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[karenc1900]

I am interested in hearing from anyone with a Mirena coil who uses Testosterone. Have you had any side effects ? I have recently tried Tostran but have stopped because of unpleasant side effects and am undecided wether to try with a different T..thanks

[Perinowpost]

Hi KarenC I don't think they're a good match, or that was my experience anyway. I had my mirena removed after 6 months as it didn't suit me.  I use T in the form of testim but even then only use 3 x petit pois blobs per week, any more and my body doesn't like it. I tried testogel but had a reaction to that.  Hope this helps x

[Tc]

Ladies may I ask what reaction you had to testosterone?  If that's,not too cheeky.
X

[Perinowpost]

It's not too cheeky Tc. For me it was agitation and headaches, but like I say that was with the testogel. I think I reacted to something in the carrier. Mind you If anyone was going to react it would be me, I'm so damn sensitive! I also think it's more common than doctors realise x

[Tc]

Thank you. X

[karenc1900]

Hi Perinowpost,
Thank you for your reply, I was interested to hear if anybody was successfully using T with a Mirena. Like you say it may be something in the carrier of T and not the progesterone and T together ? who knows !

And TC side effects for me were anxiety, heart palpitations, feeling kid of ‘wired' and headaches 

[Hurdity]

If the carriers in the testosterone formulation were a problem they would likely be manifest as skin problems eg an allergy rather than internally I would think? Any side effects due to the testosterone itself on one product rather than another will be most likely due to different absorption from the different products - due to the different fillers - so you may get more or less from one or another. Tostran is the strongest available (2 %) so could be more likely to get the dose wrong,  but some women might absorb more of the Testogel (sachets are 1 %).  They alos have completely different carriers! Just thinking aloud with this one.... still not sure about the Mirena effect though, as it is testosterone derived...

Hurdity x

[Perinowpost]

Hurdity that's what I meant ‘fillers' not carriers, doh!

Just know I didn't feel well personally when I had the mirena and added T in, so I would say there is some sort of clash going on x

[Hurdity]

Sorry Perinowpost - I see I was using the terms interchangeably even in the same post! ie carriers and fillers are the same thing really. I think they're called carriers more if it is a transdermal product - you were quite correct I would say - ie the substances in which the active ingredient is put to help carry it through the skin, but fillers if it is oral ie the gunk they add to make into into a tablet! In fact the term used on the SPC - official product info - is "excipients"! but on the patient leaflets it's "other ingredients".

Interesting reaction you had though.

I am sure there is much more info out there about the effect of levonorgestrel  (LNG) but I found this info in some product info for the Mirena coil:

"Distribution Levonorgestrel is bound to serum albumin and to sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG).  The relative distribution (free, albumin-bound, SHBG-bound) depends on the SHBG concentration in the serum.  Less than 2%of the total serum drug levels are present as free steroid.Levonorgestrel binds with high affinity to SHBG. Accordingly, changes in the concentration of SHBG in serum result in an increase (at higher SHBG concentrations) or in a decrease (at lower SHBG concentrations) of the total levonorgestrel concentration in serum.The concentration of SHBG declined on average by about 20-30% during the first month after insertion of MIRENA, remained stable during the first year and increased slightly thereafter.For levonorgestrel, the mean apparent volume of distribution is about 106 L."

If SHBG is decreased by LNG and also if LNG binds to SHBG with higher affinity than testosterone - it follows that even in the absence of added testosterone your free testosterone on average may possibly increase slightly after insertion of Mirena? However oral HRT increases SHBG and decreases free T. It's all so very complicated depending on which progestogen and the method of delivery.

There is another study here:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10326889 but it all seems inconclusive. However as we all differ as individuals it may well be that some of you may experience a greater effect from adding T with a coil? On the other hand....!!!!

Hurdity x

[Ljp]

I've just started using tostran, two weeks now. I have a mirena coil.

I started off using petite poi's sized amount daily for first week. Started to feel a bit anxious/agitated

Second week I tried 1 pump every other day, feel great on the day in between, but day I use it, especially after 2nd dose, I app,ied in the morning, by tea time I was jittery, like too much energy, almost like when you drink too much caffeine, a little shaky and heady

So this week I'm trying petite pois sized every other day.

I can feel that the tostran is helping with certain things, like energy, and I'm peeing less (oab/frequency and urgency are a residual problem for me) also I feel like I have more interest in life....I feel I just need to find the dose that works best for me.

[BobbingAlong]

Hi KarenC1900.
I was on Mirena with oestrogel for just over a year when I then added in Tosatran. Within weeks I noticed an improvement in muscle fatigue/aching joints after exercise, so that was great. Sexual response improved too,maybe bit more gradually, can't remember exactly.

However about 6 months later I entered a phase of feeling, not exactly depressed as I was coping with life, but close to tears a lot of the time and would be welling up at the strangest times. I didn't attribute it to the tostran and I'm still not sure if it was. I had my annual hrt review and asked gp if ladies ever get low mood on testosterone? . She wasn't sure (I may be her only patient on it to be honest?) but suggested that some ladies did feel low on the Mirena. But I said I was happy to continue with mirena as it sorted out painful periods and debilitating gi issues that used to accompany my periods since entering peri. I said I'd just keep an eye on the low mood.
When I got home I thought about what she'd said and realised that I definitely hadn't had this low mood for the first 12 months on the coil. I'd still had low moods at PMT time, but this was more. So I decided to try reducing the tostran dose and went from ½ pump daily to ½ pump every other day. I thought I noticed that my tearful times were towards the evening of the tostran days. Or was I imagining it? So I cut down further to ½ pump every 3 days. This seemed to result in the same pattern. But, around this time I was also getting a few warm flushes at night, so I also ended up increasing my oestrogel from 1.5 to 2 pumps. So that muddies the waters somewhat too! Was it the tostran causing low mood or just more oestrogel had been needed. Or had the mood been caused by my own fluctuations over the last few months of peri and it was that! OMG…. it is so frustrating sometimes isn't it!!?
 So now I have been off the tostran for 2 months and I have felt more motivated and more like me than I have since December last year.
I did feel a bit more achy and tired the last couple of weeks, so one morning I tried tostran again. I was a bit anxious and teary by the evening. But then over the next few days other standard pmt symptoms kicked in and my period started yesterday. So again, I can't say definitely that the low mood that day was tostran's fault!
I'm going to continue without Tostran for now though as I do have a suspicion that maybe my levels had just built up too much. But if I get too knackered after dog walks, gym sessions etc in a few months and lose sexual response then I will try it again at possibly a much lower dose??
So, thank you for this thread and any other mirena/testosterone users or ladies with thoughts/info on it thank you for sharing and please do keep sharing your experiences as we work our way through this!

[Sammiejane]

hi ladies

have any of you taking testosterone found that you have had improvement in hairloss.

it's  funny how we do so well on the pill and maybe that's because the progesterone is testosterone derived yet struggle so much on bio identical progesterone.

for instance hairloss on progesterone or on estrogen only yet suffered no hairloss on the pill ?

should women of under 40 be given the pill or hrt if they have no ovaries ?

[BobbingAlong]

Hi SammieJane
I've been fortunate that hairloss hasn't been an issue for me neither before nor on HRT.  So many different effects for different women.... hopefully someone else with similar experience to your self will be along to share. Xx

[karenc1900]

Thank you bobbingalong for your reply. Very useful reading, I have decided to not use T at the moment as it all seems a bit unknown and the side effects I had have put me off a bit ! however never say never  and I am hoping we will have a licenced T for women soon 🤞🏻