1. How To Wean Off Vivelle Dot Patch Reviews
2. Coming Off Hrt After 15 Years
3. How To Wean Off Vivelle Dot Patch Dosages

The Patch and Progesteroneby Daniela(Orlando FL.)First I would like to thank you for all this information it has been very useful for me. It has answer many questions. However, I need your help!I am a 52 year woman. First I started using the patch - Vivelle, and I did well for a while, then I was having frequent pms. My breasts were swollen and painful, so I went to the doctor. After a test, he prescribed ultrasound and a biopsy. We are still waiting for the results.

He also took me off the Vivelle patch. A few days after being without the patch my life turned upside down and I started feeling horrible - in all aspects. So I went to a different doctor and basically begged to be given something so she prescribed Combipatch 50/140.I started feeling better little by little, sleeping better, however, still not 100% myself. I find in my dresser an old tub of progesterone cream with a little bit in and I started using it.

I noticed immediately the difference - felt great. But there was not much in it so now I am back to feeling mediocre.

I placed an order of your progesterone cream andam anxious to get it but went it gets here what should I do? Should I use both the Combipatch and your Progesterone cream too. Will that be safe?Comments for The Patch and Progesterone. Oct 25, 2009The Patch and Progesteroneby: WrayHi Daniela Thanks for your kind words. The reason you initially felt better on the patch is explained in this web page we have: off any drug cold turkey, even HRT, will cause adverse affects. It will be safe to use both the progesterone and the combi patch together. In fact if you wish to wean off the patch this is the gentlest way to do it, not cold turkey!

I would be relieved if you didn't use the patch, although the decision is of course yours, pleaseYou might be interested to read these as well:Take care, Wray. Apr 10, 2012large fibroids and very high estrogenby: AnonymousHi: My sister went to see a specialist about her fibroids which are very large in fact the gynecologist was unable to enter her cervix because of blockage.

He tried to do a D&C but to no prevail. He was not able to get inside. My sister does not see a doctor regularly, in fact hardly at all and is not on any hormone medication to help this. She has had the bariatric surgery but has failed in that so she does have some issues with taking some(pills)and is overweight. Would a Progesterone patch help shrink her fibroids and lower her estrogen?

Im not sure why this SPECIALIST hasn't put her on something while she awaits another appointment to see a specialist in a clinic in London Ontario who specialize in fibroids? I know its her fault for not seeing a physician at least yearly but now we are faced with this problem and Im thinking possibly shrinking her fibroids and getting her estrogen at a safer level would be the place to start wouldn't you think? Apr 11, 2012large fibroids and very high estrogenby: WrayHi there I do agree shrinking the fibroids a good idea, otherwise it sounds as if she will need a major op to remove them. Are caused by oxidative stress and exacerbated by oestrogen. Please see our page on for more info on progesterone, it doesn't come in a patch.

Injections, suppositories and creams are the most effective systems. High amounts are needed to suppress any excess oestrogen, which incidentally also causes weight gain. Large amounts of antioxidants are needed to reverse fibroids, in particular vitamin D. It would appear her level is very low, this not only reduces the benefits of progesterone, but causes weight gain and which your sister undoubtedly has if she's overweight. Most people in Canada have low levels of vitamin D, see and A lack of vitamin D causes weight gain, see and And it's been found that vitamin D reduces fibroids, see and Continued below. Aug 10, 2014Be Happy in Menopauseby: AnonymousGreat article - question and reply.

I went off HRT several years ago 'cold turkey' after hearing the studies and have been suffering ever since. I use the progesterone cream along with an occasional touch of estrogen. I've tried to wean off of the creams with terrible results. For a couple of months and then hot flashes and aniexty back with a fury. Will have a hormone test soon to see where I am exactly and how to proceed with treatment.

It could be a long/remaining life journey. Good Luck to all the ladies out there.do what you can to be happy in your menapause years.Jan 01, 20 06:35 AMCan someone please help? I’m not sure if I’m on the right path. Read your whole page several times. I’m 51 in full menopause for 4 years. Used pellets,.Dec 29, 19 02:51 AMI was treated for Breast cancer last year with a lumpectomy and radiotherapy.

I have declined the the hormone therapy because I'm already having a dire.Dec 17, 19 03:52 AMI am 43 and about 6 months ago I started having insomnia, anxiety, mild depression, heart palpitations - it went on for a few weeks and I went to see a.Dec 09, 19 09:55 AMI have been in menopause for 10 years and I also have been extremely fatigued along with a host of other symptoms. I started using Natpro in June of this.Oct 20, 19 09:49 AMMy first pregnancy ended in a missed miscarriage. After waiting for over a month for my body to miscarry naturally, I resorted to medical management withNatural progesterone creamYour languageTranslate this website into your language. Disclaimer:Although this web site is not intended to be prescriptive, it is intended, and hoped, that it will induce in you a sufficient level of scepticism about some health care practices to impel you to seek out medical advice that is not captive to purely commercial interests, or blinded by academic and institutional hubris. You are encouraged to refer any health problem to a health care practitioner and, in reference to any information contained in this web site, preferably one with specific knowledge of.

How To Wean Off Vivelle Dot Patch Reviews

Hot flashes have become known as the hallmark of menopause, although they are far from universal. Only about 50% of postmenopausal women have hot flashes, and only about 15% have severe ones. Most women have hot flashes for about two years; few have them for more than six years.

Hot flashes seem to be the result of fluctuating estrogen levelsHot flashes are bursts of heat that may begin at a particular point, such as the nape of the neck, and radiate throughout the upper body. Or the whole body may get hot at once. Perspiration, flushing, and heart palpitations often accompany the feeling of heat. A variant of hot flashes—night sweats—can disrupt sleep.Hot flashes seem to be the result of fluctuating estrogen levels and probably occur during estrogen valleys rather than peaks. Although we think of hot flashes as heat surges, they are actually the body’s attempt to cool off.

Blood vessels dilate and the heart races to pump more blood to reach the surface of the body where it’s cooler—an effect that can produce a blush or flush. Sweating is another attempt to bring the body’s temperature down. Hot flashes are often triggered by external factors, such as alcohol, caffeine, and hot foods or beverages. They may also be stimulated by emotional upsets.There are a variety of ways to treat hot flashes.

Menopausal Hormone TherapyIn July 2002, everything many doctors thought they knew about menopausal hormone therapy (called hormone replacement therapy (HRT) at the time) was called into question when researchers announced that they were stopping the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a large randomized placebo-controlled study designed to measure the benefits and risks of menopausal hormone therapy. The study was stopped because an interim data analysis indicated that the risks of this therapy outweighed any benefits the drugs had to offer.Estrogen was first approved by the FDA to treat menopausal symptoms in 1942. In the mid-1970s, progestin was added to estrogen after studies found that giving women estrogen alone increased the risk of uterine cancer. By the 1990s, the combination of estrogen and progestin, which had become known as hormone replacement therapy, had become the second most frequently prescribed medication in the US.

It was widely marketed as a drug that would not only prevent hot flashes but also keep postmenopausal women healthier as they aged.Now, due to the WHI, we are aware that taking estrogen does not keep women healthy. More than 16,000 women between the ages of 50–79 were enrolled in the WHI trial.

Half of the women were given menopausal hormone therapy; half of women were given a placebo. To ensure women’s safety during the trial, the researchers had established an independent data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) to review interim results semiannually. During the tenth analysis, on May 31, 2002, the DSMB found an increased risk for breast cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, and blood clots that outweighed the benefit of reduced fractures or colon cancer risk.

This finding led the DSMB to recommend that the trial be stopped. Today, it is not recommended that women who have or have had breast cancer take menopausal hormone therapy.How big of a risk did the study find? If 10,000 women were taking menopausal hormone therapy for a year and 10,000 women were not, there would be eight more women in the menopausal hormone therapy group who would develop invasive breast cancer, seven more who would develop heart disease, eight more who would have a stroke, and eight more who would develop blood clots. There would also be six fewer colorectal cancers and five fewer hip fractures.The WHI trial began around the same time that Wyeth, the drug company that makes the leading HRT drug Prempro, began a randomized, controlled trial called the Heart and Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study (HERS). This trial included about 2,700 women; half were given Prempro while the other half received a placebo. Findings from the HERS trial, published on July 3, 2002, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, indicated that menopausal hormone therapy did not prevent heart attacks in older women with heart disease and that it increased blood clots and gallbladder disease.

Coming Off Hrt After 15 Years

This confirmed previous findings from the HERS trial that had been published in 1998.It is now clear that menopausal hormone therapy is not the women’s wonder drug that many thought it would be. We now know that menopausal hormones:.

If used for more than five years, increase the risk for invasive breast cancer. Increase the risk for heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots. Increase the rate of incontinence and uterine prolapse. Don’t appear to prevent heart disease. Have not been proven to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

Does not improve quality of life in women who do not have menopausal symptoms.As a result, it is now recommended that only a low dose of menopausal hormone therapy be used. Several studies have shown that low-dose hormone therapy (.3mg or.15mg of Premarin, Menest, Estratab, Ogen, Ortho-Est, or Cenestin) combined with a daily supplement of 1,000mg of calcium maintains bone density as well as high-dose HRT.Women should stay on hormones for as short a time as is possible—at most three to five years—to help with menopausal symptoms, like severe hot flashes, night sweats, or vaginal dryness, and then begin tapering off.

Women who begin taking hormones in their 30s and 40s following an oophorectomy should begin tapering off in their early 50s.We currently don’t know if one form of estrogen is better than any other. If one type of hormone therapy is not working for you, you may want to try another. The steadfast rule is that any woman who has a uterus must take an estrogen and a progesterone. (Progesterone was added to decrease the risk of uterine cancer.) Women who do not have a uterus can take only estrogen. In addition to pills, several patches are now available that deliver micronized estradiol. The estrogen passes through the skin into the blood without being broken down in the digestive system (as a pill would be).

Bioidentical Hormones: Are They Better?After concerns began to be raised about the dangers of menopausal hormone therapy, some women and their doctors began to tout the benefits of bioidentical hormones. Practitioners who use these drugs and the compounding pharmacies that make them claim that bioidentical hormones are better because they are made with natural, rather than synthetic, hormones that are better absorbed by the body. They also claim that because these hormones are similar to those a woman produces, side effects are less likely to occur. Is this true?Bioidentical hormones are plant-derived; they are made from concentrated soy and yam.

So, yes, they are natural in that they are produced by nature. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they are better than the drugs made by pharmaceutical companies.

In fact, Premarin (estrogen alone) and Prempro (a combination of estrogen and progestin) contain estrogen that comes from pregnant mares’ urine. That is certainly natural. (Whether it is right is another question. PETA and other animal rights activists are opposed to the practice.)But just because something is “natural” does not mean it’s safe. Currently, only a handful of small studies have been conducted on compounded bioidentical hormones. They indicate that these drugs are effective. But that does not mean they are safe, or safer than other types of HRT.

Not one large randomized trial—the gold standard of medical research—has been conducted with bioidentical hormones. And there have been no randomized trials comparing bioidentical hormones to a drug like Prempro.Practitioners who recommend bioidentical hormones give women prescriptions to be filled by pharmacies that have the ability to “compound,” or make, individualized doses. Typically, the practitioner determines which hormone to use and at what strength by conducting hormone tests on a woman’s blood or saliva. There is currently no evidence to support these methods as a means of determining what levels of hormones a woman’s individualized menopausal hormones cocktail should be comprised of.The real benefit of the bio-identical movement is that it has spearheaded a move away from the one-size-fits-all approach of recommending menopausal hormones to all women as they enter menopause. If you prefer using a product that is plant-derived rather than animal-derived, then they might be a good option for you.

How To Wean Off Vivelle Dot Patch Dosages

But there is no indication that these drugs are safer than other forms of menopausal hormones, and you should not stay on them for more than three to five years. Going Off Menopausal Hormone TherapyAs women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer know firsthand, it is possible—and from a medical perspective, perfectly okay—to stop hormones cold turkey. In fact, about half of all women who stop taking hormones cold turkey will do just fine. The other half will find that the menopausal symptoms that led them to take hormones in the first place come back with a vengeance. This is because stopping hormones turns on the menopausal switch, and that is likely to result in the side effects that women typically go on menopausal hormones to avoid—hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and sleep problems.Since there is no way to predict which women will experience symptoms and which women won’t when they go off menopausal hormones, every woman must determine which method of going off menopausal hormones is right for her.

One option is to taper off menopausal hormones gradually, which allows the body to adjust to decreasing doses of hormones and helps to reduce side effects. The second option is to quit cold turkey and then see if you are one of the lucky ones who don’t have symptoms. If you are in the lucky 50%, you can throw your menopausal hormones away. If you’re not, you can go back on and then begin tapering off gradually.If you take combination menopausal hormones, which has estrogen and progesterone in the same pill, to begin tapering off you should ask your doctor for two separate prescriptions. This will allow you to better control the dose of each aspect of your menopausal hormones as you taper off. As you taper off, you should also begin taking a daily supplement of 1,000mg of calcium. Once you have tapered off completely, you should take a daily supplement of 1,200mg of calcium along with 400¬–800 IU of vitamin D.If you are taking standard menopausal hormones, the best way to begin tapering off is to start taking low-dose menopausal hormones—0.3mg (.5mg of Estrace).

If you have symptoms on the lower dose, you will need to raise your dose and decrease it more gradually. You can do this by alternating low- and high-dose pills (Monday = high dose, Tuesday = low dose, Wednesday = high dose, Thursday = low dose, etc.) for three to six months before trying to take only the low-dose pills.A second option is to take the high-dose pills Monday through Friday and not take any pills on the weekends. After you have done this for three to six months, you can then try the low-dose pills again. The only way to know when you can fully drop down to the low dose is by trying it and then seeing if symptoms develop. If they do, and are unbearable, you will need to go back to the routine you were on and taper more gradually.

If you are alternating a high-dose pill with a low-dose pill, you can do this by replacing one of the days you are taking a high-dose pill with a low-dose pill (Monday = high dose, Tuesday = low dose, Wednesday = low dose instead of high dose, Thursday = low dose, etc.). Once you have done this for a few months, then try adding in another low-dose day.If you are taking menopausal hormones Monday through Friday and skipping weekends, try skipping another day, like Wednesday. Then, after a few months, you can try skipping another day. In general, the rule to follow is to go as slowly as you need to and to not go to the next reduction until symptoms that may have developed are easy to handle.After a few months on the lower dose, you have two options: You can discontinue estrogen altogether or you can continue to take a smaller amount by cutting your pills first in half and taking a half dosage for a few weeks, and then cutting the pills in quarters and taking a quarter dose for a few weeks. Another option is to take a low-dose pill every other day.If you are currently taking a higher dose of menopausal hormones—1.25mg (2mg Estrace)—you should begin tapering by dropping down to the standard dose—.635mg (1mg Estrace). You should continue to take the progesterone until you taper down to the low-dose level—0.3mg (0.5mg of Estrace). Once you are at the lower dose, you can discuss with your clinician whether to remain on the progesterone while you finish tapering off.Money tip: menopausal hormones costs the same regardless of the dosage you are prescribed.

To help reduce your costs you may want to keep your prescription dosage the same, but cut your pills in half.Alternatives to HRT: Prescription OptionsNot all women want to take hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and women who have had breast cancer or are at high risk for breast cancer are not advised to do so, due to fears it will increase the risk of cancer or a recurrence. What options are available to these women?Prescription options for treating hot flashes include antidepressants, gabapentin, and clonidine.

AntidepressantsStudies have found that the antidepressant venlafaxine (brand name Effexor) decreased hot flashes by 50%. Studies of two SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), fluoxetine (brand name Prozac) and paroxetine (brand name Paxil), found that these also reduced hot flashes by 50% when compared to placebo. That means if you have six hot flashes a day, taking an SSRI may reduce this to three. If your hot flashes are bad, these drugs may be worth a try. Because each drug works slightly differently, if one doesn’t work, you may want to try another before giving up on all of them.Antidepressants might be especially helpful to women whose symptoms include both hot flashes and depression.

SSRIs are believed to work because of the role serotonin plays in regulating the body’s temperature. When used to treat hot flashes, these drugs are prescribed at half of the daily dose that would be used to treat depression. This is done to try to decrease SSRI-associated side effects, such as dry mouth, nausea, appetite change, and decreased libido.

GabapentinGabapentin (brand name Neurontin) is another drug that may have found a home as a treatment for hot flashes. It’s typically used to treat migraines, but when women using it for that purpose found it also stopped their hot flashes, researchers began to study the drug more closely.In September 2005, results from a study conducted at the University of Rochester of 420 women with breast cancer who were having two or more hot flashes a day were. The study, which randomized women to two different doses of gabapentin or to a placebo, found that 900mg of gabapentin reduced hot flashes by about half. (A dose of 300mg/day was not effective.) That means if you had four hot flashes a day, you would now have two. Although the study was conducted in women with breast cancer, there is no reason to believe these findings are limited to that group, making the drug an option for all women in need of symptom relief.

ClonidineClonidine (brand name Catapres) is normally used to control blood pressure, but it is now sometimes recommended for women who experience hot flashes while on tamoxifen, a hormone used to treat breast cancer. In an eight-week placebo-controlled trial in postmenopausal women with tamoxifen-induced hot flashes, 38% of the women on clonidine reported a reduction in hot flash frequency compared with 24% of the women on placebo. However, there were a lot of side effects: fatigue, nausea, irritability, headache, and dizziness.

So, while this drug may be an option for some women, the side effects may be a huge drawback for others.Note:In May 2006, the Journal of the American Medical Association published This paper is a review and assessment of the previously published studies on the use of antidepressants, gabapentin, and clonidine for treating hot flashes. The authors concluded that these drugs are less effective than estrogen in reducing hot flashes and that “these therapies may be most useful for highly symptomatic women who cannot take estrogen but are not optimal choices for most women.”In an accompanying editorial, Jeffrey A. Tice, MD, and Deborah Grady, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, discuss the research findings. They note, “Women with hot flashes should understand that most symptoms resolve over several months to several years For women with more bothersome symptoms, clinicians should understand the advantages and disadvantages of both hormone therapy and nonhormonal alternatives. Hormone therapy is more effective than nonhormonal alternatives but should probably be avoided by women at high risk for venous thromboembolic events blood clots, cardiovascular disease, and breast cancer.”Alternatives to HRT: Lifestyle OptionsNot all women want to take hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and women who have had breast cancer or are at high risk for breast cancer are not advised to do so, due to fears it will increase the risk of cancer or a recurrence.The other option is to try to avoid hot flash triggers like spicy foods, caffeine, stressful situations, and hot drinks.