I'm trying to figure this out. I've kept a log for years, marking Really Great Days (RGD) with a square around the date. This way, I'd hoped to document that such things could actually occur, to learn what just might set me up for those random gifts of feeling fantastic and then to try to reproduce them. A pattern is emerging, but on the back end of the RGD, not prior to. The pattern is that after RGD, there is fatigue -- as in really needing to lie down through the all day, no motivation, dull brain -- and more often than not, a migraine. For me, it's low estrogen that triggers these things.

My log is showing me that a GD or RGD will most likely come the day after a new patch (1 mg), randomly, but mostly teh very day after a new patch. If I make full use of the RGD, the next three will be miserable, even if I add as much as 2mg gel to try and 'top up' my estradiol until next patch. It seems that my expenditure of RGD energy costs me afterward. I don't understand. I don't overdo anything, just make the day really count being very productive and punching through my To Do lists, happily and easily. Then, the next day I feel shot and don't get back in gear for a week or so. These RGDs are costing me. Are they burning up estradiol? I don't get it. Last Weds. was day 2 of a new patch and I zoomed around like A Normal Person. Since Thursday, fatigue and low-grade migraine. Checked my log, and see this has been the pattern.

Do any of you experience this? Is it as I suspect, that energy expenditure when feeling great eats up estrogen? How do you get around it?

Thanks.
GK

GK
I was charting my GD with BD (good days-bad days) since March. Now I'm post for 6 yrs and not taking anything but Paxil. I would have 3 Good weeks then 5 bad days. This went on for 5 months and recently stopped with GDs. When I had the GDs I was darting around and doing productive things. Then when the BDs came I was down! Couldn't do crap. Well called my doc and said I should up my dose of paxil. I did that 3 days ago and the first 2 days were great and today not so much. So I will just try and let it work through my system. I was on climara patch back in Sept. for 3 months and did nothing. I have bad anxiety and suffer with some depression. I just want to be myself again along with all you guys.....
hugs char

Hi Char - If you are interested in HRT/BHRT, maybe you should try another form besides the patch. I used the patch (Vivelle Dot) for almost 3 months with no luck either, my estradiol blood level still remained at less than 20, so I wasn't absorbing it through my skin. I then tried sublingual BHRT, didn't absorb that either, my level stayed at 30. Now, I've switched to Premarin/Prometrium and it seems to be working. I'm starting to feel better than I have in about 2 years. I'm not pushing the hormones, but if you want them, it takes some trial and error to find what works for you. I sincerely hope that you find whatever will make you feel better. This is a horrendous road to travel.

Hi GK,

I like your idea of charting the "really great days!". I call them hills and valleys, I can have these really wonderful days, getting so much done on my to do list and then get hit with a total loss of energy and feelings of fatigue that can last for several days.

I think that taking the estrogen helps, but not always is it the same response. Clearly it seems to cycle. I can see my own pattern with my schedule of work and days off. There are days when I have rested plently, ate well and still I am not feeling like doing anything....

Then I have days when the sun is shining more brightly and I feel "wonderful". I can't seem to find what duplicates these events. I seem to eat and do similar things each day.

Maybe as we enter this cycle of life, the recovery phase takes longer?

Take care, Juliann

Yes--exercise lowers estrogen. Good to know if you are having problems with surges.

I need hrt for vaginal dryness--cannot tolerate the ring, the creams, or the little insertable pills. ALL of them give me tissue irritation and allergic response, plus some forms cause my hormones to swing wildly even though I am post meno.

I cannot do bio or plant based stuff due to allergic reaction.

I use the much maligned prempro at 1/4 pill per night. And believe me, if I do more physical labor, such as shampoo carpets, I will have all the low e symptoms for a day or so.

If I lollygag too much, I can go over my limit in a hurry.

I practically crawled to my computer to hop on here and see if anyone was experiencing hideous symptoms and that sickly, crushing fatigue when I saw this post! I know my running everyday drains my estrogen, and I try and try to up it the best way I know how, but the GD (good days) as so rare, that when I have one (like earlier today) I am so productive and in such a rare, good mood that I want to soak it up, not slow down... I'm certainly not going to give up my running, so how on earth do I ever know how much soy, etc., to take to stay on top of the sicky, crashing stuff? Seriously, right now I feel like I have a terrible case of the flu (pounding head, dizzy, weak, flushed, feverish, weak) and will barely make it to bed - there has to be a better way!

Wow. Great question, thanks for asking! Hope there's some wisdom out there, I have the same thing happening...