I have been using an estrogen gel for several months. It does help moisturize the vaginal tissues. I used it daily for I think a week, then cut back to a maintenance dose of once a week. I noticed a difference after a few weeks. The gel is a bit messy as it liquifies quicker than the cream, but I had a reaction to the cream. I get the gel from a compounding pharmacy. The gel doesn't tackle my other symptoms, the main one being hotflashes, so I take a low oral dose of estradiol daily. The only side effect is breast sensitivity(from the oral med), but I can live with that. I can't live with the hotflashes. I've been on HRT for several years. I tried many types of estrogen after trying natural remedies(and other meds)first with no success. I get my blood tests done regularly and take the lowest dose that stops my symptoms. I would go ahead and try the cream to see if it helps. Just pay attention to how your body reacts and let your doctor know how it's going.

Some time back a woman on the forum was talking about using the OTC progesterone cream vaginally. I believe she had consulted a "natural" health care practitioner who recommended this use. No one else had heard of it. I was using Progest at the time and so one evening being in an adventurous mood, I tried it. Didn't seem to make any difference one way or the other. My biggest concern would be the possiblility of irritation caused by other ingredients in the OTC creams. I also wonder why you are considering using it this way. I cant speak to reducing estrogen after starting progesterone. I started the progesterone first and later added a small amount of Estriol cream. I no longer use OTC progesterone, instead I have a prescription from my doctor and get it filled at a compounding pharmacy. I believe this is a more accurate way of obtaining the desired dose.

The idea is that progesterone is the raw building material for a number of hormones, one of which is testosterone. In peri-menopause, our testosterone production drops dramatically. Testosterone is one of the key hormones influencing libido (but not the only thing involved in sexual response). Some of us can compensate for its decline; others cannot. The situation is worsened by taking estrogen, in a way, in that estrogen increases levels of a protein that binds testosterone. When you have fully-functional ovaries, these things balance out: you make enough testosterone to still have enough left after the protein gloms its share. When your ovarian production goes down, as in menopause, and you take HRT that contains estrogen, you are in effect hitting the testosterone with a double whammy: lower output and the protein to skim off what you do have. By adding progesterone, some women find they are able to manufacture enough testosterone again to regain their libido. Others, in whom the libido loss is due to some other problem, may not find progesterone helpful in that regard (although it may or may not be in other ways). Generally speaking, there's no way to tell whether it will help or not without trying it. But oral progesterone should work for this as well as the cream does. There are women for whom oral progesterone is ineffective--either because they do not absorb it or they too readily get rid of it--and for them, a trial of the cream form may be useful to see if it's route-related. The main difference between oral and cream seems to be that the oral route produces more sedating metabolites; otherwise, they should work the same way.

Kim, I thought the same thing about Dove Pro Age. I'm going back to Dove for sensitive skin. Sue, I've been using moisturizers since I was 16, and I'm not stopping now! :-) Paula, those serum products are interesting. I haven't tried the Regenerist, but my daughter bought me one from Estee Lauder. I don't know if it's doing anything for my skin long-term, but it makes it feel like velvet. I also liked a sample of a Clinique serum that I tried.