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Share your experience: submit a drug review
Below are Climara (Estradiol) reviews, ratings, comments submitted by patients and caregivers. This information is not vetted and should not be cosidered as clinical evidence. | | Climara review by 37 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | |  |
| Effectiveness: | | Highly Effective |
| Side effects: | | No Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | surgical menopause |
| Dosage & duration: | | .025 (dosage frequency: one patch per week) for the period of 2 years continually and currently |
| Other conditions: | | none |
| Other drugs taken: | | none | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Immediately after a complete hysterectomy, menopause set in. Night sweats and insomnia were making life difficult. Immediately after starting the Climara patch, all menopausal symptoms were relieved. |
| Side effects: | | I have not experienced any side effects except when dosage was increased. Side effects then were acne and headaches. Upon reducing the dosage to the current .025, all side effects were relieved. |
| Comments: | | Treatment entails applying one patch per week. |
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| | Climara review by 53 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Highly Effective |
| Side effects: | | Mild Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | menopausal |
| Dosage & duration: | | .06 mg/day taken once weekly for the period of 1 year+ |
| Other conditions: | | IBS, arthritis |
| Other drugs taken: | | Prometrium (progesterone) | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Climara patch almost completely stopped the severe hot flashes and severe vaginal dryness. It also has improved skin tone and elasticity, moderated mood, improved sleep (by decreasing hot flash frequency). The side-effect of pain in liver area from estradiol by mouth has gone away using a dermal patch. |
| Side effects: | | The only side effect from the Climara is mild itching after removing the patch. Another side effect is actually produced by the progesterone I have to take to balance the estrogen, and that is an aggravation of my IBS - abdominal pain, gas, bloating. So I take the progesterone only 7 days/month now and the side effects are minimal. |
| Comments: | | After being miserable with frequent (20+ times/day, 7-10 times/night) and severe hot flashes (sometimes like a sudden sunburn, skin turning red and burning) for a number of years, I went on hormone replacement therapy. Estrogen by mouth had more side effects, so I went on the patch, which I have to change only once a week. The recommended accompanying treatment of progesterone caused more problems than the estrogen: a combination patch which is available is more convenient, but I found by trying it that progesterone really aggravates my IBS symptoms. To lessen that effect, I went on an estrogen-only patch and use a separate progesterone only 7 days/month. This is currently making me have periods again, not a fun thing, but I feel much better overall because my IBS symptoms are much less severe and less frequent. |
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| | Climara review by 53 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Highly Effective |
| Side effects: | | Mild Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | menopausal |
| Dosage & duration: | | .06 mg/day taken once weekly for the period of 1 year+ |
| Other conditions: | | IBS, arthritis |
| Other drugs taken: | | Prometrium (progesterone) | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | Climara patch almost completely stopped the severe hot flashes and severe vaginal dryness. It also has improved skin tone and elasticity, moderated mood, improved sleep (by decreasing hot flash frequency). The side-effect of pain in liver area from estradiol by mouth has gone away using a dermal patch. |
| Side effects: | | The only side effect from the Climara is mild itching after removing the patch. Another side effect is actually produced by the progesterone I have to take to balance the estrogen, and that is an aggravation of my IBS - abdominal pain, gas, bloating. So I take the progesterone only 7 days/month now and the side effects are minimal. |
| Comments: | | After being miserable with frequent (20+ times/day, 7-10 times/night) and severe hot flashes (sometimes like a sudden sunburn, skin turning red and burning) for a number of years, I went on hormone replacement therapy. Estrogen by mouth had more side effects, so I went on the patch, which I have to change only once a week. The recommended accompanying treatment of progesterone caused more problems than the estrogen: a combination patch which is available is more convenient, but I found by trying it that progesterone really aggravates my IBS symptoms. To lessen that effect, I went on an estrogen-only patch and use a separate progesterone only 7 days/month. This is currently making me have periods again, not a fun thing, but I feel much better overall because my IBS symptoms are much less severe and less frequent. |
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| | Climara review by 51 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | |  |
| Effectiveness: | | Ineffective |
| Side effects: | | Severe Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | hormone replacement therapy |
| Dosage & duration: | | .075mg/day taken one patch per week for the period of one week |
| Other conditions: | | none |
| Other drugs taken: | | none | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | no positive benefits |
| Side effects: | | mood changes, weight gain (4 pounds in 3 days!) extremely emotional. depression |
| Comments: | | I had been using the trade brand of this patch, Climara for several months with positive results. One month my local pharmacy was out of the trade brand and offered to fill the prescription with the generic brand and because I was in a hurry to catch a plane to go on a vacation, I agreed, thinking they had to be similar. Wrong! To begin with, the generic patch is twice the size and thickness of the trade brand - don't even think of wearing tight clothes while sporting one of these! (I laughlingly told my husband we could always use one to patch a flat tire if needed, but soon it wasn't so funny.) Within a day or two I knew something was wrong, but hadn't yet identified the problem. I couldn't stop crying about nothing in particular. It seemed as if overnight, my world had become very sad and depressing. I immediately began to gain weight, despite no change in my dietary habits. After finally putting two and two together, I ripped it off and contacted my local pharmacist to see if anyone else had complained of similar experiences. After rechecking my prescription, the pharmacist noticed my physician had marked "no generics". Apparently, he had a good reason for this choice as this was not his usual stance on generics. The pharmacist refilled my prescription with the trade brand and all was quickly back to normal. I usually have no problem with genereic brands, but unfortunately, no more generic estradiol for me! |
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| | Climara review by 52 year old female patient | | | Rating |
| Overall rating: | | |
| Effectiveness: | | Marginally Effective |
| Side effects: | | Severe Side Effects | | |
Treatment Info |
| Condition / reason: | | menopause, memory loss, night sweats, low libido |
| Dosage & duration: | | 1 patch weekly (dosage frequency: 1 patch every 7 days) for the period of week 3 |
| Other conditions: | | high blood pressure |
| Other drugs taken: | | adalat 30 MG, daily vitamin, vitamin E | | |
Reported Results |
| Benefits: | | nothing noticeable really, night sweats improved (slightly), memory, not as fuzzy |
| Side effects: | | Weight gain 4 lbs, my weight has always been stable, bloatiness/gas (uncomfortable)
hair loss (more than usual and thinner), depression (crying for no reason) |
| Comments: | | Change patch every 7 days. Very difficult keeping the patch on. I'm going to ask the Dr. for different type of patch. Heard Vivelle is smaller and stays on bettetr. |
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