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[tabbycat3838]

Hello everyone,i hope you are all doing ok!
I just want to know if anyone has felt worse on HRT? As i sit here with a box of femseven staring at me..(its taken me 2 months just to bring myself to cash the prescription in)
my biggest concern is that  it will make me feel worse and then take weeks to get out of my system if i pull the patch off..at the moment im still getting a couple of weeks where i feel ok..and then the run up to period (whenever that may be) is beyond a joke now..i dont want to trade in my good "normal" days for continual insanity..its the progesterone im scared or as its always made me feel really weird in the past when used as contraception..
I know that i can only find out if i try it..just ive got so much pressure to deal with i dont want to make myself feel sicker..
love to hear some of your experiences/opinions before i dare stick one on myself!

[dahliagirl]

Hi - I find that if I am feeling good, I can't remember it being all that bad, and when I am feeling bad, it feels like it has always been bad.

I find keeping a symptoms diary helps keep it all in perspective, then I can tell if the hrt is doing something, and it reminds me of the symtoms I am no longer getting (and how bad!).

I kept a diary for about 18mths, charting my temperature etc and even put it on a spreadsheet (and have graphs) before I tried hrt and it is useful to refer back to.

[peegeetip]

Took me 6 months to get parts of me back to normal.

So many stories about people taking for a week or 2, perhaps a month or 2 then giving up

As dahlia says its maybe worth keeping a diary.

Ultimately some symptoms may take a few days, some weeks and others months to start turning round.
Depends on how long your body has been running on empty too.

Best advice is stick with it and have patience
If things improve sooner then enjoy the moments there after.

 

[Dancinggirl]

Hi tabbycat
The peri stage can be very tough and the decision when to start HRT is difficult to gage.  If you are finding the flushes etc are really getting you down then it is worth trying some HRT to see if you feel a little more in balance - you may well be surprised how good you feel - even during the lead up to the bleed.  When I was first peri meno the time before my periods was terrible - headaches, bloating and all the PMT symptoms but for much longer. HRT did really help.
The hormones in HRT are mostly different to the contraceptive hormones so you may find you are fine using them - the oestrogen in Femseven is bio identical. If you don't feel good on the Femseven I wouldn't worry about stopping as your body will quickly go back to the way you felt before - this is why women who stop HRT feel their flushes etc, return so quickly.
My only small concern is that the patches are a medium dose and you are still having periods(however erratic) and starting on a lower dose of an HRT like Femoston 1/10 might have been a good.  Also the progesterone in Femoston is closer to our natural hormones so often suits many women very well. Having said this many women do love the patches.
Go for it with the patches and get back to us if you have worries - that's what we are here for.   DG x

[tabbycat3838]

Thankyou to both of you..the diary is a good idea....i was told my estrogen had dropped "suddenly" just a few months ago...so i dont think ive been in this for too long ..FSH  was 17.2 last count and the other one ,LH was about 6. i think..
Im not having hot flushes so to speak or night sweats ..i get flushed in the face but only in the face at the moment..the other symptoms are alot worse and i can only imagine they will continue to get worse !
I guess i feel if im gonna do it ,then now is probably the right time..my gp gives me a year before full blown meno ..not quite sure how she can predict that but we shall see..

Thanks again!

[tabbycat3838]

Thankyou thankyou dancing girl!i think i am going to go back to different GP and find out about this other one you mentioned...i thought that too??,i am still having periods...they are just irratic ..sometimes a month..sometimes two..sometimes 6 weeks apart..
GP says all could be purely stress related and things might settle back down..she said this after i mentioned that in faireness blood tests arnt particularly reliable and how can one really know ..
I guess because im not having flushes and night sweats its making question whats really going on since these seem to be such an "across the board" symptom for most ..
This is partly why im reluctant to take HRT ..because i cant be sure this is peri ..
maybe im just in denial..i dunooo!

[tabbycat3838]

ps!..is the femoston in a tablet form??i did ask for patches as ive read they are much less risky..i am a smoker unfortunately ..could that be why she prescribed the fem seven?'sorry for bombarding questions !

[Hurdity]

Hi tabbycat

I'm with Stellajane on this one. If your periods are not really irregular yet and particuarly if you have not yet started flushes and sweats then perhaps it's too early yet?

What would worry me reading your posts is that you say you are feeling good for two weeks of the month - but feeling bad during the second two weeks. This suggests you are becoming more sensitive to the fluctuating levels of progesterone in your cycle and possibly to the decrease in oestrogen which also occurs during this time. If you start the patch you will of course boost your oestrogen and it will not drop so dramatically before your period, but you will be giving yourself an extra dose of progesterone - which is synthetic in Femseven, so this could contribute to your pms.

The other alternative is to go for separate oestrogen (patches) and micronised progesterone (Utrogestan) which is the same progesterone as our bodies produce so you would not have to contend with sdie effects from a synthetic progestogen.

Other than that I don't know what to suggest because peri-menopause is tricky as others have said. I know this happened to me during peri - my pms definitely worsened and I started getting 3 day migraines which I hadn't had before. I didn't know I was peri-menopausal or that these were the symptoms so I was blissfully unaware and rode through it until the flushes and sweats were so bad I did start HRT. By then I was late peri so it was easier to keep my hormones levels stable.

Sorry this probably doesn't help much!

Hurdity x

[tabbycat3838]

I guess thats why i cashed in the prescription stellajane...i would never normally even consider taking HRT...i am feeling pretty desperate..i cant stand the lowness,crushing ,aching fatigue,pain ..rage outbursts and feeling hopeless..no matter what i go through and ive been through far worse  hopelessness is not a part of my psyche..this is affecting my life too much ..thankyou for your feedback ,something to think about x

[tabbycat3838]

Thankyou hurdity..yes it does help :-) i appreciate any input and ideas and time people take out to post.
the periods are all over the place as are symptoms..somevweeks i can feel fine for a couple of weeks or maybe more..some weeks i can have PMT lasting a month if im a couple of weeks or more ,late.
You are right everythings just fluctuating like crazy..who knows whats what with it all!

[Hurdity]

Hi again tabbycat

It sounds like your symptoms are pretty difficult to cope with even if you're not having sweats and flushes yet, so definitely hormonal.  Having seen your last post, why not give the patches a try - the worst that can happen is you may still feel bad during the second two weeks of your cycle but the HRT will even out your own fluctuations, as well as regulating your cycle to some extent?

In the meantime, now is the time to think about stopping smoking especially if you want to use HRT long term and for your long term health 

Hurdity x

[tabbycat3838]

Thankyou..yes they are..oh the irony of the fact that the time you really need to stop smoking ,is also the the most stressful time in your life!lol x

[peegeetip]

Hows is it going TabbyCat - did you make a decision?

I'd not worry too much about giving up smoking immediately, as you say its a stressful time.
The addition of HRT is nothing to worry about.

As I'd said on another post, I wish I'd started HRT earlier in my peri.

 

[Hurdity]

I do appreciate that it is a stressful time but it's as well to think about the smoking issue, as well as our general health sooner rather than later I would suggest.

This is what it says on this site about smoking - just a brief summary really:

Smoking
Women who smoke have an earlier menopause than non-smokers, have worse flushes and often don't respond as well to tablet form of HRT. It's never too late to stop smoking!

This section of the site also has general recommendations about diet and exercise too!
http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/diet.php

It also says this on the NHS website:

Stroke and heart attacks

The latest analysis from Women's Health Concern regarding the risk of heart disease and stroke for women taking HRT states that:

    the risk of stroke is increased in women who smoke and are overweight
    women starting HRT and aged below 60 are not at an increased risk of stroke
    HRT is not recommended for women with a history of stroke or deep vein thrombosis (DVT)

Speak to your GP if you are taking HRT and are worried about the risk of stroke or heart disease.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Hormone-replacement-therapy/Pages/Disadvantages.aspx

Not trying to make you worry unduly tabbycat, but it's as well to be informed rather than re-assured if the evidence points to the opposite! It is as always a personal decision and balancing risks and benefits in your own mind and perhaps taking one thing at a time, but working on how to plan for your future health! 

Hurdity x

[peegeetip]

Well said Hurdity, totally agree that stopping smoking is good for our health

Its always weird to hear people who smoke to be scared of certain drugs, HRT being one of those.

But at the moment I think TabbyCat needs to get herself back on track first.
If that's using HRT, then hopefully that will give some relief she is looking for.
If she decides to stop smoking at the same time then all good.
However she should not worry too much about using both initially. Most of us drink alcohol and have our HRT too as another example

Once she's in a better place then she can start the process of stepping back from one of the most addictive drugs we can legally buy (without prescription even)

Hopefully she'll be feeling better and healthier for it soon enough.