Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Elmsey]

Hi,
Wondering if anyone can help.  I started taking Ellest Duet 1mg in September and I was great on it except that during the progeterone phase I had pmt like symptoms including poor sleep and anxiety.  I used it for 6 months and I was also getting break through flushes.  I saw my GP and we decided to try Ellest Duet Conti.  She prescribed 2mg.  Since taking it I have had real problems with sleeping - only getting 4/5 hours a night and I am an 8 hour girl!

Does anyone know if taking the HRT in the evening instead of the morning can help.  I am sure this is the progeserone as it was during the green pills, having said that, it feels worse now and the estrogen dosage has gone up.  I have been taking the Conti for two weeks - I am on my knees.

Sould I go back to the Duet?

[Pepsi]

Hi Elmsey,

So sorry you are suffering. I really wish i could help but maybe go back to the Dr and get some advise. I know how horrible it is not to sleep. I am in the same boat and red wine has been my friend the last week but i know its not good!

I hope you don't mind me asking you as i know you are not feeling great yourself but i I have just been prescribed the Elleste Duet 1mg i am on day 3 and i feel so anxious and keep crying. I fell worse than i did in the first place! Did you feel this way when you first started the medication? Or maybe can anyone else help please?

[Hurdity]

Hi Elmsey

If you were not post-menopausal when you started the HRT in September ( ie no natural period for 12 months) then you should remain on the cyclical HRT for longer - as otherwise you may get unpredictable bleeds. Also you have changed two things at once - the oestrogen dosage and changing to continuous progestogen as you rightly point out.

In your position I would either have changed to Elleste Duet 2 mg - but kept with a cyclical HRT or changed to Femoston 1/10 which has a different progestogen but same dosage oestrogen. You won't know what's causing what - but I certainly would not want to take norethisterone ( the progestogen in Elleste) all the time - although many women are fine!

Depending on your age, and especially as your flushes had reappeared on the 1 mg dose, you might be better staying on a higher dose oestrogen  (than 1 mg) but you also might not be absorbing it. Sometimes the stronger progestogens seem to interefere with the beneficial effects of the oestrgoen (according to reports on here), so another reason to stay with a cycle.  Finally a separate oestrogen and progestogen would enable you to play around with the oestrogen dose until you found one which eliminated most of your adverse symptoms. All the preparations are listed under Treatments above ( HRT preparations) - on the menu.

I'm not sure when most women take oral HRT but it achieves highest concentrations some hours after taking so depends whether you want to be awake or (trying to be) asleep when this happens. I would have thought morning would be the best time to minimnise sleep disturbance but you could always try changing to morning for a couple of weeks and see if it helps?

Hurdity x

[Hurdity]

Hi Elmsey,

So sorry you are suffering. I really wish i could help but maybe go back to the Dr and get some advise. I know how horrible it is not to sleep. I am in the same boat and red wine has been my friend the last week but i know its not good!

I hope you don't mind me asking you as i know you are not feeling great yourself but i I have just been prescribed the Elleste Duet 1mg i am on day 3 and i feel so anxious and keep crying. I fell worse than i did in the first place! Did you feel this way when you first started the medication? Or maybe can anyone else help please?

Pepsi -  - best to start a new post perhaps in new members section so that yours doesn't get missed - and responses mixed up with Elmsey's - I was going to ask you various questions about yourself so maybe start a new thread so that we can help you specifically?

Hurdity x

[Elmsey]

Hi Hurdity

I am 56.  I last had a natural period July 2017.

When I discussed changing with my doc I thought she was going to keep me on 1mg but go conti to try to iron out the change in symptoms taking the green tabs.   When I got the script I was surprised to see the 2mg.  Reading on here, that seems to be flawed and I am concluding that if I am progesterone sensitive(which I think I am as I could never deal with the pill) I need to have the lowest dose possible to do what it needs to do.  I think the progesterone masks the good the estrogen is doing as I felt fantastic for the first 16 days of a packet!

I would rather have a bleed than have the insomnia I have been suffering.  I guess though it may settle down?  So any views on whether I should seek to change or stick it out? I am three weeks into the first packet of the conti

[Dotty]

Kliovance would have been a better choice as that is the same strength as the hrt you were on .

[Elmsey]

Kliovance would have been a better choice as that is the same strength as the hrt you were on .

Is there some where I can find a list of HRT options.?

I saw somewhere else Femoston being recommended as a more natural form?

[Rhiner]

Hi Elmsley, I will add my experience here. I went on Femoston conti and up to 6 weeks felt good and sleep good, then post 6 weeks I stated waking at about midnight and unable to get back to sleep, could sleep for 2 to 3 hours at first then just waking up.  For me, it was too much oestrogen, once my levels had built up (i.e. the 6 week period) after this Im sure the level in my system was too much.  This could be similar for you if they have doubled the strength of tablets.

Lack of oestrogen for me is the other way, i.e. cannot get off to sleep.
Rhiner

[Hurdity]

In your position I would either have changed to Elleste Duet 2 mg - but kept with a cyclical HRT or changed to Femoston 1/10 which has a different progestogen but same dosage oestrogen. You won't know what's causing what - but I certainly would not want to take norethisterone ( the progestogen in Elleste) all the time - although many women are fine!

Depending on your age, and especially as your flushes had reappeared on the 1 mg dose, you might be better staying on a higher dose oestrogen  (than 1 mg) but you also might not be absorbing it. Sometimes the stronger progestogens seem to interefere with the beneficial effects of the oestrgoen (according to reports on here), so another reason to stay with a cycle.  Finally a separate oestrogen and progestogen would enable you to play around with the oestrogen dose until you found one which eliminated most of your adverse symptoms. All the preparations are listed under Treatments above ( HRT preparations) - on the menu.

I'm not sure when most women take oral HRT but it achieves highest concentrations some hours after taking so depends whether you want to be awake or (trying to be) asleep when this happens. I would have thought morning would be the best time to minimnise sleep disturbance but you could always try changing to morning for a couple of weeks and see if it helps?

Hurdity x

Hi Elmsey - I have highlighted where I said in my previous post you can find the list of HRT types.

Hurdity x

[Elmsey]

Thanks Hurdity.

I was taking it in the mornings and have just switched to tea time.  I am going to try this for the rest of the packet which is a week and make an appointment to see the GP (which could take a month where I am).

I will let you know how I get on!

Thank you everyone for your comments

Elmsey

[Optimist]

Hi Elmsey, like you after a period of time on progesterone insomnia creeps in like I've never had before even on the 1/5 femoston which I felt great on for a few months then so lacking sleep I had to stop alongside other nasty side effects. Currently on Mirena and just going up to 4 pumps of oestrogel as mood swings and not great sleep again after 10 weeks on Mirena but taking 2-300mg of magnesium also and this does help with sleep. Have you thought about trying magnesium? If so go for the magnesium citrate as better absorbed. Worth a try to see if you can counteract progesterone side effects, although, I thought that progesterone was the sleep inducing component of hrt, it appears to have the opposite effect on me as it builds up in my system. Maybe try femoston 1/5 also as elleste duet sent me completely nuts!! X

[Elmsey]

I am not sure it is the progesterone.  I took the hrt at 5pm on Sunday night and slept like a baby and woke with the alarm for the first time in weeks.  Last night I was late back and did not take it until 7.30.  I could not fall asleep, still awake at 1am and it felt as if I was wired, the way I feel if I drink strong coffee in the evening.

I have made an appointment with GP but can not get one until 16th April!!!! 

I still have 12 days of the green tabs left of my cyclical hrt so am thinking of trying those for a while and see if it is the estrogen levels.

[Optimist]

Its so frustrating trying to get it right isn't it. For me I came off the femoston when insomnia really bad and took oestrogen only for 2 weeks. Within 5 days was sleeping like a baby again and most other side effects had gone! I started on everol conti for while but again having to use double oestrogen patches to counteract prog side effects, now trialling Mirena and oestrogel. Again on max oestrogel to counteract progesterone side effects. Have had a few wobbly days which makes me wonder if I'm still peri but persevering. Good luck at GP x

[Elmsey]

Update

I have been taking the 1mg for 5 days and seem to be sleeping better.

I have been prescribed Femoston 1/10, which I will start tomorrow so will see how I get on.

thanks all for your help.

[Optimist]

Please let us know how you get on with femoston 1/10. I really wish I'd asked for that before having Mirena but my meno specialist won't acknowledge problems with progesterone. If I have to have Mirena removed (currently having really bad back pain again) then that's what I'll be trying next x