HRT - nobody gives a fuck about women

[Missproportionate]

Angry face 🤬

Can't get Estrogen Gel for love or money. Having been on it a year I know I can't function without it - as in I have to lie perfectly still and not move for hours on end due to vertigo, flushes dizziness, palpitations... (not posting for advice as I've done lots of posting about that elsewhere and researched myself coz GPs know fuck all)

I have spent many, many hours I won't get back being misdiagnosed, minimised, etc before finally getting a prescription. Now it's totally unavailable and I have to spend hours on the phone getting GPs and pharmacists to re-prescribe whatever estrogen is available within a 20 mile radius, taking time off work, cancelling appointments for myself and all the people in my family I care for (sandwich generation of course 🙄 - = I provide free care for elderly rels as well as DCs)

I've had it and angry. Aibu to think this is a fundamentally mysoginistic problem I have and I feel like this stuff is being witheld by almost deliberate means?

Even when I do get it they won't give me enough as they are too stupid to do the sums. The pharmacist managed to work it out so I only got 2 weeks worth (when GP agreed to 3 months) and now I'm off on another phone spree round the pharmacies!
Congratulations if you've read all that. I felt this board the only one that will sympathise!

I'm also angry at the general schooling of women into health woo because we don't get our health problems properly addressed and the women I know who won't take HRT and suffer this shit because they 'don't want to take hormones' or 'GP said not suitable for me' or 'I will suffer and then take this ineffective herb and pretend it helps'

They can use 3-4 times the max dose a woman uses though. Some women use less at earlier stages.

I spoke to my GP today about an alternative to oestrogel...she turned the conversation to whether I still needed HRT, was I actually taking it for no reason as I might no longer be having symptoms and I've been taking it for 5 years now and the only way to find out is to stop taking it...

FUCK THAT!!

I politely but firmly indicated that I would NOT like to stop taking HRT any time soon (I'm 55).

Isn't the current thinking that women can (and possibly should) carry on taking HRT almost indefinitely? It has many long reaching benefits ie protecting heart, warding off dementia, helping bone density etc etc.

She put it down to review in a year 😑

Isn't the current thinking that women can (and possibly should) carry on taking HRT almost indefinitely?

The fb group Diane danzebrink runs is v useful this is often discussed and seems to be the case.

Body identical

My plan is not to stop taking it.

"Prised out of my cold dead hands"

I hope my patches are available. For some reason my GP doesn't like to give me too many months worth 🙄

Cancer treatment put me into menopause at 41, so ideally I want to stay on it as I feel so much better now I am.

I'm annoyed transgender men are getting it. Women who NEED it should be the priority. Not a man who is choosing to take it. Pisses me off.

The standard dose that is prescribed to trans identifying patients is either

4mg oral Oestradiol per day
1.25mg Conjugated Oestrogen per day
0.2mg /2x week Oestradiol patch
10mg q 1/52 Oestradiol valerate injections

The NHS gender clinics tend to prescribe oral estrogen - either generics or Progynova for example.

Some of the private ones, eg Webberley's clinic, prescribe gel but I'm unsure of the dose.

I'm in Germany and saw my gynae this week for my usual annual screening. I'm 46 and not yet menopausal but she's asked me for the last couple of years if I'm suffering- how's my sleep, any flushes etc etc - and reiterated that the moment I start to suffer I should get an appointment to look at my options.

Seems much more proactive here.

Can't comment on availability- but my other friends who are on HRT aren't complaining of any problems

Ive recently had three months worth of evorel patches prescribed plus the progesterone. Prescribed sent to pharmacy (cloud rx) and received the next day, so in all honesty I haven’t experienced the issue of no supply, however this is a private prescription.
i don’t Think Doctors or pharmacies are deliberately witholding HRT, why would they?! But demand has massively increased and unfortunately it will take time to sort out supply chains.

Zemmi I was going by the chart on Wikipedia, which I don't always trust but I imagine is a well maintained page there.

It says 25-400 ug transdermal patch.

Very Occasionally women from what I've read in support groups women can be given 150 patches or 100 plus a pump of gel but that's not very common.

Is this wrong?

My thoughts exactly!! 😂

Ss

Those are the standard doses. You won't find many GICs in the UK going above 6mg oral doses, for example, because of diminishing efficacy.

Huge doses of oestrogen aren't needed due to the combination of their use with anti androgens to suppress testosterone. You'll find endocrinologists in the UK are quite conservative with dosing trans people due to the side effects - especially in men. Just enough to achieve low-female baselines.

I fell off a cliff Hormone wise at the same time as I was diagnosed with Osteoarthritis and Ehlers Danlos syndrome.

I have a thread on here (aound 2 years ago) about how I was offered Antidepressants for both my Menopause symptoms and also my Joint problems.

HRT (when I was eventually prescribed it) for me got rid of my hot flushes overnight. It did fuck all for my libido, but that didn't bother me at the time. I told my GP that anecdotally my Mum didn't take HRT (despite horrific symptoms) and now has heart problems and Osteoporosis. My Aunt did take it and doesn't have either.

It's now been proven to not just help prevent against heart issues and osteoporosis but, MS, Alzheimer's and Parkinsons too.

No brainer for me.

I've been prescribed several different HRT patches and been sent running around several different pharmacies every time for nobody to have it, and for the GP to take 2 weeks to get back every time. It's fucking ridiculous, I was going okay at first but now I just feel utterly shit and incapable of working, my mental health has gone to shit too.

I was diagnosed with hypermobility syndrome a number of years ago.

I then had a baby (miscarriages before too) and noticed that the extra hormones were positive for my joints and pain, though they of course got extra loose after baby. I was more careful that time around strength and Pilates but then peri really set in. Pandemic hindered both time to exercise and motivation as I was constantly trying to fit my work around kids and homeschool/ toddler. Though definitely peri also hindered it.

I know the specialists on the hypermobility charity website say oestrogen is stabilising; joint improvement was the first thing I noticed when on hrt.

Here’s a tip - when your Estrogel pump pack appears to have run out, it hasn’t. The mechanism needs a bit more time to fill the pump. When one of mine appears to have run out, I rest it for a day, this means I start a new pack but use them both together for three or four days.
Example: Day 1 old pack only yields one full pump. I use this and start another for the second dose.
Day 2 miraculously I get another dose out of old pack. Second dose again from new pack.
Day 3 I may well get another dose from the old pack, and even Day 4.

It doesn’t sound a lot but if it means I get four extra pumps a month, that’s two days for me, which is 24 days’ worth over a year - nearly a month. It means I have a small buffer supply when it’s difficult to obtain (and I have been able to help DD out on occasion).

I wouldn't have allowed her to put that and since she did, I'm sure you can request for that to be removed.