Sudden onset sore boobs! (Too much estrogen?)

[101trees]

I've been on cyclical HRT for 4 months. It's been amazing. I was waking at 2, 3, 4am with massive anxiety and having increased migraines and horrific anxiety all the time, hot flushes and confusion. Felt like I was drifting through life in a dazed and confused fog.

After around 6 weeks on HRT, my migraines massively improved, and I started sleeping through the night again, felt a bit like I was coming back down to earth. My get-up-and-go came back. I do feel slightly wired, more so during the estrogen only phase, more tired but more grounded in the combi phase.

However, month 4, anxiety has returned, not as badly, migraines slightly increased, though still much better than before, anxiety is creeping back in.

But I also have sore boobs out of nowhere. This hasn't been a thing at all up until now.

The only side effect I got from HRT was nausea for 2 weeks when I started the estrogen patch.

I'm on Evorel 50 + 12 days utrogestan. My own hormones are crashing around like an elephant on a trampoline in the background.

The sore boobs feel like some kind of indication of imbalance to me, I've only ever had it in pregnancy before. I think I read it means too much estrogen?

I just find it odd because I haven't changed my estrogen and was feeling so much better on it.

Could you be pregnant?

Do the sore boobs coincide with taking Utrogestan?

If not, you could try reducing the estrogen.
Unless you really prefer a patch it's easier to control estrogen with estrogen gel. You can use 4 different doses - 1 pump up to 4.

If you're still very much in peri, your own estrogen may kick in as well but this might be just a short term thing.

@Ohmygodthepain Absolutely certain I'm not pregnant, but I do see why you suggested that !

@JinglingSpringbells no, the sore boobs started before I started the utrogestan this month. It co-incided with more migraines and anxious-irritability (although still not as bad). This is essentially what PMS is like for me. The sore boobs just confirmed for me that it was hormones causing the problems.

I'm pretty sure it is my own hormones kicking in. Last month was the best month I've had in years and years. But even before HRT I had the occasional good month.

I have this funny feeling it's linked to anovulatory cycles, but I don't know if it's an anovulatory or an ovulatory cycle when I have a good month. It was also a longer cycle (by 5 days, but my cycles are very short now usually)

I had wondered if more HRT would over-ride my own cycles better, or just add to some temporary estrogen dominance. The migraines are usually related to fluctuations in estrogen rather than too much or too little overall. Hence wondering if I could 'smooth out the bumps' with more HRT.

I'm not keen on using hormonal contraception for this purpose. I don't do well with synthetic hormones, but have been fine with utrogestan.

I'm on Evrorel 50 + 12 days utrogestan. I'm in early-peri I think.

I'm just so gutted that I was feeling so much better.

I had this when I tired patches, having used gel in the past.
It stopped when I returned to gel.
Am sure i read that others on here had found the same using patches, do a search and see?

I'm in menopause now but had horrible painful breasts in peri. Even walking was painful! I didn't take HRT but found agnus castus tablets sorted the pain quickly. If I stopped taking it, it quickly came back. I think I saw it recommended on here and I'm so grateful.

@trickyex you had sore boobs when using patches? Or the fluctuating symptoms?

I was told to use patches by my neurologist because I get menstrual migraine, so she said I'd get the most stable levels with patches.

It has been great for my migraines to be fair.... up until now.

So I've not really considered gel, until now. I have noticed people say it works better.

@CheerfulBunny - thank you for passing on the recommendation! I will give it a try. Never heard of it before.

I had this with the gel but not the patches. I think you're probably right that it indicates excess estrogen but I could be wrong.

I have this funny feeling it's linked to anovulatory cycles, but I don't know if it's an anovulatory or an ovulatory cycle when I have a good month. It was also a longer cycle (by 5 days, but my cycles are very short now usually)

I'm confused because your cycles should be the same when you're on sequential HRT. They should be more-or -less regular. Most (but not all) women bleed about 3 days after the progesterone dose ends.

You could change to gel so you are able to decrease or increase the dose easily.

I meant I had sore boobs when using the patches, also was a bit of an issue when I increased the gel beforehand from 2 to 3 pumps.
This has gone since I went back to gel using 2 pumps daily, which all seems to suggest its linked to too high estrogen levels.
I find it a bit easier with the gel to tweak the amount, so maybe this would suit you better OP?

Just thought I'd return to actually give an update, in case it's of interest to anyone in the future (I always end of reading people's old posts and wondering what happened in the end).

I'm under a private menopause specialist. Had a follow-up with her. She suggested it was probably my own hormones which caused a surge and dip because quite a lot of my symptoms are that of low estrogen (stuff like my dry skin and dermatitis which had magically disappeared have returned, and feeling very hot followed by very overwhelmed came back).

She said sometimes estrogen causes sore boobs, but not always.

So she suggested upping the estrogen patch gradually from 50 to 75 to try and level out the dips a bit better. I've got up 1/4 a 50 patch and the migraines and hot flushes have gone away again, as have, mostly, the sore boobs (hooray!), but the anxiety remains. So I will try upping it a little more.

The anxiety and loss of self confidence part was the part which was never completely resolved by HRT in the first place. I wonder if HRT just doesn't really help that? If anyone has any magical solutions to this I'd be very happy to hear them !

(Side note: I also take magnesium, vit D & riboflavin, riboflavin is for migraine)