And the BLOOD results are in :)

So my blood results are in...I was 1. not taking any estrogen or progestrone the last 4-6 months.  2. Feeling great except for 3. my eye sight was getting worse and my skin was less elastic.  4. barely having hot flashes...sometimes I even got COLD flashes.  

Overall:  I need a little estrogen and should be taking progesterone to help as well.  My Vitamin D was LOW so I am on 50,000 I.U. of Vitamin D3 a week and my estrogen was virtually non-existent! 

PREMARIN

Where can I start...well, I'll start when I started taking Premarin.  So I began taking Premarin when I was 12 years old and weighed 100 pounds maybe less.  This was the summer before my Freshman year in High School  It was my first form of HRT and everything was new.  I began on a  .065 dosage of the drug.  The little Maroon pill is all I remember from taking the Premarin. (second from the top)

My Experience:  I think one of the reasons my experience with Premarin was so unpleasant was both the doctors the drug and the fact that this was my first HRT and I was confused.  

Regardless,  I did not like Premarin.  I was only on Premarin for a few years, but in that time I grew taller and started to gain weight after the first year.  I assumed I was gaining weight because I was growing and because I was playing sports.  Ergo Facto weight gain.  I also had a major sweet tooth/carbohydrate craving, not like I had not had one before, but this was unnatural.  The hot flashed were not getting any better and neither was my insomnia.  

Every time I went to Children's Hospital in San Diego, where my former endocrinologist worked I was told that I was gaining too much weight, I was obese and that I needed to exercise every day.  I ALREADY WAS working out close to 20 hours a week between swimming, water polo a running regiment my parents put me on to loose the extra pounds.  Nothing helped.  

I went off Premarin at my mother's request, she found out how they made it(see below), and switched to Estrogen derived from wild Mexican yams.  I believe the name was Estradiol or Estrace...I will look into my medical records.  My cysts, extra lbs, hot flashes, insomnia did not subside with the new hormones.

Overall

Premarin is derived from PREgnant MARe's urINe.  Hence the name Pre-mar-in.  In order to maintain a high concentration of the hormone the Mares (female horses) are repeatedly inseminated.  Their   This perma pregnancy is what keeps Premarin stable.  (I pose this question, How can a horses hormone level in their urine stay constant? Regardless of the fact that they are pregnant each pregnancy and the hormones that go along with it are different.)

Here is a link: Images and Link.  Shows how they harvest the drug, gives a little more info.  

Lastly, the producer of Premarin is Wyeth.  This same company has a Anti-Bio Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy Campaign.  It is all over the Internet.  Being an Individual on Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy,  I can not support Wyeth.  

So I started Testosterone...

A couple of months ago I began taking testosterone as an experiment to see how it would effect me.  After two months on 3.0mg/day Testosterone and two months off Testosterone I am into my second testing of Testosterone.  This time my dosage is 2.0mg per day.

Upon completing the first round of Testosterone 3.0mg/day, I decided to discontinue the hormone for the following reasons.  

1. Minimal additional hair growth.  Which I don't need.

2. Possibly additional hair pigmentation, but not enough to notice

3. A little more energy/ bordering on too much.  Kept me awake longer and I slept less.  Very light sensitive.

4. Would get one major hot flash a day.  

However,  once I was off the Testosterone and Back onto the Estrogen/Progesterone only regiment I became more emotional, and very tired.  

So when it was time to re-order my prescription I decided to try Testosterone again.  This time, as stated before I chose 2.0mg/day.

I am in the middle of this regiment,  so far I like the addition of Testosterone.  I think.  It is very difficult to decipher the difference between hormones.  Yesterday, I felt like my hormones were off.  This might have been because I did not put my hormones on until around noon(1200) and the day before, Saturday 11/06/2011  I put my hormones on at 6am 0600.  I feel the time difference in hormone application had an effect on my emotions.