By WinonaReviews of bywinona.com

It’s easy to get started with Winona and pay for the cookie-cutter initial treatment. But then it went off the rails for me and there isn’t a personalized plan for prescriptions. My weight went up, my depression worsened, my mood swings worsened, I felt hostile, I had intense joint pain and headaches, and wasn’t sleeping. During a follow up, I said the treatment wasn’t working for me, the response was, “Keep going. HRT takes time to kick in.” I did my 10 week follow up and the doctor response was basically, “Sorry it didn’t work. Try something different with a local provider.” Very, very disappointing and a waste of time. In the meantime, the company is very disjointed and there’s no communication within departments. If someone reaches out to ask how it’s going, you can’t get help from that person. They will direct you to someone else, who then directs you to someone else. If your doctor says sorry, try something different, the company doesn’t know you’ve been dropped like a hot potato and will continue to try to charge your credit card indefinitely. If the standard one-size-fits-all treatment doesn’t work for you, it’s just a hot mess and a waste of valuable time.

I would not recommend this option! I am peri menopause at age 47, prior to this treatment I had mild symptoms of dry skin, occasional night sweats, lower energy. After use night sweats were extremely intensified and weight seemed to be coming on fast, I started incorporating 3 days of weight training and walking to help, tried troubleshooting with the Dr but after 90 + days no improvement, was sent a second shipment with new prescription and it has been terrible, no sleep, night sweats every night! I reached out again but was not given any solutions. I asked if I could return the latest shipment and denied. I’m basically out hundreds of dollars, up in weight and my hormones are now completely out of whack.

I have gained 8lbs, the only positive is sleeping through the night. So disappointed.

One of the reasons so many doctors don't think HRT is a good idea for perimenopausal women is because we're still producing our own hormones. Adding extra hormones in, while they "may" help with certain issues, more than likely will cause others. I found Winona online and thought that bHRT might be a good option for me. My skin had fallen apart, my libido was gone, my energy (I thought) was in the tank and I was curious about my options. Night sweats and hot flashes were, thankfully, being controlled by a maca supplement. I ran through the way-too-brief "medical questionaire" and was assigned a doctor who very quickly prescribed me a combo estrogen/progesterone cream and DHEA. As luck would have it, I started the cream the day my period started so I was able to track my "progress" in line with my regular cycle. Things were great for the first ten days. My period was only a couple days long, unusual for me, and my mood was GREAT. My skin dramatically plumped up (seriously, wrinkles around my eyes were GONE). I felt great, looked great...was only concerned really about how "too" energetic I was. I thought it might be the DHEA. On the tenth day though, I plummeted into the worst depression I'd had since I was on birth control 12 years ago. I hated my husband. I was crying nonstop for two days. I couldn't sleep at night and when I was awake, I was anxious and my mind was racing. This is a really scary reaction. My gums became incredibly swollen and sore and I assumed what had happened was I ovulated around day 10 and was now experiencing progesterone overload. The first ten days I had all the Winona estrogen plus my own - and all the benefits of that - and then I had all the Winona progesterone plus my own - and that threw me into the symptoms and problems that got me off the pill a decade earlier. I contacted my doctor and gave him the run-down. I didn't hear back from him for nearly a full 24 hours (I get this isn't probably his full-time gig, but if that's the case, Winona needs a nurse or someone else to talk to when starting this product). His assessment was it sounded like I was getting too much progesterone. Unfortunately, he couldn’t write a new prescription for the same estrogen and less progesterone because the cream apparently only came in two formulations. What? I thought this was supposed to be “compounded specifically for me”? Wasn’t that a benefit of bHRT? That’s how Winona marketed itself. So my only option was essentially, to switch to pills (which I didn’t want, was trying to leave my liver out of this) or try the other formulation of cream. He essentially then asked, “What do you want to do?” I don’t know, I’m not the doctor here! I gave it a couple days to see how things panned out, then messaged him back that things were the same, if not worse. He then told me my symptoms could be caused by too much progesterone, or by too little. Good grief. He recommended increasing the estrogen to counter the progesterone. That was a red flag for me. Any reputable doctor IMO knows that with HRT you should always go for the least amount of hormones possible for symptom relief. I asked him if increasing the estrogen would cause any problems and he essentially said no, my body would "adjust" to it. At this point, I was feeling very uncomfortable and didn't want to "guess" at what was needed. I cancelled my prescription fourteen days in to the treatment, feeling like I'd been ripped off of $199. I stopped the cream cold turkey and had a very long, very heavy "withdrawal bleed" and some teenagerish breakouts. Now, a week later I'm starting to feel "normal" again, but back to my saggy skin. At least I don't hate my husband anymore! Of note, a couple days after cancelling my subscription I started getting marketing emails from Winona trying to get me to purchase the product (you guys should know I'm no longer a customer)...and to add insult to injury, one included a coupon code for 40% off! I can't speak to how this product affects post-menopausal women. I suppose it would be much more successful as it truly is "hormone replacement", whereas with me it was more "hormone supplementation" which is why it affected me like birth control pills did. This was a huge mistake on my part, using this product while my body is still making its own hormones. I'll figure out another way to deal with my symptoms.

I want this to work and still hopeful. However, my sleep is well, not consistent. My night sweats are better but I radiate heat still and I sleep w the AC. Moods - haven’t seen a difference. The worst part is having terrible GI problems - diarrhea, bloating, gas. I gained 5 lbs and I want to lose weight as I have gained 20 lbs over the pandemic years. I also work out 5x/week and eat fairly well. I see it working for others.

I started on Winona because of many different menopause issues, mostly hot flashes.. I have been using consistently for months.. no changes. I have stopped using because the only affect I have had is adult acne.