Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Wobbles]

Hello all,

As above really. Was at the doc's for gastro issues that weren't going away - pain, bloating, wind and constipation - and wondered if I wasn't absorbing the Femoston very well as night and day sweats were returning and I had a normal(ish) period during the progesterone part. Mine were usually a few days into the oestrogen section. I've been taking daily Omeprazole 20 mg x 1 and Ranitidine 150mg x 2 for stomach/acid reflux issues which I may say were greatly reduced since I got a bed wedge.

I started having heart flutters with the stomach issues and then the stomach acid reducers started making me feel worse. The nurse at the doc's who's supposed to be the 'go to' person for HRT prescribed me Evorel Conti. I did query this as the leaflet and this site tend say it's for women over 54 (I'm 50) and those post-menopause (I'm not that either). I also noted that this Evorel Conti patch has the same progesterone in it that Ellest Duet had and I didn't get on with that at all which is why I changed to the Femoston 1/10 tablet.

I've since stopped the Omeprazole and Ranitidine and am now taking some digestive enzymes which cured the constipation. It's just that I feel really spaced out and weird on these patches. I dropped the dose to half a patch but I wondered if this is too high for me and really whether I should be having progesterone all the time.

I'm booked in for some blood tests and an ECG monitoring thing in early September which will hopefully throw some light on the digestion issues (about time too as the pain is grim - left side under ribs) and the doc won't refer me for an endoscopy or gastro people at the hospital.

I'm toying with the thought of coming off HRT altogether as, as some of you will know, I've been on it a year now and in general it has not been a good ride. Thank God (other deities are available) the panic has mainly cleared off.

What do you think? Would that be a normal switch of hormone levels to put me on to? I don't mind having a period as long as it's not the painful heavy ones I was getting on Elleste Duet.

Thanks,
W x

[Katejo]

Hello all,

As above really. Was at the doc's for gastro issues that weren't going away - pain, bloating, wind and constipation - and wondered if I wasn't absorbing the Femoston very well as night and day sweats were returning and I had a normal(ish) period during the progesterone part. Mine were usually a few days into the oestrogen section. I've been taking daily Omeprazole 20 mg x 1 and Ranitidine 150mg x 2 for stomach/acid reflux issues which I may say were greatly reduced since I got a bed wedge.

I started having heart flutters with the stomach issues and then the stomach acid reducers started making me feel worse. The nurse at the doc's who's supposed to be the 'go to' person for HRT prescribed me Evorel Conti. I did query this as the leaflet and this site tend say it's for women over 54 (I'm 50) and those post-menopause (I'm not that either). I also noted that this Evorel Conti patch has the same progesterone in it that Ellest Duet had and I didn't get on with that at all which is why I changed to the Femoston 1/10 tablet.

I've since stopped the Omeprazole and Ranitidine and am now taking some digestive enzymes which cured the constipation. It's just that I feel really spaced out and weird on these patches. I dropped the dose to half a patch but I wondered if this is too high for me and really whether I should be having progesterone all the time.

I'm booked in for some blood tests and an ECG monitoring thing in early September which will hopefully throw some light on the digestion issues (about time too as the pain is grim - left side under ribs) and the doc won't refer me for an endoscopy or gastro people at the hospital.

I'm toying with the thought of coming off HRT altogether as, as some of you will know, I've been on it a year now and in general it has not been a good ride. Thank God (other deities are available) the panic has mainly cleared off.

What do you think? Would that be a normal switch of hormone levels to put me on to? I don't mind having a period as long as it's not the painful heavy ones I was getting on Elleste Duet.

Thanks,
W x

Sounds wrong to me because you are still having periods. Evorel Sequi perhaps. However isn't the nurse aware of the non availability of all types of Evorel  now?

[Hurdity]

As Katejo says - if you are not yet post-menopause ( but how will you know if you started hRT when you were late peri-menopause some years ago maybe?), then you should be taking cyclical HRT and in any case if continuouis combined HRT does not suit you , you can stay with cyclical even when post-meno.

Depending how much Evorel conti you have been given you could ask for some Evorel 50 (Evorel sequi is 2 weeks of Evorel 50 followed by 2 weeks of Evorel conti) - enough to match the conti patches you have  - and take this cyclically. After this if the norethisterone doesn't suit you transdermally either even on a cycle,  then you could stay with the Evorel 50 ( if you can get it - there are  some shortages of some patches) together with a separate progestogen eg Provera tablets or utrogestan which can be taken orally but off-licence vaginally if you have side effects or digestive problems. Alternatively you could have a Mirena coil fitted which would provide enough progestogen whether you are peri or post and combine that with an oestrogen patch of your choice ( or gel).

Good luck!

Hurdity x

[Wobbles]

Hi Katejo - Yes, I thought it strange to prescribe something knowing it was going to be unavailable. Also thought it odd that she would prescribe a patch with the same progesterone I didn't get on with. Perhaps she doesn't know or it's just part of her evil power plan (although I could be overthinking things a bit there but judging by some of the attitudes at my GP surgery I wouldn't actually be that wrong!).

Hurdity - yes I think there's some logic there in that I might have been heading towards menopause in the last year and didn't really know. However, I've now got a period after 10 days on the patch and it's a proper one not spotting as I was expecting. I don't think I am in menopause yet. I just didn't want the pain I got with the Northisterone that's in this patch and Ellest Duet.

I've looked at the BMS chart and will ask either for Femeston 2/10 tablet or an oestrogen patch and separate dydrogesterone that I got on better with. I think they were reluctant to prescribe Femoston as it was more expensive than the Ellest so I might have a battle on my hands. I don't think much of the 'go to' nurse who's supposed to know so much...