Diane-35 Prescription?

[Guest Metal]

I just got my first hrt prescription from my endo today for something called Diane-35.

I gave the prescription paper to my pharmasist a few hours ago but I won't be able to afford it untill tomorrow, I don't remember exactly what the paper said for how much i'l be taking each day but I remember it being called Diane-35 and its $125 for 3 months or $55/mo.

Does anybody know much aboout these pills? My endo prescribed me this stuff before getting my blood test and he says it will be fine...

[Paula ult]

Diane-35 is one of the more dangerous drugs around, it contains ethinylestradiol which has a higher rate of of causing blood clots than 17b bioidentical estrogen, i am very surprised your doctor is prescribing it to you, below is an article from Health Canada about this drug, i would discus this with him and see if there is something safer he can prescribe.

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/medeff/advisories-avis/prof/_2002/diane-35_hpc-cps-eng.php

If you Google Diane-35 dangers or recall you will see lots of posts on this drug.

Paula

[KathrynJulia]

I agree. Its still sold overseas, but is being phased out more and more in North America. Kathryn

[Carolyn Marie]

Great bit of research, Paula.

This is definetliy something to talk over with your doctor, hon. I'm dismayed that your doctor prescribed to you something without explaining what it was or what the risks are. That seems to border on unprofessional behavior.

Carolyn Marie

[Guest Metal]

Looks like i'm gonna have to call my endo on monday to schedule another appointment so i can change my prescription. I'm gonna have to tell the endo what I want this time...

What would be the safest combination of pills that I can request for?

[Carolyn Marie]

What would be the safest combination of pills that I can request for?

That's not advice we can or should give, Metal. Please talk it over with your doctor. None of us here have a medical degree, and even if we did, it wouldn't be ethical.

Carolyn Marie

[VickySGV]

We are limited to recruiting even doctors from the human race!!

[Drea]

That's not advice we can or should give, Metal. Please talk it over with your doctor. None of us here have a medical degree, and even if we did, it wouldn't be ethical.

I agree, nor can we say it is the wrong medication for you. By all means ask your doctor about any concerns you have which may have been raised here. Even seek a second opinion. Your doctor may have very good reason for this choice given your medical history. On the other hand there may be no good reason.

And while I am not a medical professional, I find the details of the posted link doesn't justify the alarm mentioned.

The first study referenced in that link refers to studies of oral contraceptives with low estrogen content. Not this specific medication. It is only that this is a low dose estrogen that puts this medication into the same category. That low dose estrogen is the ethinylestradiol that Paula mentiones. I would suspect the primary reason the doc is perscribing this med is because of the main ingredient cyproterone acetate which is the T blocker if I recall correctly.

The second comment where it says

"There is some epidemiological evidence that the incidence of VTE in users of Dianette is higher than in users of low- dose oestrogen COCs. A recent case-control study using the UK General Practice Research Database (GPRD) found a four-fold increase in the risk of VTE in 24,401 women taking oral contraceptives that contain cyproterone acetate/ethinylestradiol compared with 75,000 women taking second generation oral contraceptives that contain levonorgestrel/ethinylestradiol"

Note that the 4 fold difference in incidence is between two medications both of which have ethinylestradiol so the conclusion could be that it is the cyproterone acetate is the key contributor to the difference, but that is surely an over simplification.

I seen some MTF fight with their doctors seeing to get cyproterone acetate for T blocker because they felt it was better. Cyproterone acetate is an anti-androgen whereas levonorgestrel is a synthetic prgesterone so it would be likely that the doc would pic the levonorgestrel/ethinylestradiol in place of the the one with the cyproterone acetate. It may be your doc was intending this to be primarily a T blocker and the bit of estrogen was only incidental. It seems to me that swapping out the T blocker for only an estrogen isn't very...equivalent.

Also to put the risks in perspective, increase looks to between 4 and 8 times the risk. That does sound scarey. The base incidence for women not taking the medication having a venous thromboembolism over a period of 50 years is 1/4% to 1/2%. Eight times that, for people who do tak the medication would be 2% to 4%. Remember that would be the percent when the medication is taken for 50 years.

venous thromboembolism is one of the significant risks of taking HRT. Is this significantly elevated risk of venous thromboembolism than folks on more moderate to higher dosages of extrogens?

Now certainly don't take my word, consult your doctor. These days one can find alarming information about just about any medication. It is good to ask doctor about such things. One should not take the word of online experts that something is good or is bad.

[Guest ~Brenda~]

I just got my first hrt prescription from my endo today for something called Diane-35.

I gave the prescription paper to my pharmasist a few hours ago but I won't be able to afford it untill tomorrow, I don't remember exactly what the paper said for how much i'l be taking each day but I remember it being called Diane-35 and its $125 for 3 months or $55/mo.

Does anybody know much aboout these pills? My endo prescribed me this stuff before getting my blood test and he says it will be fine...

This and all questions like it must be deferred to your doctor. Regardless of experience, your body chemistry is unique. One peron's experience does not mean that it will be yours.

Brenda

[Guest Brittany North]

I can't speak to safety or efficacy, but my estradot prescription (patch) was less $ than that (something like $70 for 3 months), and that's in BC where everything seems to cost more...