Hormonal headaches after switching progesterone brands on HRT

[Additup]

I'm hoping someone may have some words of advice.

I've been on everol 50 patch and 1 progesterone capsule every night for a year (plus vaginal oestrogen for longer). It's worked well, no real issues. Joint pain and flat mood which were my symptoms gone.

Over that time I've been prescribed utrogestan, zentiva and latterly dr reddy brands and had no problems swapping from one to another.

However, after taking the dr reddy brand for 2 months I've now swapped back to zentiva and its triggered awful migraine like headaches and buzzing in my ears. I missed a day of progesterone and felt much better and swapped back to dr reddy brand. Initially I felt fine but after a few days I can feel the same hormonal headaches again.

Has anyone else had a similar experience and what did you do?

If you look at the leaflet in the packs or even online you can check all the ingredients.

I've done that and there doesn't appear to be anything weird in any of them.
What puzzles me the most us that over the past year I've gone from zentiva to utrogestan to zentiva to dr reddy and been fine. But now I've tried to go back from dr reddy to zentiva it's all gone tit's up and i've constant hormonal headaches.

It's like the dr reddy brand has really messed something up.

What were your reasons for changing brands OP?

It's just what the pharmacist gave me.

It may be that your own sensitivity has changed to progesterone. I've used it for years and no cycle is the same. Sometimes I get migraines, sometime not, it differs all the time and I've always used Utrogestan.
The absorption is can vary a lot depending on all kinds of things like food, no food, etc. It's not a particularly stable drug.

Ok. It's certainly possible to have different side effects with different brands even though the active ingredient is the same. Different formulations will have varying rates of absorption and some people are very sensitive to progesterone (I'm one of them!). If there's one of these brands that you've felt happier with you can specify this to your pharmacist and say you only want that brand as others give you side effects. They can order it in if not in stock.

There is a slight potential issue with this.

There have been some serious supply issues ( a few years back) and that's why other brands came onto the market. They are often cheaper (saves the NHS money and the pharmacies.)

I pay for mine on a private prescription. It's a few pence difference per tablet (and I want what's on the prescription not a change of brand) and some pharmacies will offer the cheapest.

If the OP's prescription say micronised progesterone, the pharmacy can issue whichever brand they want to. She can try asking for what she prefers.
The absorption should be the same whatever name the meds have, if the ingredients are identical.

Thank you, that is very interesting 😊

So, to update my own thread. I started to feel better from yesterday lunchtime and for the first time in a over a week I've not woken up with a headache.

For anyone else having similar woes the changes I made were:

1. Yesterday morning I stuck on an extra half a 50mg oestrogen patch on my stomach. I did this because I thought perhaps I had stopped absorbing oestrogen as well as I had been. I usually only rotate between 2 (bum) sites which I now know can result in poor absorption. I thought the ratio between oestrogen and progesterone could be out of wack and this might help. It certainly seemed to reduce my headache which tapered off yesterday.
2. I took my progesterone about an hour earlier that I have been doing.

I also read on the Menopause Matters forum that progesterone builds up in your system so if my oestrogen was a bit low due to poor absorption and the P had built up maybe that's what cause the issue. Maybe some brands build up more than others?

Who knows, I'm just glad to be feeling good with no throbbing headache.

Thank you to everyone who responded to me :)