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[janine]

hi everyone! i really need some advice! been feeling rubbish the last few months and thought it would pass had night smoulderings which woke me up then needed to have a wee then just felt flat!    :-\nothing in particular just flat thought it would pass but no just got worse the last few weeks
  oh yes and have had pmt for the last 6 weeks on and off well i thought i was ok but my o/h said otherwise and told me i was not ok! it didnt sture a single emotion!!! that is so wrong so i knew i had to go to the docs! see a Lovely gp today and she listened to everything i said and suggested hrt i nearly FAINTED!!! my last gp flatly refused to even offer them!
have got 3 months of elleste duet 1mg i start them tomorrow my question is if i took menopace and soya isoflavins would they not work the same as hrt??? any advice would be very grateful also do you put on weight when you start them / or stop taking them??
thanks for help in advance xxx 

[Dana]

Hi Janine

To be honest with you nothing will work like HRT because all those supposedly "natural" things aren't the same as the natural hormones that our bodies need, and which can only be found in prescribable HRT. Take it from me, those non-prescribable or OTC things just don't work once you symptoms start to get more severe. I spent a whole lot of money going to a naturopath trying to treat my menopause "naturally", only to end up worse off and to finally realise that the only "natural" way of treating menopause is with natural HRT.

Some ladies do okay on these OTC preparations, but from what I can gather they only seem to work if your symptoms are minor, but if they start to increase they just don't do the job.

What you have been prescribed is 50/50. What I mean by that is that the estradiol (estrogen) component is natural or bioidentical, although I don't like that word because it can mean different things in different countries, but the progesterone component is a progestin which means it's not a natural progesterone. Don't let that bother you though because that doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong with it. Just take it for a while and see how you go.

What you have been prescribed is also a low dose, so if you find that it doesn't really address all your problems you do have the option of going up to a medium dose, which is perfectly normal once you get closer to being post-meno.

Regarding your weight question - maybe yes, maybe no. It's depends on the individual. I have certainly put on weight, but is that because of age, HRT, menopause itself, or just that I'm not as active as I used to be? I used to be able to walk for 60 minutes 4-5 times a week with no problems at all. Now I'm really pushing it to do 30 minutes 4 times a week. However, other ladies on MM don't seem to have any problems with weight at all. I guess it's just the luck of the genetic draw. Mind you, while I'd love to lose a bit of weight, I certainly prefer to have a bit of extra padding rather than deal the horrible meno symptoms I had.