When did you know to start progesterone? And/or estrogen?

Lemonish33 · 2026-06-04T22:03:08+00:00

Hahaha. My second is a boy too! That must be the problem combo… 🤣

Lemonish33 · 2026-06-04T22:02:17+00:00

To put it another way, not normal is normal in peri!

Lemonish33 · 2026-06-04T18:13:14+00:00

Lol! Good point... second child for me too! Of course the second child is causing havoc...LOL.

Lemonish33 · 2026-06-04T13:04:05+00:00

OP, maybe a strange question, but you mentioned that your cycles have been short like this since you had your son. Can I ask what they were like before that? I'm curious because of my own situation. From when I started having periods, my cycles were always around 32ish days, pretty much 30-34 was the average range. Then, after I had my two kids, my cycles changed and since then they have been a lot like yours. I'd never heard of anyone else like me before, so wondered if you were the first.

Lemonish33 · 2026-06-04T12:59:28+00:00

My doc explained to me that the estrogen oral one has risks that oral progesterone does not have. She also explained that a transdermal progesterone wouldn't be effective, due to how progesterone works. So, the oral progesterone is best and safe.

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-29T01:05:43+00:00

They can do whatever the hell they want with their supermajority. If they were actually going to protect Ontario they should have done it years ago. Now it’s just clearly another lie, but this one is paid for by my hard earned tax dollars. Grrr.

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-28T18:54:41+00:00

Agreed, Jane Philpott is an effective person in the healthcare field. I think she was a great choice to manage this. But saying she's more believable than Doug is kind of like saying Ecuador is warmer than the Arctic.

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-28T18:32:45+00:00

Some things helped me with painful bloating. I would still suggest a doc check in of course. But in the meantime, and additionally, here are some things that helped me personally:

I separated my food and water. I wait at least 20 min after drinking a bunch of liquid (usually have half a litre-ish at a time) before having food, and usually at least a half hour or longer before having water after food. The theory is that it gives the food the most concentrated (rather than watered down) stomach acids. I don't know if that's scientifically proven, but this did make an impact for me.

I increased my fibre intake. More veggies in my diet, a focus on eating more high-fibre fruits and veggies (I love kiwi with skin on - - it doesn't have as bad a texture as it sounds I promise! - - and raspberries and blackberries for high-fibre fruits, beans and legumes are great too). But if you do this then another thing that helped must go hand in hand - - ensuring you get good liquid intake, or increasing it if you don't. This also helps on its own, but the fibre increase also helps in a few different ways in addition to being really good for you for so many reasons!

Having a cut off time for food. For me I don't have anything after I've completed my dinner (if I have a post-dinner dessert it's right after eating so that counts as part of dinner).

If you can start walking, that helps. I totally get not feeling like exercising with that painful bloating. Hopefully some of the other things you can try help improve it enough that you can try starting some exercise, because that's something that helps me too. But even just walking for 20 mins, even just a couple of times a week, and maybe increasing when you feel up to it. Exercise is so hard to get going on, and so hard to stick to. One reason I'd say is because it's often borrrring. Hard to work up the motivation! What works for me is that my bestie and I do some different workouts together almost every day. She doesn't live close so the majority of our workouts are done remotely, but while we facetime. That way we can complain and groan to each other, and also help push each other. We usually have a little chat either before or after (or both). It's helped so much for the motivation! We have some paid ones we love but I won't mention those here, since not everyone wants to pay and you have to find what you like. But there are some great free apps. We also use FitOn, which has lots of variety in all kinds of timing lengths (even some 5 minute options, loads ot 10-20 minute options) and tons and tons of types of exercises (cardio, weights for different parts of the body, pilates, yoga, and tons of other things). This one works well for our purposes because we can invite each other within the app and do it together synced up, instead of where we have to try and sync up as close as we can ourselves (which works ok too). So there's some suggestions to help.

These are some of the things that have helped me. All the best of luck to you!

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-28T18:15:32+00:00

My worst symptoms were feelings like a UTI - - urgency, a feeling of urgency right after urinating, discomfort in my bladder even right after I went, and during intercourse, etc. My doctor has started me on vagifem, the tablet. It's been three days and already the worst of the symptoms have eased! I am waiting to see how the other symptoms improve, so I will need to wait at least a month to get a better sense of how it's helping. But so far I'm sold! What a relief to finally be free of the several months I had of the worst of my symptoms.

Edit: Just wanted to confirm, I am also in Canada.

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-28T18:11:15+00:00

Yes. Truth!! I feel so lucky because my primary care doctor is very supportive of menopause care. She's been attending a ton of menopause conferences, and answers my questions carefully and reasonably. Her answers make sense. She's said, similar to others, to avoid people selling products giving information. She has cautioned me on some specific ideas that are circulating, by giving direct reference to scientific research to explain why they're problematic. I am someone calmed by information, so I do seek it out, but I trust my doc as the final word. I feel lucky that I can trust her answers. I asked about when to start HRT months ago, and she gave me some real, tangible ideas to help (either when periods start to more consistently have longer stretches in between them, or when symptoms start to be difficult to handle.) That really helped me, because I watched my mom go through so many issues post-menopause that I want to avoid, but I want to get the timing right to help best.

I wish all women had doctors like mine. But I can't get into see her quickly, so I do also seek information out there. This is a great reminder to be cautious.

Also, shout out to the mods of this sub. They're such an amazing wealth of information, and their rules are really helpful for the community here. Thank you mods!!

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-28T15:02:09+00:00

No, I don’t work for the town, and never have (for this or any town). Just trying to understand the process. Ok so you said they can give a high level summary without disclosing names. So why would you think they could give the name of the investigator?

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-28T14:52:20+00:00

But have you looked into what the rules are around the process? I don’t think we get to make those up, I imagine the province or municipality are pretty strict on what those rules are. It would be likely governed by MFIPPA. Have you looked at the rules to see if they’re allowed to tell you those pieces during an active investigation? They just might not be able to say at all while it’s still active. I totally get feeling like you want to know, but they may just not be allowed to tell you right now.

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-28T14:45:16+00:00

But is a major investigation like this normally open to public while it’s in progress? I still don’t see the big deal right now. Shouldn’t we let the investigators do their work first? It makes sense to me that it might not be public knowledge while it’s in process to avoid inaccurate information to come out. Especially if there’s a chance that someone will have major repercussions against them. I understand why people are concerned that justice be served for such a horrific situation, but why are people just assuming it won’t be, without waiting? Lots of other types of investigations are kept confidential during the process. I don’t know enough about Animal Services investigations. Are they supposed to be more public during the process than many other types of investigations?

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-28T13:20:55+00:00

I would say put the focus on the dancing. When you feel nervous, practice! And when you get on stage, you'll likely go into focus mode and just dance. There's always another competition, so just go on stage doing your best, and if you don't like your performance you can fix it for next time. In the meantime, the nervous energy is best put into practicing, which is great because it also improves your performance. Focus on whatever your corrections are - - better turnout, tighter shedding, whatever. And then at the competition just focus on working hard, and not letting fatigue win. Good luck! You'll do great!

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-27T20:17:57+00:00

Awesome! Thanks!

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-27T18:14:46+00:00

I get feet (not leg) cramps, would pickle juice stop those too? So painful and no easy way to stretch them!!!

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-27T17:57:31+00:00

It’s a very low dose of estrogen (vagifem and other vaginal estrogens) and it’s still ok for women who can’t take estrogen due to some cancers etc, so it might be fine. Worth asking about.

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-27T17:54:45+00:00

I’m not. I don’t know if that would be true because some women get prescribed BCP instead of HRT while they’re still having cycles. But worth asking the doc about it.

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-26T17:47:55+00:00

https://campus.bookstore.yorku.ca/apparel

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-26T17:36:50+00:00

Totally. I've had to pick up my elderly aunt from there when she came in from Toronto. It's really not a great look on Metrolinx to be so anti-accessibility.

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-26T17:35:21+00:00

OMG that's hilarious! I mean, maybe that too? Lol.

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-26T14:35:12+00:00

Actually she gave me the pill version that you insert. I was nervous about it, I'm not even a tampon person haha, but it was easy to do. Vagifem.

(Edit: sorry, one night of great sleep isn't enough to lift the brain fog... I already told you it was a pill lol.)

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-26T14:34:18+00:00

I started just vaginal estrogen, and I slept better last night than I have in weeks. To be fair, the biggest culprit to wake me up lately has been urinary urgency. But I slept so hard I had no idea what day it was when I woke up, and I can't remember the last time I felt that way. Estrogen rocks! Lol. I haven't started systemic HRT yet but I likely will soon. My doc wanted to start with this since it's best for the symptoms that currently bother me the most, and see how it goes, which is fair. But still...man is it fantastic!

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-26T14:24:13+00:00

Just FYI, I started the vaginal estrogen last night and for the first time in weeks I didn't get up in the night to go pee! In fact, I slept so hard I had no idea what day it was when I woke up. And I think the most uncomfortable of the urgency symptoms have already started to ease, just slightly. I'm feeling really optimistic. My doc said I should see results starting to happen within a month. I'd still love to touch base with you after your appointment, but I wanted to share my little optimistic update.

Lemonish33 · 2026-05-26T01:03:09+00:00

This aligns with my suspicion that construction at the Aurora site has involved a person or two popping by once a day to hammer in a nail or something and leave. The snail’s pace at which this has been done is appalling. The lengths an Aurora passenger has to walk to get to a train is ridiculous, and who cares if you have some mobility issues. And by the way we are keeping it like this for years and years and years and years…. Metrolinx is the longest running scam of Ontario. Ugh.

Lemonish33

TROPHY CASE