AIBU to wish I had known sooner about vaginal oestrogen cream?

Can anyone tell me how you clean the applicator though? Hot water doesn’t seem to get the cream out!

This is the sort of menopause education that we need. Not all these ‘menopause awareness’ initiatives, menopause groups at work, box-ticking blah blah blah. No, I don’t need my colleagues to know that I might need an open window and that I might open and shut it 15 times in the working day. No, I need - needed! - to know about vaginal oestrogen. Which is BTW another thing my male colleagues do not need to know. So frustrating that many of us don’t know about it until it’s too late and the deterioration cannot be reversed. (At least the discomfort can be cured, even if proper function can’t be restored.) So frustrating that many of us are refused treatment by GPs because we are “too young”.

My excellent female GP diagnosed peri while her male colleague dismissed it and prescribed me anti-depressants. She put me on HRT and it was life-changing. But even she did not talk to me about vaginal atrophy and tell me what to look out for. I worked out what my problem was thanks to Mumsnet!

If you are noticing dryness, then it exists. I had it long before the menopause proper. I tried all the over-the-counter things, but only the hormonal cream sorted it. It doesn't make you 25 again, but I couldn't survive without it.

God the pain of utis. I had 4 antibiotics. On vagifem a few months now. It helps. I could not go through another uti!

Everyone's been saying that history or risk of breast cancer isn't a concern for topical HRT, but on the warnings section on this page it says 'you may not be able to use' in that case or if you've had any other type of cancer. Is this just excessive arse-covering then?

It should continue to improve. If it doesn’t go back and try another. You shouldn’t have to suffer.

Mine is a pill too, it’s so much better than the cream, much less messy.

I went to town GP for something different and mentioned this while lmwas there - been on pessaries for 2 weeks then twice a week - too early to say but it no longer hurts when l wipe. Awful condition that l find awkward to talk about

Maybe if more GPs were more aware of the treatment options for everyday women it wouldn’t be necessary? There are examples on this thread of drs not following NICE guidance for oestrogen treatments, and many women have to fight to try HRT. It’s far too common, women feel unheard by their doctors, and as a result Davina, Louise Newsome etc have a big impact.

Do you think this thread is stealth advertising? Pfft I don’t think so…

@Gabitule

Yes. I had the exact same problem - had three 6 month long fluconazole treatments over the course of 2-3 years which suppressed it but then it always returned.

Eventually got referred to a specialist thrush clinic at a local hospital. They took a swab and prescribed an anti fungal treatment that targeted the specific strain of thrush that was plaguing me. But the two real game changers were that they prescribed estriol cream, which I use twice a week, and they also advised washing the genital area with hydromol (I had been using plain water to avoid triggering thrush with soaps etc, but plain water is too drying). Between the hydromol and the estriol I have kept thrush at bay ever since (about 3 years). Good luck.

Thank you for explanation.🌷

Oh one of those many joys of womanhood.

You mentioned that you have put up with this for 10 years. I’m not too sure when things really started to change on the menopause front, but when I started to go through it 15 years ago, I knew next to nothing! But I was getting a lot of dryness and the first doctor I saw put me on full HRT which he believed would allegedly solve this problem. I don’t know whether I would accept full HRT these days, in more enlightened times, but at the time my next doctor took me off it saying that I didn’t really need it just for a bit of vaginal dryness and a few hot flushes. She mentioned some over the counter stuff that I could use for the dryness. I did try this but it was so messy that I gave up.

I don’t know when oestrogen cream went mainstream. It was only when I tried having sex again when I reached 60 and it was so painful and I was actually bleeding, that I spoke to the practice nurse at my GP surgery. She tried to do a smear test just to check that nothing sinister was going onand couldn’t get the speculum in. It was only at that point that she prescribed me oestrogen cream. I have to say I didn’t continue with the sex but that’s a different story! Hi

Quite. You're only using it twice a week after the loading dose, it get absorbed by YOUR body and doesn't hang around up there. Unless you are having sex every hour or two, every day of the week - not a problem.

Got to be honest @comtesse that article is the sort of thing that put me off for a long time. It’s incredibly disingenuous to put in a long description of a UTI in a woman of extreme age with dementia who’d become dehydrated due to neglect, with the potential protective effects of vaginsl oestrogen. And I am suspicious of medics who embrace effectively bypassing sensible restrictions on drug advertising direct to consumers by using social media. Of course it’s happening and it’s scarily effective - see this thread, see weight loss injections - but it’s quite out there to state the aim so brazenly.

There is no reason she can't have it in her 70's , I'd ask your if your surgery has a menopause informed doctor and have her chat to them.

Can you get this in your 70s? DM has all sorts of issues and has ever since I was small. She had progesterone HRT but got breast cancer so cannot have it any more

Also, the dosage of the vaginal oestrogen is minute compared to full HRT. I assume the mum will have been using the HRT gel which is rubbed into arms or legs daily.

I use Vagifem (although I'm not having any sex lol). But I did read that you should insert it after having sex, it's not advisable to insert it and then immediately have sex.

And it's only used twice a week so I don't really see it as an issue.

It won't affect the man on a long term basis no.

I can have a look through the leaflet though, if you are looking for more detailed info on this.

I read this article at the time - it is hair raising.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/dec/17/millions-of-women-are-suffering-who-dont-have-to-why-its-time-to-end-the-misery-of-utis

I'm 43 and think I'm peri. I've had more dryness, urgency for going to the loo, and the need to wee far more regularly, I'm also noticing vulva looks a bit different (losing volume) and have incredible itchiness.

I am intending to phone GP tomorrow, does the cream help with the peri itchiness?? I am demented with it

Worth it 😂

That is so true!.

Imagine if we got great improvement from vaginal estrogen, but have to get the (male) partner to buy a bra and tampons for himself!. 😂😂😂

If that was the case - i.e. it affected men in any way - you can be assured that it would be completely banned.

That’s so rough. No one should have to deal with something so unpleasant and so easily fixed. 🫂

Is there any issue about a sexual partner absorbing oestrogen through his penis though? Just thinking of that case where a girl had early puberty due to absorbing oestrogen from her Mum's oestrogen gel.

Is the concensus that cream is much better than pessary? I would much rather not have the faff of trying to put the cream in the right place.