Nathalie’s Question: 

Hello Dr Maki, I am 45 full menopause and currently on biest 80:20 (0.5 mg) and progesterone 200 since July 2018. I was also given testosterone injection at the time and by Oct 2018 I was losing hair so we stopped that and no longer take it. I have been gaining weight steadily and even though we try to increase my estrogen slowly, I get too many side effects (constipation, weight gain, horrible bloating, hair loss-diagnosed with androgenic alopecia). My Thyroid is in normal range. Is it possible that a biest 90:10 would be more beneficial for me? I do like having my brain again and dryness cured but hate the bloating and weight gain. When I stop hormones completely I feel better, my belly fat reduced no more bloating and wgt loss happens. I tried DIM but my weight just kept on increasing. Thanks! 

Short Answer: 

The Biest dose of 0.5 mg is very low. I would not think this low of a dose could cause any side effects. Issues could be with the 200 mg of Progesterone. Changing Biest ratio to 90:10 would not really help either because dose is slow low already. However, for sensitive women, using just estriol only is an option.

PYHP 086 Full Transcript: 

Download PYHP 086 

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

Dr. Davidson: I’m Dr. Davidson. 

Dr. Maki: Let’s dive right back in. We have another listener question to do. This one is from, actually, her name is Natalie. Dr. Davidson, this one’s fairly similar to what we did recently for Monica’s, we’ve kind of thought this would be appropriate. I want you to go ahead and read the question. 

Dr. Davidson: Sure, sure. So, this is from Natalie. Hello, Dr. Maki. I am 45 years old, full menopause, and currently on 80/20 ratio, biased 0.5 mg, and 200 mg of progesterone since July of 2018. At that time, I was given a testosterone injection. By October of 2018, I was losing hair, so we stopped that. I no longer take the testosterone injection. Since then, I have been gaining weight steadily, and even though we try to increase my estrogen slowly, I get too many side effects such as constipation, the weight gain, horrible bloating, hair loss, diagnosed as androgenic alopecia. My thyroid is in normal range. Is it possible that a different ratio of bias, like 90/10, would be more beneficial for me? I like having my brain in the dryness cured but hate the bloating and the weight gain from the estrogen. When I stop the hormones completely, I feel better. My belly fat goes away. I have no more bloating, and the weight loss happens. I did try DIM, but my weight just keep increasing. Thank you, Natalie. 

Dr. Maki: Yes, right. This is a challenging one, right. I can understand where she might be frustrated. Even her doctor might be frustrated. She’s on a very low dose,  80/20 at 0.5 mg. Maybe, she talks of bloating quite a few times in that question. I’m thinking maybe it might be more related to the progesterone than it actually is to the bias. What do you think?

Dr. Davidson: