Women-Only Estrogen levels

[Lulu_jo]

Where do you keep your estrogen levels?
43yo in surgical menopause. Labs were not done beforehand to know what my "normals" are. These are my current levels. Currently experiencing hot flashes, night sweats, difficulty sleeping, severe joint pain, brain fog, zero energy.

 

[edgeworthbox]

Where do you keep your estrogen levels?
43yo in surgical menopause. Labs were not done beforehand to know what my "normals" are. These are my current levels. Currently experiencing hot flashes, night sweats, difficulty sleeping, severe joint pain, brain fog, zero energy.

Bumping this because I went through similar and would be grateful to get insights from women who have experience with surgical menopause.

@Lulu_jo, I hope you were able to get HRT.

 

[Nunya]

Combing through older posts just to see what’s what. My total T is quite a bit higher, sitting at 300ng/dl at the moment, and my estrogen is higher as well. You hardly have any estrogen there! For sure “higher” lol

 

[edgeworthbox]

Combing through older posts just to see what’s what. My total T is quite a bit higher, sitting at 300ng/dl at the moment, and my estrogen is higher as well. You hardly have any estrogen there! For sure “higher” lol

I think I saw in your other posts you're doing injectable T, how about E? I finally did telehealth and look forward to getting some normalcy once the meds arrive. Are you on dhea also?

 

[Nunya]

Congrats on finding a telehealth provider. I don’t want to deter you but I wouldn’t expect ‘normalcy’ right away LOL. HRT for perimenopause and menopause is largely about mitigating symptoms; you can supplement E and P to maintain a baseline but as your ovaries gasp their last, they’ll still toss out hormones haphazardly, and you may still feel those effects, although hopefully not as intensely.

I did start 5mg/day DHEA a week ago, and don’t really feel anything much different. I have labs again in a few weeks and will reassess at that point.

I’ve always been pretty sensitive to the progestins in birth control, and dealt with I WILL F*CKING MURDER YOU due to that, while I was on BC for nearly two decades. Last decade my cycles have been blessedly normal, and with the addition of T a few years ago (and losing 30lbs, and scrubbing my diet squeaky clean, and hitting the gym for 1.5 hours 6 days a week), my cycles are very light and manageable, although they’re retarded frequent (21 days instead of 28). Anyway, point of all that is, I added E a few months ago for some of the GSM stuff in peri, and it HAS solved that stuff nearly 100%, which is awesome. But the requirement for P to oppose that added E has me experiencing that cyclical rage all over again, and it’s pretty wild, especially now that it’s a whole week every three weeks, basically.

Based on that, I’m going to take most recent labs to my Midi NP when I see her next, and my experience, and ask if I can up E *or* lower P. At the moment, I’m playing around with whether or not taking P vaginally/rectally vs orally makes any difference. Anecdotally, it does, for many women, and those micronized P capsules are designed to be taken any of those three routes. But if I could go without the damned P, I totally would. Hate hate hate it, although it does seem to have helped with sleep (although maybe the E solving urinary issues just means I can sleep instead of waking up to pee all night LOL).

I highly recommend telyrx dot come, it’s a great place to have backups on hand just in case. I ended up NEEDING those backups when my local pharmacy didn’t get my rx filled in time, last time.

 

[Superchicken]

I think I saw in your other posts you're doing injectable T, how about E? I finally did telehealth and look forward to getting some normalcy once the meds arrive. Are you on dhea also?

I wasn’t perfect, but I felt almost like my normal self within about a week of starting hrt. I hope it’s successful for you! Went through a few drs to get thyroid and testosterone managed after, and those were my missing pieces. Even without that, just having relief of the vasomotor symptoms was amazing.

Peri so my estradiol is all over the place, though I suspect it’s not going super high anymore based on symptoms.

Currently on e patch, but am going to talk to the dr about injections because I don’t think I’m absorbing the E well. Went from .05 after almost a year to .1. Was still having hot flashes, so added in a .5 and it’s better but I can tell it’s not lasting long enough. Using oral P, T injx, and vag e.

 

[Superchicken]

Congrats on finding a telehealth provider. I don’t want to deter you but I wouldn’t expect ‘normalcy’ right away LOL. HRT for perimenopause and menopause is largely about mitigating symptoms; you can supplement E and P to maintain a baseline but as your ovaries gasp their last, they’ll still toss out hormones haphazardly, and you may still feel those effects, although hopefully not as intensely.

I did start 5mg/day DHEA a week ago, and don’t really feel anything much different. I have labs again in a few weeks and will reassess at that point.

I’ve always been pretty sensitive to the progestins in birth control, and dealt with I WILL F*CKING MURDER YOU due to that, while I was on BC for nearly two decades. Last decade my cycles have been blessedly normal, and with the addition of T a few years ago (and losing 30lbs, and scrubbing my diet squeaky clean, and hitting the gym for 1.5 hours 6 days a week), my cycles are very light and manageable, although they’re retarded frequent (21 days instead of 28). Anyway, point of all that is, I added E a few months ago for some of the GSM stuff in peri, and it HAS solved that stuff nearly 100%, which is awesome. But the requirement for P to oppose that added E has me experiencing that cyclical rage all over again, and it’s pretty wild, especially now that it’s a whole week every three weeks, basically.

Based on that, I’m going to take most recent labs to my Midi NP when I see her next, and my experience, and ask if I can up E *or* lower P. At the moment, I’m playing around with whether or not taking P vaginally/rectally vs orally makes any difference. Anecdotally, it does, for many women, and those micronized P capsules are designed to be taken any of those three routes. But if I could go without the damned P, I totally would. Hate hate hate it, although it does seem to have helped with sleep (although maybe the E solving urinary issues just means I can sleep instead of waking up to pee all night LOL).

I highly recommend telyrx dot come, it’s a great place to have backups on hand just in case. I ended up NEEDING those backups when my local pharmacy didn’t get my rx filled in time, last time.

I have a friend who was suicidal and raging on progesterone. She waited years, but got so miserable she started looking for a new dr who suggested vaginal. She’s been able to tolerate it without any negatives. I hope you can figure yours out. BC made me crazy and fat af, I was worried about hrt, but am lucky I’ve been fine. Only mistake I made was taking 200mg P in the morning instead of my thyroid meds. Last time I talk on the phone before I do my morning routine. Felt like I’d been fucking drugged

 

[Nunya]

I have a friend who was suicidal and raging on progesterone. She waited years, but got so miserable she started looking for a new dr who suggested vaginal. She’s been able to tolerate it without any negatives. I hope you can figure yours out. BC made me crazy and fat af, I was worried about hrt, but am lucky I’ve been fine. Only mistake I made was taking 200mg P in the morning instead of my thyroid meds. Last time I talk on the phone before I do my morning routine. Felt like I’d been fucking drugged

Ugh, that sounds miserable. I have to make sure I don’t mistake toothpaste for vaginal estrogen cream LOL. So far, vaginal/rectal is waaaay better, and I lean toward rectal since it doesn’t interfere with other nighttime activities I’d like to engage in

BCP is pretty awful, it’s done a lot of good for women for sure, but it also really can mess our systems up

 

[Nunya]

I wasn’t perfect, but I felt almost like my normal self within about a week of starting hrt. I hope it’s successful for you! Went through a few drs to get thyroid and testosterone managed after, and those were my missing pieces. Even without that, just having relief of the vasomotor symptoms was amazing.

Peri so my estradiol is all over the place, though I suspect it’s not going super high anymore based on symptoms.

Currently on e patch, but am going to talk to the dr about injections because I don’t think I’m absorbing the E well. Went from .05 after almost a year to .1. Was still having hot flashes, so added in a .5 and it’s better but I can tell it’s not lasting long enough. Using oral P, T injx, and vag e.

Just wanted to follow up that I have some injectable E on the way, how’s your progress on that front? My E continues to drop as I lean out and gain muscle and f*ck peri. Love the gains tho

 

[edgeworthbox]

I just started injectable E, suppository P and T cream. I feel so much better than I've felt in the last 3 years.

 

[Superchicken]

Just wanted to follow up that I have some injectable E on the way, how’s your progress on that front? My E continues to drop as I lean out and gain muscle and f*ck peri. Love the gains tho

Have you tried it yet? I had vasomotor symptoms return in Nov, and have gone from .05 patch to using 3 .1 patches now. Worked last month, but back to night sweats the two weeks before my cycle again. Labs were low, so def not absorbing.

Did you order from one of the trans sources? My provider switched from a flat fee to subscription, so I’m going to switch to Defy since I know they’re ok with it.

+1 for your muscles! Being able to reclaim your body in this shitty shift is the best feeling.

 

[Superchicken]

Ugh, that sounds miserable. I have to make sure I don’t mistake toothpaste for vaginal estrogen cream LOL. So far, vaginal/rectal is waaaay better, and I lean toward rectal since it doesn’t interfere with other nighttime activities I’d like to engage in

BCP is pretty awful, it’s done a lot of good for women for sure, but it also really can mess our systems up

I have almost mixed up my tretinoin with the vag estrogen lol The tret now lives at my bedside so that doesn’t happen.

 

[Nunya]

I have almost mixed up my tretinoin with the vag estrogen lol The tret now lives at my bedside so that doesn’t happen.

OMG I can’t imagine. That’d be spicy LOL.
My last E was abysmal, only 25 Midi provider upped transdermal patch to .05mg/day but I stuck the box in the drawer and went with 1mg twice a week injx, and will have labs again in a couple of weeks. But honestly I noticed improvement right away.