First thing -- TOSS out all of those face creams and potions you don't really use. If you're like most women I know, you could fill a good-sized trash can with stuff that's *how old?* or not your favorite. Keep *only* the stuff you use regularly. Then I'd go for boxes with lids -- Clear plastic shoe boxes are great because you can stack them and see inside. Then I'd do a recessed storage area behind a hinged full-length mirrow. If you can go 8-12" deep -- great. If you can only go stud-width deep -- that's OK too. Only one-layer of stuff, so everything's on the front row.

Just adding my ten cents worth, having read everybody's different experiences. I was seeing pink streaks of blood on the toilet paper after urinating, and at first thought it was a urinary tract infection. Antibiotics for that didn't make any difference. Then I tried to determine if it was really urinary, or perhaps vaginal instead. It seemed like it was both which seemed crazy and impossible and scared me half to death. And it was only apparent when I wiped after urinating. It wasn't like I was bleeding like with a period or anything like that. Long story short is doc explained that the urethra and the vagina share a wall, and that as I'm nearly 65 and about 13 years past menopause, it was probably that shared wall that was atrophying (drying out) and causing the light bleeding. Which made sense as my husband had major surgery about a year ago and as he's 78 years old, we just haven't gone back to regular sex which had probably been keeping my vagina well lubricated. Anyway, doc prescribed a pea sized amount of Estrace externally three times a week. I tried that for four weeks and it made no difference at all. I did some research and as I trust the Mayo Clinic, I went with their recommended dosage of 2 grams daily, some just inside the vagina with my finger, the rest externally, for one to two weeks. Halfway through the second week the bleeding had completely gone away. Mayo then says half that dosage for the next one to two weeks, which I'm trying now, and then 1 gram three times a week for three out of every four weeks as a maintenance dose. I'm going to try the pea sized amount three times a week instead and see if symptoms come back - hopefully they won't. I want to use the minimum amount possible, yet keep the problem under control. Only side effect I noticed was when I went to the 2 grams daily, my nipples were very sensitive but that has improved.

Some time back a woman on the forum was talking about using the OTC progesterone cream vaginally. I believe she had consulted a "natural" health care practitioner who recommended this use. No one else had heard of it. I was using Progest at the time and so one evening being in an adventurous mood, I tried it. Didn't seem to make any difference one way or the other. My biggest concern would be the possiblility of irritation caused by other ingredients in the OTC creams. I also wonder why you are considering using it this way. I cant speak to reducing estrogen after starting progesterone. I started the progesterone first and later added a small amount of Estriol cream. I no longer use OTC progesterone, instead I have a prescription from my doctor and get it filled at a compounding pharmacy. I believe this is a more accurate way of obtaining the desired dose.

"...kind to offer your flat assurances that you know better than all of us what is best for all of us." In the broadest sense that no drugs is always preferable to drugs when one is discussing drugs that are not necessary to life and limb only, yes. Nowhere in either of your posts in this thread have you even mentioned the grave risks associated with these drugs. You have not mentioned weighing risks vs expected/desired benefits. Instead you suggest that there are (serious and negative) implications that follow from "declining ovarian hormone production." The intact female produces all the estrogen and testosteone required for the non-reproductive body. Progesterone, as the hormone of pregnancy, is not produced because it is no longer required unless one takes exogenous estrogen in which case it is used to counter the extreme carcinogenicity of estrogen. I have my feet sufficiently grounded in reality to know that most women are being pressured to take hormones of some kind after menopause despite the lack of evidence for benefit. They are not warned of the dangers and those who get their drugs from "compounding pharmacies" may well never even see the federally mandated warning that is supposed to be included in all estrogen drug prescriptions. Many women see the word "natural" and assume therefore safe. Compounding pharmacists/pharmacies encourage this belief because it contributes to their bottom line. In this last post you pay lip service to the notion that "absolute minimum" dose is best, but carefully avoid saying that for most women that minimum is none at all. The difference between our approaches is that I make my biases clear upfront. You disguise yours in apparently neutral but actually highly biased language - launguage that is eerily similar to that used by drug companies/compounding pharmacies/mlm scammers and the like to sell their product(s). I wonder if you would post in equally (apparently) neutral fashion, if someone came here asking about the use of street drugs or tobacco.