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[JoAnn]

Hi community

First time posting here. I have been on estrogel and utrogestan for nearly a year. Started privately and moved the prescription to the NHS 5 months ago. It took me a long time to get along with HRT (tried for 9 months previously and gave up altogether until restarting successfully a year later). Went to pick my prescription yesterday and instead of estrogel I got oestrodose. Upon researching I saw lots of posts from 5 years ago with ladies complaining their menopause symptoms came back, but I haven't seen anything recently. Does anyone know if is is ok now? In theory it's  the same as estrogel but, because of bad past experience with different HRT brands, I am worried enough to ask here for those with personal experience. I still have estrogel left so haven't tried it yet. Thanks!

[CLKD]

Hi! Check with the Pharmacist why the prescription has been changed, if the current regime works 4 U the last thing U need is a blip!

It may b the cheaper version?  Let us know how you get on.

[Mary G]

There are quite a few threads on Oestrodose on here and I know quite a few women don't get on with it.  In theory it's supposed to be identical to Oestrogel but in reality, I don't think it is.

If you do a search on here you will see several discussion threads.

[JoAnn]

Thanks. I did check before but could only find reports around 5 years ago, unnless I'm doing something wrong. Hence my question if there are people on it recently in case the issues back in the day were addressed. I saw an article by a doctor (again, back in 2020) explaining it is the same product with different name( estrogel marketed for UK and oestrodose for France) but they had been made aware that there were potential issues in how they were stored/transported to the UK which caused them to lose efficacy. If that was indeed the issue and no reports of it being problematic recently, I would assume it's fine.

[JoAnn]

Hi! Check with the Pharmacist why the prescription has been changed, if the current regime works 4 U the last thing U need is a blip!

It may b the cheaper version?  Let us know how you get on.

Thanks. Yes this is my fear as all going so well. I will ask. They changed my Utrogestan for Gepetrix a while ago and, when I asked the reason, they said it was the default by the NHS for those on micronised progesterone and it was the same product. I didn't have any bad side effects with the change, thankfully.

[chopsuey]

Oestrogel and Oestrodose have different forms of oestradiol:hemihydrate and anhydrous respectively. I have no idea whether that has any relevance in practice and initially when I first tried Oestrodose, I didn't notice any difference. After about a month, I noticed that I was getting more brain fog. This eased when I went back onto Oestrogel but the same thing happened the next time I used Oestrodose. I don't absorb very well, so that may be a factor. I certainly groan when I see I've been given Oestrodose instead, but like you, I've got enough Oestrogel to not have to use it at the moment. If you say anything to the pharmacist, they just insist it is the same.

[JoAnn]

Oestrogel and Oestrodose have different forms of oestradiol:hemihydrate and anydrous respectively. I have no idea whether that has any relevance in practice and initially when I first tried Oestrodose, I didn't notice any difference. After about a month, I noticed that I was getting more brain fog. This eased when I went back onto Oestrogel but the same thing happened the next time I used Oestrodose. I don't absorb very well, so that may be a factor. I certainly groan when I see I've been given Oestrodose instead, but like you, I've got enough Oestrogel to not have to use it at the moment. If you say anything to the pharmacist, they just insist it is the same.

Bummer! Just my luck. I will go to the chemist tomorrow and ask if they can change it. I doubt they will but will talk to my GP to see if I can charm her to specifically write Estrogel on my repeat as opposed to "estradiol transdermal gel".

I had very poor absorbtion on the patches before which made me a tiny shadow of my former self for nearly a year. I hope this doesn't happen to the same extent with this one. Hopefully I will only need it for one month before my prescription is due to be renewed and if I can't absorb it well, I will insist on estrogel. Why oh why do they need to change something that is working, after so much pain it took to get to a good place? Sigh... Wishing you luck too!

[chopsuey]

If your pharmacy is anything like mine, they just give you what's available at the time, so it's pot luck really, unless you can get the GP to specify. I don't know why there are different forms of the same product by the same company but for different markets.