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Author Topic: Anyone else unable to get the UK pump pack of Oestrogel  (Read 7887 times)

MIS71MUM

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Re: Anyone else unable to get the UK pump pack of Oestrogel
« Reply #15 on: April 15, 2018, 07:59:32 PM »

GRL - that's given me a brilliant idea. Might email Besins to find out who they supply to so we can always get Oestrogel.

I'll let you know the outcome all.
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GypsyRoseLee

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Re: Anyone else unable to get the UK pump pack of Oestrogel
« Reply #16 on: April 16, 2018, 09:02:28 AM »

Stellajane, I think it's the carrier gel used in Oestrodose that is inferior to the one used in Oestrogel. Oestrodose feels thinner and runnier, and smells different to Oestrogel. I think this affects the absorption of the product?
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Stephjkm

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Re: Anyone else unable to get the UK pump pack of Oestrogel
« Reply #17 on: April 16, 2018, 10:23:47 PM »

I managed to get two of my prescribed 6 pumps today, it seems to be trickling through!
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SueLW

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Re: Anyone else unable to get the UK pump pack of Oestrogel
« Reply #18 on: August 04, 2018, 06:24:56 PM »

I took my private prescription to the pharmacy last week.  For Wockhard brand levothyroxine and Estrogel.

They have already asked me to try a different brand of levothyroxine because they struggle to get the brand I want and have told me they don't make it in the bigger sizes anymore (not sure if I believe that).  But they did get be a sack full of the small dose tablets.  I didn't think to check the gel in the shop.  Got to work, looked and I have 2 pump packs of Oestrodose!

I am very cross.  I paid for this.  The script said Oestrogel.  I took it back.  They argued it was just the same.  I told them women didn't like this one because the carrier gel is different and seems to upset absorption.  In the end, very reluctantly, the pharmacist went off to phone the supplier.  Came back and told me that one supplier doesn't stock Oestrogen anymore and the other said that even if it were specified they would probably send the Oestrodose because it's the same.  Even the hormone doctor who wrote the script said it was the same.  These people just don't listen.  I've had such a hard time and finally I'm on gel and Utrogestan and although I don't think 1 pump a day will be enough, I'm surviving so far and now I have a change looming.

When I hadn't been on levothyroxine long, I had a prescription refilled with the Teva brand.  I took 5 of those pills over the course of a week and felt like I was going to die!  I had a major nose bleed, major.  I never have nose bleeds.  I felt like death.  In the end I waited out the weekend with no tablets and on Monday turned up at the same pharmacy and begged them to get the old ones.  Which they did.  I felt better immediately I took the old brand again.  Now they want me to stop asking for that brand because it's hard for them to get!  It's not fair.  This wreaks already broken lives.  I could have free meds because of the thyroid problem, but I pay for private prescriptions to try to avoid the switching of brands yet still I can't secure a reliable supply of what I want.
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Dotty

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Re: Anyone else unable to get the UK pump pack of Oestrogel
« Reply #19 on: August 04, 2018, 07:06:39 PM »

Sue LW - did your prescription specify Oestrogel or did it just say Oestrogen gel ? I was told that if the prescription specifies Oestrogel then that's the on that they have to give you.
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SueLW

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Re: Anyone else unable to get the UK pump pack of Oestrogel
« Reply #20 on: August 04, 2018, 09:54:05 PM »

Sue LW - did your prescription specify Oestrogel or did it just say Oestrogen gel ? I was told that if the prescription specifies Oestrogel then that's the on that they have to give you.

It did specify Oestrogel.  But evidently, because these two products are considered the same, the pharmacy suppliers can send what they want.  And they seem to want to send Oestrodose!
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Tinkerbell

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Re: Anyone else unable to get the UK pump pack of Oestrogel
« Reply #21 on: August 05, 2018, 12:05:37 AM »

A chemist told me that if prescription says Estradiol you can have either product.
When I  order my Estrogel prescription I collect it from our surgery rather than it being sent over to the chemist direct, a pain but it means I can go to all the chemists in our area and ask if they have the Estrogel if not I try another one.
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Lanzalover

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Re: Anyone else unable to get the UK pump pack of Oestrogel
« Reply #22 on: August 05, 2018, 05:57:10 AM »

Good morning SueLW

I have also had this problem so I know just how you feel  :bang:

My script now says not Oestrodose version please. I collect the script from the surgery and use my local chemist and although I had a few problems at first I just referred them to script and refused the Ostrodose.
I am convinced it's a cost issue as a couple of months ago I did try another chemist and they tried to give me Ostrodose so I asked for the script back saying I would use my normal chemist and the girl said she would speak to the pharmacist again and lo and behold they suddenly found some. Perhaps you could try and get this added to your script.


I also use Levothyroxine and I am sure the reason I'm constantly tired and cann't lose weight despite trying is  in part because the brand keeps changing and I'm convinced I also need T3 I have asked about T3 at my doctors and they did try to get my levels checked but the NHS labs in this area won't check T3 levels if the T4 levels are within limits even with a specific request from GP  :bang:
My GP did speak to an endocrinologist but I got the same answer no in fact I got told if your levels are ok there is no need for T3 !!!! DH did manage to get some from abroad and the difference was amazing but unfortunately now he dosen't travel abroad for work so I haven't had any for a few years.


Do hope you manage to get this sorted soon as last thing you need when you're not feeling well is a battle to get the correct medication.


Take care and do let us know how you get on.


Lanzalover x











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Hurdity

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Re: Anyone else unable to get the UK pump pack of Oestrogel
« Reply #23 on: August 05, 2018, 08:08:31 AM »

Hi there SueLW - sorry to hear you can't get your preferred brand of levothyroxine. I know from someone else who uses this that the forumlations are different even with the same concentration and my friend is affected if he gets the "wrong" brand. There is also a difference between the two formulations of testosterone gel that come in sachets - even though both contains the same concentrations - as they contain different carrier ingredients.

In terms of Oestrodose vs Oestrogel - well you don't need to worry - because as the pharmacist says thay are excatly the same.There is no difference in carrier ingredients - it is all the same and packaged in the same inner pouch - but the external packaging is changed by the parallel importer. I think the view on this forum is that they are different products ( like your thyroid medication or the testosterone gel) even though the same concentration - but this is not the case. I have written to Besins and pleased to report that they are both manufactured by Besins in France!  I'm going to post another thread on this so that anyone worried should hopefully be reassured.

I hope you feel more stable soon :)

Hurdity x
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SueLW

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Re: Anyone else unable to get the UK pump pack of Oestrogel
« Reply #24 on: August 05, 2018, 08:57:26 AM »

Hi there SueLW - sorry to hear you can't get your preferred brand of levothyroxine. I know from someone else who uses this that the forumlations are different even with the same concentration and my friend is affected if he gets the "wrong" brand. There is also a difference between the two formulations of testosterone gel that come in sachets - even though both contains the same concentrations - as they contain different carrier ingredients.

In terms of Oestrodose vs Oestrogel - well you don't need to worry - because as the pharmacist says thay are excatly the same.There is no difference in carrier ingredients - it is all the same and packaged in the same inner pouch - but the external packaging is changed by the parallel importer. I think the view on this forum is that they are different products ( like your thyroid medication or the testosterone gel) even though the same concentration - but this is not the case. I have written to Besins and pleased to report that they are both manufactured by Besins in France!  I'm going to post another thread on this so that anyone worried should hopefully be reassured.

I hope you feel more stable soon :)

Hurdity x

I've posted my thanks to you over on the other thread and I've printed off your explanation so I don't loose it. 

The thyroid meds are a nasty situation.  They are manufactured by many different companies and are nothing like the same as far as ingredients go.  The brand they are pushing hard with at the moment, Teva, made me so ill in just 5 days that I filled in a yellow card against it!

Every thyroid site says to find a brand that works for you and to stick with it.  It only it were that easy.  This is why I panicked over the Oestrogel/Oestrodose situation.
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SueLW

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Re: Anyone else unable to get the UK pump pack of Oestrogel
« Reply #25 on: August 05, 2018, 09:11:46 AM »

Good morning SueLW

I have also had this problem so I know just how you feel  :bang:

My script now says not Oestrodose version please. I collect the script from the surgery and use my local chemist and although I had a few problems at first I just referred them to script and refused the Ostrodose.
I am convinced it's a cost issue as a couple of months ago I did try another chemist and they tried to give me Ostrodose so I asked for the script back saying I would use my normal chemist and the girl said she would speak to the pharmacist again and lo and behold they suddenly found some. Perhaps you could try and get this added to your script.


I also use Levothyroxine and I am sure the reason I'm constantly tired and cann't lose weight despite trying is  in part because the brand keeps changing and I'm convinced I also need T3 I have asked about T3 at my doctors and they did try to get my levels checked but the NHS labs in this area won't check T3 levels if the T4 levels are within limits even with a specific request from GP  :bang:
My GP did speak to an endocrinologist but I got the same answer no in fact I got told if your levels are ok there is no need for T3 !!!! DH did manage to get some from abroad and the difference was amazing but unfortunately now he dosen't travel abroad for work so I haven't had any for a few years.


Do hope you manage to get this sorted soon as last thing you need when you're not feeling well is a battle to get the correct medication.


Take care and do let us know how you get on.


Lanzalover x

Thank you for your kind message.  For some reason I thought you lived in Spain.  But sounds like you are in the UK.  Hurdity has put my mind at rest over the gel.  The thyroid meds are a different thing altogether and it's shocking that they can do it and get away with it.  People have all sorts of nasty reactions to thyroid tablets, so you are advised to find one that works for you and then stick to it, but we struggle because the pharmacies try to give us any old thing.

Thyroid treatment in the UK is shockingly bad.  No GP or Endo. seems to be prepared to treat without a TSH near or over 10 and a FT4 below the range.  None of the labs are testing FT3.  Why not?  They have the blood there!  The only thyroid number that matters is FT3.  They just don't seem to get it.  Most of us (who are able) resort to private testing to get the results we need.  You can have a perfect TSH and FT4 score and still feel direly unwell if your FT3 is low because you can't convert the T4 to T3. 

Do you know of Paul Robinson?  He wrote the books Recovering with T3 and The CT3M Handbook.  Both of those books help people to use T3 on it's own (has to be self-medicated).  He's just released his new book The Thyroid Patient's Manual, available on Amazon.  This one is for everyone, no matter what medication they are on or want to be on.  I've just got it.  His books are well worth reading.  They go into much greater detail than any others.  This new one is the ideal place to start and might help you get the courage to order your own T3 or NDT and self-treat.  If you felt better on Levo and T3 it's not right that it was stopped.  But it is what it is at the moment and we have to take matters into our own hands. 
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