Hiya
Yes, my cousin is having that issue NHS, about 'max doses' - it's not actually true, any doctor can prescribe any dose if they justify why they've done it. I'm fortunate I'm private so my gynae is pretty good at looking at blood tests and symptoms - she wants my blood levels above 600, which clearly I'm not achieving on 5.5 pumps of oestrogel. My sis in law also had a total hysterectomy NHS and both her NHS gynae and GP wouldn't let her have any more than 4 pumps. She saw Nick Pannay, he put her on two x 100 patches (changed a day early) and top up oestrogel (her GP was appalled, but is doing as he's told!) and her blood levels are only 600, some people absorb differently. Surely doctors are supposed to be concerned with how the patient feels and what their blood levels show, and whether there are any abnormalities in the endometrium??
I'm also on a lower dose of P vaginally and I just have regular scans - the whole progesterone thing in the UK is overblown in my opinion as we are so stingy on scanning, in europe they scan women as a matter of course. Here we wang women on too much P and make them feel awful, depressed, fat and weepy! I'm also massively P sensitive.
Re dosing, that's helpful thank you, I've seen several stories like yours. I guess it's worth trying it at the lower dose of Sandrena, on the assumption that it'll actually absorb and improve my levels on a lesser dose, but yes I don't get the equivalence either. 5.5 pumps of oestrogel = just over 4mg of estradiol. 3 sachets is 3mg. I felt great on 4.5 pumps of oestrogel for a long time, and only increased the dose on the new cylinder bottles, so 3mg of sandrena is closer to my old dose. She's prescribed me enough to fiddle about with it too, it's just the adjustment period that's a drag!
Anyway, I'll report back and post blood results and we can compare notes.
Cheers
GS
x