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.

"...kind to offer your flat assurances that you know better than all of us what is best for all of us." In the broadest sense that no drugs is always preferable to drugs when one is discussing drugs that are not necessary to life and limb only, yes. Nowhere in either of your posts in this thread have you even mentioned the grave risks associated with these drugs. You have not mentioned weighing risks vs expected/desired benefits. Instead you suggest that there are (serious and negative) implications that follow from "declining ovarian hormone production." The intact female produces all the estrogen and testosteone required for the non-reproductive body. Progesterone, as the hormone of pregnancy, is not produced because it is no longer required unless one takes exogenous estrogen in which case it is used to counter the extreme carcinogenicity of estrogen. I have my feet sufficiently grounded in reality to know that most women are being pressured to take hormones of some kind after menopause despite the lack of evidence for benefit. They are not warned of the dangers and those who get their drugs from "compounding pharmacies" may well never even see the federally mandated warning that is supposed to be included in all estrogen drug prescriptions. Many women see the word "natural" and assume therefore safe. Compounding pharmacists/pharmacies encourage this belief because it contributes to their bottom line. In this last post you pay lip service to the notion that "absolute minimum" dose is best, but carefully avoid saying that for most women that minimum is none at all. The difference between our approaches is that I make my biases clear upfront. You disguise yours in apparently neutral but actually highly biased language - launguage that is eerily similar to that used by drug companies/compounding pharmacies/mlm scammers and the like to sell their product(s). I wonder if you would post in equally (apparently) neutral fashion, if someone came here asking about the use of street drugs or tobacco.

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.