Questioning HRT need help so confused

Hi Ladies,
I am 3 weeks post op completer hysterectomy today. Doctor started me on Estradiol before I left the hospital. Had labs done this past Monday and results I was told were low so he is changing that to an estrogen patch and testosterone cream. Insurance doesn't cover testosterone cream so I was wondering if anyone knew of any other options. Called the doctors and they said other option is pellets(not interested). Still waiting on hospitals bills really wasn't expecting all of this extra monthly expense. Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

and

I'm glad you found this wonderful community so that you won't be alone!

I've been using an estrogen patch method of delivery for many years and am very happy with it, and hope you will be too! As with any hormone therapy, it takes time to reach optimal levels on it so be patient and don't be too quick to make changes. It's helpful to keep a symptom journal so that you have something to show your doctor that gives a picture of how you are doing over a period of time.

Generally it works best to get balanced on estrogen first before adding in another hormone. I'm not sure if Estratest (or a generic for it) is still available, but it's a combination product of esterified estrogens and methyltestosterone. So far as I'm aware, testosterone alone (not combined with anything else) would only be available by your doctor prescribing a testosterone product for men off label, by pellets (which you don't want and your insurance most likely wouldn't cover them, either) or you would have to go the compounding pharmacy route, which is what I did when I used testosterone. Not everyone needs testosterone but if you do, the amount of testosterone used isn't very much so it goes a long way for the out of pocket cost. You might want to call various compounding pharmacies to get an idea of what it would cost. I would suggest you have your free and total testosterone levels checked before considering using it.

I hope this helps with your questions!



P. S. - If at any point in your recovery you would like to share updates with those who had surgery the same week as you, that can be done on this thread.

Thank you for responding!! This is all so new to me. My first concern was surgery, then just recovering, now I need to educate myself on hormones. I did come home with patches.As I said they tested my levels this past week, nurse called this morning and said everything was low so my doctor wanted to switch to a new patch and the cream or pellet(which just sounds weird to me). It is a compound pharmacy and the nurse was nice enough to call another one(pharmacy) and got the price down $10. I'm wondering now if I should ask for a copy of the labs so I can physically see the numbers myself. That's a call I can make Monday. Thank you for your suggests!!

You are very welcome!

I think getting a copy of your labs is an excellent idea. It's good to be able to see your numbers and where they fall in the ranges. One thing to know is that your numbers can be in range and you may still not feel balanced. That happened to me, and thankfully my symptoms were taken into account to figure out the right hormone therapy for me. That's where keeping a symptom journal can come in handy.

I should have also mentioned that in the early weeks and even months of recovery it's not unusual to have fluctuating hormone levels as the body heals, depletes the hormones the ovaries made and adapts to the new hormone therapy. So while it may seem like things aren't working at first, they may be just fine if you wait it out, so to speak. My doctor and compounding pharmacist wanted me to wait 3 months before making changes to my hormone therapy. It's a case of slow and steady winning the race.

We'll be here to help you through it all!