Estrogen gels - any things I should be aware of?

[didireallysaythat]

I'm fairly sure I'm pre-menopausal on the basis of my age (49), my broken sleep (hot but not crazy sweats) and my mood swings. I've just booked an apt to get my coil replaced (after 4-5 years) and had a good chat to GP about options. I had the blood test (understanding that false negative possible but false positive less so) and that suggests menopause. So the plan is get a new coil and then estrogen gel.

Is there anything I should be prepared for with the gel? Are there different ones? Should I expect an improvement in symptoms and if so how long does take? I'm sure my GP will give me more info, but he's not gone through it himself so I'd appreciate advice from first hand experience.

Gel made me feel dopey!

For me the takeaway was there is no ‘magic pill’ to make it all go away but HRT gives me enough of ‘me’ back to work on all the others bits of life to feel me more balanced. I still get crap weeks of low energy, some disturbed sleep and snappy mood but it’s not all the time now so I can manage the usual life stress more easily. Yoga helps too.
Good luck I hope you can find something that helps.

@TriSkiRun99 a magic pill would be nice but I'd settle for feeling a bit more like me and a little better sleep.

I'm working on the exercise and weight loss alongside it all. I'd like to try yoga but I know I need to find a class as I'm not motivated enough to just watch YouTube, but all the yoga classes around me appear to assume you don't work 9-6

I switched from oestrogen patches to Sandrena because I hated the residue left by the glue. I did not get on with Sandrena. My symptoms returned and I was all over the place.

I later understood, after I had returned to a different brand of patches, that I had been spreading the Sandrena gel too thinly. But if I spread it thickly it took ages to dry, and left a residue on my skin.

I've never heard of anyone finding this an issue with the pumped doses. It also sounds like the dose can be more finely controlled with the pump.

My personal preference is Estradot patches with a Mirena coil. Works for me. Unfortunately Estradot is unavailable at the moment, and I generally am given other patches which are much bigger. I find that the bigger that patch the more likely it is to wrinkle up and stick unevenly.

@Dilbertian FWIW I have heard that Sadnrena is quite different in consistency to Oestrogel. (I have a friend who, when she couldn't get Estradot, tried it.) it is supposedly runnier and takes longer to dry. My gel takes a minute to dry as I use half a pump per inner thigh, (blob the size of a 5p piece) morning and night.

Over what sort of area do you spread that 5p blob? IIRC a sachet of Sandrena should have been spread over an area the size of my palm.

A 5p blob goes all over my inner thigh so that's about 6-8 inches up and down, mid thigh, and 4-5 inches across.

There used to be a template in the box of gel which showed the area on either the upper arm or inner thigh. Upper arm was elbow to shoulder mainly on back of arm to avoid breasts.

It sounds as if you were not spreading it over a large area- the larger the area the better the absorption.

The gel is great - I’ve found- much better than oral HRT. But unless you’ve had a hysterectomy you will surely need progesterone as well? Has your GP discussed this?