I have bad insomnia that progesterone and estradiol doesn't help and am considering the Dutch, but would probably have to stop depo provera for it. I've had symptoms of too many androgens my whole life, hormonal acne, and wonder if my adrenal hormones or estrone metabolites are high.
It's really expensive though and I'm wondering if it was worth it for you?
It counts every sleep on 2 different days for me, sometimes overlapping the other sleep that day, and includes it in the total sleep for each day. (Yes, I'm sleeping like this, perimenopause and hrt isn't helping. I might have another unrecorded cpl hours..)
Fitbit Charge 5, Samsung Galaxy S25, Google Health app (terrible, problem started a couple weeks ago with this rollover from Fitbit) 5.04.1, Tried checking for updates, not any.
The 47min in 3rd pic is showing for Mon Jun 28 2026
I want the white lotiony 0.025 Revize Micro tret microspheres but can only get it made by Eris Therapeutics now with Zing and it's a clear yellow gel, and the mfr hasn't updated the ingredients list despite it clearly using different ingredients.
Does anyone know where to get the white one by Eris Lifescience now without rx?
The ingredient in many sleep aids and benadryl, and other 1st generation antihistamines, increase your dementia risk and risk compounds based on the dose and how often you take it. My mom just recommended this to me for my sleep issues that the strongest benzodiazapene just helps a little bit with despite hardly ever taking it since they increase dementia risk too.
Dr Steph's youtube short-
https://youtube.com/shorts/tPfprAiKEx0?is=w\_K5vl9H1VMOaMWT
Her short on benzos doubling risk of falls and fractures in the elderly-
https://youtube.com/shorts/9lIbonwtZx4?is=\_zVx7z6PfWQe5QRo
Nothing otc or rx has worked well for me and my circadian rhythm that keeps moving my nights earlier around the clock so my mornings often start at midnight now. HRT also hasn't helped despite my poor sleep getting much worse the year before perimenopause started. A continuous glucose monitor shows my blood sugar isn't dipping, so what's left?
DORA's, (dual orexin receptor antagonists), which don't increase dementia risk but probably aren't great for my case since I fall asleep fine but wake up >2x and my clock is backwards.
Here's Dr Bhopal, a sleep medicine educator & Harvard trained psychiatrist, explaining what they are (not standard sedatives), side effects, how they work, and who they are and are not good for-
I've seen women post about increasing estrogen hrt dose and having menopause symptoms like hot/cold flashes come back afterwards. I thought it was a coincidence but I googled it since it happened to me a week after an increase and estrogen hrt can cause some of the same symptoms it treats. I wanted to post since I know several women wondered too if they needed another increase due to the new symptoms.
(removed from menopause sub for reasons that don't apply)
It's recommended to add 100mg progesterone/utrogestin with GLP-1's, or use your normal dose vaginally, use transdermal progestins (not transdermal progesterone), or an iud, especially the 1st 4wks of dosage increases as the extra time in stomach acid can eat up some of the dose.
They advise not to trust birth control pills alone for contraception for this reason. Tirzepatide decreased overall exposure to bcp's by 20%. I put my bcp's in acid resistant capsules when I used them for endometriosis suppression and as hrt but I wouldn't trust that either for contraception as it's not been studied. Enteric capsules dissolve in the higher pH of the intestines where meds are mostly absorbed. I just commented this for someone and realized it's not common knowledge yet. There's a chart for increasing progesterone or medroxyprogesterone acetate in the article below.
Progestogen options unlikely to be affected by incretin-based therapies include:-
Transdermal norethisterone (as part of a combined transdermal patch like Evorel Sequi®/Conti)
Transdermal levonorgestrel (as part of a combined transdermal patch like Femseven Conti®)
Intrauterine levonorgestrel (a 52mg LNG-IUD like Mirena®, Levosert® or Benilexa® – effective for 5 years after insertion)
Off label vaginal use of oral micronised progesterone – used at the same dose and in the same pattern as when used orally.
Article-
I found a good article from GoodRX about menopause HRT that gives you the skinny on HRT safety and explains the flaws in the Women's Health Initiative study that claimed HRT was unsafe if you want to print it out for resistant dr's and maybe highlight sections, so I'll link it here. I do think the section about who shouldn't have it is outdated and it can be safe if you've had breast cancer or blood clots so if that applies to you I'd look for recent randomized controlled trials and be aware that estradiol and progesterone have a better safety profile than synthetic, though synthetic is still also safe, safer than going through a pregnancy or on birth control pills, which dr's don't consider to dangerous for us.
There's a link in the article for information on different forms of HRT too. (Goodrx has free pharmacy coupons for a better price if you don't have insurance too.)
https://www.goodrx.com/conditions/menopause /hormone-replacement-therapy-for-menopause-risks
According to The Vajenda, Melinda Gates (Bill Gates's ex-wife) is donating $215 million to women's health, with $10M for The Menopause Society to train healthcare professionals and for targeted outreach about menopause.
She's already donated $600 million for women's health in the last 2 years. In Dr Jen Gunter's substack article focused on menopause treatment, she says only 5% of research is on women, and less than 1% of aging research is on menopause.
This is great to hear, that more research will be done and more Dr's will be trained, since they got no training this last 20yrs except "menopause hrt is bad".
(Please focus some around sleep because hrt isn't fixing it for some of us, who are waking up at 3am for the day every day, and mine gets earlier and earlier and is 2am now.)
I thank Melinda and the Dr's spreading the word about treatment. It seems like I have to go down a rabbit hole for every chronic health issue I have because dr's I've had just have surface knowledge on many things and instead of saying "I'll find out" they just say "I don't know" and I leave with as many questions as I came with.
I've been taking between 5-10mg DHEA pills daily for 5 days. They make me feel sedated and very hungry. I end up nodding off while I'm eating and taking a 2hr nap. I think I have a tiny bit more energy during the day though. I read the depo provera I'm on can block some of the hormones if taken orally but vaginally is safe. A urologist on Kelly Casperson's podcast said you can just put the pills in vaginally. Has anyone done this?
I'd love your experiences and if you had side effects and how much/how often you use it.
Was it sedating and cause hunger for anyone else?
This isn't about the basic hrt 101 information but about different progestins, testosterone, what she uses for women who have had breast cancer or PMDD or endometriosis and for low sex drive. There are several ads from Mary Haver so I skip through them.
I put short notes to myself or texts I need to send later if I remember something at 3am so can't send it then. Google's texting app takes over in July and doesn't have this. I have just installed goodlock just to use the AM/PM on the time so I can use something from there if they have a good one that let's you see all your text drafts without clicking on the contact. I have the S25 if it matters.
I see it's a listed possible side effect for the vaginal E cream and am just wondering how many people had it in the first 6 months? I'm about 5 weeks in after taking a break and think it's caused it for me. I'm on continuous birth control so don't have periods. I'd just gone to 3x a week because just sitting too long hurts a little down there and I was trying to prevent more atrophy.
I switched off depo provera and Bi-est cream that I was doing well with to try bcp's at my Dr's preference, but couldn't handle the side effects so after 6wks I switched back but with a little higher dose of E. I'm much more hungry and am feeling kinda anxious and irritable and upset and don't know if it's from stress or if higher E can cause it?
I've seen male to female transitioners comment about E making them really hungry but I thought it was P intolerance that caused these mood issues, not E?? I got my first hotflashes 8 months ago so my hormones are likely still dropping too.