Do you have to take progesterine cream if you take vagifem or premerine?

But..my insurance doesnt cover progesterone cream just the pill and the price is over the top,worse then vagifem,premeran etc,so if she insist on that i will be in pain.she says its a very low chance if didnt take it..sigh.unless a compounded cream would be reasonable.

Chris i was one of those who had to stop using the vagifem due to bleeding and period like pains. I had to have a scan to see if my lining of my womb had thickened, luckily it hadnt but i was told to stop using it straight away.

Sue 

She even makes you take it with premeran cream..guess im out of luck,probably wouldnt have worked anyway Drug costs in the US are over the top.

Phew Susan - that was a bit too close for comfort, wasn't it!  But thank goodness they picked it up in time!  How often were you using vagifem?

That's a difficult one for you Lee.  But if you find that vagifem works, so you want to keep using it then you have to make an informed decision about taking progesterone along with it to safeguard against endometrial cancer.

I should have added there Susan - a lot of women have a closed cervix so don't get that initial warning of bleeding and that's the biggest worry.  That happened to me but I was fortunate in that the ring pessary I had, because the GP hadn't washed the abrasive powder off before inserting it, had cause abrasion against the cervix which caused bleeding, and that's what got me sent for the scan!  It was pure fluke that they discovered the cancer!

The doctor today said it could cause bleeding symptoms for asbout 6 months then usually would resolve..just what id want.Thinking Premerin to the vulva alone might help.

OMG Chris you had cancer! was it due to the vagifem usage? So if you hadnt had the scan then you would never have found out earlier as you did, that was indeed a good fluke, how are you now?  suppose me having had five children then my cervix would have been slightly open. Thing is i was told to stop using the vagifem but offered nothing else instead, doctor just said nothing else will work as good as it softened moisturised and plumped up that erea that needed it and nothing else does the same job.

Sue x

Well - the GP had given me three times the recommended dose of vagifem for 16 months and then when I got the bleeding (that was actually from the cervix) she sent me for a scan where they discovered 'thickening' and fluid in the uterus that was stuck there because the cervix was closed.  The GP said the dose of Vagifem she'd given me was no different to their old dose before they reduced it to what it is now and was completely safe.  When we told Vagifem they were horrified.  YES, it is thought that the endometrial cancer came from Vagifem (we got a second opinion) but we couldn't prove it - all we can prove is that I had a sub standard service from the GP.  But since there are warnings all over the Vagifem site that it can cause endometrial cancer if not given with progesterone to a woman who still has a uterus, you can only draw your own conclusions about it.  When I stopped taking it I had horrendous night sweats for months, which I hadn't even had during menopause.  Many GP's tell patients that it's not absorbed systemically.  It is.  I'm absolutely fine now thanks Susan.  The cancer was caught at Grade 1, Stage 1, and although I'm still going back for check ups every three months, every year that passes means it's less likely to reoccur and I've pretty much put it to the back of my mind now and look on it that I'm not particularly more likely to get a reoccurence than anyone else getting cancer generally, so don't dwell on it at all.  But it was a horrendous time!  To be honest I don't think it achieved anything anyway!  I think all it did was give me a bad discharge and irritation!  I had two children but then a miscarriage and also the uterus lining removed because of fibroids and all of these things can lead to a closed cervix and it's something that most women are totally unaware of, so my feeling is, if they are on vagifem, there should be a check to see if the cervix is closed, so they know if they'd get those first warning signs or not of bleeding.  There actually is something that pretty much IS as good as hormone treatment and works well for many women and that's products with hyalaronic acid in them.  If you look up studies for pessaries with hyalaronic acid you'll see that a lot of studies have been done now and they're offering a pretty good alternative.  I have used Balance Activ Menopause Plus pessaries until I had my pessary fitted and it's a bit difficult to get those up any way now, so I find the coconut oil works best for me as I can get that round the knob of the pessary, but my gynie said that they were perfectly safe to use even every day if I wanted to.  I have got a gel form of it which I might try using soon, but I've got mixed feelings about it because I've got NO problems at all with the coconut oil, so if that's keeping it stable then I might stick with that, but then if the hyalaronic acid gel stuff (made by the same people as the pessaries) will actually thicken the skin, that could be good regarding the pessary use, so I'm torn a bit:-))))  I do feel that the coconut oil has plumped the area up and moisturised brilliantly,  but of course, no studies have been done on that because it's no benefit to drug companies LOL!

Lee i wasnt told this, it was about after using for a few months that the bleeding started too. I wonder then should i have been left to see if it did resolve i wonder.

Chris it must have been a horrendous time for you, i can only imagine. nearest ive come to feeling like that was when i had a lump in my breast and was kept waiting for weeks to see if it was cancer or not. Turned out is was benign but they still wanted to remove all the same.

As for the coconut oil all i have is the Holland amd Barrets type which looks like set candle wax in a jar, but quickly melts on contact, i use it to wipe off my makeup before i go to bed then  the use baby wipes to remove excces oil from my face. How would you use this down there as it melts so quick? as you say no studies done on this because ni benefit to drug companies LOL 

 

Well thinking i might ask about just premerian cream for the vulva.Adding hormones back that used to produce a period doesnt sound very appealing

Organic is supposed to be the best..i still have to try it

Susan, it was horrendous.  It was by far the worst five and a half weeks of my life from being told I had cancer to waiting for the op, but these things happen and the human brain is quite wonderful when it comes to 'getting over' things.  Sorry you had that fright too!

That's the sort of coconut I use.  I keep it fairly cool and get a knife into it to sort of get it in to small lumps and they stay lumps long enough to get where I want them to be.  I probably use more than most would need to because I like to get it around the knob bit of the pessary night and morning, so I tend to use pantipads because of the oil but if I only used it at night and not as much, I wouldn't need to do that.

I don't know - what we go through LOL!  But we find ways and means, on the whole, don't we:-)

This is personal,well everything on here is lol..for internally wonder how big a piece about? can it be shaped easily to put up there?should i keep it in the fridge?

I think it might come from cat breeding, but I just look at any bit of body the same as other bits of body really LOL!  At a rough guess, I suppose I ue a little bit more than half inch by half inch.  I don't keep it in the fridge but in the bedroom which is fairly cool because we tend to leave our windows on night lock all the time.  It was fine in the summer left there too, but when the weather suddenly got cold I found I couldn't scoop it out like I had before, so took the knife to it to break it up into pieces.  Because it melts on skin heat so quickly it's easy to shove it into the right shape really because it melts on its' way:-)

Sorry Chris to be so personal in this question but your mentioning using coconut oil with a pesserie, may i ask what type, your choice or a prescribed one?  My problem is ive a slight prolapse having had five kids! being intimate is painfull and nothing helps, its just soo uncomfortable even with lubricant, maybe i have other problems i dont know buts things arnt good in that department 

Before the cancer op I had a ring pessary - I had a bladder and bowel prolapse into the vagina, but while they did the hysterectomy they repaired the bladder one which was the worst.  This was last November (2015) but by August it had failed (but I do have a connective tissue problem called Ehlers Danlos, which would make it more likely to fail), so I decided I wanted a pessary again.  I knew it might be a problem because of having had both vaginal surgery and the hysterectomy, and by then the vaginal vault was also on it's way down, so I paid to go privately to save waiting for an NHS appointment and they tried Gellhorns first, but they stopped me weeing, so it was a shelf pessary that was the next attempt and that worked.  When I went to the first appointment (there were three in all) they asked about the sex aspect and my husband said he felt it was more important for me to be comfortable all the time than worry about penetration, so that made it easy for me really.  I found the same as you - even with good lubrication it was still a bit uncomfortable.  The only downside with the shelf pessary is that it has a knob that I found just very slightly uncomfortable at first but the coconut oil smeared around it makes if absolutely fine.  I suspect I was just slightly dry when it was first put in but because of using the coconut oil it's never dry now and is always comfortable.  Have you been to see your GP and ask about a pessary?  There are some that you can still have sex with, if that's what you want to do, but you need to have a chat about it and either have the GP sort something out if they are trained in that aspect, or get referred to a gynie who can help.  I had to have my ring pessary out two weeks before the hysterectomy and repair and I hated it, so as soon as it started getting uncomfortable again when the repair failed I wanted a pessary back again and life is normal again:-)))  I hated even picking something up from the floor before because there was that feeling of something being squashed there.  I didn't even have the pain that some people get with a prolapse!  I do think my bowels were a little affected though, as well as the bladder - I just had to strain slightly, but as soon as the right pessary was in, it was all normal again.  I think a pessary stops it getting worse too!

Oh right Chris thanks for explaining all that and i think i rememeber now your discussion on this a few months ago. Your fortunate to have such an understanding husband who doesnt try to put you on a guilt trip every so often.  I 

Tut i havnt finished!  was going to say i was adviced  Many years  never never to do sit ups as i would end up with a full blown prolaspe!

 

I used to feel guilty Susan and there was a point where I really hadn't explained what was happening, but once he realised he was so good.  I think communication helps hugely.  It's not an easy thing to talk about, I know, but it needs to be done.  And it doesn't mean the end of intimacy but just penetration, and I think if men know they are 'wanted' it also helps, so they don't feel rejected, but just realise that their wife now has a 'disability' in that area.  Does that make sense?  Yes, I have read to never do sit ups too because it puts a huge amount of stress on the abdomen when then pushes on the vagina so any weakness will suffer from it, but I've seen posts where people have been told they can do them after repairs, but if their surgeons are saying that it's not for me to say they can't, but personally I'd avoid anything that might cause the repair to fail.  I also read that you shouldn't do the exercise where you're flat on your back and you lift one knee up and the opposite shoulder, for the same reason.  I don't do anything like that at all - I stick to the exercise bike and the treadmill.  Mostly exercise bike, but I like to do 10 minutes a day on the treadmill for bone strength, even though I'm taking some of the weight on my arms because the knees are so bad LOL!  But I do my best:-)))

Thanks Chris for being so honest, can i ask did your hubby at any point moan and make you feel guilty before he fully understood?he saw a programme on tv about a woman who found sex painfull and she had surgery and now she is fine, she had lesions?  Not the same thing though is it. Dont know how old she was and weather she had pushed out five kids. He suggested that i go to the doctors and see if i could have surgery sorry but no thanks, besides my doctor has already told me i have a slight prolaspe but not bad enough for surgery, no just bad enough to ruin everything else.

 

He didn't moan outright but I definitely got the feeling he wasn't impressed and felt rejected.  Lesions would cause bleeding, I'd think.   My husband never ever suggested surgery to improve our sex life.  In fact, to be honest, I think what affected our sex life most of all initially was the fact that I was on anti depressants for many years at a fairly high dose (goes back to the Ehlers Danlos connective tissue thing - many get anxiety and depression with that too) and the tablets I'd been on most recently definitely affected my libido even before the prolapse thing so although we could have sex at that point, I wasn't that keen very often, but when I came off them and then went on a reduced dose, I was definitely more keen but the prolapses and then the ring pessary to support it was a problem, so it's been a sort of 'ongoing tale' but he's so good and never ever pushes me - he's happy to leave it to me to say when:-)  If  you're getting discomfort generally, I'd ask about a prolapse pessary to support it.  There's no need for you to be feeling that discomfort and there are lots, as we've discussed on here, so if you want something to take out at night, you can do that or you can have something to leave in and just get changed every 4 - 6 months, but there is no need for you to be feeling discomfort in general daily activities.