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 :)

Further update for anyone who is interested.

The headaches came back again and j finally pinned them down to too much oestrogen, not too little.

I'd started putting a bit of oestrogen cream on my face randomly (it's a thing) and as soon as I stopped that all the headaches went.

I should add i'm quite sensitive to oestrogen fluctuations.

Hi, I know it's a later reply and I found your post whilst looking up zentiva progesterone headaches online. I was using utrogestan for 2 years after the coil failure and I settled well into it and knew what to expect if I hadn't taken it correctly. My GP now refuses to pay for the utrogestan and moved me onto zentiva which has triggered a body flare within the 1st 2 days of using it. I have horrific headaches, nausea, bloating, constipation and lack of appetite just when I got my body aches on an even level too. I'm sensitive to hormonal changes and said this would happen but my GP doesn't understand or care. Hope you feel better soon.

It's annoying isn't it. When I made this post it turned put it was oestrogen cream (on my face 😁) that was the issue. However I've also had issues since with progesterone. I'm actually fine with zentiva, utrogestan and dr reddy brands but the Accord progesterone makes me feel really unwell with constant headaches.

According to the contents list they all have the same ingredients but a pharmacist told me that despite this they will absorb differently which is what can cause symptoms.

Can you get your chemist to source dr reddy brand of progesterone so you can try that?

The NHS appears to have offered other brands to save money and also help supply issues. A few years ago there was a shortage of Utrogestan and there was a mad scramble trying to get any. women were on waiting lists to get any. It was very difficult.
The newer brands are slightly cheaper ( a few pence per tablet).

Zentiva progesterone gave me horrible suicidal mood swings and anxiety for about 3 weeks in the spring then settled, subsequently I had Dr Reddys which was fine (as was Gepretix and Utrogestan in the past). But was given Zentiva again last week, same mood swings and didn't want weeks of it. Fortunately the GP was willing to resend the prescription with a request for non Zentiva, pharmacy gave Dr Reddys and all fine now. I made a yellow card report for Zentiva progesterone and suggest others do the same.

I believe it might be caused by a difference in the oil used which affects absorption.

Hi, thanks for responding, I have an appointment with my GP today as they are the people who say what I can and can't have. And thank you for the information about absorbsotion I will add it to my myriad of hormonal spaghetti junction.