Rekindling My Lust for Life: A Fairy's HRT Log

[DoubleDeez]

Fair enough.

My wife is near 40, and she's medically sterilized. Menses were nothing but a nuisance for her and she very much appreciates their absense, lol.

Periods serve as an indicator of reproductive health and hormonal balance in those who are pre-menopausal and not using interventions like birth control or HRT.
There are many scenarios in which being amenorrheic is both expected and perfectly "healthy".

You're more than welcome to feel however you like -- though I don't feel it's proper to suggest that women in scenarios where amenorrhea is expected is an "unhealthy" or "unwomanly" state.

Hey if she’s medically sterilized then it definitely makes more sense to me! I saw on your thread the other day that you’re ~30, I assumed she was your age and started cycling at 22 when I read your comment here, which admittedly sounded kinda horrifying to me because those in their early twenties don’t always make the best decisions, as we know. I got my tubes tied at 24 after my second kid and wish I hadn’t. Anyway, my apologies, and more power to her!

 

[DoubleDeez]

Day 38 of my cycle, I am accepting the fact that I did, in fact, skip a period and it’s not just fashionably late. I 100% attribute this to starting the P too soon (day 12), effectively cancelling out too much estrogen. Despite not having a flow, my cycle seemed to continue on as normal otherwise — I’ve been watching my boobs inflate and deflate as they would if things weren’t all fucky. I’ve decided I am going to reintroduce the progesterone on what would’ve been day 15 if I had gotten my period on time (that day is Sunday), take it for the 14 days, and hope that my period shows up after that. The thought of going on endlessly with unopposed estrogen scares me, so this course of action makes sense to me and will hopefully correct my cycle.

Coming up on 6 weeks on Monday so I am due for labs soon. The plan was to test again on day 21, and what should’ve been my day 21 will be day 46 next Saturday soooo… hmpf. I will probably end up scheduling for next Friday and take a peek at what the hell is going on in there. Definitely going to wait longer before I introduce the testosterone while I get this cycle back on track (and I’m sure the T will inevitably fuck things up again. Sigh.)

On the plus side, my ex came by to pick up the kiddo for visitation and commented on how clear and glowy my skin looks. So at least I know the estrogen is doin its thing.

 

[Sailor28]

Good morning- any ladies nipples get a little sore while doing test and estrogen? My wife is now on e cyp, 2mg weekly, test cyp. 10mg weekly, and progesterone 200mg nightly. We keep on top of her bloodwork. Her prolactin was slightly elevated, but not by much. Just wondering if it's a thing while dialing in her dose that might resolve on its own. I haven't seen high prolactin mentioned anywhere.
She is:
54 yo
Post menopausal
Everything else has been trending in the right direction.

 

[DoubleDeez]

Good morning- any ladies nipples get a little sore while doing test and estrogen? My wife is now on e cyp, 2mg weekly, test cyp. 10mg weekly, and progesterone 200mg nightly. We keep on top of her bloodwork. Her prolactin was slightly elevated, but not by much. Just wondering if it's a thing while dialing in her dose that might resolve on its own. I haven't seen high prolactin mentioned anywhere.
She is:
54 yo
Post menopausal
Everything else has been trending in the right direction.

Mornin! I’m not on test yet. But progesterone does make my boobs swell and my nipples extra sensitive. The half of the month where I’m just on E and no P, my boobs are totally fine. Hopefully someone can chime in and offer more than I can.

 

[Superchicken]

Good morning- any ladies nipples get a little sore while doing test and estrogen? My wife is now on e cyp, 2mg weekly, test cyp. 10mg weekly, and progesterone 200mg nightly. We keep on top of her bloodwork. Her prolactin was slightly elevated, but not by much. Just wondering if it's a thing while dialing in her dose that might resolve on its own. I haven't seen high prolactin mentioned anywhere.
She is:
54 yo
Post menopausal
Everything else has been trending in the right direction.

Hey there. Back when I first started hrt, my nipples got so sore when my dr increased my progesterone from 100 to 200mg. I can’t remember how long I tried, around 2 weeks. I recently tanked my estrogen and restarting injx made my nipples sore for about a week and then was fine after. I figured that was from the tissue being exposed to the hormone again. Just mentioning so you know there can be different causes.

Looking at her labs though, I’ve seen women say to get the estrogen up before they can tolerate more progesterone or they have symptoms like hers. Her FSH and LH are still high, and that points to her body not being at an optimal level of estrogen. The hormone drs that don’t cookie cutter and aim for optimal, say fsh of 5-10 is best, can’t remember for LH. The numbers make sense when you’re in menopause and not on hrt, but should go down when adding them back in.

Def not an expert, but I think the prolactin is being influenced by the e and p ratios, not any other health issue. I think the progesterone is hyperstimulating the estrogen receptors in the breasts and causing the prolactin increase.

How long has she been on this protocol? In the hormone groups, I see anywhere from 3-5mg a week being where postmenopausal women land with estrogen. For reference I’m not in menopause yet, and am on 2.25mg estrogen a week.

The aggravating thing is getting dialed in can take forever, and you should give every change a good 6 weeks before messing around with it. It’s why drs say that bleeding within the 3 month range of adjusting hormones isn’t anything to panic about, because the body can take that long to get its act together. Also note, I don’t always take that advice. lol

 

[Sailor28]

Hey there. Back when I first started hrt, my nipples got so sore when my dr increased my progesterone from 100 to 200mg. I can’t remember how long I tried, around 2 weeks. I recently tanked my estrogen and restarting injx made my nipples sore for about a week and then was fine after. I figured that was from the tissue being exposed to the hormone again. Just mentioning so you know there can be different causes.

Looking at her labs though, I’ve seen women say to get the estrogen up before they can tolerate more progesterone or they have symptoms like hers. Her FSH and LH are still high, and that points to her body not being at an optimal level of estrogen. The hormone drs that don’t cookie cutter and aim for optimal, say fsh of 5-10 is best, can’t remember for LH. The numbers make sense when you’re in menopause and not on hrt, but should go down when adding them back in.

Def not an expert, but I think the prolactin is being influenced by the e and p ratios, not any other health issue. I think the progesterone is hyperstimulating the estrogen receptors in the breasts and causing the prolactin increase.

How long has she been on this protocol? In the hormone groups, I see anywhere from 3-5mg a week being where postmenopausal women land with estrogen. For reference I’m not in menopause yet, and am on 2.25mg estrogen a week.

The aggravating thing is getting dialed in can take forever, and you should give every change a good 6 weeks before messing around with it. It’s why drs say that bleeding within the 3 month range of adjusting hormones isn’t anything to panic about, because the body can take that long to get its act together. Also note, I don’t always take that advice. lol

Thanks for the info. She was experiencing Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause. Her Dr had her on the estrogen cream, compounded test cream and the same dose of progesterone oral. Her levels of T&E barely moved. She asked her Dr about getting on injections, but she wasn't very receptive to the idea. I diluted some test c I had and ordered her some 5 mg/ml e cyp. We started low about 8 weeks ago and have slowly titrated up. The test we're holding where we're at, but we've gone up another 1/2 mg of e, since this most recent bloodwork. The nipple soreness hasn't been that bad, just something that came up. On the plus side, her GSM symptoms are abating. She's noticed a huge improvement down there.

 

[Superchicken]

Thanks for the info. She was experiencing Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause. Her Dr had her on the estrogen cream, compounded test cream and the same dose of progesterone oral. Her levels of T&E barely moved. She asked her Dr about getting on injections, but she wasn't very receptive to the idea. I diluted some test c I had and ordered her some 5 mg/ml e cyp. We started low about 8 weeks ago and have slowly titrated up. The test we're holding where we're at, but we've gone up another 1/2 mg of e, since this most recent bloodwork. The nipple soreness hasn't been that bad, just something that came up. On the plus side, her GSM symptoms are abating. She's noticed a huge improvement down there.

GSM symptoms have been one of the most annoying things for me. Glad she’s getting some relief! It sucks that drs aren’t more open to injections, I’ve found them to be much more stable. Good thing she’s got you to help her out.

 

[DoubleDeez]

Cycle day 47 (or what would be day 22 if I’d gotten my flow when expected). Tomorrow will be 7 weeks on HRT. I got bloods drawn on Friday, and upped my E cyp dose on Saturday. I was doing 0.3mg EOD, now moving to 0.5mg EOD. I’m in my peak progesterone dosing this weekend (6 drops 2x/day, 3mg per drop). Feeling a lot less crazy this go around. I’ve learned how to properly do sublingual drops (no swallowing or drinking anything for 15 minutes) and now that I’m not swallowing any P anymore, I’m not getting much of the unwanted mental sides. I just feel kinda doped up after dosing, extra chill almost as if on opiates. Not my favorite feeling if I’m being honest, but there are definitely worse things. I do also kinda appreciate that I upped my E dose in the midst of my peak P dose, to sort of ease into the higher dose of E more gradually. Tomorrow I’ll have my next injection and will also start titrating the P back down, 5 drops 2x/day for a few days.

I can definitely feel that my bones are healing, although some days I do have an elbow flare-up if I haven’t drank enough water or a knee flare-up after leg day. I will be soon venturing into the peptide realm for an extra boost with healing my joints, starting with bcp-157 and eventually I’ll probably grab some tb500 frag.

Oh! Another thing worth mentioning: I had been seeing less help from the vaginal creams (I have one that’s got progesterone, estriol, and estradiol, and one with just estriol.) I decided to only use the one that has P when I’m dosing the P drops, and use the estriol cream on the other half of the cycle. Neither one was seemingly very effective for the last couple weeks until I started something new a few days ago. Now I rub a non-hormonal vulva balm onto the lady bits first, and then I apply the hormonal cream. Total game changer. I do feel it’s helping a lot with absorption and I can also use the vulva balm as much as I like throughout the day just to keep things moisturized and comfortable.

I knew that getting everything dialed in would be a process and I’m happy with the way things keep improving. I’m learning as I go, listening to my body, making adjustments as needed, and I sincerely don’t think my experience would be any better if I was on some doctor’s protocol with all of this. I’m looking into DHEA vaginal cream if the stuff I have eventually fails to help me again, or even biting the bullet and getting an estradiol cream prescribed, but for now everything is going swimmingly.

I’ll post labs when I get them.

 

[DoubleDeez]

Upping my estradiol dose gives me the same feeling as when I first started. Found myself drenched in sweat at work yesterday (granted, I run around like a headless chicken, got almost 17k steps in by the end of the shift) but also? The horny dial is turned way the hell up. Even while on progesterone, which effectively cancels out some of the estrogen, I get that euphoric rush from the bump in E. I know things will level out again but man, I enjoy this shit. I can’t even imagine what it’s gonna be like once I find my sweet spot E dose and then add in the testosterone. I know the other half is looking forward to that.

 

[DoubleDeez]

See this right here?^ That’s been a major source of stress for the last 50 days. But I’m happy to report I finally got my damn period. Started with some spotting last night (just a tiny bit on my TP) and this afternoon there is now a substantial amount, and I can officially call it a flow. Lesson learned: do not dose progesterone on day 12 despite having shorter cycles. Wait til day 14 or even 15 to be sure. Glad I was able to figure that out and correct it before I skipped another period. This one is pretty much right on cue as if I’d gotten one last month. Seems like I just have a shorter luteal phase.

Just thought I’d announce this all to the void, for the sake of recordkeeping. Back to bed now with my tender tiddies.

 

[BigDadd7]

My condolences to @Bandern

 

[DoubleDeez]

My condolences to @Bandern

He just needs to throw some chocolate at me and all will be right in the world.

 

[sionnach]

He just needs to throw some chocolate at me and all will be right in the world.

I'm spending more money on goddamn chocolate than I am on gear these days. Dunno why some shark weeks are 27 days long.

 

[DoubleDeez]

I'm spending more money on goddamn chocolate than I am on gear these days. Dunno why some shark weeks are 27 days long.

Holy shit dude lol sounds brutal!

 

[Bandern]

My condolences to @Bandern

She has ice cream and Netflix. I’m marked safe!!

 

[sionnach]

Holy shit dude lol sounds brutal!

I'm starting to think maybe I just picked up one of the legitimately crazy ones.

 

[Superchicken]

View attachment 354931
See this right here?^ That’s been a major source of stress for the last 50 days. But I’m happy to report I finally got my damn period. Started with some spotting last night (just a tiny bit on my TP) and this afternoon there is now a substantial amount, and I can officially call it a flow. Lesson learned: do not dose progesterone on day 12 despite having shorter cycles. Wait til day 14 or even 15 to be sure. Glad I was able to figure that out and correct it before I skipped another period. This one is pretty much right on cue as if I’d gotten one last month. Seems like I just have a shorter luteal phase.

Just thought I’d announce this all to the void, for the sake of recordkeeping. Back to bed now with my tender tiddies.

Omggg such a long cycle. I hate the waiting game. Did you feel bloated or heavy uterus? Maybe if it happens again you could bump your estrogen? I noticed that when I’m in the beginning of my cycle that if it falls on an injx day, the bleeding will pickup. I’m on my period right now and wish I could wring my useless baby box like a towel because it’s in a failure to launch state. lol

I'm spending more money on goddamn chocolate than I am on gear these days. Dunno why some shark weeks are 27 days long.

This is a sign of hormonal imbalance. For me, it means progesterone is too low. I know there’s medical literature that has a protocol of progesterone injections to stop bleeding, so would assume it’s the common cause. The injx in the literature is synthetic, but there are non synthetic options. If she’s been bleeding like that, she’s prob anemic or has iron deficiency without anemia. Just stuff to be aware of because it makes you feel like shit.

 

[sionnach]

This is a sign of hormonal imbalance.

It was mostly a joke about her mood, but you're probably not wrong.

 

[DoubleDeez]

Omggg such a long cycle. I hate the waiting game. Did you feel bloated or heavy uterus? Maybe if it happens again you could bump your estrogen? I noticed that when I’m in the beginning of my cycle that if it falls on an injx day, the bleeding will pickup. I’m on my period right now and wish I could wring my useless baby box like a towel because it’s in a failure to launch state. lol

I definitely had a good bit of bloating going on. Bumping the estrogen if I’m late again sounds like a solid plan, I don’t wanna have to go through that shit again lol. It was a pretty slow trickle yesterday but the bleeding definitely picked up after my injection last night and things are feeling pretty normal for day two today, complete with a little bit of clotting. I hope your flow picks up swiftly! Squats and orgasms tend to help things along for me! (I used squats to induce labor back in the day, too lol)

 

[DoubleDeez]

8 days after testing I finally have all my labs! I usually get individual test results as they come in, but not this time.

These results are from day 45 on October 10th, what I believe to be the equivalent of day 20, in the midst of a wacky 49-day cycle. Previous results are from day 21 in August, except for LH* and FSH*, which I only tested on day 3 in August.

Sensitive E2: 86.9 pg/mL (up from 57.6 on 8/22)
Progesterone: 1.6 ng/dL (down from 11.6)
Testosterone: 17.2 ng/dL (up from 15.7)
Free Test: 1.0 pg/mL (down from 1.1)
*LH: 5.8 mIU/mL (up from 3.8 on 8/4)
*FSH: 6.1 mIU/mL (down from 10.2 on 8/4)
SHBG: 40.8 nmol/L (never tested this before)

I’m pretty happy with all of these numbers except for the progesterone. I cannot recall what time I dosed my drops prior to my lab test but it doesn’t seem right.

Skipping a period surely threw my shit all out of whack, but now that I’m back on track with the bleeding, I get a nice hard reset and I’m going to have a better idea of where I’m at in my cycle next go around. I’m going to up my progesterone from day 15 onwards, and test my E and P around day 21 monthly until I get my ratio dialed in. If my P had stayed around 11.6 (my natty mid-luteal level in August) my ratio would be perfect. But who knows what phase of my cycle I was really in on that day this month, considering how off things were for that cycle. Perhaps I should’ve waited on the testing til a proper day 21 after a bleed.

My next day 21 will be November 4th.