Endo back?Nausea/pain.Need advice HRT.

Hi, I haven't been on since June 2001. Sorry this is quite long. I had a TAH and removal of both ovaries in April 2001 due to chronic and severe endo. I am 31 years old and HRT was a must. Unfortunately I have never felt back to normal as I would have hoped, although there was improvement. Initially my doc had me on Estradiol (the cream I put on my arms. I was having severe joint pain and had no energy so he switched to climacteron (an injection of estrogen and testosterone). This seemed to help but wore off within about 3 weeks. So I was adding back estrogen through the cream after 3 weeks and going for the shot every 6 weeks. Things still didn't seem right and I had my hormone levels tested in October 2001. My doc never mentioned the levels and I assumed they were fine. In December 2001 my old symptoms came back (which suspiciously seemed like the endo returning), nausea (constantly), pain, swelling/bloating. I am back on anti-nausea drugs and the doc. doesn't want me to get the shot so often, now I am going every 10 weeks.

The thing that concerned me was that he checked my levels that he had tested in October and said that my estrogen was very high. He said it was 800! and that they usually like it between 100 and 200. (Sorry I don't know what these numbers are measured in). To me this seems very high and out of whack. Estrogen is bad for me because it is what causes the regrowth of endo. I am now scheduled for another laparoscopy in April to see if the endo is back but the nurses are going on strike in MB, Canada and I think it will probably be cancelled. Is there anything else I can do? Any advice would be very much appreciated.
Thanks.

Wow, Matise,

You've been through a lot! I'm sorry you haven't been feeling well, but I think you are in the right track... The only way you'll be able to know what is really going on is having a laparoscopy. Afterwards, I would try and keep your estrogen dose really low. I am on the .05 Vivelle Patch , and am 37, I never really followed the blood test numbers, because I tried instead to go by how I was feeling on the lowest dose possible. I too had sever endo, and have not had any reoccurence in the last 2 years since my hyst. , maybe after your surgery you should stay off of everything for a few months before restarting your estrogen, I know many here have gone that route. Dr.'s are split on this, but since you've had problems....

I wish you the best, just know that we are all here for you and I think after your surgery you'll be feeing like you are much more in control.

Good Luck, Kristy

800 !! Holy cow! I would not be surprised if your endo was back. Man alive that is very high.
Have you considered adding some progesterone to your mix of hormones? This often helps with the joint pain. Could also be that you were not on a high enough dose of the cream to begin with and maybe a higher dose would have done the trick without sending your levels skyrocketing..
I have found for me that I need both the progesterone and estrogen to feel well with a slight dose of testosterone mixed in to feel well and have had no recurrance of my endo at this point either.
Do let us know how the laproscopy turns out and if you need help cutting the jungle vines we'll try and help with that too.. S