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Hormone Replacement starting at 75yrs old
Women's Health | Last Active: Apr 8 10:37am | Replies (188)Comment receiving replies
I just started bioidentical HRT. I’m 65 years old and 15 years post menopause.
I found a gynecologist that specializes in HRT and was willing to prescribe to me. I’m hoping this will help stabilize bone loss.
I’m wondering about the side effects from the progesterone.
I have an estradiol patch that I change weekly. It’s .0375/day, also take 200 mg micronized progesterone, and vagifem vaginal insert.
Besides breast tenderness that the doctor said would go away with continued use, I’m experiencing a very heavy discharge. No cramping, no bloating, no constipation.
Is it your experience that I may have other side effects as I continue on the therapy? Is having a discharge normal on HRT?
I read that sometimes there can be an intolerance to the progesterone and that lowering the dose might help.
After much research I decided not to use pellets or compounded hormones, as I am sensitive to most medications, and it was my understanding that once the pellets were inserted I could not have them removed if I had a reaction.
Appreciate any insight you can provide.
Replies to "I just started bioidentical HRT. I’m 65 years old and 15 years post menopause. I found..."
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I didn’t stay on the hormones very long but I would think that any side effects you experience will probably be at the start of HRT. If you are experiencing bleeding (if that’s what you meant by discharge) I would think that is not normal (you definitely need to let your doctor know) however I have read that some women start having periods again. (Not a pleasant thought) I would not have chosen the pellets either, because I am super sensitive to drugs and if I have a bad reaction, I want to stop. The transdermal compounded cream I was using was easily stopped. If your progesterone is oral, you can definitely lower the dose because initially I took the oral progesterone 100 mg but it affected my sleep negatively although I was really hoping for better sleep as I read it sometimes helps. I ended up using the transdermal progesterone but not for more than a couple weeks or so because I didn’t want to have cramps every day that felt like I was going to start my period! From everything I have read, HRT will stabilize bone loss which was one of the reasons I was thinking about seeing a new doc and trying it again. I only have osteoporosis in two spinal vertebrae and I do not want to take the meds. Maybe someone else on this forum can let us know if they experienced side effects after being on the HRT for awhile.