Perimenopause

by Stephanie
(California)

Hello Wray, I'm 43 and began having perimenopause symptoms in February of this year. The symptoms were subtle at first then exploded in June. Some of my symptoms before February were weight gain and inability to lose weight. I had hair loss body aches and was diagnosed by a naturopath as having sluggish thyroid a year and a half ago.

In June I began having electrical shock sensations, extreme hot flashes then cold flashes along with heart palps anxiety IBS and a lump in my throat. I had also experienced heavy menstrual bleeding. Before June I had been taking Naturethroid, DIM, fish oil and in May had experimented with red raspberry extract to see if it helped with weight loss. (I think this contributed to my symptoms in June).

In early July my symptoms seemed to subside but by my next period I felt like they had intensified. I ended up in the ER 3x over the summer. Finally a friend recommended a progesterone cream called Kokorro. I used it for only a week and my last hot flash was August third. I made myself an appointment with an OB who specializes in menopause. She did blood serum levels which were on day 2 of my cycle FSH 5.9,estradiol 23.1 on day 20 of my cycle progesterone was 10.47, and estradiol was 88.3, she said I could keep using the cream but that if I felt worse I could try estroven. I feel ok, much better than before and still have not had any hot flashes but I still have stomach issues and the lump feeling in my throat which I know is related to my hormones.

What would be your recommendation for progesterone? Also I have tried eating soy as my dr suggested but I found myself in tears just an hour after eating it and this was on two seperate occasions.