My friend told me that "My mom was still menstruating in her 60's - with a little help from HRT."

One thing I have been wondered, if you are on HRT or BHRT, and still cycling, would you still be ovulating, or just having a period due to stopping the HRT to bring it on?

I am 53y, still cycling, still ovulating (charting my temps & signs via Natural Family Planning) and wondering if that's my body still ovulating naturally, or the hormones that are keeping me ovulating?

I am on Estrogel, Biest cream and progesterone suppositories (after confirmed ovulation).

Katrinka,

That is a great question and I am not an expert on this, but I heard a doctor talk about this the other day (so it's just this doc's opinion right or wrong), she explained that your ovaries will stop working when they stop working, regardless of any hormones that you are taking. Hormones do not make your ovaries work longer.

I can only say, that I am taking BHRT and had perfect cycles each month up until 3 months ago, then all of a sudden my periods became scant, I can barely cycle my hormones and produce a bleed. It may become necessary for me to only use the cycling method every other month or every third month and see if I can get a bleed. So in my case, hormones have not kept my ovaries going beyond their own expiration date!

Juliann

I read that Suzanne Sommers still had monthly bleeds wth her HRT until she had the hysterectomy. I think the cycling of the hormones creates a bleed. I have read that both the ovaries stop working from not enough hormones and I have also read that t hey will reactivate with hormone replacement so I do not know. It would seem to me that over time one would need more hormone to jump start the system than one needed at the beginning just from the body making less and less hormone.

I believe it's cycling the progesterone that brings on a bleed. When my doctor first put me on bhrt she told me to take it continuously and just let my body do what it was going to without bringing on a period with the progesterone. I've been doing that for over a year and my periods have been all over the place so I don't think the progesterone is affecting them any. I go from 2 a month to skipping 3. Hopefully they will just stop soon!

Katrinka,

If you are still ovulating, the estrogel may be pushing your estrogen up high enough to cause ovulation. It may be that if you skipped the estrogel you may not ovulate. Do you know your estradiol level?

If you are ovulating and producing your own progesterone is there a reason why you add the progesterone suppositories? I am asking because I am in a similar situation. I am charting my temps and I have figured out that some months I ovulate around day ten and my temp goes up and stays up. I am starting to think that if my temp stays up for enough days that I do not need to add any vag. progesterone.

What day of the month do you ovulate on normally?

Why do you take biest along with the estrogel? May I ask you dose?

How are you feeling? I have found that my own progesterone gives me worse side effects than the vag. progesterone. Have you noticed that as well?

Do you reduce your estrogen dose during your period? I have found that if I reduce my dose the bleeding is less but I feel worse. If I stay on my regular dose the bleeding is heavy but I feel good.

Kathy

I was still ovulating before I started the estrogen, so while it may be helping, I tend to think it's not the cause of it. Before starting, my estrogen was as low as 9 pg/mL, but as I approached ovulation it would rise as normal. The last time I had my estrogen tested was 50 pg/mL, after ovulation, while using the Biest.

My understanding is that as long as you have a uterus, you need to take progestereone to counterbalance the estrogen. I take it as well to combat symptoms. I started out with prog. when my level dropped too low (4 ng/mL) and added estrogen after a year when it wasn't enough to help.



I generally ovulate between day 10-16.

I found the Biest wasn't working well enough for me. I took the strongest preparation and doubled my dose to 2ml 2x/day, without it helping. Then I read on here about Estrogel, and was desperate enough to try anything. I found by using a 1/4" of Estrogel (1/8th of a normal dose) (1-2x/day), I could go back to my regular dose of 2ml of Biest 1x/day.



I am doing much better now that I have a balance, and use my charting and Muscle Testing to get the right balance of hormones to keep me feeling that way. I never had any PMS until my own hormones started dropping, so it was the lack that caused my problem. Finding bio-identical hormones has been a gift for me!



I haven't noticed any effect on my period, but yes, once I start bleeding, I stop the biest and only use 1/4" of Estrogel once/day. I feel fine on just that. I stay on just that till day 8, when my need for more estrogen increases and I start back on the Biest. Since I have ovulated as early as day 10, I doubt it is the Biest that causes me to ovulate.

Hope that helps!