Tapered down from 3 pumps to 2.25 pumps of Estrogel over about 2/ 3 months. My period is 10 days late and I have been “period moody” for about 10 days

[Yearss7]

I have been concerned that Estrogel (actually taking estrogen in general) has interplayed with my autoimmune disease so I wanted to taper my dose down. I think my dose at 3 pumps was quite high as I feel like the urtogestan was quite high for me so I was balancing them both out.

Anyway, I was very ill from a medication 3 weeks ago and I have been tapering my Estrogel down. I am now at 2.25 pumps from 3. I want to be at 2. Maybe lower? Don’t know.

Anyway I have been in an awful mood for 10 days, which is about as late as my period is!

Is it because of this tapering? Or just perimenopause in general? Or my body is a mess from being very unwell from a medication reaction three weeks ago?

Have you done this with GP support? It sounds like you need a full review with someone who can see the whole picture.

do you take cyclical progesterone also? How is that bit going?

I’ve spoken to my rheumatologist, my GP, and a private menopause person and they’re all like “no idea if it’s affecting your autoimmune” or “no”.

My rheumatologist was very dismissive about HRt and how it interplays with my autoimmune. But she is very much “take these drugs, forget everything else” - I would and do, but have awful side effects - like AWFUL and I have tried a lot - from them all so trying to try other variables.

I even paid to see a HRT and lupus specialist and it was the biggest waste of money. She just told me about progrestrone alternatives, which is sort of useful to know, but what I need to know is if / how it’s affecting my autoimmune disease and if I need to come off it.

Because no one can answer that, I decided to very slowly taper down to see if it made a difference. It hasn’t, but then it could be the progesterone my body doesn’t like.

It just seems like too much of a coincidence that my autoimmune disease reared its head quite soon after starting HRT and I’ve read that there is a connection between RA and HRt.

It’s all so unknown! But I guess that’s being a woman!

I am on cyclical progrestrone, 14 days of urtogestan a month.