Where can I get a private blood test from to test my levels of oestrogen?

[ChocChipOwl]

Just that really! I'd like to know what my levels currently are. I'm nearly 51 so I suppose I should be right in the throes of it all and maybe I am? It's hard for me to tell as my periods are regular and I have no hot flushes

Anyway, I'm toying with taking HRT for other little issues which could be peri menopause related but before I do, I'm keen to know what my levels are

Can anyone recommend somewhere decent and trustworthy? Thanks

@WarriorN ah now I did try a little bit of it last year and tried it vaginally, made me itchy! Did you find it ok like that?

I took HRT for about a week and then had an attack of nerves and stopped taking it.

I like to know I'm taking something because I need it. And I couldn't work out if I needed it

You can have a Mirena Coil instead of Utrogesten

www.balance-menopause.com/menopause-library/menopause-symptom-sheet/

I'd definitely prefer to shove it up my hoo ha but not if it irritates me!

@cleowasmycat I've always said I'd never have a coil. I don't know why, I've always been again at it, probably because of the horror stories I've read

No it hasn't at all.

You could try combo patches? or as above, the mirena.

Could you need some topical and vaginal oestrogen too? Maybe you could start with that for a bit then start the hrt properly?
Everyone is so different it's hard to know what's right for you till you try different things

I’m going to swim against the tide here and say that I have a full blood test every year done by my private menopause specialist. There’s no medical need for it, she doesn’t require it, she offers it and I have it done because it interests me. It’s not harmful so why not?

@Remainiac what does the test show you? Which test is it?

Another option is the mini pill. Then you only need half the amount of utrogestan as the mini pill provides the rest of the progesterone you need. I take the mini pill, 3 pumps of oestrogel and 1 x 100mg utrogestan every night continually. I don’t have any periods or bleeding whatsoever which was important to me.

I also have yearly tests with my private specialist. So yes NICE guidelines given are correct, but that’s for diagnosis as testing isn’t reliable during perimenopause because our hormones fluctuate too much. It would be useless to diagnose and treat alone. However, they’re not irrelevant. If on testosterone you have to test to keep it under the upper limit for safety reasons. For estrogen, my doctor just likes to check it against symptoms if any. Symptoms alone were used to diagnose and prescribe the estrogen though. We tested it in the months following as I went up or down with dosage. In your case I think you feel like your symptoms alone aren’t a problem for you to treat? You have watched Davina’s programmes and understand I think that for bone health you’d like to see if your levels are low enough that you should take the HRT? There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do that, it is always up to you. If you have the money, medichecks is excellent and you get a doctors report advising you alongside it. You may then want to discuss with your GP those results.

I have a 100 patch and take utrogesten 100 nightly

Test shows oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone levels. Blood count, cholesterol, thyroid and liver function - usual full screen results. It’s interesting to see how it varies from time to time and I find it reassuring.

@Remainiac are you on hrt?

Op By all means have a test but you may find it's "ok" because you've unknowingly hit a high oestrogen phase. Test a week or two later and it could be lower but you wouldn't know. I suppose if it's around 400-600 that's a really good average level. Though some women really do need it higher than that.

Somewhere I read '3 days after a period' can be helpful.

If you're coping and don't feel you need it for take it. It does help bone health and cardiovascular health and starting earlier for that is better. But plenty of women don't take it and are fine without.

I was much younger than you and verging on having to completely give up work due to pain and fatigue and brain fog. Plus young children.

When you do female hormone profile tests they tell you to take it at a low estrogen phase for that reason. Yes 3 days after your period.

Yes I am on HRT. Oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone and DHEA.

Ok, yes I've had blood tests for oestrogen but only when on hrt to check if worth going higher.

I have an underactive thyroid and it's been hard to gauge which symptoms are that and which are meno.

I was actually on a bit too much thyroxine. Reducing that and upping the oestrogen has really helped. Still some way to go i think.

She tests both at the same time.

WarriorN both estrogen and progesterone, more so, can increase our thyroxine so often thyroid patients find they need to decrease HRT. It’s very hard to balance both in my experience and many others too

Sorry that’s incorrect
the mini pill is for contraception and almost a separate issue
you have only 190mg uterogestan because you are on a continuous regime ie you take it daily. When on a cyclical regime of taking it 12-14 days each month the dose is 200mg.

the continuous regime is usually only for women who are at least one year past their last ‘natural’ period.

Its not incorrect. Unless you are saying that even if I didn’t take the mini pill I could still take 100mg utrogestan everyday instead of the 2 week thing lots seem to do?

Its not important to me whether the mini pill provides contraception or not. I take it because I have lupus and had horrendous clotting during my periods and I didn’t want periods anymore. So I started the mini pill 9 years ago and when it was discovered I’d stopped producing oestrogen in 2017 they said I could start HRT but I said I wanted to stay on the mini pill - so they gave me this option. (This is Newson health by the way and then confirmed via a gynaecologist on the nhs when my nhs appointment came through some time later).

I wish more women knew about this option because so many always say they struggle with the 2 week thing and bleeding during cycles but with the mini pill, oestrogel and utrogestan as I use it I never ever bleed (I accept some women will, some women always bleed on the mini pill) and I don’t get the surges in the different hormones as I take the same every single day.

I have a progesterone only implant for contraception and it isn't enough for womb protection wit HRT to I still take 100mg daily.

@ChocChipOwl From your posts, you are not really in need of HRT (I'd say!)

It's actually against prescribing guidance to use it as prevention unless it's for low bone density or high risk of this (family history.)

If you are unsure you need it, your probably don't.

I'm saying this as someone who's used it for a long time and who was certain I never would.

I was 52 before I had a hot flush, periods were fine (just kind of petered out with less flow but still pretty much every 4 weeks.)

Then as soon as I missed 4 in a row, the hot flushes started every single hour of the day, my sleep pattern changed and I couldn't sleep very well, and I was tired.

I felt that I couldn't go on like that, and I'd already had a diagnosis of low bone density through a DEXA scan (privately paid for.)

I was doing everything 'natural' that I could with diet, exercise, no booze etc, eating phytoestrogen by the tonne, walking 3 miles a day.

But you don't seem to have a real need yet.

You might feel worse as the years go on and you can decide then what to do.

@Lancasterlassie Although the mini pill is not licensed by the NHS for the progestogen part of HRT, it can be used. I wanted to change the progesterone I was using (Norethisterone) and my consultant did suggest a mini pill but it would be something like 3 daily to get enough progestogen.

@Afterfire Even without the mini pill, if you take Utrogestan daily it may well prevent a monthly bleed as it's the dose for women on continuous HRT.
If you stopped producing estrogen in 2017 why aren't you just using combined continuous HRT which is 100mgs Utrogestan each day? Just out of interest.

When they tested my hormone levels it wasn’t decisive enough to say I’d definitely gone through the menopause so they just said to stay on what I’d been taking - the mini pill etc. No one has ever questioned it - except here! For some reason I always feel I have to sort of defend myself about it here, as if I’m wrong for taking it or something when I’ve had two consultants- one private, one nhs, both recommended that regime for me for one reason or another, and it suits me.

I should add I have a very complex medical history - lupus, sjorgens, Addison’s, asthma, pituitary issues etc. My blood results aren’t straightforward. Newson health actually referred me back to the nhs because they couldn’t be confident about how the oestrogel would impact on my pituitary issues and they wanted a second opinion (nhs consultant said I should have the oestrogen as Newson originally recommended despite my lupus and pituitary issues). So here I am!

I just read so many things about women not wanting HRT because of the bleeding or because they have issues taking the 2 weekly progesterone and I just feel like the mini pill / 100mg utrogestan daily eliminates those things so why don’t they recommend that for more women?!