Any pharmacists/clever people can help?

[luggie]

I take HRT, and the oestrogen comes from a pump pack. I have just renewed my prescription and the pump pack is different. I've always had the pump pack called Estrogel, and it's manufactured by Besins, Brussels. But this pump pack looks totally different and it's called Oestrodose. The active ingredients are all identical, 0.6% estradiol per dose, and it's the same 64 does per pack. But it says that it has been repackaged here in the UK, under licence.

The thing is, since starting the new pump pack I have been feeling really off again. Sleep is bad and I feel sweaty, and anxious.

Am I using the same product? Or am I being fobbed off with a cheaper, inferior product?

Why are medicines repackaged anyway?

luggie - I came across this post whilst doing a search for the difference between dose and gel. I was prescribed gel by Prof Studd around 18 months ago. Got the gel from a 'posh' pharmacy in Marylebone High Street, I think it was a 3 month script. Got along tickets-boo on this gel, felt the best I had in years. Anywaaaay, returned to my GP for repeat when the original finished and was given dose. I didn't know it was a different gel at the time so thought nothing of it. Around a month later I started getting joint aches and difficulty sleeping/early waking with some hot moments. I called the prof and he said to increase to 4 pumps which I did but the aches/sleep/hot moments increased and I also started having mood problems. At one point I was using 5/6 pumps per day which did ease the symptoms but scared the hell out of me. I went into a tailspin trying different hormone routes and doses. Nothing was as good as the original gel.

Long story short I'm now back on oestrogel and happily bumping along on 2 pumps. Oestrodose is CRAP. Don't use it. I lost 18 months to misery because of that stuff.

Hope you got yours sorted in the end.