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[Kathleen]

Hello Tulip.

I completely sympathise. I have been trying to get my HRT right for years and I am still dealing with various symptoms, some physical ( I had a night sweat last night out of nowhere) but mainly emotional.

If your GP will not arrange a blood test you can do this yourself privately. I know Medichecks offer this service and there are also businesses that provide vaccinations and blood tests. I was sent to an office for a hormonal blood test by Newson Health when I was a patient as their clinic. As the test was commissioned by NH I wasn't given the results, instead I had to wait for them to be sent to NH and then have them emailed to me, which they charged me for. I thought then that in future I would just approach the blood test people directly.

I am now back with my GP for my HRT and the surgery have a Senior Nurse Practitioner who runs their menopause clinic. She is happy to arrange blood tests and she tells me that she believes an Oestradiol level of 200pmol/L is something to aim for.

I hope all this is of help and I wish you well.

K.

[Tulip]

Thank you Kathleen. It does help a little bit knowing I'm not alone, although it's bittersweet knowing so many other women are struggling, y'know? X

[Kathleen]

Hello again Tulip.

Yes, I do know and sending hugs.


Take care.

K.

[Teresa]

I was similar to you. I was increased me to 100 mcg patch and a gynaecologist upped my utrogestam to 200 mg ( although I now think they know very little about HRT) I felt awful on that. My GP did test my estradiol levels, as I’m post menopausal (they should really do that for you, can you not insist?) and my levels were 81. Pmo/l. I’d been on patches for nearly two years.
I saw a menopause specialist as my GP didn’t have a clue and switched to three sprays of Lenzetto and had a mirena coil fitted. Within a week, I immediately felt better. I had another estradiol test a few weeks later, ( with Lenzetto, you take it about an hour before your next sprays) and my levels were 430 Pmo/l.
It sounds like you just aren’t absorbing.
I urge you to get an estradiol blood test somehow if you can, so you can find out what’s happening.

[Kathleen]

Hello again ladies.

I agree that a blood test would be very helpful.

As I have probably already said my Oestradiol level was below 78 pmol/L in March this year when I was using half a Sandrena sachet. I changed to a full sachet and my  reading a few weeks ago was 139 pmol/L.  From this I can see that I am absorbing the gel and I can guess at the rate this is happening. I have also said before that my nurse has said a target of 200 pmol/L should effectively help my mood symptoms. Time will tell on that I guess but it is something to aim for and gives me hope!

Take care ladies.

K.

[Teresa]

Hi Kathleen,
It’s good to hear your levels are improving. I have been told that levels above 250 pmo/l are usually needed for post menopausal women on HRT to get relief and most women need a bit higher. I wonder if the Nurse maybe overly cautious in what they are advising to you? If you look in the Newson website and other well known  menopause specialist sites you will also see this is the optimum they recommend to reach at least too.  You may find you need at least this. If your symptoms aren’t improved on 200 pmo/l, do push for higher, if you feel you need it and you may even find you need to try a different type of HRT to get to a higher level.

[bombsh3ll]

I just wanted to add that there is material available on an NHS website that you can find by googling estradiol levels and bone protection, stating that 250pmol/L is required to assure bone protection.

The late Professor Studd considered this threshold to be 300pmol/L.

These resources, particularly the NHS one, may be helpful to take to your next appointment.

I'm on Zoely and my estradiol is 390pmol/L although some of this is likely to be my own as the pill doesn't suppress endogenous estradiol down to zero.

Personally I don't plan to let my estradiol fall below where it is now.

[Kathleen]

Hello again ladies.

My nurse said that she will try to get me to 200pmol/L and I think she believes this will bring me some symptom relief. She hasn't mentioned any limits thankfully.

 I was okayish this morning but my anxiety is back now so I am just hoping that things improve soon.

I am mindful of the fact that Newson Health had me up to 600pmol/L at one point but with very low progesterone and I still had some tearful and anxious times then. I am hoping that the lack of balance was the main issue then and that a steady dose of a therapeutic level will be enough to return me to sanity lol.

Now I am back with my GP surgery it will be easier to have my blood levels checked and hopefully that will help work things out.

Wishing you all well ladies.

K.

[Teresa]

Hi Kathleen,

Ah, it’s good to hear that she won’t prevent you going over 200 should you need it.
Yes, I too think it’s all a matter of balance and that’s the hardest part to reach in all this it seems. I’m not sure what what size equivalent of patch your gel equate to as there appears to be differing sizes of sachets, but I was always made aware that we need to have higher than a 25 mcg patch equivalent to obtain adequate bone health. My spray equivalent equates to a 50 mcg patch apparently, for example.

I wish you all the best in achieving adequate relief.