Thanks for posting this, but sorry to burst your bubble Bobidy as she really doesn't know what she's talking about!
I listened to the relevant section with interest as a couple of years ago I spent a lot of time and energy on this trying to get to the bottom of it to help other members and there is a very long thread on it (which goes off on fanciful tangents now and again!).
The upshot was as far as we know there is no difference in manufacture between the two but they are labelled for different countries, sometimes packaged differently ( the outer carton and pump mechanism) for parallel importers, of which there are several (good luck with trying to contact any of these!).
She has not said anything that we don't already know as far as I can make out. I'm not sure whether we knew that it was manufactured at different plants in France (Belgium?) but all the other information does not change anything nor confirm that there are differences.
She glossed over what she suggested might be differences in manufacture and then talked about possible differences in storage conditions and then later in her rant said ? something along the lines that how dreadful it was that women find something that works for them and then they ?mess around with the manufacture or storage or whatever? or words to that effect! Previously she talked about evidence based information. Nothing about what she said was evidence based and the same answers probably that I got when I wrote to Besins. She didn't even properly know what parallel imports were.
She said she knew about gels having worked in skin care, but why on earth would a company market a pharmacuetical product that was that unstable and clearly this would be tested? I mean she really should stick to skin care in my view!
All the details about what they said can be found on the other thread which I will find and bump but here are the main points:
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Oestrodose is the same as Oestrogel. In the UK the product is branded Oestrogel, some other
countries such as France call the product Oestrodose. In the UK the parallel imports of Oestrogel are all sourced from France and are labelled Oestrodose.
All of the Besins Oestrogen Gels have exactly the same qualititative and quantitative compositions and are all manufactured at Besins Healthcare, Belgium.
... all of the products are identical in terms of the composition, packaging supplied and manufacturer and so there is no difference in hot/cold countries.?
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There is only one formulation for manufacturing this product and the stabilities on the product, whether Oestrodose or Oestrogel, are all compliant. There was no significant difference in the past 20 years in stability studies for this product. However, the stability studies are made on products not leaving the factory and stored in the optimum conditions for the complete shelf-life period, although we have stability studies for the following conditions: 25℃ & 30℃ for 36 months and 40℃ for 6 months.
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Here is the bit about stability:
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However, the product Oestrodose distributed in the UK is not monitored by Besins. Once the product leaves the distribution warehouse in France, we do not know what happens to the product when it is with the wholesaler in France and when it is shipped to the importer in the UK. Therefore, it is not possible for us to confirm that this is just a perception as there is a part of the time where the product has been out of our control and we do not know what conditions the product has been exposed to?
There has always remained the possibility that storage conditions from some parallel importers might affect the gel if it was far outside the optimal parameter, but this is a totally different issue from manufacture.
The issue of the yellow card was also covered in the thread and has been repeatedly stressed whenever this topic comes up, so if anyone had an allergic reaction specifically to eg Oestrodose and not Oestrogel this needs reporting under this scheme and ideally also to Besins as this could indicate a fraudulent product maybe?
Changing from patches to gel and how your respond is a completely different issue to the one raised here. Changing delivery method will always involve some tweaking and some women absorb better through patches, others through gel. Other individual factors also affect gel absorption ? again covered in that thread I think. Different temepratures on your skin will affect absorption and also if you are perimenopausal then your own levels will vary.
Lilith. Sorry to hear about your return of sympoms but there is nothing intrinsically wrong with oestrodose. This woman on Youtube is doing other women a disservice by suggesting the product does not work or implying this. Your return of symptoms are because you have changed from patches to gel and what you are feeling would be the same if you were using the UK packaged Oestrogel. but if it's not suiting you then you either need to increase the dose or go back to patches if your levels are stable using these? Good luck!
Have a good weekend everyone
Hurdity x