Hormone questions?

[rocknrollgirl]

I had a partial at 42, ovaries still in. My symptoms of early menopause came on quietly, and I just excused them away. Oh, I am tired, or, I am stressed. And then I started to get foggy and could not sleep. I teach, high school. I knew I could not do my job if I continued with those symptoms. So after a few years i went on replacement. I use bioidenticals. They are very low does and have done wonders for me. I did not need much tweaking in meds or dosing, so it was not a hard transition. I felt better in a matter of days.

I know people have very strong feelings on both side of the fence, but for me it has changed my quality of life. I get regular blood tests and regular check ups and everything is fine.

Hope that helps.

[zoom-zoom]

At 43 I have had a ton of signs of estrogen dominance (ie inadequate progesterone in my system to balance the estrogen) for a long time...probably closing-in on a decade. I've had endometriosis all my reproductive life, so at 30 had tubal and thermal ablation. Accordingly, I don't really know what my flow would naturally be like, but my cycles have become really short...like 21-25 days, typically. Until this past one -- 41 days. I've never before had cycles differ more than 2-5 days, from month to month. I don't just get hot flashes, I also have become more intolerant of cold...which sucks living in MI!

2.5 years ago I had my right ovary removed, along with a kiwi-sized teratoma cyst. My bowels have been annoying ever since. I don't know if it's a side-effect of surgery -- stuff got shifted around -- or perimenopause. But I've been stupidly gassy/crampy and have had urge to go, even when there's no BM. Apparently perimenopause can wreak havoc on all sorts of things not directly involved with reproductive organs, from things I'm reading.

I'm overdue for my pap, but am hoping to give prometrium progesterone supplements a try, again. A few years ago I was on them for about half of my cycle, to help lengthen them, but the 200mg dose didn't do a thing after several months of taking them.