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[pixigirl]

Hi, well i have given it a good shot at comming off hrt, but now can not cope, night sweats, hot flushes, mood swings no libido the works. I was om hrt for 8 years, i am 57 in december. Is there no end to the meno?

[Taz2]

I know the feeling pixi! How long have you been off it for? My doc said to allow up to six months for the hot flushes to start to fade. HRT, in a lot of women, delays the menopause rather than helps us through it but the symptoms shouldn't last as long once you come off. It seems ok to use HRT up to age 60 so you could have another three years before having to go through this. I've come off it as I am 60 in February but due to problems now with kidney infection etc. I really wish I had stayed on it for the next few months!

Taz

[Joyce]

I took an 8 month break a few years back. It was truly awful. The longer I was off it the worse I got, until GP agreed that it wasn't worth the misery & put me back on it again. Now having eventually getting a meno clinic referral last year, I have someone who is sympathetic and willing to let me stay on it until I turn 60. Been on it for a long time though.

Would you be prepared to restart it again?

[pixigirl]

Hi girls, yes i am going back on. Am on femeston conti patches. Doc left it up to me to decide. Am just so miserable at moment not enjoying life at all. not depression just fed up with feeling ill all the time. Been off it for about 4 months, each day is worse than the last.

[skkb]

I can only sympathise, it's awful, and what depressed me even more was the fact that no one knows how long it will last, it could continue for the rest of your life, yes it could......I've known women in their 70's and 80's still suffering, others are lucky and eventually symptoms begin to subside. I don't know why 60 is the magic age to stop HRT I just don't think that makes sense,it doesn't just go away because you've turned 60. I can only suggest getting the dose down to the lowest possible that alleviates the symptoms, the very lowest dose, and stick with it. At this time of our life we want/need to feel as best we can as realistically we've had two-thirds of our life anyway so I want to feel the best I can for the remainder!!

[Gypsy]

The more I learn about the meno and hrt the more alarmed I get!
 I have no desire to get involved with hrt - and probably can't anyway because I have a high risk of breast cancer, and I didn't know that all hrt does is delay the inevitable!
Won't the meno symptoms ease off naturally anyway?
Any thoughts/experiences would be most welcome.

[honeybun]

That's the thing Gipsy. No one knows how long it will last. It could be forever for some if your really unlucky. The whole thing sucks to be honest. It's the not knowing. If you could just put a time on it and then you would have something to work towards. As it is its like a tunnel with no light at the end.


Happy thoughts.


Honeyb
X

[skkb]

Absolutely Stellajane, I agree 100%. You can keep telling yourself "next week things may start to get better, next month my symptoms may begin to subside, next year I may be through meno" ......many will be lucky and that will happen but for many more it just goes on and on and on, so rightly or wrongly I feel I dont have enough years infront of me to spend another and another and another year feeling rubbish and waiting for things to improve. I would happily put up with all that meno could throw at me if I knew for definite that in, say, twelve months it would be done and dusted.......sadly it just isn't like that

[Gypsy]

Well I still have a lot to learn, and I'm almost beginning to wish I hadn't started delving because it's all sounding quite depressing!
I don't currently have any anxiety or depression - only flushes. ('Only' says she!)
Still - no point in getting too hung up about it is there? I intend to be as positive and upbeat as I can. I'm a great believer in mental attitude. 

[Meg]

Maybe some women have better oestrogen supplies than others for reasons not properly understood.  Same with men probably, some stay more virile than others into later life, again not properly understood why this should be.  Symptoms to do with shrinkage of female reproductive organs because of lack of oestrogen will to my way of thinking remain a problem after menopause.  Oestrogen plumps everything up and lubricates women from puberty.  Sorry to put a negative perspective on things but this seems like reality and women really need help and advice on this from caring professionals.  Also there are many other areas like the bones fors instance that stay stronger because of oestrogen, the memory, the emotions.  How to replace oestrogen in a tolerated way is a big issue once our own bodies scale down on production and whether we can tolerate taking it artificially for the rest of our lives or even if we would be allowed to do so by doctors is another big question.  I think it may be easier if you are without a uterus only in as much as you could experiment with oestrogen only and not need to bother about your womb lining but some women have difficulty finding the right level of oestrogen only!  What a dilemma but we have to have the discussion or button it all up. Pre menopause you think life will just go on as it has done with all your feminity in tact, then menopause comes along and no wonder they call it the change!

Meg

[Dancinggirl]

Hi All
I can really relate to everything you say. I have been on HRT since my 30s - because of early peri meno - tried coming off HRT at 49 and suffered for 3 yrs before giving in a going back on.
At this stage there was a meno clinic in North London I went to and a lovely doctor i saw told me to me to search on the internet & find an old interview with a top Gyno consultant on 'Woman's Hour' on the radio. What I remember about what he said made me feel reassured I was not unique. 'Very roughly' what I remember him explaining is: if you take 4 women - one will float through her menopause with no real problems ( i know several of my girlfriends have been like this!!!), the second will have some hot flushes and a few other issues for a few months to a year, the third will have flushes etc for 2-3 three years but things will eventually settle down and then the fourth will have ongoing problems for many years.  I am definitely number 4 & I suspect many of you on this forum are as well.
As for the age cut off of 60 for HRT - well!!!! I know a lady in her 80s who is still on HRT and swears by it - still working and leading a very full life - but she may simply have good genes as well.
If we women have to work till we're 67 than they have got to help with our meno problems and start really improving HRT treatments. Too many of us have to go through hit an miss treatments which is very traumatic at times.
By the way, I've started a post about 'stomach pain and Vagifem' (which I'm trying) - any help/advice out there? DG x

[skkb]

Oh, of course the free prescriptions at 60, hadn't thought of that. That made me laugh!! Out of interest what dose of HRT do you presently take, you sat its quite low??

[Dancinggirl]

I suspect the free prescriptions from 60 will stop soon - after all if they feel we can work till 67 why should we get anything free till then - Oh dear, do I sound bitter!!!
I think you have a very good point, Stellajane, re treatment for meno symptoms; my mum had early menopause in her late 30s - no HRT back then - and I remember her being very crotchety, constantly complaining about being hot etc.  Though she has enjoyed very good health most of her life she has shrunk by at least 3 inches and developed vulva cancer in her 70s.  I wonder if VA makes you more prone to vulva cancer? If she had been given HRT perhaps these things might have been prevented?

[Taz2]

Sorry to hear about your mum Dancinggirl. It's a shame she wasn't offered HRT - it's been around for fifty years now and my mum was on it in the late sixties. You  may find some answers about vulval cancer here http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertypes/Vulva/Aboutvulvalcancer/Causes.aspx

Taz