Hormone Injections

HRT is also available in the form of injections and these were first manufactured and used in the 1930s and 1940s by German scientists and doctors. The injectable forms of hormones have proven to be popular among European women since the 1950s. They have been used to a small degree only by doctors in America and Australia. Doctors in Australia have probably been unaware of these injectable forms of HRT because they are not promoted at all by drug companies and clinical research material on their use is not widely available. Furthermore, some doctors feel that absorption from these injections is erratic with large fluctuations in the levels of hormones in the blood being produced. Nevertheless, they continue to be popular in Europe.
I feel that there is a role for injectable forms of natural hormones and although I do not think they are the first choice for all women, I have found that for some they can be more suitable than tablet forms.
I myself am a migraine sufferer and cannot take tablet forms of oestrogen. Indeed, oestrogen tablets both of the synthetic and natural form greatly aggravated my migraines producing the classical visual auras of flashing lights and blurred vision. After a hysterectomy for fibroids, I found that my ovaries became pre-menopausal and did not produce sufficient, amounts of oestrogen. I began receiving fortnightly injections of natural oestrogen into my buttocks and found that for me they really 1 'did the trick''. They relieved my fatigue, loss of enthusiasm, aches and pains and frequent headaches. My shrinking breasts became fuller, my libido returned and my acne disappeared. I found that they produced a steady release of that wonderful hormone oestrogen into my blood provided I received them on a regular fortnightly basis. To my relief, they were not painful. (Doctors are generally the biggest cowards and worst patients of all!) I did find that the injection technique is most important and that the needle should be placed deeply into the upper outer part (which is the area with the most fat) of the buttocks. With this technique, the injection produced a slight dull stinging sensation lasting five to ten minutes, which was a small price to pay for the wonderful mental and physical wellbeing that was provided.
I first learnt of oestrogen injections when a remarkable New York journalist popped into my surgery one day to get her 'fix', as she called it, of Primogyn Depot. Melanie was a woman in her early sixties and looked at least twenty years younger as she related in her vivacious, extroverted way that she had been having one injection every month since her hysterectomy
thirty years ago. She was in excellent health and her bone mineral density test did not reveal any signs of osteoporosis. This episode increased my interest in the usefulness of hormone injections for which I am eternally grateful to Melanie; because they were not discussed at all during the medical curriculum at university or teaching hospitals.
Any doctor concerned with the wellbeing of menopausal women will realise that every woman is an individual and that it may be necessary to try different forms and dosages of HRT before physical and mental wellbeing can be restored.
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