
Originally Posted by
Epic Ed
I don't agree with that statement, especially not in the area of HRT. It's always a risk to modify any treatment protocol outside of a doctor's recommendation, but no one is a better judge of what works and what doesn't than the patient, himself.
We, the patients, have all the tools at our disposal for determining what's effective and what's not. An honest and self-aware person can make observations quicker and more accurately than any doctor can when it comes to dosing HRT. Most docs don't do blood work at frequent enough intervals to intelligently determine what is going on with the protocol they have prescribed. They guess when it comes to making adjustments, and they base that guess on dated research, out dated protocols, and personal biases.
With the right knowledge a HRT patient can make very well reasoned adjustments to their protocol -- doctors approval be damned. If I'm feeling pretty lousy on a 200mg every other week protocol, according to the traditional doctor/patient model I'd have to wait until my follow up appointment 2 or 3 months down the road to give my doctor feedback on how things are going. He'd then possibly bump my dose to 300mg EOW (without blood work, mind you) and send me on my way for another month. At that point I'd probably be getting itchy nipples the day after my 300mg dose and would be crying while watching Oprah i the afternoons because my E2 level is too high, and then I'd be on the hormonal rollercoaster a week later becuase my test levels are now starting to drop. So three months down the tubes and the doc still isn't even in the right ballpark to get my on effective protocol. It would likely take another several months of trial and error to get it any where close to effective, and that's if we ever got there, at all!
OR...
I could take that initial 200mg EOW dose, do some reading here and on other sites about the benefits of pinning less test more frequently, decide to Problem solved.
If we're taking wild stabs in the dark at resolving some medical issue, that one thing. But we should not be afraid to take our collective knowledge and experience with HRT and disregard it just because our doctors are not up to speed. I wouldn't do that with cancer treatment and I'm sure as **** not going to do it with my HRT program. I've said it before -- I am the ultimate decision maker about my health care plan in all areas of my life. ME. Not my doc. I value their experience and education in areas I'm unfamiliar, but they are simply a consultant in my health care. They are not the ones making the decisions about how to proceed. I am.