Injections causing PMS

[Tamaki]

There have been a lot of trans-women that complain about PMS like symptoms rights before their next estrogen injection.  Things like irritability, crying, feeling generally crappy. For me it would occur three days before my injection was due and would end the day after the injection. Since I took the estrogen every two weeks that meant PMS twice a month. After several discussions with my spouse, therapist and doctor I was switched to half the dose every week. This was to prevent the big drop in blood levels of estrogen right before the next injection was due and hopefully preventing the PMS like symptoms. The problem is the symptoms still occur three days before my injection and stop the day after. That means  it happens every week!

Has anyone else experienced something like this? It's driving me and my spouse crazy! I would just switch to patches but I can't afford them.

[Asfsd4214]

Perhaps you should switch to pills, or ask about using pills in the days before your injection.

[Tamaki]

I was on pills for a year and had to stop because of the migraines they were causing. The injections seemed to have solved that problem and created another one.

[MacKenzie]

 @Tamaki - The "PMS" is caused by your E levels falling.
                 
    You can remedy this by taking a low dose of E orally under the tongue the day before your shot or when ever you are feeling "low" as some t-girls call it.

[Asfsd4214]

@Tamaki - The "PMS" is caused by your E levels falling.
                 
    You can remedy this by taking a low dose of E orally under the tongue the day before your shot or when ever you are feeling "low" as some t-girls call it.

I hate the term 't-girl', but I agree with the rest of this post.

You may not have the migraines from only taking the pills in the days near to your injection. If you do, it might be affordable to look into a patch or gel solution for those days.

[Tamaki]

The term t-girl has always rubbed me the wrong way to put in mildly.

Using the oral/sublingual form of estradiol to bridge the gap in blood levels between injections will very likely result in migraines for me. There is something about the delivery method that triggers them. This is a phenomenon that many cis-women experience as well. Often once they change the delivery method or form of the hormone it no longer triggers migraines for them. This is why I switched to injections.

The patch and the gel are both great ideas. The problem I'm having and really what prompted me to post in the first place was that I am experiencing symptoms 3 to 4 days out of the week, every week. This is a failure rate of 50%. If I'm not doing something wrong with the injections and I have to add another method half the time and to me this means the method doesn't work.

Currently I pay around $55 for my estradiol and supplies for two and a half months worth. That's about $22 per month. Switching to patches will cost me nearly $70 per month (vivelle dot) or gel about $80 (without having checked doses). Patches were my first choice but to my budget $50 a month is a lot of money.

[MacKenzie]

The term t-girl has always rubbed me the wrong way to put in mildly.

Using the oral/sublingual form of estradiol to bridge the gap in blood levels between injections will very likely result in migraines for me. There is something about the delivery method that triggers them. This is a phenomenon that many cis-women experience as well. Often once they change the delivery method or form of the hormone it no longer triggers migraines for them. This is why I switched to injections.

The patch and the gel are both great ideas. The problem I'm having and really what prompted me to post in the first place was that I am experiencing symptoms 3 to 4 days out of the week, every week. This is a failure rate of 50%. If I'm not doing something wrong with the injections and I have to add another method half the time and to me this means the method doesn't work.

Currently I pay around $55 for my estradiol and supplies for two and a half months worth. That's about $22 per month. Switching to patches will cost me nearly $70 per month (vivelle dot) or gel about $80 (without having checked doses). Patches were my first choice but to my budget $50 a month is a lot of money.

Try getting your meds through a compounding pharmacy then.