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[Gilla999]

I seem to have this thing where my body develops an allergic reaction to a HRT product after a while. It first happened with Lenzetto after 18 months and I had to switch to Evorel. Now it's happened again after about the same amount of time. Both times it's a kind of dermatitis skin reaction.

I guess now my only option is switching to gel, but my big problem is I am on a tiny dose of HRT - I use 1/4 of a 25 Evorel patch. I realise this will sound ludicrous to some, but I know from past experience and tests that I'm a super-absorber transdermally, so I get relatively quite a lot from that.

Has anyone had any experience of moving from patches to gel in terms of strength? When I look at the BMJ it tells me 1/2 a 25 patch is equivalent to half a pump of Oestrogel and half a sachet of Sandrea. Have others found that to be relatively accurate?

I have no idea how I'd get 1/4 of a dose of gel. My initial thought was that 1/4 of a sachet of Sandrena might be easier to measure than 1/4 of a pump of oestrogel?

[Dotty]

It would be difficult to get an exact amount of gel every time unless you weighed it.

I think Sandrena comes in a 0.5mg as well as 1mg so the 0.5 might be better.

[Gilla999]

Thanks Dotty, that's what I was thinking - I'd have to weigh it    What a palava!

[Sooze]

I’ve recently been experimenting with adding slightly more Sandrena than my usual 1mg. How I have done that is by adding a very small amount from a second pouch (less than a petit pois blob).

The first one lasted 9 days and the second 11 days.  Will be starting a new one tomorrow.  Now either I’m having a placebo effect or this small amount is making a difference - I was getting some health anxiety symptoms which it seems to have eased.

My last blood result was on the low side (139 pmol/L), but I’d say my symptoms were on the whole well controlled besides the occasional anxiety.
HTH.

[Suziemc]

Hi

I use oestrogel and when the new bottle shape was introduced it was obvious, by sight, that it wasn't dispensing the same amount for each pump so I bought a cheap (£5-ish) set of jewellers scales. I now weigh each pump of gel and adjust amount to correct dose. It's easy to depress the pump a tiny way to get 20 odd g at a time. I also use them for my testosterone.

If you do change to gel I'd recommend a set of jewellers scales, easy to find on amazon, and weigh out whatever your required dose is. You'll also soon get useful to whatever your dose looks like and be able to do it by eye.

Suzie

[joziel]

Get some jewellery scales and a silicone spatula. Zero the scales on the spatula, squirt some gel and tada....

I think you'll get pretty good at estimating after a while. Plus we absorb different products differently so you might end up needing half a pump, for eg...