OP here. Got my FemRing from the mail order pharmacy today (on my insurance this was significantly cheaper than getting it from my CVS). A bit of a delay because my doctor ended up ordering the lower dose so that I could try that without going up in the progesterone, when she had originally ordered the higher dose.

Inserted it tonight. I took it out of the package, and ... it looks big, lol. Bigger than what I was expecting. But it was easy enough to insert (inserting it reminded me of the "sponge" -- any of y'all remember that, I think there was a Seinfeld episode about it).

I'm worried that the lower dose won't work, and I'll have to go up in dose and then up on the progesterone which made me very drowsy at the 200mg dose, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I'll let y'all know how it goes. I've been having hot flashes on the wonky crap patches that I got last time from the pharmacy thanks to the shortage, so it might be an immediate improvement. I hope so.

OP here.

My ring is ordered. I'll try to update this when I use it and see how it goes.

One wrinkle already is that the ring dosing is a bit higher than my patches, and I got a message in the portal from my doctor's assistant saying I need to go up in dose to 200mg on my progesterone. But I already tried that once, and couldn't deal with the sedation. We'll figure it out, though.

I'll update when it makes sense to do so.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never heard of it, but I like the idea of it. So sick of the patch residue. And with a new generic, my hot flashes are back.

Just checked my insurance portal. My insurance doesn't cover it and it would be > 900 for 3 months. Bummer.

Ugh.

On mine it is covered, but barely, but there is a huge discount for going with the online mail order pharmacy so I did that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Argh. Was excited reading this but the ring isn't covered by my prescription plan. Let us know how it goes! How do you know you're getting the right dose from the gel?

Can't help but think that if men went through perimenopause, this all would be a whole lot easier to access.

The gel comes in little foil packets for each day. I guess there could be some left in the packet, but I’m pretty careful to squeeze out as much as I can. It’s not in a big container for you to measure - it’s dosed for you.

I think I paid (after insurance) $10/month?

Ohhh...so interesting. That makes much more sense. Sounds really manageable. I'll ask my doctor about it because I'm over this whole wild goose chase every 90 days to find patches. Thank you PP!

I used the patches for a few months, but the adhesive caused a rash, I had a hard time keeping them on, it was annoying. And on top of that you can’t get them anywhere.

The gel had to be ordered, so took a few days, but doesn’t irritate my skin at all, and honestly seems to work just as well as the patch dose wise. I’m glad I switched.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Argh. Was excited reading this but the ring isn't covered by my prescription plan. Let us know how it goes! How do you know you're getting the right dose from the gel?

Can't help but think that if men went through perimenopause, this all would be a whole lot easier to access.

The gel comes in little foil packets for each day. I guess there could be some left in the packet, but I’m pretty careful to squeeze out as much as I can. It’s not in a big container for you to measure - it’s dosed for you.

I think I paid (after insurance) $10/month?

Ohhh...so interesting. That makes much more sense. Sounds really manageable. I'll ask my doctor about it because I'm over this whole wild goose chase every 90 days to find patches. Thank you PP!

Anonymous wrote:Argh. Was excited reading this but the ring isn't covered by my prescription plan. Let us know how it goes! How do you know you're getting the right dose from the gel?

Can't help but think that if men went through perimenopause, this all would be a whole lot easier to access.

The gel comes in little foil packets for each day. I guess there could be some left in the packet, but I’m pretty careful to squeeze out as much as I can. It’s not in a big container for you to measure - it’s dosed for you.

I think I paid (after insurance) $10/month?

Argh. Was excited reading this but the ring isn't covered by my prescription plan. Let us know how it goes! How do you know you're getting the right dose from the gel?

Can't help but think that if men went through perimenopause, this all would be a whole lot easier to access.

I love estradiol gel. It has to be applied daily which is annoying, but it dries after my morning shower while I brush my teeth, or dry my hair. It’s easy, I can get it easily, it doesn’t irritate my skin.

Anonymous wrote:Never heard of it, but I like the idea of it. So sick of the patch residue. And with a new generic, my hot flashes are back.

Just checked my insurance portal. My insurance doesn't cover it and it would be > 900 for 3 months. Bummer.

Never heard of it, but I like the idea of it. So sick of the patch residue. And with a new generic, my hot flashes are back.

This is basically a spinoff from the other thread, where we were talking about having a hard time accessing our estradiol patches because of a shortage.

I switched my prescription from CVS to Costco, because CVS was just not getting my patches in stock. Because of the shortage. Unfortunately, I was given a weird brand from Costco, and my hot flashes came right back on these wonky patches. I contacted my doctor about it, and she said two things: first, she said that CVS is the main pharmacy having trouble getting estradiol patches, and that they should be available at other places, and that she could try to find another pharmacy, but second, she said, I could try the femring, which is a vaginal ring that works the same way as the patches and works for three months.

It’s the Femring. It is different from the vaginal inserted rings that only provide local estrogen, it has enough estrogen to give you systemic dose that treats the hot flashes. I don’t think I even knew this existed — have any of you got it? Advice on it?