It has taken me about 5 1/2 months but I feel confident now to say that I have successfully weaned off of bioidentical HRT (Bi-Est /Progesterone cream). When I started the estrogen, I was having horrendous hot flashes every hour plus. During the night, I would have hot flashes almost continuously and could barely sleep. I was a complete wreck and so I was more than willing to go on the estrogen to get some sleep. And the estrogen did help. I had more energy and my hot flashes diminished. However, even at the highest dose, and I did inch up to a maximum dose in order to try to get the hot flashes to go completely away, I still had some hot flashes.
I don't remember how I found Ray Peat's work. I think I was googling anything I could to find an answer to my hormonal problems. Discovering that hot flashes are also a sign of blood sugar issues, clicked with something I had read in the past. Since hormone replacement wasn't fixing my issue completely, it led me to believe that there could be something to the theory that blood sugar issues can lead to hot flashes. So, I added in milk, more fruit and sugar. Lo and behold, the resistant hot flashes subsided. That gave me the confidence to start weaning down on the estrogen. It was a sloooow process. I would reduce the cream about 15%, wait three weeks during which typically the hot flashes would increase, and once I felt stabilized, I would decrease the amount again. There were a few times where I was impatient and decreased by a higher amount but the time it took to stabilize took longer. During this time, I also took some additional Progest E as the Bi-Est cream also had progesterone in it and I wanted to keep that amount somewhat stable. I took my last dose of Bi-Est around the end of December. After couple of weeks, I felt a wonderful sense of calm and thought "wow, I finally did it." Well, that didn't last and I went through a month of increasing hot flashes. They didn't get as bad as they were before I started estrogen replacement but my nights and day were once again interrupted. At that point, I really ramped up the amount of progesterone I was taking and now a few weeks into increasing the progesterone, I am almost completely hot flash free. I am hopeful that I will eventually get to the point where I won't have any.
Some of the coping mechanisms that helped me get through the nights were: a) hot milk, sugar and gelatin and b) Benadryl.
I don't remember how I found Ray Peat's work. I think I was googling anything I could to find an answer to my hormonal problems. Discovering that hot flashes are also a sign of blood sugar issues, clicked with something I had read in the past. Since hormone replacement wasn't fixing my issue completely, it led me to believe that there could be something to the theory that blood sugar issues can lead to hot flashes. So, I added in milk, more fruit and sugar. Lo and behold, the resistant hot flashes subsided. That gave me the confidence to start weaning down on the estrogen. It was a sloooow process. I would reduce the cream about 15%, wait three weeks during which typically the hot flashes would increase, and once I felt stabilized, I would decrease the amount again. There were a few times where I was impatient and decreased by a higher amount but the time it took to stabilize took longer. During this time, I also took some additional Progest E as the Bi-Est cream also had progesterone in it and I wanted to keep that amount somewhat stable. I took my last dose of Bi-Est around the end of December. After couple of weeks, I felt a wonderful sense of calm and thought "wow, I finally did it." Well, that didn't last and I went through a month of increasing hot flashes. They didn't get as bad as they were before I started estrogen replacement but my nights and day were once again interrupted. At that point, I really ramped up the amount of progesterone I was taking and now a few weeks into increasing the progesterone, I am almost completely hot flash free. I am hopeful that I will eventually get to the point where I won't have any.
Some of the coping mechanisms that helped me get through the nights were: a) hot milk, sugar and gelatin and b) Benadryl.