If I reduce my oestrogen should I also reduce progesterone?

[iknowimcoming]

I'm reducing my Sandrena gel from 1.5mg to 1 having read on here that it can cause reflux, but as I also take 75mg desogestrel and 100mg gepretix daily should I drop the 75mg too? Confused and have no idea what 'normal' doses are, and no my gp surgery are not much help sadly!

Not sure what you're asking.

Desogestrel is a mini pill isn't it for birth control?

Is that why you're using it?

I don't think so. The standard dose of progesterone is 200mg for 1mg gel (assuming you are taking it sequentially - 12 days a month?).

OP says she's using it daily so that's 100mg a day.

OP I'm not sure what the progesterone you use is but I use Utrogestan and it is 100mg for any dose of Sandrena gel up to 2 sachets and then it becomes 200mg

So I originally had the mirena iud but it gave me terrible mood swings/pms, so it was removed. My gp surgery automatically issued a prescription for desogestrel and I just went along with it 🤷‍♀️ only recently it's occurred to me that it sounds like quite a high dose.

I was trying to research 'standard dosage' when I came across the post on here regarding oestrogen and reflux, and since I've had stomach issues for a while thought it was worth reducing the Sandrena for a bit to see if it helps.

And so I wondered if it's worth dropping the desogestrel too - hence the post, I'm nearly 54 so don't think I need the contraceptive aspect anymore!

My gp surgery automatically issued a prescription for desogestrel

This is not used as part of HRT .

And certainly not in combination with Utrogestan.

Presumably your GP has given it to you as a replacement for the Mirena? That's the only explanation - as birth control.

The reflux and estrogen - hmmm... not sure about this connection. TBH if you have had stomach problems for some time, it may be worth asking for a endoscopy to check all's ok in your stomach rather than lining it to HRT.

It was me that mentioned the relationship with GERD on another thread. You may find this article of interest OP
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7689967/
I have found that high levels of oestrogen gave me GERD and reducing it alleviated symptoms. There appears to be some scientific evidence for this by the impact of nitric oxide production which relaxes the lower oesophigial splinicter.

The good news is that oestrogen does also alleviate the damage caused by GERD so will lower the cancer risk associated with it.