Postmenopausal--anyone here NOT on bioidenticals?

[Nancy]

Oh, ok. Thank you. That is very helpful. I was wondering because I was on Alvogen generic for a year and it seemed fine, though occasionally came off. Then suddenly last month they gave me the Mylan. I assumed it was the same or similar. The month's worth only lasted me two weeks, though, because two of them fell off early. My pharmacist suggested Vivelle, because they no longer carry Alvogen. Maybe I should just stick with the Mylan and use the surgical tape I just ordered from Amazon.

[progranulindefect]

not e4, but have a snp for another dementia (ftd), which is why i come here looking for ideas since a forum for ftd i belong to has virtually nothing about prevention- it's mostly about caregivers helping each other. now 53, last period mid august and sleeping well if i keep my blood sugar stable (both parents diabetic, mother insulin dependent. my a1c was 5.3). i had heavy periods from around age 42 that would put me into anemia. i found aleve stopped me from passing clots and having accidents, but only slowed down the anemia. I supplemented with iron for as long as a doctor directed me too (usually 3 months), but I was nervous about supplementing with iron continuously since there is no home testing for iron (unless you buy a $400 hemocube which is what the red cross uses during blood drives), and i read that too much iron is very damaging.

at 44 i started to have some warmness at night the days i did fasted exercise (sprints and weight lifting). at that time i went from a size 12 to a 6. slowly my hot flashes got worse. i was having bad headaches and was getting sick from lack of sleep. my mother died from breast cancer and my maternal grandmother from a stroke, so i wouldn't take estrogen. i found ways to deal with the hot flashes to make them bearable. i needed stable blood sugar, a completed darkened room, aleve for very bad hot flashes at night, blue blocker glasses on at least an hour before bed, not falling asleep in front of the tv even with blue blockers on, no exercise or hot showers at night, and importantly ice packs. an ice pack under my pillow with a small portion of it making contact with my shoulder helped a lot. or a chillow under a sheet around my midsection. as the coldness gradually wore off, i would take off the sheet and have the chillow in direct contact with the skin of my mid section areaa. and then i would rest my cheek on the chillow when there was just a little coldness left.

january of this year i started to have some erratic periods which ramped up to bleeding continuously. first my ob/gyn put my on a very low dose of a progestin (norethindrone), which didn't help. then we ramped it up to 5mg norethindrone a day. still bleeding heavily. finally i was up to 2 5mg pill of norethindrone a day. my doctor suggested the mirena iud, but i didn't like the idea of needing to negotiate with her to take it out one day. i had a similar bout of heavy bleeding in 2016 (I think which may have been triggered by flonase), during which i was taking norethinrone. after a week i just decided to stop taking the pill to see what would happen, and i didn't continue to bleed (i had stopped the flonase immediately when the heavy bleeding started). anyway, experience told me that i could experiment with the norethindrone- stopping it or increasing to two a day. i took the norethindrone from around april 1 to my last day of school June 25 (I'm a teacher). then i took aleve for two days since i still had bleeding. then i took nothing. i started being out in the sunshine over summer vacation for an average of 2 hours a day. i had another period mid August, about 45 days later. now it's december 8 and i haven't had a period. it's still early, so i may get another one. but the really great thing is i am sleeping way way better, my mood is better, and my memory is better. i speak chinese with my husband and i am coming up with vocab much more easily than i have done in the past. my typing mistakes have lessened. i put on 7 pounds pretty fast which won't budge with low carB. and 30 minutes of moderate exercise biking a day.

i attribute my better mood, memory, and increased energy to better sleep, paying attention to light hygiene, less stress at work this year, and probably my iron stores have filled up to the point where i am seeing these positive changes and having thicker hair.

[wendibart]

Hello,
I am 54, and 3/4 which I learned from my doctor. I wanted to take HRT as I was experiencing many symptoms that indicated dropping levels, but in having my daughters tested through 23andme for APOE4 learned they were both FactorV Lieden, but thank God, no APOE4 for either.

So even though I already knew I was 3/4, I did 23andme to confirm what I suspected, and in fact yes, am FactorV Lieden. I can't take HRT and my doctor just advised me to get thinner and that could help minimize some of the more annoying symptoms. I'll just focus on things I can control I suppose. I surely don't need a stroke.

Anyone else have this complicating factor?

[NF52]

Hello,
...So even though I already knew I was 3/4, I did 23andme to confirm what I suspected, and in fact yes, am FactorV Lieden. I can't take HRT and my doctor just advised me to get thinner and that could help minimize some of the more annoying symptoms. I'll just focus on things I can control I suppose. I surely don't need a stroke.
Anyone else have this complicating factor?

HI Wendy,
Here's a result of a Search for FactorV Leiden. FactorV Leiden Search results

FYI, you can search topics using the little spyglass in the upper right corner toolbar. You can also see screen shots and instruction of how to do that here: How-To" Get the most out of the ApoE4.info website

I hope this helps. We don't want you to get a stroke--or even have to worry about it!