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[Gilla999]

I tend to blame everything on my hormones so I haven't been able to be certain, but now after another month of the same thing I am absolutely sure: every month after I stop the Utrogestan and my period arrives, I get a flare up of quite severe allergy symptoms. I say "severe" not in an anaphylaxis type way (!) but just because it really impacts my quality of life during the flare up and no amount of prescription antihistamines or steroids even come close to helping.

The symptoms are primarily in my eyes - incredibly itchy - like having chicken pox in your eyes! I also get a tickle in my throat, a bit of sneezing but not much, and a generally itchy/prickly skin feeling. But it's the eyes that are by far the worst. I've been taking Fexofenadine for months (so its had time to build up) as well as Sodium Cromoglycate and Optimol eye drops. The key thing is that for 3ish weeks out of every 4 I'm totally fine with no symptoms, but as soon as my period arrives and for about 7-10 days it is unbearable. This has been happening since Nov-Dec (it's not hayfever) and prior to that I had no allergy problems at all. At first I thought I might have been imagining the timing connection but once again it arrived bang on cue with my period yesterday.

I have had all the private allergy tests and they can't find anything I'm particularly allergic to, but one of the tests did show raised levels of some chemical which essentially just confirms the presence of high allergy symptoms.

I can't for the life of me understand what - either connected to my own cycle or to HRT - could be causing this, and I haven't seen or heard of any other ladies here saying anything similar. I'm not really expecting to get any replies to this, but thought it couldn't hurt to ask if anyone has ever seen or heard of anything similar?

[CrispyChick]

Gilla - I'm certainly no expert on this, but could it be this:

Progesterone dampens down histamine, so by abruptly stopping progesterone. As u do when you stop the utrogestan for the month, your estrogen increases, causing histamine increase.

Fexofenadine etc not being strong enough to override this reaction???

I'm also on Fexofenadine. When I'm suffering with my sinus flair it's always when my own estrogen is highest in my cycle. I was also experiencing a lot of sinus issues on the pill.

Unfortunately, allergy symptoms can become heightened at this stage of life 
.

[Floo36]

Hi,  for the last 5 months I have a severe itchy rash all over and it really gets me down on top of the other severe symptoms.  I seem to react to anything and everything now.  Im putting down to low Estrogen.

[Gilla999]

Crispy I had read about the Progsterone and thought that was a possibility - but then as Floo says, I had thought I seemed to notice it when my own Estrogen is low (this happened recently when my own E dropped, then again as a result of Covid) and when I reached day 8 or 9 when your own Estrogen starts to rise, I felt like the allergy symptoms started to dissipate. But I realise that goes completely against the facts of Estrogen being a histamine instigator!

The only other thing i wondered is if my Estrogen is too high for that particular part of my cycle (day 1 to 7, when it should be at its lowest) and that's what's causing the symptoms at that particular phase. Because Progesterone does also start to rise from around day 8/9 (not as much as E, but its still there) so perhaps it starts to provide a counter balance. But I'm obviously just stabbing in the dark!

Also have no idea what I could do about it, as taking Utrogestan for longer I assume would suppress my ovulation and from my experiements on the Pill I don't want to do that 

Floo, is the rash constant or does it vary and are you taking anything for it? xx

[CrispyChick]

Totally agree Gilla - no matter what the theory... Is there actually a solution??

It's all so much of a balance, and which symptoms can you tolerate, over which you cant.

I just reduced my fexofenadine by half because I'm about to get a sinus op. The first 4 days of reduction my eyes were Itchy as hell, now its settled. So certainly exposure to a rush of extra histamine causes extreme symptoms, and then seems to calm... Not sure if that's any help. 

[Floo36]

It’s up and down like everything else at the moment Gilla999.  I’m taking fexofenodine and tried steroid cream, moisturiser, zeroderm, dermacool.  It’s so uncomfortable it really is. 

[Peana]

Gilla999, I read something recently on the Newson Health website (or might have been the Balance app) about histamine intolerance.  I can't remember the details, but it might be worth checking it out to see if it helps.  I think my mum used to have it (she started sneezing everytime she had a glass of wine), but luckily my allergies don't seem to be quite as sensitive.  Sorry, I can't help more, I've got total brain fog just now.

[Gilla999]

Thanks ladies - it is a strange one! You're right Crispy, all things considered it's a bloody pain in the bum but nowhere near the debilitating symptoms of pre HRT so I'm grateful for that!

Floo I really hope you start to feel better soon. In my early 20s I suffered from a horrendous skin rash that wouldn't go away - it took months of hefty antihistamines to start to help. It can really bring you down after a while.

Peana thanks for the recommendation- the odd thing is that I thought histamine intolerance to estrogen would be at all times of the month - but I never have a problem during ovulation for example when my E peaks. But perhaps the Progesterone is there at that time to balance it out... who knows!! Guess Fexofenadine is my friend for the foreseeable future!!

[Angelasurrey]

Gill,

I’ve been meaning to message, Dr Menopause care on instagram did a chat re histamine and allergies.
https://www.instagram.com/drmenopausecare/?hl=en

It may help.

Angela x

[sweettooth]

Gilla no expert myself but Iv just had this mentioned to me.  I’m post menopause, no womb or ovaries but natural prog has been suggested to balance out the Estrogen.  Also post vaccine and covid I had a flare up of meno problems and I tried upping my estrogen but I felt dreadful and apparently this is a sign of histamine issues.  Tina peers or Louise Newson talk about this issue.  They recommend Low histamine diet plus anti h etc.  Good luck x

[ATB]

Really interesting post. I’ve been thinking this myself, but haven’t paid close enough attention to exactly when I get symptoms I just know it’s been worse in these hormonal years, in fact I didn’t have hay fever or allergy reactions till around the time my hormone issues cropped up years ago. I thought it was the location I had moved to at the time.

[Gilla999]

Thanks Sweettooth and ATB - interesting to hear. My allergy symptoms started before Covid in December, but have definitely amped up since I had it in early April (unsure whether a coincidence) and it's getting progressively worse. Last week I woke up with a huge/scary puffy swollen face and eyes, and this week I now have acute hives/urticaria all over my body (moves around). It's horrendous (and I'm already on the strongest antihistamines possible). My body is clearly not happy with something but I have absolutely no idea what it is, just know I feel awful.

Unfortunately I can't take Utro continuously without suppressing ovulation (I'm still ovulating) and I know that causes me untold problems.

Angela thanks very much for the link! I'll take a look now xx

You know when you just want to feel normal again - oh how we took that for granted!

[ATB]

Have you used either a nasal rinse or those little gadgets you stick up your nose, the infrared thing, mine is a bionase.

[Gilla999]

Not heard of those ATB, but my symptoms aren't in my nose or hayfever related - when the allergy gets so bad that you have acute urticaria (Google pics if you want an example - grim!) they generally think it's something you're ingesting (food or medication) rather than an external thing. The Urticaria only came on the day after I started Androfemme so I am going to stop that today just in case it's related, but I suspect it's not because the Urticaria is just the latest in a long line of chronic allergy problems that started in December and then got really bad after Covid in April. My suspicion is that it's something related to the long list of meds that i currently take between either the HRT or antidepressants (I'm in the middle of tapering two of them across to something else, so currently take four (!!!) of small amounts, under the care of a psychiatrist).

Just feel totally done in, on top of all the hormone problems of the last two years - I just want a period of time where health problems don't dominate my life. I'm sure lots of people here can relate to that 

[ATB]

Yes! Can totally relate! Hope you find a solution soon