u/MellowMove

I'm on 3 pumps estrogel, and have been applying in the am for the longest time, and loving it.
But I've noticed that I've been waking up too early lately, and have been wondering if taking 1 pump in the pm would help.

I tried for the first time last night but was wired & couldn't fall asleep. Which makes sense since the gel usually wakes me up, and makes me more alert.

I've read that a lot of women apply the 2nd dose in the afternoon, which sounds nice in theory but I do go to the office, meet friends, and so on, and it's just not feasible to have my gel with me at all times.

How do you all deal with this?

I‘ve recently seen a couple people on this combo but would love to hear from more women, and possibly some longer term experiences.

Even if you’re not on all four, it would still be great to hear your experience.

I‘ve been on hrt for about a year, and strongly considering to add Slynd to smooth out my own fluctuations. My doctor is fine with me trying everything at the same time. I would probably stack Slynd and T on top of current protoco.

I‘m already quite low on T, which is why I would like to add topical T as well, especially since apparently Slynd can block T. I‘m a little worried since I read that it blocks the T receptors, and that topical T might not even do much after all.

Other than that it feels like this might be the magical combo that I‘m looking for but is it? :)

Thank you.

I've been back and forth with this and would love to hear other experiences.

Here's a rundown of what I've tried:

• I've noticed that my oral progesterone seems to work less reliably with tirz (no surprise).
• Due to that, I switched from oral to vaginal p shortly after starting.
• I was on vaginal p for about 6 months, and doing well on it before realizing that it was causing me UTI's :(
• Switched back to oral, and have been having issues with absorption since (returning symptoms), plus oral caused me to ovulate, and have crazier spikes again -> more symptoms.
• I only later found out that apparently vaginal p leads to higher, and more stable p levels than oral, probably especially with tirz, which can, and had for me, suppressed ovulation! I had a minimal bleed and no cramps while being on vaginal p, which is nice since it feels like a better option to control spikes than the pill. Anyway, it's all returned now :/
• So I just started 200 mg rectally, which isn't as much fun, and very much off label, but feels a lot better than oral. Hoping that it will suppress my ovulation and spikes again but also feeling weird about it, since again, it's off label, and obviously no doc told me any of this, and I had to do my own research along the way.

What has your experience with progesterone, or the pill, while being on a GLP-1 been?

Edit to say that I'm in perimenopause and have been on hrt for about a year, and started tirz about 6 months after hrt.

I feel like I might be too influenced by podcasts and social media in general that HRT is the way to go, even in perimenopause.
I've been on hrt for about a year, and it's resolved most of my symptoms but I've had some hickups - specifically due to adding a GLP-1, and lately by switching from vaginal to oral progesterone, which somehow messed up my hormones.

Went to yet another specialist, and paid a crazy amount of money for a 20 minute appointment just to be told once again to go on the mini pill (and potentially transdermal estradiol) to level out my own hormone production.

A part of me is really tempted - not having periods, and somewhat level hormones sounds amazing - but a huge part of me does not want to take synthetic progestins (I LOVE my progesterone and all the benefits I get from it and am scared of side effects from progestins), and I feel like I can work through the ups and downs, even if they suck.

I guess my question is, is taking the pill really still the gold standard for peri hormone fluctuations these days or is it kind of outdated advise, and hrt is the better option, or, should the treatment simply be personalized, depending on everyone's goals?
I just feel like most docs recommend the pill, without really listening or asking enough questions. Wdyt?

I'm having a difficult time filtering through all the posts of gels, creams, injections and different application schedules, so sorry if this has been asked before.

I just started on my compounded cream of 3 mg testosterone daily yesterday, and basically wanted to ask if this was a good starter dose?

I felt like I hit a wall and had a bit of a weird headache a few hours after applying the dose yesterday, and decided to back off a little and only take about half the amount today.

The prescribing endocrinologist said that she won't event take my labs since it's such a small dose and won't do much. Is she correct? I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Random "fun fact": I currently feel a little tingling down there, as if someone was waking up from a long nap... Am I making this up??

Thanks a lot!

I went to see an endocrinologist to discuss my HRT with today. My GP has thankfully been prescribing E + P for almost a year now, and I’m feeling the best I have in years. My GP just wanted an “expert” opinion on it.

So here’s how it went:

The positives: 

• She was actually open and did prescribe Testosterone gel that I asked for!! She did however say that around 50 % of women don’t get any benefit from it, and that she wouldn’t bother testing my levels frequently since the dose would be too low to cause any side effects.
• Did acknowledge that I might be starting a little earler than others, due to my shortening cycle, and other symptoms over the past 5 years.

The “interesting” parts:

• Suggested that my sleep distrubances over the past couple years were likely mental
• Generally put all the mental issues I’ve had in the “mental/have you considered therapy” category, even though I’ve been feeling SO much better since starting HRT
• Said that the goal would be to give as low of a dose of HRT for as short as possible
• Said that I was too young, and that she would have suggested the pill and SSRI’s for my issues
• Said that for PMS you could take cyclical SSRI’s???!
• Said that the bioidentical hormones were a hype right now
• Talked about the WHI and how it showed that you could get breast cancer from HRT 
• Said that she doesn’t like that I still have breakthrough bleeding on continuous progesterone (I’m in peri, still have fairly regular (short) cycles but very little flow at this point). I read on here that women still have regular cycles all the time.
• Suggested to take the mini pill on top of hrt to stop the bleeding altogether
• Gave me a handout stating that PMS and PMDD can sometimes be cured through changing your perspective, lifestyle, and exercise.

I probably forgot a few other points that were made but wanted to share.
I don't even know what to think and whom to believe anymore.
I'm considering going back with tons of research. I'm just so frustrated with where we're at, and that I might have to go online to reliably get my hrt long term.

Edit to say that she also told me various times that I obviously didn’t need estrogen since my labs came back normal.

I have upcoming appointments with an endocrinologist and an urologist to discuss trt but I‘m afraid I won’t get it.

My GP and Gyn were unwilling to prescribe it.

My last hope would be to get the gel online through my husband (I‘m in Germany and from what I‘ve seen so far you can’t even get it online as a female) and do blood testing myself (those kinds of companies that you send small samples to for all kinds of values for testing).

Anyone going that route? I know that this is far from recommended but I‘m a little desperate to get on it to at least see if my symptoms (zero libido, word finding difficulties, low motivation, and so on) will improve.

Would also love to hear if any women in Germany are on T.?

EDIT to say that I‘ve had everything else checked and am already on Progesterone and Estrogen. I‘ve also had a test confirm that my T is on the very low end of „normal“.

TA