Menopause Matters Forum
General Discussion => New Members => Topic started by: Southselly1 on May 04, 2018, 07:25:33 AM
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Hello ladies
I went through early menopause at around 36/37 and I was referred to my endocrine consultant as I was all over the place with my thyroid too, at the time.
She prescribed Prempack C and after a tweak to higher dose a few months later: I got in with dealing with the shock of it all.
Now prempack c was so suited to me I actually forgot I was going through this whole thing.
Then life threw me a curveball and prempack c was discontinued (so I was told) and I was given another well known brand which was thrown out, within a month and I sat crying for virtually a month !
I now take Femoston (higher dose) and I spend 2 weeks ok ish and then around 2 weeks in despair.
It's clear that the pink tablets (progesterone) keep me afloat and when I dont have them I just nosedive.
I'm desperate for prempack c.... where can I get this from as online Lloyds pharmacy say they stock it! Can I ask my GP to source this?
My GP is fabulous and she has shared she isn't an expert on menopause and there are no other GPS in my surgery who are. However she does state if I get advice or research what I want to try she will support me, as far as she can as my GP
Advise welcome
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Hi Southselly and welcome to MM.
I was on Prempak C for 12/13 years and it dealt with my meno symptoms really well with hardly any side effects. I was gutted when they discontinued it and I've tried various ways of sourcing some, including Lloyd's Pharmacy and other online pharmacies. I've also tried getting it in Spain but have had no luck. Although Lloyd's say they are in stock, when I sent my prescription off, I received an email saying they are no longer available. Sorry to be so negative on the Prempak front but I think they really are no longer available at the moment.
However, on a more positive note, I have found a couple of Hrt preparations that help with my meno symptoms so I'm hopeful you will find something else that suits you. It does take time for things to settle on a new regime but it does get there eventuall
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Whoops ! as I was saying....it does get there eventually. The problem I have is that the estrogens are affecting my stomach which I never experienced when I was on Prempak C so my journey continues to find something that helps with my meno symptoms without the side effects.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.
Rosie63 x
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Hi and welcome to MM Southsellly1
You have lots of HRT options and if you feel better when taking progesterone then you could possibly have a continuous HRT if you are now post menopause. Most HRTs now have bio identical oestrogen which is deemed better than the oestrogen in the old fashioned HRTs like Prempak C. You may do better with either Utrogestan (micronised progesterone) or Provera (Medroxyprogesterone) so look under TREATMENTS on this site to see your options. Print this info out and pop to your GP to discuss. It's going to be trial and error I'm afraid.
You may find you would do well with a Mirena fitted as this would give you the low continuous dose of progesterone that could make you feel better - once the Mirena is in place you simply add in oestrogen as gel or patch! DG x
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Hi you could take premarin 1.25 as the oestrogen which is the same as the oestrogen in Prempack.
Then you could take a separate progesterone - utrogestan, provera or norithsterine (sp 😀)
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Thank you all for replying
I have spent some time this last weekend researching other treatments and I'm armed with a whole new set of options
GP visit booked first thing this Friday
Let's see if my perceived GP is ‘with me' on my journey.
??? ???
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Hi, I too am devastated that prempak c no longer available :'( I had ovaries removed at age 31, I'm now 47 and had been on prempak c and happy on it for years. Since beginning of this year I've been in a mess trying to find alternative. I've been really poorly. GP was useless and kept prescribing continuous one and it was making me ill. I was referred to a gynaecologist and have been on cyclo progynova 2mg since April. Currently on 2nd pack. It's helped with fatigue and night sweats but I struggling on a daily basis with spinning/dizziness. Gynaecologist and an ENT doctor have both said it's a chemical imbalance and anxiety over all the messing around with hrt and it will settle in time but I just don't believe them :'( I can't cope without hrt but also can't cope with this dizziness which is only in certain positions! I really really wish prempak c was still being manufactured! I too was so happy on it!
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It's interesting how many women feel better on the horse urine oestrogen compared to the bio-identical. I also found (for the little time I tried it), that I felt better on the ethinyl estrogen from the combined pill than the bio one. I also tried the Zoely pill which has the bio oestrogen in and I felt awful!
I wonder why?
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I have always wondered that too.
Here is something to ponder
https://sciencebasedpharmacy.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/bioidentical-hormone-replacement/
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I think the majority of women using the bio oestrogen get it bulk made as Oestrogel etc. rather than compounded (I do that for my progesterone as we only have one strong option of Ultrogestan otherwise) but maybe it's to do with it being plant based, where Premarin etc were animal protein based?
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Animal, vegetable or mineral, if it suits you it suits you!
Any health provider NHS or otherwise, should be sensitive to this.
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Have you contacted the Manufacturer about the product and where it might be sourced?
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cazjen44
Sorry to hear about your issues with Prempak C being withdrawn and your struggles to find another type. As Mamachunk says - you can still take this one if you really want to but with separate progestogen. If you look under the Treatments tab on the menu you will see the different HRT types - look for oestrogen and progesterone separately. I can appreciate the difficulties for women who have been taking these for years and have now to suffer consequences of changing to a different type. I think some women have done well on them because as I understand, they are stronger than estradiol - and perhaps the current fixed preparations can't be matched exactly in terms of dose. You can take oestrogen only tablets. I would never recommennd Cycloprogynova because it has the 7 tablet free days so you will having a massive dip in oestrogen during this time as well as progesterone withdrawal symptoms so pms +++
tika - it's not a question of whether it suits you - as more research becomes available and long term studies into risks etc then products may be withdrawn.
The horse urine oestrogen ( the PRE- types) are now very old fashioned and from what I gather are associated with more of adverse health risks than the body-identical (= bio-identical) estradiol. We're not talking about compounding here - just the actual molecules/compounds used. It does really make sense that if we are replacing hormones then we should replace with one that is closest or identcial to what is made in our bodies.
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Hi dangermouse, I guess that you feel better on ethinyl estrogen than estradiol cause it is stronger.
At young ages we need stronger estrogen and that's why we feel better on bcp with stronger estrogen than hrt.
Bcps are recommended sometimes for POF sufferers.
The problem is that estradiol is considered safer for long term use and better for bone density than bcp.
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I had a more extreme reaction to the estradiol, it seemed more potent or misfitting to my receptors rather than a weakness.
Sorry, I wasn't moving from the pill to it, I just meant the combined never made me feel odd like the natural estradiol but I'm sure it's not comparable to the horse proteins so I shouldn't have mentioned that bit!
I guess if it's dangerous though then best avoided - although I suppose the pill is too in terms of cancer risk.
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https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/101/9/3497/2806843
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Southselly1 its a shame you can't be prescribed something similar to Prempack C as you were doing so well on it and not doing at all well on the HRT now prescribed, which is so called bio-identical. From what I have read some women do just fine on on the original HRT formulas, and some still taking it in their 80s, before bio-identicals became more widely used.
Maybe you could go back to your GP and explain how awful you feel and maybe come up with something similar for you to try, or you might hit on a bio-identical substitute that might be fine for you.
I still stand by my previous post that what suits you suits you. I am a new poster and just saying what I feel might be of help to some. No point in taking anything that makes you feel awful no matter how much it might suit another woman.
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tiki - you are quite right. What suits one women may not suit another. There does need to be more flexibility with HRT treatment and if all oestrogen types and progesterone types were available separately, then mixing and matching to find the right formula for each women would be possible - some appropriate training for GPs and practise nurses would help everything enormously. DG x
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I still stand by my previous post that what suits you suits you. I am a new poster and just saying what I feel might be of help to some. No point in taking anything that makes you feel awful no matter how much it might suit another woman.
I agree that no-one wants to nor should take anything that makes them feel awful - but as I said before - there is a distinction between what might suit someone and what might have lower risk profile. If products are phased out or withdrawn (like the horse urine oestrogens HRT types) because of new research that suggests that they may have greater adverse long-term health consequences then this has to be accepted.
Also it is the changing between prodtcs that can cause problems so hopefully once the withdrawn product has completely gone then we are able to experiment with the many different formulations that contain estradiol.
What I really disagree with is perfectly good and safe products being withdrawn for commerical reasons - like Orthogynest estriol pessaries, and Vagifem 25 mcg ( for vaginal atrophy) and the progestogen dydrogesterone as a separate product for HRT.
Hurdity x
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Thank you all for replying
I have spent some time this last weekend researching other treatments and I'm armed with a whole new set of options
GP visit booked first thing this Friday
Let's see if my perceived GP is ‘with me' on my journey.
??? ???
How did you get on at your appointment Southselly1?
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Hi ladies - I hope you don't mind me adding to this thread but think it is slightly relevant. I've just been reading about estrogens under treatments above and it mentions that estradiol etc is made from soya beans or yam. I'm just wondering if this could be the reason why I experience stomach pain as soya has that affect on me and, why, I didn't suffer such side effects when I was taking Prempak.
I'm learning so much from this forum which I hope will help me get through this difficult journey.
Rosie x