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[Marchlove]

Thought it would be helpful if I gave another update to you all on my troche experiences so far.
They are now dissolving far quicker, about 20 minutes for the estrogen which I take in the morning and 30 minutes for the progesterone which I take about 9pm.
Mood has been a lot better.
I get late afternoon aches, think it’s because estrogen is running out. But ok over night after the progesterone so can’t figure that one out!
Main issue though is sore sensitive gums. Don’t know if anyone else has experienced this whilst using a troche?
I suppose it could be an initial start up thing, so might settle, or as Mary G said I might be sensitive to an ingredient.
I didn’t get much benefit from the progesterone cream (might just be me), so will stick with the troche for now but might move onto the drops if the gum issues don’t resolve.
All in all though I feel better than I did and am encouraged to keep going.
Hope this will be useful to others thinking of trying it out in the future. xx

[Mary G]

Marchlove, thanks for the update.

Come to think of it, yes, I did have some irritation to the gums and roof of the mouth with the lozenges but nothing too terrible.   It used to come and go and was not helped by burning my mouth badly with very hot food on one occasion last year if I remember rightly.   I have always had mouth sensitivity with progesterone though.

I'm still doing well on the progesterone drops.   I had my annual transvaginal scan yesterday and I have to say I was slightly apprehensive.   My brilliant German gynaecologist has retired and I had an appointment with a Spanish, male gynaecologist who I have never met so I was unsure as to how it would go.   I need not have worried, he was so kind and reassuring, pro HRT and he knew the late Professor Studd from his time in London!   He used to attend his seminars and knew all about his extensive work on all things hormonal.   

He gave me the scan (the gynaecologist does the scan personally here) and the lining measurement came out at 3.3mm which is very good and confirmation that compounded progesterone keeps the lining thin.

If you can live with the gum issue, it's probably worth sticking with the lozenges but I'm sure they would be happy to let you try the drops if you asked them and explained the situation.   Mood wise, I find both products exactly the same.

Overall, it sounds like you are doing well.

[Marchlove]

That’s great news about the scan Mary G! I can appreciate your apprehension with it but just goes to show that sometimes you just have to follow your instinct about what’s right for you.
Useful hearing your mouth/gum sensitivity with the progesterone. Strangely, I sort of realised it is the progesterone and not the estrogen causing  the mouth issues. I think it might settle with time and switching areas in mouth where it dissolves.
Will update in January, but in the meantime Happy Christmas Eve. xx

[CrispyChick]

Any of you ladies offer any words of wisdom.

I've started my progesterone treatment. 25mg capsule a night for 10 days. I was in a terrible state with my estrogen symptoms, but now, 8 days into the progesterone I feel I've topped the other way. Getting headaches which I had got rid off when I came off the pill 3 months ago. Also give very narky and low.

Does it take time to get used to adding in progesterone, no matter how low the dose???

Also been started on testosterone/Dhea cream.

[HelloSam666]

Hi CrispyChick, i think i mentioned to you in a previous post before Christmas that i was now taking progesterone cream instead of HRT. The utrogestan 100mg i was given to take daily (along with oestrogen patches) was a nightmare for me and caused no end of problems.

I had no side effects at all when starting the cream but i do wonder if the cream (although it is 25mg a day) is still a lesser dose than your tablet - i split it between morning & evening.

I do feel for you trying to sort out something that works, i can only speak from my own experience of buying this progesterone cream from the USA. By the way, i'm still taking the mini pill - which i have been doing for years, not sure if that makes any difference. I did start getting hormonal migraines in my mid 30s for a couple of days before each period & took Sumatriptans to sort it. It was when i went on HRT (only for a short while) the headaches & everything else went wild, i felt like a different person, just horrible.

With best wishes.

[CrispyChick]

Thank you for your reply Sam - I was hoping to find you again.

That's very interesting. Perhaps cream would be better. I'll do my last night tonight and see what happens when I stop the progesterone as instructed. I'm only to take it 10 days out a cycle. I have read, and the clinic did say, it can take 2 to 3 cycles to work. However, I kindof expected to feel no different rather than other symptoms.

It may be my own fault I started on capsules. I thought that's what the doc had said, but my prescription came through for cream. I queried it and was told I could just as easily have the tablets - so perhaps she did intend me to start with cream.

Anyway, I'm here now trying it. Waited a long time for this. So lll plod on.

Interestingly I don't have flushes. My estrogen symptoms are immense brain fog, dizziness, nausea and full ears. All of which have defo improved over the last 8 days. But I really don't want to replace them with headaches and lowness 😔. Hopefully my body just needs time, to adjust.

I've to book a follow up in 2 months. I don't want to go too soon, as I'm paying for it. So will do a good trial first. I'm sure a lower dose or cream would be an option. Cant believe they give people 200mg of this, if 25mg gives me headaches. Wow.

[CrispyChick]

I have also read that starting progesterone alone can reawaken estrogen receptors and wurseb symptoms for a few weeks...

But going down that Google hole gets a bit scientific. So I'll just plod on and see what happens... At least I've started something and have a specialist to go back to.

[HelloSam666]

Hi CrispyChick,

ha, i'd read something on those lines too but then you get to the point where you don't know what to believe and then you can bog yourself down with too much information ;-).

See how you go with the regime you've got started on and then, if it really is not helping you or making things worse, do try the cream. As you say though, 200mg seems an awful lot - I felt dreadful on 100mg tablet so my thinking is that we may just need a little bit to balance us out and everything then feels okay - that's all we want. I guess my thinking with the cream is that you can add a little less or more & experiment with amounts yourself.

[Nas]

Can someone also help me out of this hormonal hell hole ?
Post menopausal, aged 50.
Been on 100 utrogestan daily and 75mg patch for over a year.
Bleeding on and off. Hysteroscopy did not reveal anything sinister 8 months ago, but god knows what’s happened since!

Currently awaiting another  womb scan ( could be weeks to wait! )
Tried reducing patch to 50 and feel horrendous.
Can’t sleep, anger, irritability etc etc

Gel makes me feel sick.

I’ve got lenzetto, bijuve and femeston Conti from private specialist, in the hope that something works. But at the moment, feel to unwell to try anything new and can’t face another bleed.

Life feels grim 😢

[CrispyChick]

Naz

I can't really help you, but didn't wa f to not post.

You say you feel awful on reducing the estrogen. Did you feel awful at 75mg or was it just the bleeding causing issues???

As I'm demonstrating, some of us can be very sensitive to mild hormonal changes. That's why I've gone down the alternative route of compounded BHRT. You e just dropped 25mg of estrogen, so I'm not surprised you're feeling vile.

Could you afford to pay for the scan??? The way things are going with covid I think we can exoect more delays... X

[Nas]

Thanks Crispy,
I felt okay mentally on the 75 patch but the bleeding and tummy pain were getting too much .Within days of the hysteroscopy, I was bleeding again.

Gynae have suggested womb ablation, something to consider I guess.

I think I am hormone sensitive also and would quite like to ditch all hormone treatments and find an alternative.

I may have to pay for a scan at this rate, as cannot wait much longer.
A whole month of feeling horrendous 🤦‍♀️

Xx

[Mary G]

CrispyChick, you mention progesterone capsules, are they the dissolvable lozenges or the fast release tablets?

Nas, if you have bleeding problems then an ablation could be a good option for you.   You would still need progesterone but you could get away with a much lower dose.  How do you feel on oestrogen only?

[CrispyChick]

Mary, they are capsules to swallow. From the MG clinic.

[Mary G]

Crispy, I have never tried the oral capsules (fast release?) but I wonder if oral progesterone has more side effects?   Obviously it's early days and it's worth sticking with them for now but I would have thought that either lozenges, drops or cream would have been a better option.

What was the thinking behind the oral progesterone? 

[CrispyChick]

Ah. Well, like I said above, I thought she'd said capsules but prescribed cream, so when I checked, they got back to me saying I could have capsules if that's what I wanted. So I possibly picked it up wrong and caused the confusion. The joys of online video calls.

Not sure if they're fast release. They certainly don't say they are delayed release, so I assume so.

Still.... My last one for the month tonight. Although the last 2 days have been harder, I've been a lot worse on my contraceptive pill trials. So I'll plod on to next month - nice to know there might be alternatives that are better though 

Be interesting to see what happens when I stop taking the progesterone for the month... 🤔

I'm also taking testosterone/Dhea cream. Suppose it could he that. But if feels like the progesterone effects.

Thanks for the advice. It's very early days for me. I'll make a follow up appointment for after my second month.