Josie

[Josie15]

Hi i am suffering terribly from urge and frequency due to liw oestrogen levels. Am taking bitmrga 50mgs and vGifem. Works most of time but very bad sometimes almost unbearable. My gynaecologist has suggested i take hrt. He gave me estrogel which iis fine but i dont want to take synthetic progestens. I have heard of prometrium which is made by compounding chemists. Can u please tell me if my symptoms will pass. I feel i cant go on if they dont. Has anyone else ever had these symptoms. Also can u give me name of doc who will go e me bioidentical progesten. My doctor and specialist wont prescribe but i dont want side effects of synthetic one. I also want b sure it will protect against endo.

[Starry]

Hi Josie,

We don't have compounding pharmacies in the UK due to the NHS and, this is the endo UK charity site, you'll need to find a USA forum to suggest places. I did some investigating into the bioidentical thing a while back and below was the info I dug up, both pros and cons. Most of it relates to the USA so may be of interest.

There is a still lack of robust clinical information about creams efficacy and safety, which may be why the NHS is not yet licensing them. But it is worth remembering that even natural drugs can have side effects and interactions too.

Things to consider: there may be some issues about reliably dosing through skin absorption method (either quantity in the product, or absorbtion rates being too little or too high) and delayed reactions / side effects with other chemicals or phyto-oestrogens absorbed via skin in mainstream toiletries or dietary intake so proceed with the same caution as you would with any medication you decide to take.

The biggest pro is not having it go through your digestive system although to be fair that also applies to the Mirena coil and progesterone arm implant.

Bioidentical means molecular structure is the same as progesterone vs synthetic progestins and should also be a positive. But it's important to be clear about natural and bio identical. Pregnant mares urine (premarin) is natural but not bio identical for example. Other plant based compounds are bio identical, but are still synthesized in a lab so aren't any more natural than a headache pill (aspirin components come from willow bark for example)

This article has a table about which hormones are bio identical ( which lists 2 US regulated approved progesterone products, one a vaginal gel)

health.harvard.edu/womens-h...

patient.info/doctor/progest...

The UK BNF lists a number of progesterones in different applications but none are indicated for endo most for fertility issues. evidence.nhs.uk/formulary/b...

Topical creams are not regulated as medicines are so be clear exactly what you are actually getting, at what potency. There have been reports in the USA of post menopausal women developing endometrial cancer after getting insufficient progesterone quantity from using these types of creams as part of hrt.

europepmc.org/articles/PMC4...

Regarding compounded products and creams, there are both scare it nearly killed me stories and Dr Lee is a hero stories on the web so there is very little truly impartial unbiased info out there, and a fair number of unregulated, in some cases bogus health products exploiting "its natural or bio identical so it must be good" theme making big unsubstantiated cure-all claims. So it's a case of check IMG out any product credentials carefully using independent sources.

A few pro and con links below. All have some bias one way or other.

First is a fairly rounded science based article by Harvard (a medical journal so overall a little biased pro the national licensing regulator) that describes the natural / bio identicals industry created by Lee in the USA

health.harvard.edu/womens-h...

mayoclinic.org/diseases-con...

A couple of naturopathic complementary health websites views (so biased pro the creams)

heartspring.net/progesteron...

clearwoman.com/natural-prog...

This is the UK site for Dr Lee himself

npis.info/howtoobtain.htm

A pro Lee American Doctors commercial site exploring side effects to watch for and why

articles.mercola.com/sites/...