Menu

Menopause questions

by Claire
(Pennsylvania)

Hello Wray. I am writing in on behalf of my mom, as she does not use the comuter much. She is 62 years old, and has been battling horrible hot flashes for over 20 years. She was put on estrogen alone for 20 years, starting in her forties, for the hot flashes. A few years ago, her gynecologist took her off the the estrogen cold turkey, because he said that now the research shows that it is not good for her heart. She has been absolutely miserable for the last few years with the much increased hot flushes again. She finally has gone to a compounding pharmacist who does saliva testing, and he has her on estrovera (which is something over the counter, not sure what exactly it is or does) DHEA, and a cream that says pregen 2%, c-progest 2%. I have no idea how many milligrams she is taking as it is just a "pump". But I suspect that she is not on nearly enough progesterone. And it is costing her a lot of money. I have done extensive reading on your site, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for putting this information out there and being willing to take so much time to answer all of our individual questions. You have helped SO many people!! I think I gather that you do not recommend DHEA or estrogen of any kind (if that is what this estrovera is--not sure from the ingredient list). I've also seen that you recommend 400 mgs for 5 days for hot flashes of progesterone. So I just wanted to double check with you about what your recommendation would be for her. Do you feel that she should go off of everything she is taking, cold turkey, and just go to the 400 mgs. progesterone? And if so, if her hot flashes go away within 5 days, should she start decreasing right away? By like 16 mgs a day or any more than that? Thank you so very much for your time and caring!

Comments for Menopause questions

Click here to add your own comments

Jul 21, 2012
 Menopause questions
by: Wray

Hi Claire Bless you for the kind words, but even more for actually taking the time to read the site! I can't believe your mother has been suffering from Hot Flushes for 20 years!! Of all my symptoms, those were the worst. Luckily they went quite quickly for me once I'd started the progesterone. It does vary in women, I say 400mg/day, but some find they need more. It really depends on how much oestrogen they are making, i.e. how high their level is. No one should come off HRT cold turkey, it should always be done gently. Too late now, but we do have a page on this, see Coming off HRT, the Pill etc. The estrovera contains an oestrogenic herb, I'm not in favour of them, I'm not in favour of any phytoestrogen. Besides we get so many in our diet, see here, here and here. Not to mention the 100 odd oestrogen mimics in the environment, see Our Stolen Future. You are right I don't think any woman should take DHEA, see here, here, here and here. It won't hurt to go off the things she's taking cold turkey, the side effects will be very small if any, certainly compared to the HRT. She might like to look through our Menopause too. Continued below.
Jul 21, 2012
 Menopause questions Part 2
by: Wray

Hi Claire I can't say how long it will take for her hot flushes to go, in some women it does only take 5 days, others longer. One woman told me she added GABA to her protocol and found that helped too. Interesting this, as I'd not come across it before, but it could well help as it's very calming. Progesterone activates the GABA receptors too. Once her symptoms have calmed down, she can begin reducing. Although I do suggest continuing on the high amount for at least a week or two after they have. And yes I do recommend reducing very slowly, some have reduced far too sharply and the hot flushes have come back. I also suggest she uses the cream more frequently than twice a day. Some use it hourly, some when they feel a hot flush coming. In case she's worried she doesn't have enough skin to rub it on, it doesn't matter how often you apply it, or to what part of the body. I go into this in more detail on our page Progesterone Misconceptions. Please ask her to read our page on Oestrogen Dominance before starting the progesterone. Please let me know how she gets on. Take care Wray

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Progesterone faq.

Share this page:
Find this page helpful? Please tell others. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.

Search over 8,400 pages on this site...