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[CrispyChick]

Does the end of a qlaira pack contain days with no estrogen???

[MadameOvary]

Crispy the last 2 pills are placebo. The two before that are 1mg estrogen with no progesterone.

[Angelasurrey]

Lack of sleep is the hardest. Makes everything really difficult. It’s awful as you know everyone else is sleeping and you’re wide awake.
CrispyChick I felt very down and low and awful pmt   ( just feel like withdrawing from everyone) after about day 3 of  the period feeling a bit better. I can see that it’s the hormones.
MadameOvary I hope it improves.. I don’t know if not taking the two pill free days and taking it without a break would make any difference? . I got so desperate before my period I took sleepeaze from boots. Had a massive headache after.
Hang in there things will improve for us all X

[RebJT]

Hi Girls

Just checking in.  Day 15 today.  I had been doing brilliantly, and feeling so much better, but days 13, 14 and 15 are typically crappy for me anyway, as my histamine tends to peak as my estrogen peaks, making me buzzy and shaky, so I guess that's to be expected as my own hormones are still tap dancing in the background.

Things to report:
- I had my NHS scan earlier this week, pretty much a month to the day since my private one.  Good news, my endometrium is half as thick at 5mm this time, so that's good (also helped I had a really feminist, knowledgeable nurse, so she and I had a good rant about how crap women's meno care is)
- my appetite appears to be up, a bit like you get in PMT week when you want to hoover up carbs, I've gained a few pounds (about 4 or 5) but not sure if this is because I'm inadvertently eating more before I realised, or water retention or what
- for the last few days I've had that funny distorted body image thing where I feel I 'look fat' (not sure if you get this) which I really hate, I generally only get this two days before my period, I hope this is not a consequence of the hormones in the pill as it really messes with my mind.
- I've spotted almost every day since I started, so 15 days, worse today, and I have had low level pelvic pain which feelsl like proper period pain today, I hope this is just spotting due to settling on the pill and not a feature of it, as need less bleeding not more

Other than that, apart from the last two days I have felt so much better in myself and not had my usual shaking, buzzy, wired, vibrating feeling.  I've been sleeping OK, other than night before last where I felt so buzzy that even though I slept I felt like I'd had no rest.

I assume it takes a while for the pill to shut down your own hormones, so I've currently got Qlaira and my own hormones coursing around my veins.

Weight gain - really hope to buggery it doesn't make me fat, really not sure I could handle that, as what with thyroid issues, I have to eat like a bird to maintain my weight as it is!  Has this settled down for others?

Thanks ladies

Reb
x

[CrispyChick]

That sounds positive Reb.

I've either got side affects or my own hot ones are still up and down a lot. Possibly the latter as some symptoms are weirdly pmt like.

I'm interested in your histamine thing??? I get a lot of jittery, shaky anxious physical feelings. I've had it bad the last 2 days. This was preceeded by dreadful low mood and pmt feelings, so I'm guessing maybe my estrogen has started to rise again.

Given I'm 6 weeks continuously on microgynon, so 30mg estradiol every day... It would have to be my own hormones still interfering. Sigh. I just wish it would balance out.

No period, no spotting. That's normal for me though. Just the backgroubd symptoms.

[RebJT]

Hiya

There is a weird relationship between estrogen and histamine - estrogen tells your mast cells to release more histamine, and histamine tells your ovaries to make more estrogen, so you can get stuck in a horrible loop of allergic symptoms (I see Dr Tina Peers at Nick Pannay's clinic for this, it's a specialist area for her, she's lovely).  For most women, these symptoms turn up in peri as estrogen surges, or when they go on HRT.  However (and sorry I know I keep harping on about it) there is also a relationship with histamine, mast cell over activation and IRON, so I've had a massive amelioration in shaky, histamine symptoms since I've fixed my iron levels.  Generally I get these bouts around day 14 and just as my period starts, although annoying they are much better in recent cycles since the iron infusion.  I take heavy duty antihistamines and a mast cell stabiliser too.  Progesterone is supposed to be mast cell calming also, although lots of histamine intolerant women are also progesterone sensitive.

Also jittery, anxious and shaky can be iron, I know I'm a stuck record but would really encourage you to badger your doc for proper tests, it has made such a massive, massive difference to met to get that sorted out.  Ditto low folate and low B12 and low Vit D can create horrible mood symptoms as well as nervous system disturbances.  All those blood builders are really important for us to feel well.

Good you are having no spotting, but hear you on the PMT symptoms, it's annoying and hard to see the wood for the trees.  Must say my mood is pretty much OK so I'm not feeling low, I just feel agitated and over revved physically today.  But my stomach seems to be sticking out, like when I'm about to start my period, and I just feel a bit puffy and bleurgh! today.

Reb
x

[CrispyChick]

Yeah, that's wgat I had last week. Fuffy pmt feelings avd horrific moods. I've had bad grumpy, angry and low moods since starting this pill.. Really hoping for a change.

Interesting about the histamine. I am usually on strong antihistamines for all my allergies and, in particular, my nose issues (on which I am awaiting surgery) but last summer I was getting terrible sinus dryness and pain, so I came off everything. The antihistamines and steroid sprays... 🤔 . I'm doing OK without at the mo, so I'm loathe to restart...

[RebJT]

It's a bloody minefield isn't it.  Honestly if men suffered all of this (and produced every human walking the bloody earth!) they'd have sorted it out by now!!

Hear you on the anti-histamines, downsides to everything.  I eat a low histamine diet (well most of the time, cheat sometimes!) which really helps too.

I'm feeling puffy and PMT ish, but fortunately not raging or feeling down ...

Hope it levels off for you soon, I am hanging on to the idea that it takes two or three cycles to settle and just trying to not spend too much time worrying about it.

Reb
x

[MadameOvary]

That sounds positive about the scan Reb.

I don't think I've gained weight on Qlaira but I also started doing more exercise around the same time I started taking it so it might be that the exercise is balancing out any weight gain.

I had a lot of spotting the first month too but that's calmed down.

I definitely relate to that dysmorphic fat feeling when I was premenstrual before Qlaira. I don't know how much it was water retention and how much it was psychological. Again, that's calmed down on Qlaira but it could also be the exercise.

I also totally relate to the jittery, anxious, histamine, adrenaline feelings. That was one of the that drove me to speak to my GP about perimenopause/pmt. It's stopped with Qlaira.

I still can't sleep though!!! I think I need to try yoga or meditation or something.

[RebJT]

Bugger about your sleep!  Sounds like if you could crack that you'd be off to the races.

Heartening to read your post and reassuring, I'm bleeding now, day 16, not too heavy, but fresh blood this time, no idea what's happening but overall I'm doing OK, certainly no worse than I was without it, and overall better I'd say.  Good news about weight, I am definitely not exercising as much as i was pre lockdown, so will give myself a kick until I get back to classes in April. 

Very interesting you also had the histamine, adrenaline, jittery, vibratey feeling, I absolutely hate it (it's much better than it was when iron was wrecked, but still miserable), but so far had never met anyone else who also gets it, so very pleased to hear it's gone away with Qlaira, that on its own is enough to make me persevere.  I'm a bit knackered today, but this is my first week back at work after a month off post iron infusion so I suppose it was always going to be a bit of a drag ....

Will keep you posted, hope you sleep!

Reb
x

[Gilla999]

MadameOvary, just thought I'd quickly check in to say - the only non-medicinal thing that has ever helped with my sleep is to push the timing of when I go to bed later. This is the basis of the CBT-i approach (which is now recognised and recommended by the NHS). However the full approach has quite strict rules which I don't necessarily follow as I don't find them always helpful, but I have found that pushing my bedtime to a little later than it would be naturally (even if I'm falling asleep on the sofa and desperate to go up) has helped.

Sending you good vibes and hoping that you turn a corner soon x

[MadameOvary]

That's interesting Gilla. I do go to bed early because I'm always so tired. I should try staying up later. I do intend to try yoga/meditation too but never get round to it!

[MadameOvary]

Are you sleeping better now Gilla?

[Angelasurrey]

MadameOvary my sleep has been not great light and broken. Sometimes wide awake. Even though I had my period a few days ago I just feel irritable and angry again. Also sore breasts. I’m finding the days on the red pills are harder for some reason.
Thanks Gilla re the CBT tip.
Reb agree with you that there needs to more of a focus on Women’s Health.

Sending you all healing wishes and hugs  xx

[MadameOvary]

I'm sorry Angela. My sleep was terrible before Qlaira too. It's the one thing Qlaira hasn't fixed!
My breasts were sore in 1st month of Qlaira (and for 2 weeks of every month before Qlaira) but now it's settled down and they're not sore at all. I think Gilla had this with Zoely too.