3 weeks Evaluation of E patches "low dose"

[MikeP]

Good afternoon, it has been 3 weeks on low dose estrogen patch and no spiro.  Not a lot to report other than I am happy I am giving E a try as suggested by my MD.  I wanted to know just how quickly the patch effects the estrogen levels in the body and begins to reach your mind. Seems to be a lot of talk about the ups and downs taking different HRT and how it is absorbed in the body and trying to keep your levels constant. 

How long would it take to notice a patch came off ?  if you were not paying attention.  Do E levels rise and decline slowly when missing a dose?  Or it less noticeable with lower doses. 

I am not sure if my libido jumped up because of the missing patch or it is just part of my normal cycle I deal with.   

[Dani]

The half-life of Estradiol in your blood system after a patch is removed is just under 3 hours. This means that in about 14 hours (5 half-lives) after the patch is gone, your Estradiol levels are almost zero.

Patches are very good at keeping your blood levels constant as the medication is slowly released into your blood system constantly as long as the patch is in contact with your skin. When the patch comes off, you no longer have any Estradiol going into your body, but it is still being eliminated by your liver and kidneys, giving you the 3 hour half-life.

Libido is too complicated of an issue to use it as an indicator of your Estradiol levels. If you experienced any increase in libido it may or may not be related to a lost patch. Just check to see if it is still there. You should be changing these patches twice a week anyway.

[Megan.]

I had a thread on my own low-dose trial here:

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php?topic=211670.0

There was little change in my readable HRT levels, but I personally found positive mental effects from it, and negative ones when stopping. Whether these were placebo or not I could not say.

Good luck!

Sent from my MI 5s using Tapatalk