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What are your hidden gem medications/drugs/substances and what makes them ideal for your usecase (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Naltrexone

I will start with naltrexone, which can help people who have difficulty regulating their drinking have a more natural and sustainable relationship with alcohol should they choose to not cut it out of their lives entirely.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Testosterone

I'd tried a few different combinations of HRT (for menopause), and was doing ok ish on oestrogen patches and micronised progesterone capsules. But I still felt like a shadow of myself, a barely functioning husk.

I ended up paying privately to see a menopause specialist (after finding out the waiting time for the NHS clinic I was referred to was at least a year and a half - just for my referral to get looked at), and she prescribed me testosterone. Within 48 hours I noticed a huge difference, I felt like I'd recovered a huge chunk of my energy and my personality.

It makes me furious that it's so hard to get. I'm not sure what state my mental health would be in if I hadn't been able to get it. I was definitely looking at having to cut hours in work to be able to cope, and that would have had a big financial impact on me.

And so many people I speak to - including women - are confused about why testosterone would help, there's so much misunderstanding about hormones, they don't know that women have testosterone and men have oestrogen. My aunt asked me whether it would reverse the menopause and I was just like er what... How would that even work?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

What is usually the front line for HRT? Is it Oestrogen? Is that the same hormone that's in contraceptives?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

So most contraception is a combo of oestrogen and progesterone (but there's also oestrogen only and progesterone only). Oestrogen is also the main hormone used to alleviate the symptoms of menopause, but you have to have progesterone on top of that to protect you from womb cancer (if you still have a womb).

Interestingly I struggled all my adult life trying to find hormonal contraception that didn't make my emotions out of control and spiral into destructive depression, and I gave up in the end. It happened again on my first go on HRT. After getting some professional advice I discovered that that's a known effect of the type of progesterone used in the most widely prescribed (ie cheapest) contraception and HRT. As soon as I was switched onto the micronised bio-identical progesterone it was like a dream, I felt normal. Not one doctor in all those years of trying different forms of contraception mentioned it could be the progesterone - maybe they didn't know? There definitely seems to be a scary lack of understanding about hormones that's for sure.

Testosterone in the UK isn't widely prescribed, on the NHS you can only get it through a specialist clinic, or you have to go private like I did (it cost me £185 for the appointment, and £90 for the prescription for 6 months).

The hormone doses that are prescribed in HRT are not the same amount as our natural levels have dropped by, really the 'R' in HRT is misleading as what is prescribed doesn't replace what we've lost, it just gives a little top up to lessen the symptoms.