Hot flashes?

[Beth Andrea]

Yes.

Hot flashes.

Anyone get 'em here? No? You want mine? Here! *tosses hot flashes about willy-nilly*

Oh wait...they're gone.











Nope, they're back. And...gone.

[calico]

the one time I got a hot flash serious enough to remember was 3-4 days after surgery..... not fun, that and I think they made me sick, seroisly I was in the hotel a/c off and under the blankets, mind you it was 105 degrees there so...  yea... good times

[A]

Uhm, I barely know what I'm talking about here, but since heat flashes are a symptom commonly associated with menopause's hormonal changes, I'd suggest having your hormone levels checked. I think there's a good chance there's a problem somewhere in there.

[Christine167]

As long as I take my meds at the same time every day I don't get them. If I am so much as an hour off they start. Raging hot and cold flashes with aches and pains like I was getting the flu or something.

[Beth Andrea]

As long as I take my meds at the same time every day I don't get them. If I am so much as an hour off they start. Raging hot and cold flashes with aches and pains like I was getting the flu or something.

I'm thinking this might be it...esp since they're not really "full-on" hot flashes, more like a flickering light bulb. (hopefully it's not my thoughts being cross -wired into my temperature control LOL). I am good about taking the meds +/- 2hours.

My hormone levels are perfect (45T, 440E), have been this for the past year or so.

[Janine-Janine]

This is only peripheral, but it's an issue that troubles me. Can anyone help?

Some years post-op I did, mostly out of curiosity, get my hormone levels checked. I was taking estradiol xMG a day. Result found very low T but also pretty low E - maybe 150. Solution? Up dose to xMG a day. Another test. About 300-350, if I remember right. Deemed acceptable. And so I have been for years now.

But is this too high? Is it perhaps that the specific drug isn't optimal for me? Don't know. Unsure I want to take that amount for the rest of my life. Post-op support is p!@@-awful, sadly, in my experience.

I haven't had hot flushes at all, anyhow, even then. Nor when I was off hormones for some time directly pre and post-op. Actually I sometimes try to cycle and take a week off lately (token detox effort if anything, really) - but I often forget to keep up with it - I might attribute gaining two cup sizes to that in addition to slight weight gain... but no sign of a flush during taking a break for a week. No symptoms at all, tbh. Maybe a day or two of being grouchy at tail-end, but it's hard to tell with me. :b

Opinion on hormone dosage welcome, anyhow. It just bothers me a bit sometimes.

(Edit: x'd out dosage!)

[Nicolette]

I don't believe I've experienced these even with missing a day of HRT occasionally over the last two decades. I wonder if it is to do with HRT.

[Beth Andrea]

Janine, we don't talk about dosages here.

What you really need is to contact your endo (hopefully s/he knows about treating TS), and discuss dosages etc. with him/her.

We can't really help with that, because we're not doctors nor do we know your full medical history.

I will say your E level (350) looks about right, based on "Dr." Google. How many pills one takes to get that = dosage (shhh!)

[Janine-Janine]

Oh, sorry, don't want to go off-topic. It is something I'd like to discuss medically but I'm stranded outside of the 'system', more or less, after all this time. On a funnier note, I think I've had a psychological hot flush since posting on this thread. Seriously. I feel a bit hot under the collar for no reason. The mind's a funny thing.

[Beth Andrea]

Off-topic I don't mind, as you said it's peripheral to the subject of hot flashes. Point is, you may want to edit your dosage info ("x number of pills per day", and "y mg of E") before the mods do. I'm not a mod, btw. Just lettin' you know what "they" don't like to see.

imho, 350 e is fine, and if it takes that amount of hrt to achieve it, then for you that sounds like a good dosage. In other words...I concur with your dr.

[Janine-Janine]

Ah. Okay! Edited. I know it's not a high amount, but curious as to its long-term advisability. That said I'd hope a doctor would be aware of such issues in a general sense anyway. That said (and how reassuring is this?!) - have seen a different doctor at same practice twice in recent times and on both occasions he asked me *what* the prescription was!! I just said HRT. He hadn't dug into my notes, clearly, and it wasn't relevant to my visit...

[Beth Andrea]

I'm pre-op, and on a much higher dose than what you are. Long-term is an issue, even with cis-women, but that's why one must monitor the blood levels. That's how they keep tabs on blood clotting etc.

You will have to take hormones the rest of your life (missing the OEM gonads demands it), and since you're close to the minimum dose already, you should be good to go on that.

Also, general advice on doctors and all medical things you have: You are your own advocate. Don't trust them to read your file, or to know your specific situation.

My mom used to be a nurse (retired now), and there are certain medications she CANNOT take, yet they are the most commonly prescribed for her condition. One time she found herself in an ER, and they were going to give her the wrong medication, even though she advised against it. They insisted. She insisted. This went on for a while, a doc came in and berated her, and she said, "I'm checking myself out of here on my own recognizance, and will be leaving."

Shortly after that, the head ER person complied with my mom's directions regarding her medications.

That's an extreme example, but yeah, they don't always read the charts, and sometimes their ego ("I are a doctor now!") gets in the way. Plus, if you do enough quality research on a subject, it has happened that you may actually know more than they do.  Be aware though, that you may not...so do listen to the medical professionals, unless you absolutely know otherwise. (and even then, consider what they say--there may be more than one way to approach and solve a problem.)

Sorry, I digressed a bit. *sigh*

[JLT1]

I've got episodic hormonal fluctuations.  When E is dropping and T is going up, I get hot flashes....and slightly dizzy and depressed, then panicky and somewhat aggravated or even aggressive.

For you, it's probably fluctuations in metabolism which could be due to anything from the food you ate (or didn't eat), to the consistency of the estrogen source to just about any change. 

[mrs izzy]

Mine have come over the years here and there and would happend a few days then go as fast as they came. Nothing in a schedule when i was on transition HRT.
I did have them again just after my GCS/GRS. I am hoping now they will calm down. Who would think one could get so hot.

Izzy