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​Exhausted from insomnia caused by night sweats

by Teddy
(Savannah)

At 34 I lost my first pregnancy due to water breaking at 16 weeks.

Second pregnancy required trans-abdominal-cerclage(TAC) placed by surgery at 19 weeks. Ended up having 2 healthy boys. Cerclage stayed in - unsafe to remove because of possible bleeding to death.

I am now 54. Started having unbearable anxiety and hot flashes 2 years ago. Found online it was perimenopause and ordered W-Biest compounded cream containing estriol 2.5 mg + estradiol 2.5 mg + progesterone 200 mg in 1 ml of cream nightly. Felt great immediately but started heavy bleeding which didn't stop after 3 weeks.

Local doc put me on a birth control pill and stopped it.
I refused to stay on BC and asked for a bioidentical alternative.

Since then I have been on and off on a low to mid dose patch or gel and compounded cream(150mg ) or oral progesterone 100-200mg. I have been spotting and bleeding on and off. Stopped and started the patch on and off. No combination stopped the spotting or bleeding.
I was on 200mg oral P for 2 months and was bleeding every 2 weeks last summer.

The hot flashes were under control at times and then they came back. I am exhausted! I believe I am in menopause proved by a blood test when taking no hormones for 6 weeks.

I am here reading the articles and comments, planning my next step. I eat very clean, cook everything from scratch, mostly organic, don't drink or smoke, resistance train 3-4 times a week, take Mg, VitD3 + K2, C, soluble fiber.

How did our grandmothers survive!

Comments for ​Exhausted from insomnia caused by night sweats

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Apr 22, 2025
 ​Exhausted from insomnia caused by night sweats
by: Joy

Hi Teddy

What a terrible time you have gone through. Fortunately, you have your beautiful boys.

I also had the cerclage. I was never warned of possible bleeding to death" once removed, nor have I heard of such a thing. Possible fearmongering perhaps? I never bled at all once removed. We are all different, I guess.

Peri-Menopause starts at around 35 when progesterone levels start to drop and estrogen levels remain the same. A missed period for 12 months puts a woman in Menopause. Whoever advised you that you were in menopause is misinformed. You are in peri-menopause. As you read this website, you will notice that we do not believe that women need to take extra estrogen. There are well over 100 estrogen mimics in our Environment, so why take more? Excess estrogen causes Estrogen Dominance symptoms. Taking progesterone and estrogen defeats the purpose of progesterone therapy. Both hormones are competing against each other. High amounts of progesterone are needed to counteract this.

Doctors who do not understand the benefits of progesterone will always prescribe Contraceptives, which all have the potential to cause harm, as does HRT.

Many compounded progesterone creams contain parabens, not recommended. All forms of oral progesterone are not the best Delivery Method as around 96% gets destroyed by the gut and liver. Using progesterone on and off will cause an imbalance. The same applies to all hormone supplements. You should be using it every day with no breaks, half the amount in the morning and they other half at night. Using a good organic progesterone cream such as Natpro will help you greatly. Also bear in mind that when in peri-menopause, it also causes erratic spotting and bleeding, sometimes with heavy clots. The heavy/continual/clotting bleeding protocol is excellent for that.

Here is the protocol if needed:

400-500mg Natpro Progesterone Cream per day
2000mg N-Acetyl-Cysteine (NAC) per day
2000mg Taurine per day
5000iu's Vitamin D3 per day
1000mg Bioflavanoids or Vitamin C per day

Hot Flushes come with peri-menopause and menopause, sadly. The correct use of progesterone will help. Please read up on hot flushes on the page and consider trying to resolve them. Between 400-600mg progesterone is needed until they clear.

I am pleased to see that you are taking the required cofactors when taking Vitamin D3. Levels must be optimal at all times.

Our grandmothers relied on herbs etc, to help them get through. Sadly, many didn't bother trying them and just carried on with life as best they could. Such a pity that natural progesterone was known back then.

Best of luck to you.
Apr 22, 2025
 Some more info
by: Teddy

Joy,
Thank you for answering. You are right, when they kept pushing BC pill I saw a red flag.
I want to show you my test results and pick your brain a bit. So I stopped all HRT for 6 weeks and had no bleeding and seeing these results my provider concluded I am in Menopause:
Blood:
10/29/2024
Testosterone 5 ng/dL
LH 52.9 mIU/mL
FSH 90.6 mIU/mL
Estradiol <5.0
Progesterone 0.3 ng/mL
Why did you think I am not in Meno?

Then I resumed .05mg Estradiol patch and Oral Progesterone 100mg and measured again and these are the results:

Blood

LH 29.8 mIU/mL
FSH 32.5 mIU/mL
Estradiol 52.9 pg/mL
Progesterone 1.6 ng/mL

Saliva

Estradiol 0.7 pg/mL
Progesterone 95 pg/mL
Ratio: Pg/E2 136
Testosterone 53 pg/mL
DHEAS 1.7 ng/mL
Cortisol 6.3 ng/mL (morning)
Cortisol 0.6 ng/mL (night)

When the provider refused to do anything about my low progesterone levels, I started looking and stumbled on to you.
A friend had gifted me a container of Ona's progesterone cream so 2 days ago I added 100mg and then after reading more, I added another 100. I immediately went from very light spotting that had been going on 2 weeks to full on bleeding.
Ona's seem to have OK ingredients and I have a brand new container so will finish it and then order Natpro.

I am scheduled for a uterine biopsy in June to rule out something bad causing all the episodes of spotting and bleeding since she considers me to be in Menopause and I "shouldn't be bleeding."

Any thoughts you have to share would be appreciated! Thank you!

BTW, my cerclage was not placed through the vagina because I had 0mm cervix. I had to have abdominal surgery similar to a C-section to have the little rope tied around the inside side of the cervix. Is that what you had too?
Apr 24, 2025
 Some more info
by: Joy

Hi Teddy

If you are concerned about the bleeding, then it is a good idea to have tests to rule out anything sinister.

All your test results indicate low progesterone levels. The ratio should be 600:1. You need a lot of progesterone. You can compare your test results on our Hormone Testing page.
Apr 29, 2025
 Night sweats need estrogen too
by: Kerry

My battle with night sweats and hot flashes all day long were minimized with just progesterone, but they came to a dead halt and so did my gout issues, when I increased my estrogens as well. I have not had a single hot flash or bad night since and it's been about 6 months now. Women, even those that are susceptible to estrogen induced cancers need to understand the real connection between the two and start treating estrogen intake different. I have learned that even the ones with cancer fears (I am not one of them) can use estrogen creams on their skin to increase their low estrogen safely. It's taking it orally that can cause the cancer. I am so glad that I have stopped listening to the allopath quacks and have started working more with functional docs that want to solve problems rather than just medicate the symptoms for their own monetary gain. If you don't advocate for yourself, you will continue to be miserable and life is too short for that !
Apr 30, 2025
 To Kerry
by: Teddy

Kerry,
What did you increase from? What did you take when it didn't work and what are you taking the last 6 months? My .05 estradiol patch is not working in any combination of oral and topical Progesterone. At some point I tried several dosages of gels. No success there either.
I am hot and sweaty all the time.
I can take the sweat during the day, although I don't like it but at night it is unbearable.
I just tried tryptophan after reading about it here and I slept much better last night. Hopefully it wasn't a fluke.
I've read way too many women's comments all over internet to know that the correct dose of HRT helps. It is just a matter of finding a doctor who knows enough to help and is covered by your insurance. I am still looking.

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