Question 86
Dr. N:
I had a total abd. hyst/bil ooph. in June. I am 51 yrs old. I have been on the Estrogen patch .10 mg since. It is really up to me as to how much estrogen I take accord. to my doc. I was on .05 first after surgery and had too many hot flashes and asked to be put on a higher dose. I think I may be ready to decrease the .10 to .05 if that would be beneficial to me? Should I give it a try? In other words, is less better as long as symptoms are controlled for menopause? I now have no symptoms.
thank you!
Reply:
Well, think of it this way, even on the 0.1 mg dose, your blood levels of estrogen are probably below what they were in your premenopausal mid cycle. My own sense is that in this case, less is not better. I will tell you something interesting. Many people, including some doctors seem to have fears about estrogen overdosing. I am not inferring that women should be overdosed, that wouldn't be too smart. Women on the 0.1 mg patch usually have a level of estradiol in the blood somewhere in the range of 80-140 pg. This is, as I mentioned, below premenopausal mid cycle estradiol levels. Compare this with the levels of estradiol in the blood at the time a pregnant woman delivers, which may be as high as 17,000 pg. It implies at the very least that slight elevations on estrogen when do occur may not be very deadly.
Dr N