Switching to transdermal patches

[Tills]

Another couple of apparent advantages of Oestrogel over Sandrena are that:

- you can apply it to your lower abdomen and therefore
- because it dries so quickly

... it means if you're out with friends you should be able to nip to the loo, lift up your top, put it on, and 3 minutes later come back out.

This may seem a minor thing but I did find it really awkward trying to apply my afternoon dose of Sandrena when I was out with people. I find Sandrena can take anything up to 45-60 minutes to dry, even with rubbing it in. And because the patient leaflet says to apply it only to your lower body or thighs it's a problem if you're out.

https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/files/pil.1048.pdf 🔗

Oestrogel can be applied to arms or thighs

https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/files/pil.353.pdf 🔗

https://practice365.co.uk/uploads/sites/1213/2020/05/Oestrogel-A5-tear-off-leaflet-1.pdf 🔗

According to my Gender clinic letter (pasted above) it can also be applied to the lower abdomen e.g. tummy area below the navel but above the genitals.

[Tills]

And finally ... Lenzetto spray.

There are some unverified and anecdotal comments that it delivers a variable amount of estrogen. I really don't know how true these are but my clinic did not take up my suggestion for prescribing it to me. This Dr Louise Newson states that, 'Many women find that the absorption of estradiol from Lenzetto spray is unreliable so dosing can be hard to be optimised':

https://www.drlouisenewson.co.uk/knowledge/oestrogen-only-gel-and-spray-what-you-need-to-know 🔗

It would have been good to know her sources for such a comment. Presumably her own prescribing patients?

[Courtney G]

For those reading along, I'll state what I stated earlier in this thread somewhere: adhesive residue from patches can be easily removed using a 3M Tegaderm, which is applied and left on for about 10 minutes, then removed along with the adhesive from the patches. It took me over 3 years before I'd figured this out.

Having said that, Tills, I'm sorry patches weren't getting your levels to where you needed them. I had the same issue.