Lilly’s Question: 

Dear Dr. Davidson, I’m writing to say how illuminating your article on Estriol was for me. Especially your metaphorical descriptions of the actions of the 3 types of estrogens. I have a question, if I may. I am 49-years-old, I just entered menopause and started taking Botanical Phytoestrogens to help with the once a day hot flash. It helped for a month and then the flashes increased to several times a day. I then took Estriol, 5 milligrams and it helped. But since then that flashes have again increased and I’m using even more Estriol, 2 pumps morning and night. It’s made me feel very, very good, calm and a great sense of well being. My question is, is this too much Estriol to be using? What is the safe upper limit for Estriol in cream form? If I take progesterone and cream form as well, with this dull the good effects of the Estriol? Thank you for the possibility of asking these questions. Very best wishes, Lily.

Short Answer: 

Dosing for bioidentical hormones is dependent on the woman. It also depends on if she has her uterus or not. One of the rules of BHRT that we follow is that you never give a woman “unopposed” estrogen. This is especially true if she still has her uterus because estradiol and estriol will cause the uterine lining to grow. This is why progesterone is important because it helps to inhibit the growth of the uterine lining. For women that still have their uterus, we prefer to use bioidentical progesterone capsules, as opposed to progesterone cream.

PYHP 087 Full Transcript: 

Download PYHP 087 Transcript

Dr. Maki: Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the Progress Your Health Podcast, I’m Dr. Maki. 

Dr. Davidson: And I’m Dr. Davidson. 

Dr. Maki: So, I’m just getting ready to start talking and my mic and my headphones practically fell off my head. How you doing this morning? 

Dr. Davidson: I’m doing great. Maybe you shouldn’t wear your Golden Knights hat. 

Dr. Maki: Yes, shoutout to everybody in Vegas. 

Dr. Davidson: We’d love The Golden Knights.

Dr. Maki: Yes, it’s really ironic. We live there for so long never had any professional sports. And right when they got that team, the season was going to start. And we left pretty much like, right as the season started and they had like one of the, I don’t know if anybody out there is a hockey fan or not I’m from Minnesota. So of course, I’ve liked hockey since I was a little kid. But they had like this crazy season that no one’s ever had before, for an expansion team. 

Dr. Davidson: It was definitely inspirational. 

Dr. Maki: And it’s funny too, well have granted it’s kind of started off in tragedy with that whole shooting they had there in October. But there are people there, we have patients there. And none of them really care for sports all that much now. Everybody is into the Golden Knights, which is kind o