Hi ladies,
for the past 4-5 months, I have been on a low-dose HRT with bio-identical hormones for my osteoporosis, irregular cycles, and a couple of other symptoms (nausea, loss of appetite, IBS, irritability, sleep disturbances, etc.). The natural estrogen worked great, but the progesterone caused such bad side effects (depression, drowsiness, lethargy, apathy, being unable to work until early afternoon) that I had to quit taking it after only 4-8 days (I was supposed to take it for 14 days each cycle). I took the lowest dose possible and tried out various ways of taking it, oral, vaginal, transdermal, you name it - nothing really worked.
Then, my last cycle was horrible. I had constant nausea, loss of appetite, and IBS flare-ups again, plus I was in a very low mood. That cycle then turned out to be only 17 days long, whereas the one before that had been 30 days long. I stopped my HRT completely after that.
I talked to a doctor on the phone today, who suggested I might be going through an early menopause and recommended further testing. However, I am totally fed up with running to the doctors all the time, like I have done for the past 5 years or so, and then either not getting a diagnosis at all (apart from "it's all in your head"), or getting a diagnosis, but no treatment, or at least none that really works.
I have plenty of lab results here; my hormones were tested twice earlier this year, and there is clearly something going on. I do not think it's early menopause, though, since my FSH is still pretty much normal, and my ob/gyn does not seem to think it's menopause either. If anything, I would guess it's probably peri.
Now, my question is, has anyone of you experienced similar problems with natural progesterone? If so, have you been able to resolve them, and how?
Thank you very, very much in advance!!
