Hi,

I am 46 in January and have been going through perimenopause since I was about 40.

Started with sore swollen breasts, then heavier periods and even heavier then I had PMS for the first time in my life (It took 2 years before I realised it was PMS due to the cycles and timings of my symptoms) then I had insomnia around my PMS time and as the years have moved on my periods are all over the place.
Then night sweats, nothing major just one a night and certainly no drenching of the bedding but enough to wake me up.

I have periods with no symptoms and symptoms with no periods. The hardest part is no longer being able to say "Ahh! I feel like this because I am due on" the symptoms just hit me at any time and there is no rhyme or reason to them anymore.

I have been waking up every night at 5am for months and thankfully I go back to sleep within 20 to 30 minutes sometimes less.

Sometimes I get insomnia when and anxiety about insomnia when I wake up and cant go back after 4 hours etc but that usually is followed by my period which is now no more than a tiny spot of old blood, if that.

I am using Progesterone (Natural) pessaries 400mg daily every day no break and have done for two years.

Progesterone is the calming hormone, nick named "Natures Valium" were as oestrogen is an excitatory hormone.

Over the years, as we age, progesterone starts to drop, when we fail to ovulate our bodied produce no progesterone at all (Except a small amount from the brain) and this is what causes a worsening of PMS symptoms as we reach menopause.

Oestrogen levels on the other hand, remains the same (over time, of course it dips and ducks throughout the month) and with xenoestrogens in the environment and in our foods, cosmetics, microwave foods contained in plastic, meats etc that women are now no longer accepting the old fashioned belief that we need "Oestrogen" when facing peri and menopause, in fact quite the opposite!

Oestrogen Dominance is no more a gimmicky term used to sell progesterone products than "Oestrogen Deficiency" is to the pharmaceutical companies who sell chemical hormones to the medical profession who prescribe them.

The studies done on menopause were last researched in the 1950s and were incomplete and yet the medical profession are still treating hormone issues based on that out of date information.

If you research the net you will discover *new* studies showing post menopausal women in their 50s with as much Oestrogen as a 20 year old woman but almost no Progesterone.

The modern era has enough xenoestrogens to push our Oestrogen levels up already without us needing to put more into our system.

It's not a case of a lack of Oestrogen, its the balance or lack there of, of these two hormones that cause the issues.. and as I say, modern research shows a decline in Progesterone
whilst Oestrogen remains more or less the same.

Women who have PND do so due to the sudden drop of progesterone once they give birth. Our bodies make 400mg of progesterone when we are pregnant. We give birth and suffer from depression anxiety etc due to the sudden drop in Progesterone.

This is why many women say that their PMS goes when they were pregnant but comes back with a vengeance when they give birth.

All that said, and despite my Progesterone therapy (Which I had to convince my female doctor to prescribe as she wanted me to have a coil fitted)

I DO have bad weeks and hours and not all of the symptoms have gone and I wonder if I am getting worse the closer to menopause I get.

According to my research you cannot overdose on progesterone, the only thing that would happen is you would feel sleepy!

Take too much Oestrogen and all Hell breaks loose not to mention the links to cancers.

If anyone is interested in the research and papers to back my own belief up here is a link to a forum on the subject

http://www.progesteronetherapy.com/#axzz3KNpFIkMz

I am very interested in womens experiences who HAVE taken HRT in either combination, for how long and whether they feel it was working :)

Many thanks,

Here is a link that might be useful: Progesterone Therapy