyRoseLee]

I do feel that taking HRT during peri is a bit like trying to pin the tail on the donkey, blindfolded. Some weeks it's not enough, other weeks maybe too much. It stresses me that it's so vague and hit and miss.

Out of interest, you say your gynaecologist told you 'only HRT would help you'. What were his opinions on you also taking Citalopram?

My GP said it didn't matter what day of my cycle I started Femostan on, but I knew that it was very important which day it was!

I got off to a poor start with HRT before, starting on day 13 so there was no chance for the oestrogen to load before I started on Utrogestan on day 15.

I am relieved that my own period started within 24 hours of starting Femostan, but it was pure chance. It was day 32 of my cycle and I have never gone that long between bleeds before.

[Milamam]

On the leaflet instructions it says ( at least here - I live in Bulgaria), to start on Day 1 of menstrual cycle. And the gynae advised me so. Makes sense to me as it is a sequential HRT. It will fit better with your own cycles. Re Citalopram, he said great, this combination (with HRT) has proven to work for many women, and to keep it. I however, have gradually tapered down to a min dose over this summer but am soo chicken scared to taper off completely as now everything seems well-balanced. You would know what I mean. I am really not inclined to change anything at this point!

Re his comment that HRT will only help me was in response to my questions on whether I can try alternative treatments such as phytoestrogens, etc. I did try herbal remedies before for 3 months with no results at all.  Some women do get great benefits from herbal preparations, including a close friend who is now 52 and was very happy with red clover and black cohosh. But these didn't work for me. A prove how different we all are!

[pepperminty]

Hi ,
Very interesting about increasing the dose of dydrogesterone as an answer to correct bleeding, as I found that the increased dose of femosten 2/10 caused my periods to go a bit off, heavier and much longer- 14 days in fact .Since going back to 1/10 they are 5 days at most and very light. Yes this progesterone is quite tolerable.

Perri menopause -
It's like dodging a minefield blinded folded, being steered by a drunk orangutan with tourettes . Not easy , but not completely impossible if you are lucky.

Peppermintyxx