Given the supply situation, many people I know have moved to estradiol cypionate rather than deal with compounding pharmacies. Just as effective, but will require a dosage tweak.

Quote from: Susan on June 12, 2018, 01:34:25 PM
With generic Estradiol Valerate injectables no longer manufactured by Perrigo.

Is this official? Do you have a link?
My Walmart pharmacy tells me that their is a production problem but they have the Perrigo injectable estradiol on backorder.

To clarify Par is the maker of brand name Delestrogen, Par does not afaik make a generic.

Perrigo is the only source I know of for a generic (not counting compounding pharmacies).

I have not checked back, the last time I called Perrigo (I think that was March) their word was it *not* discontinued, however was backordered with expectation of solving the backorder by June / July .. i.e. now or real soon now.

I *have* had conflicting information, pharmacists at CVS told me Perrigo had discontinued the product and they'd told my endocrinologist the same thing and so my latest vial was Delestrogen.

Fortunately to me with insurance the cost is the same, however I'll go back to Perrigo when available.


UPDATE: I just spoke to c/s at Perrigo. The word from them was the same as before "june or july" and they continue to say it's not discontinued.

As a strategy, I was lucky enough to have had a clerical error on my doc's part result in receiving more vials than I need to get by and so I have several month's supply (for me that's just a couple of vials) cached which means for the foreseeable future I can ride out the shortages.

Quote from: Janes Groove on June 12, 2018, 02:14:36 PM
Is this official? Do you have a link?
My Walmart pharmacy tells me that their is a production problem but they have the Perrigo injectable estradiol on backorder.

I was told by Walmart that they show estradiol valerate generic is discontinued

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

Quote from: Susan on June 12, 2018, 04:52:58 PM
I was told by Walmart that they show estradiol valerate generic is discontinued

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

As indicated ^^ I was told the same thing by CVS, however the maker Perrigo says it's a production problem. This was on the phone this afternoon.

So are we going to eventually lose access our injectable estrogen? I'm scared.

Please have patience with me I beg you. I am on injectable estrogen and I have stored up enough to last me for about six months. Am I okay? Will they eventually stop manufacturing injectable estrogen? Pills do not work for me and I rely on injectable and I am really worried.

Quote from: SadieBlake on June 12, 2018, 05:07:55 PM

Quote from: Susan on June 12, 2018, 04:52:58 PM
I was told by Walmart that they show estradiol valerate generic is discontinued

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

As indicated ^^ I was told the same thing by CVS, however the maker Perrigo says it's a production problem. This was on the phone this afternoon.

A 3 year production problem, it's been going on since at least mid 2015, sorry I don't buy it. They could have built a whole new plant gotten it FDA certified and in full production by now.

Quote from: Susan on June 12, 2018, 11:22:47 PM
A 3 year production problem, it's been going on since at least mid 2015, sorry I don't buy it. They could have built a whole new plant gotten it FDA certified and in full production by now.

Umm buy / believe what you like? I know there were problems with supply from both Perrigo and Par in 2016, fortunately I was able to work around that one also (ordered a spare vial from my pharmacy as soon as I heard there was an issue. I don't think it's been "continuous", I had no problem obtaining generic/Perrigo from Dec'15 through May '16 and then all was again good from September '16 through the present shortage. I filled prescriptions for generic on:

9/28/17
11/21/17
12/22/17
1/26/18

I wasn't able to fill the 'script in February, however as I said had enough to get me through and then filled with delestrogen on 3/22/18.

The 2016 shortage wasn't related to the current one. Both manufacturers were affected then because both used the same supplier for the diluent (castor oil). That company had a quality problem which meant both Par and Perrigo had to stop production.

Quote from: Shadowsister on June 12, 2018, 10:21:41 PM
So are we going to eventually lose access our injectable estrogen? I'm scared.

Please have patience with me I beg you. I am on injectable estrogen and I have stored up enough to last me for about six months. Am I okay? Will they eventually stop manufacturing injectable estrogen? Pills do not work for me and I rely on injectable and I am really worried.

Hey shadow, see my posts above: according to the manufacturer yes they will go back into production. Also the brand name Delestrogen is available, it's just more difficult because insurance companies require extra paperwork anytime you're not sourcing the less expensive generic drugs. From what I can see Delestrogen is running $200 for 20mg/ml at retail right now. Yes that's expensive.

There's also the option of transdermal patches which have similar pharmacokinetics as injected and ought to work out the same for you. In the worst case if you take oral estradiol sublingual, it's mostly absorbed directly into the bloodstream, avoiding first pass metabolism.

Quote from: SadieBlake on June 13, 2018, 12:24:23 AM
Hey shadow, see my posts above: according to the manufacturer yes they will go back into production. Also the brand name Delestrogen is available, it's just more difficult because insurance companies require extra paperwork anytime you're not sourcing the less expensive generic drugs. From what I can see Delestrogen is running $200 for 20mg/ml at retail right now. Yes that's expensive.

There's also the option of transdermal patches which have similar pharmacokinetics as injected and ought to work out the same for you. In the worst case if you take oral estradiol sublingual, it's mostly absorbed directly into the bloodstream, avoiding first pass metabolism.

Alright. Sorry I overlooked that. I  hope the company you spoke with is being honest.

Amen sister. Having worked in the medical / pharma industry much of my life, I'm inclined to believe them, there's no incentive to dissimulate and again, they're not the only supplier.

If one of my big products was unavailable I would move heaven and earth to get it back on the market. Not let it happen again and again over 3 years. I split these posts off the other thread. Please keep them on topic.

Only available in 5mg/ml vials. Not a good substitution.