Patches vs gel

[FreedomFries]

I’m 44, been trying patches for the last couple of months for low mood and insomnia. They have been a miracle cure for insomnia. Less sure about low mood. But it’s early days. However, I’m finding the patches a bit tricky. The edges often get curled up and then only about 50% of the patch is adhering after a day or two (which presumably means in only getting 50% of the drugs?). If I wear my nice (tighter) jeans, they seem to come straight off when I pull my trousers down to go to the loo. Maybe I just need to carry a spare patch with me at all times. But I wondered if I should try the gel - or does that have downsides that I don’t know about? Please tell me your thoughts!

I'm in the opposite boat to you... just switched from gel to patches.

I found Sandrena reasonably effective, but it took so long to dry that it just wasn't practical, so moved to oestrogel which dries far quicker but found this had zero effect on me. As an aside, this coincided with a lot of talk about some people suddenly finding oestrogel less effective after a packaging change. Apparently the formulation is the same, so it seems odd, but many women have been reporting this.

Anyway, it may be that I just don't absorb oestrogel well. My best friend uses it and is very happy with it. And I think many women prefer it to patches because of the flexibility you have with doses.

So, I guess it's trial-and-error and finding what suits you best.

Good luck.

You can use a hairdryer on the patch for 10 seconds and they stick much better. Also press the patch to your skin for a while.

Different patches have different levels of stickiness. I've found my evorel patches to stick well as long as I don't put them near the waist band.

I found gel quite tricky. I'm on a high dose and ran out of places to spread it as I have stick arms and legs. It seemed to take ages to dry.

I'm on Sandrena and find it dries pretty quickly tbh.

Thank you. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong with the patches. I will try the hairdryer if I can get a minute to do it without the kids walking in. It’s very frustrating. I think I might ask to try the gel, although I’m a bit worried about how I’ll react to the oral progesterone part that goes with it.