Print

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

[laszla]

Hollyboll I'm really sorry to hear that.
It is early days though and however it ends up going I still think that trying the implant is ultimately, if perhaps indirectly, helpful if only because we can only know what it's like if we actually try it.

In hindsight I would have tapered off the gel much more quickly than I did - I continued using it for nearly 4 weeks and decreased in tiny increments, so that when I first tested after a month my serum E was 870 something - sky high and unheard of for me.
I'm wondering if you might be feeling rotten because your estrogen has also shot up quite high quite quickly, just a thought.
I am going to re-test in about a week. My symptoms are anxiety and extreme fatigue but, as being discussed on another thread, the overlap of hormones and MH is very tricky to interpret and treat. I sense at most a tiny improvement but am almost scared to even say that.

Are you going to test your blood levels to see how values are, it might help account for how you're feeling...

[Hollyboll]

Thanks Laszla appreciate the reply.

Yes good idea - I‘ll try to get an e2 test perhaps Monday.

If it’s very high, I’ll stop the patches. Seems unlikely because this dizziness started almost immediately (36 hours max) and the implant shouldn’t release that quickly / but I do have this weird initial uptake thing so it’s possible.

If it’s very low I’m not sure what to do but one step at a time.

I definitely have no regrets about trying implant. It took a long time and a very good specialist to work out, but I can’t get consistent levels transdermally. Oral feels too risky. So apparently if anything can give me stable levels it’s this.

Are you feeling any better now that your levels are (hopefully) down a bit?  Tiny improvements are a win after these years but I know what you mean about being scared to Hope - plus they’re very hard to see when we’re stuck in it. You must also feel disappointed cos T had worked so well.

There was another comment / thread in the last few days of someone saying it took a few E implants before she felt good but it did happen 🤞

Sorry to hear still anxiety and fatigue (and that T not sorting at least the latter). Are you sleeping ? Xx

[laszla]

Thanks Hollyboll, it does sound as if you your reaction was related to the implant if those symptoms began immediately.
My second T implant more than doubled my serum levels and made them too high - in addition to fast and considerable increase in E levels - so evidently it is hard to attain stable levels with implants as well as with gels/patches for some of us.

My sleep is terrible, I forgot to mention it, and obviously it is unreasonable to expect T or any hormone to compensate for a longstanding lack of sleep. I am trialling everything to address it but have practically run out of options.
The T has at least made a real difference to muscular weekness, I can now lift weights so much more easily, so that is something.

I too read about the poster who needed a few rounds of implants to get a good result so here's hoping.
Let us know how you get on, if your blood tests illuminate things in any way, I'll do likewise. xx

[Hollyboll]

Thanks Laszla. I’m worried by how bad I feel today so just a short one to say I appreciate the message and apols I can’t reply properly on your stuff now. Will try for blood test tomo (reduced patch again last night) if can get there - struggling to be upright today x

[pepipop]

Hi

I too get implants. For years I got both T and E, however the last two times were E 50mg only, with the occasional use of Androfemme  - my last implant being in Feb 2024. 

At this moment, anyhow, I felt better at the end of the prior implant than I do now 2 months later. The implant reduced flushes that had returned but I seem to have developed excess joint and muscle pains out of the blue that I did not have prior  - although I did have many years ago, at times. 

I am also much more fatiqued, flat, etc and have poor sleep. I have not had bloods done, so not sure what my levels are at. i did try oestrogel, a few years back, but I did not like it at all.  The only other thing I am considering - although I've read otherwise - is that I take thyroid hormone and wonder does the increased estrogen levels effect it.  I've read that transdermal estrogen doesn't effect exogenous thyroid, but WHO knows.

[Hollyboll]

Sorry to hear you are feeling bad pepipop and sorry too I've no idea about thyroid.

As you are years more experienced than we on implants, do you have any idea of what is supposed to happen with the pattern of E levels?  I know it takes a week or so to start working, a few weeks to ramp up ... but after that does it level and then drop towards the end, or go up more before levelling or dropping, or very gradually decline from that first takeup?

I'm also curious about the occasional use of Androfemme - everything I thought I'd heard about T (although that's not a particularly huge amount) was that it's all about consistency and slow cumulation ...

xx

[pepipop]

Hi Hollyboll, when I started the implants I was peri so it was difficult to judge levels etc...however I initially returned around 6mths to get them replaced.  i then was diganosed with cancer and the treatment induced menopause, however it seemed that I could leave the implants for 9months and my levels, I believe would remain quite high on return, i.e.  around 500pmol. 

To be truthful, I always felt very f;lat and drained after implants so

[pepipop]

whoops went off on it's own, the last post! 

Anyhow, after chemo etc...I was very shattered anyhow for years so I genuinely find it difficult to equate HRT with the benefits. Oesteoporosis runs in my family and biophosphonates do not work, so chose to remain on HRT rather than get even worse physically.  As I mentioned my last implant, of E only, was renewed after 15 mths and my e levels were still around 450pmol.  I do seem to retain the benefit of the implant for a long time, however I also seemed to have more energy prior to the latest implant.

I felt taking the T implant, made me very flat but 'I' believe this may have more to do with potentially supressing the adrenal glands, etc... in susceptible people like myself.  When I introduced androfemme for the last two months of my last implant my energy levels, mood, sleep etc... was great.  Then after the implant it all reversed.  So, I really have no clue. I think there are so many interactions that occur in the body with the introduction of exogenous hormones, i.e. that effect the immune system, the adrenals, thyroid etc... it really is very difficult to work out what actually is the MAGIC formula is.

Oestrogel was v strange for me, I did not absorb well and my estrogen level was around 250 pmol.  I do believe I had more energy though at the lower level.

I know the above is not very helpful but I find it difficult to work out what the magic formula is and due to oesteoporisis in the family etc I intend to remain on HRT .  I had other problems before renewing the implant, i.e. hot flushes etc.. but energy, mood wise I was much better. 

[pepipop]

I am in my mid 60's now, so I have been on implants for over 10 years.  I stopped the T side of the implants due to the flattening effect on myself, I was permanently shattered for several months after the implants, and felt very flat that eventually subsided after around 4 mths.  I do think using the androfemme has helped, although I seem to have gotten rashes, on neck etc that I did not have prior to using it, so have stopped it in the meantime.  I am hoping after another month on this current implant my levels will even up, or my body will get used to the higher level again and I will re-introduce the androfemme.  When I get another blood test on my current oestrogen levels I shall post this up. 

However, my estrogen levels would remain pretty high up to 300 pmol, 2 years after an implant i.e. that was the level before I started estrogel for aroundx 2 years and then the level decreased to around 250 pmol when I started having vaginal atrophy systems, which I'd never had before.

Anyhow, I hope my posts are in someway helpful.  Possibly, the fact I take thyroid (overf 35 years) it is harder for me to judge the reactions, as I do feel 'underthyroid' at times although I have not changed my dose and blood tests are not very conclusive.

[Hollyboll]

Thanks pepipop for your long replies and sharing what sounds like an incredibly tough journey.  Sending you big hugs.

Wow, that does sound like you retain levels for a lot longer than many.  Sorry to hear you are feeling the last implant has made things worse ... it'd be interesting to know levels.  I learned the hard way that higher E is at least as troublesome as lower - but I'm talking over 1000 (and sometimes a lot higher!).

Wrensong is resident expert on all things thyroid here - as you say hard to know but seems they may well all affect eachother

Consultant did (I think) mention that T implants didn't give as lovely stable levels, more susceptible to fluctuations, than E implants ... but as there's no qn of T implant for me atm, since we are totally focused on my crazy E, I'm not absolutely sure.

Do you have any idea for the E implants how the 'build' is supposed to work - though obviously different for everyone?  I know they take about a week to start but am totally unclear whether then they increase more, and if so for how long, etc. 

xx