Which is more powerful and potent, Ethinyl Estradiol or Premarin?

[Sad Girl]

Anyone?

[girl_ashley]

I don't know that anyone has any real numbers on the potency on either of these, just personal experience on one or the other.  However, I do think the standard convention around here is to avoid Premarin.

[rejennyrated]

I agree with Girl-Ashley, potency is the wrong question - because there are dosage equivalents so that such and such a quantity of premarin would be roughly equivalent to a certain dose of ethinyl estradiol.

The correct question would be "Which estrogen formulation is safer to take at an effective dosage?" and in that context there are differences.

Ethinyl estradiol carries a much higher risk of stroke and thrombosis and is therefore generally considered to be the least safe estrogen - however it is cheaper - so some doctors prefer it for that reason.

Premarin is somewhat safer - but can have some deleterious effects on the liver and has issues about animal welfare associated with its production, (although to be fair, in recent years, there has been a move by the manufacturer to synthesize the components thus eliminating the animal welfare problems).

HOWEVER - by and away the safest estrogen to take is the one you didn't even mention namely Estradiol-Valerate or its alternative formulation of Estradiol-Hemihydrate.

This is a natural product and can be taken orally, sublingual, transdermal, or by injection. It carries the lowest risk of side effects of all the estrogens and is generally pretty effective for most patients.

[Ann Onymous]

Way back when, my endo started me on Premarin primarily because he had a boatload of pharmaceutical samples in the office which saved me from having to go to the pharmacy.  However, they did next to nothing for me even as we altered dosing across a span of several months.   

Only after I switched to Estinyl (the domestic version of ethinyl estradiol) did I see any real effect from the HRT (taken in tandem with compounded progesterone, later available as Prometrium).  Admittedly, I never did injectables primarily because I am rather averse to needles (does not matter if it was me who was going to have to stick me or whether it was a trained professional).