Hi,
My wife had a big issue with premenopausal problems, for past three years her self-confidence and libido has vanished.
Also, she been very depressed and always anxious to the point she had to take atypical antipsychotic medication combined with SSRI with little to no improvement, in the end, one of her doctors ordered testosterone blood work, and the results were extremely low “under .002 / undetected, " and normal range is .20 to .80 .
Her doctor decided to put her on trt " 100mg every 2 weeks” within first 4 days of the first injection her mood changed greatly she returned back to her normal self full of life and everything more than awesome . Problem is the 2 weeks injection made her rollercoaster and mood swings . After I talked to the doctor, he said that he’s not sure what he should do " doctors in Egypt are awesome ha!" Aka we should try to find help elsewhere. I searched the forums and find out man posts, and they were a huge help. I followed the .0025ml (3 marks on 100 mark insulin syringe) twice a week and it rocks . Problem now she start to have few facial hair as may notice in the attached pictures . Am not sure what to do lower the dosage or stop it completely or something. I really could use some help in adjusting her dosage as she’s finally alive thanks to trying.
She’s 44 yrs old.
80kg 170cm tall with no health issues.
She’s taking 5marks of 100mark insulin syringe of testosterone enanthate.
That dosage is wrong for a female, females shouldn’t be getting large doses. Women who have excess facial hair suffer from Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome in which their testosterone levels are higher than they should be giving them black coarse facial hair and possible other symptoms.
Obviously the SSRI didn’t work because it didn’t address the underlying issue, low testosterone. Balancing a womens hormones is no easy task, mess with one and others get out of balance. In comparison all I have to do is inject my 50mg twice weekly and move on with my life.
KSman will be able to advise you on dosing for women.
Sadly I am stuck in Egypt until this July than moving to China for next six years., Unfortunately, both China and Egypt lacks good doctors, aside from that TRT for women is an even harder problem to deal with, I would love to see Kaman reply. Tbh his posts helped me great deal on my own TRT .
The huge doses may have be the contributor to the facial hair. The new dose may be better but the effect was still there. She can inject subq in belly fat or over upper leg and T delivery will be smoother with less peaks. Some will get lumps and the other location does not do that.
In Peri-menopause the problem is often from low progesterone levels that lead to estrogen dominance. Breast pain and difficult periods and PMS can follow. Can she get a progesterone cream to apply to her inner arm areas? Progesterone levels start to drop in a women’s 30’s.
Some women also find that DHEA can promote facial hair.
Check her thyroid status via oral body temperatures and you both need iodized salt.
So basically I need to check her progesterone, DHEA, and thyroid body temperatures? Or I start progesterone as its surely going to low side due to age?
What about oral progesterone caps, would be much easier to manage than cream to be honest.
Check progesterone, E2, complete thyroid panel and DHEA-S.
My wife takes oral progesterone, micronized so it absorbs well. She also takes 6mg testosterone cream every day, which closely mimics natural levels, without the peaks and valleys injections (certainly bimonthly) can give you.
She should get follow-up lab work.
Transdermal absorption varies person to person and with thyroid status as well. DHEA, progesterone and pregnenolone are not absorbed very well and that also varies with whatever one has been eating, but taking at bed time does remove the effects of food somewhat as a variable. Otherwise, meals with more fats are better at transporting these things through the gut walls. Same for fish oil and Vit-D3.
I think that age related decline in progesterone can be considered universal. But what are labs for? Problem with labs is that you still need a target level and ranges do not help and levels vary by the day so tests should be done on a particular day of her cycle and that timing should not change.
I feel that most female problems and cancers are driven by estrogen dominance which is characterized most by falling progesterone levels. Some women also have a lot more estrogen than others as well. Estrogen dominance leads to:
- breast tenderness/pain, contributes to breast cancer
- fibroids which can lead to cancer, bleeding can be major
- PMS
- heavy painful periods
- ovarian cysts which can pre-stage related cancers
- may make Endometriosis - Wikipedia worse
- unopposed estrogens create risks for cardiovascular disease in women and men. Progesterone is protective in women and testosterone in men. DHEA appears to also be protective but perhaps not in the same manner
Falling estrogen [and T] levels make women quite miserable.
loss of skin tone and collagen, T is also important for collagen
loss of bone, T is also important for bone health, collagen forms the matrix of bones that is then mineralized.
- shrinking breasts
- vaginal dryness
- hot flashes
- reduced/lost libido
- personalty alterations
- frailty and fractures
In general, women need to be good at reading how their bodies are doing, difficult with monthly changes and judge what amounts of progesterone are needed. While capsules of progesterone may be convenient, a women may want to vary her dose with creams at different times of the month. This is challenging and capsules do not provide dose flexibility.
Progesterone should be the real deal. Progestins, fake progesterones, are highly absorbable. But these down regulate the HPOA and thus reduce her own progesterone production and real progesterone levels are reduced. While progestins are believed to protect breast tissue by apposing estrogens there, the same cannot be said for the endothelium in the arteries. The endothelium is a one cell thick layer that separates blood from the rest of the structure of the arteries. If that layer fails you get damage. Progestins displacing progesterone is why progestin type products have warning about increased risk of heart attacks, stroke and blood clots *. So you can see why actual progesterone is needed. The scare years ago about female HRT was from these effects using things created and patented by pharma companies and estrogens extracted from pregnant mares urine Premarin.
***** this was first seen in 1960’s with oral birth control products.
Blood Work Results, blood sample taken at day 21 from starting of the menstrual cycle.
When was that drawn relative to her testosterone injection?
Thyroid is not optimal, reverse T3 test would help, but fT3 should be close to 4.0. She needs progesterone and DHEA.
The test was made on Wednesday she taking her injection every Friday morning . 50mg testosteron e.
For DHEA should I but over the country supplment with 50 or 100mg tabs or she need RX. pharma dosages.?
progesterone is kind trickery am not sure about where to find it or how much she needs .
Regarding the thyroid , she have gastric sleeve surgery one year a go and she kind of eating really few , could it be due to low cal intake ?
Thyroid is consistent with iodine deficiency.
Are you using iodized salt.
Symptoms:
feeling cold easily
sparse outer eyebrows
low energy
fT3 is the only active thyroid hormone and should be mid-range, fT3=2.3 is seriously low.
Oral body temperatures are best measure of overall thyroid function. Should be 97.7F when getting out of bed and should get to 96.6F - 37C mid-afternoon. Check others in the home, low iodine can affect everyone.
DHEA is important. So try to obtain. Try 12.5mg ED. Take with a meal that have more fats and less fiber.
In that climate, avoiding sun and the way that women dress, she could easily be Vit-D3 deficient. 5000iu per day will support vitality.
Has TRT stopped her periods?
Yes, I am using iodized salt, also taking centrum silver every day with 5000ui D3. could low t3 be related to gastric sleeve / deficient in cal intake?
What would be the best option to fix thyroid levels, is there any way to have thyroid support that won’t shut down her natural thyroid production?
For DHEA am not sure if I understand correctly, I tried to find out where to get 12.5mg dosage but the lowest available on Amazon is 25mg or 100mg or we are talking about something else here?
We currently living is one of the sunniest parts of the world sun isn’t an issue here.
TRT didn’t stop her periods, in fact, they are much more comfortable than pre-TRT she has no pain/ depression post-TRT, her mode is much better, and her sexuality jumped back to normal.
If you get DHEA OTC make sure it is micronized. I don’t know what strengths are available over the internet. Progesterone, start at 100mg. Follow-up labs will help determine if you’re in the ballpark.
Next time you get blood drawn, get it the day of, but prior to, your testosterone injection.
the only progesterone I found around here is in vaginal pessaries and either 100mg or 400mg , so i guess i will start with 100 mg/ed and see the follow-ups labs results in 3 weeks .
update :
I bought “PRONTOGEST 100” oral/vaginal pill. The pharmacist here recommended using it twice a day .should I go for twice a day or single dose? also bought Natrol DHEA 50mg.
My wife takes her progesterone at night, as recommended, since it helps quite a bit with sleep. She used to wake up a lot, hot flashes, etc. Sleeping better was the first thing she noticed starting BHRT, like the second night. The hot flashes subsided in about two weeks. Just make sure its micronized so it absorbs well.
She takes DHEA in the morning. 50mg is a lot of DHEA for a woman.
Under arms body temperature readings at morning in bed .
36.6 C
36.8 C
36.6 C