Progesterone

[mellongoose]

Am 46 and still have regular periods. My pmt is horrible and almost marriage ending now. Low libido. Anxious. Brain fog.

Finally spoke to the gp and she offered the mirena coil (not keen) or progesterone.

I've accepted the latter but don't know if I've done the right thing. Dr Google says my mood swings will get worse.

They expect to introduce oestrogen in a few weeks.

Please can you let me know if this regime sounds right? Thanks

I am on Utrogestan, my moods changed overnight. Helped me to sleep and I felt so much better straightaway.

Have a read of It's Not My Head It's My Hormones - can't remember the author and I'm sure many would dismiss it as quackery but I started taking magnesium after reading it, and it's made a very real difference to me. My mood swings and sudden snappy rage have pretty much gone. I really notice when I don't take it for a few days. I also used to get awful ovulation pains and it seems to have sorted that too.

@Neighneigh which magnesium do you take?

Hi @WildFlowerBees - the citrate version works well for me

Thank you 😊 @Neighneigh

@WildFlowerBees it's definitely worth reading the book too, there are lots of case studies in there. I got to a point where I was mega snappy, anxious, had occasional exploding head (the thing where you hear awful bangs while going to sleep), intrusive thoughts etc. And am not even 42 yet! I've been on the magniesum about a year and am so much better. I do tend to take two a day rather than one during certain points in my cycle and that helps too. Good luck with it!

This is interesting - your symptoms sound like mine - awful awful PMT from around day 16 of cycle, a bit of anxiety, night sweats, trouble sleeping. GP put me on oestrogel plus utrogestan 3 months ago but I'm not really seeing much difference in the Irritability/rage etc and had bad ovulation pain this month. Also my own cycle seems to still be 24 days, not moving in line with the HRT timings. Also have been having sore boobs which is a sign of high oestrogen.

So I'm wondering if I should just be on the progesterone as was suggested to you...

I might also start taking the magnesium to see if that helps too. Wishing I'd tried that before the HRT tbh.

I wonder why they've given you progesterone and not oestrogen straight away. Usually you start on the oestrogen and 2 weeks in take progesterone for 2 weeks etc. the oestrogen is constant, the progesterone cyclical.

Gold standard HRT is transdermal oestrogen (gel, spray or patch) and micronised progesterone capsules. The younger you are the higher the amount of oestrogen you generally need. Some women also need testosterone at some point down the line.