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[Greenfields]

Just wondering - I'm starting a new HRT regime tomorrow and keeping my fingers crossed but ... wondering whether, if these new meds don't work out, what I should do next in terms of whether to continue experimenting with various combinations of HRT or stop taking it completely and just take anti-anxiety meds if my anxiety comes lurching back in unmanageable proportions?  However, if I do this, I'm also wondering what happens to my sweats if they come back in unmanageable proportions too?

Just curious - has anyone on this board ditched HRT, gone for the anti-anxiety meds route and been able to manage it?

Just thinking that I can't take masses of time out without working and so I need to figure out something that keeps me functional so that I can apply for work as soon as I possibly can.

Any thoughts appreciated.  My menopausal symptoms exploded recently but before that, they weren't really an issue ...

[Limpy]

Greenfields - Really hope your new HRT regime kicks in for you soon.

You need to really give  it a chance to work, at least 3 months or so, before you know if it's working for you. Experimenting with different combinations of HRT before your body has had chance to get used to things dosn't seem a good idea.

[Greenfields]

Thanks Limpy.  The Dr has put on a milder HRT regime I think - I was on Nuvelle Continuous (am taking the final tablet of the first 28 days today) and it had a lot of side effects. From tomorrow I take Utrogestan 100mg and Everol 50 patches.

I guess I'm thinking that if I have to take it 3 months before it evens out, that takes me up to end of July?  I just hope it works because my rental contract is up for renewal mid-September and I really (if I can) don't want to renew the contract - I'd like to be well enough to consider either moving back to Canada or moving somewhere else in the UK - assuming I can get a decently paid job after all this and continue to afford to rent by myself (I can't face renting a bedroom in a shared house again at 51 - I did it earlier this year and it was really difficult with a difficult landlord and his partner).

[dazned]

There's nothing stopping you using some anti anxiety meds along side your hrt to help whilst you settle on your hrt, I do.

[SallyG]

Hi Greenfields. I was on citilapran from Octobet but turned a corner with a proper HRT diagnosis. I started on those from Jan and have felt much better since. I keep thinking I should come off the citilapran but Im going to keep going as I am so much more balanced out and am sleeping much better than before. I totally relate to your menopause symptoms exploding. exactly the same happened to me. Just let me know if you need any more info. And a pols for the spelling of the meds


Hugs

Sally G

[CLKD]

I was taken anti-anxiety medication in the form of a Betablocka as well as ADs long before peri.  I also have an emergency drug for when the panic attacks floor me, usually within 5 mins. of them starting 

I used Valium on an 'as necessary' basis for years.  Because I knew it would work when required I knew I wouldn't become addicted  …….. I advise if the GP gives you something for anxiety to give it a try a couple of times before an 'event' so that you won't be freaked by any tiredness, apparent giddiness etc.!

[Spangles]

Hello
I use utrogestan 200 and evorel 50 and after a lot of changes in hrt I find this the best combination. I'm more settled but I do still get anxiety from time to time. Unfortunately at the moment I am going through an anxious spell, just hoping it will soon pass as all my negative thoughts surface even if they aren't the trigger, I do sympathise with you it's awful. I also use 30mg of citalopram too. I would try to stick with your new regime if you can because I think it is a good one.
xXx

[Essexragdoll]

Hi Greenfields, I tried HRT for 3 months, but even though the hot flushes stopped completely, my anxiety remained and I had heavy bleeds. I decided to try a low dose AD ( Fluoxetine) this has worked really well for me, however my hot flushes have come back worse than ever. I was not really happy taking HRT for various reasons, but I know a few of my friends take this along side ADs and are doing great.
To be honest , I can deal with the physical symptoms of meno, but the anxiety, which I had never suffered from before, was crippling, so the ADS have definitely giving me my life back, albeit a sweaty one 

[Spangles]

Hi Greenfields
It's worth remembering that we are all different so none of us will feel the same regardless of what we take.
xXx

[Greenfields]

Good point Shelb - I think it's the uncertainty with the meds that makes things so hard to plan.

I finished Nuvelle on Monday and by then I was starting to feel more my normal self so part of me was damn what's going to happen when I switch meds!

So I started Evorel patches last night and Utrogestan 100mg.  Today I feel like my normal self although I was a bit sedated early this morning but I guess it depends how things go the next few months.  I see the Dr again in 2 weeks so hope by then I'll have a better sense of how these meds are working.  I didn't have as upset a bowel this morning which was nice - so I'm assuming that's due to the patch.

Sending hugs to everyone - it's a lot to go through isn't it? xxx

[CLKD]

It is a lot.  At a time when we should be enjoying ourselves Nature throws a curved ball 

[GypsyRoseLee]

Hi Greenfield's

Utrogestan can have a sedating effect which might explain why you felt sedated this morning?

Can I ask, are you still having periods? As wondering why you're taking combined HRT?

[LeeJane]

I am on an AD (40mg Prozac a day) alongside my HRT (Elleste Duet 1mg a day).

I had really bad anxiety.  This combination has solved it for me.

[CLKD]

  and 

[Greenfields]

Re: your question GypsyRoseLee - the new Dr put me on this medication. My last "periods" were breakthrough bleeds (small short bleeds of a day) in 2014 - and I had 3, the last one being in June.

The first Dr I saw for HRT put me on Nuvelle Continuous but I had so many side effects from it.  Having said that, by the time I took the 28th pill (the last pill in the pack) I was feeling more "normal" but I had days where I had extreme fatigue and days where I couldn't get off to sleep and was fearless. And I also had days where I was ravenously hungry.

I've only been on the Evorel 50 patch and Utrogestan 100mg for 2 days. I feel more like my "normal" self in some ways - I'm functioning better but yesterday I felt unnaturally calm most of the day.  And getting up in the mornings can be challenging - I got up at 8.15am today.

I don't know how much of what I'm feeling is related to the new medication and how much I'm feeling is related to perhaps some of the old meds still in my system?

The new Dr put me on the new meds because when I saw her on Monday I told her about all the side effects I was getting with Nuvelle Continuous - some of which were quite scary - for example, towards the end of taking it, I started to get lots and lots of leg pains (they've since stopped thank God!).  Since taking the new meds I seem to be having fewer side effects (so far) but it's early days yet. 

Because the new Dr also told me that she thought I had had a 'breakdown' it's also hard to tell how much of my current mental wellbeing (which is good today) is due to my nervous system getting better and how much is due to the HRT meds.   

In fact, adjusting to how I am now is also challenging in that I feel almost like I have a new medicated identity - it's like who am I now?  I don't know whether that makes sense.  But when one has been used to doing things with a certain amount of anxiety and then one does the same things with fearlessness it's unnerving.  It's not that I was super-anxious before all the menopausal thing exploded but I did have the normal anxieties of every day living and I managed them.  Now I'm not sure who I am anymore.

The one nice thing I will say is that since I started the new HRT treatment I have had more focus and I was able to do some yoga last night and that was so nice as when I was doing it, I had a sense of being in my body in a way which I didn't when I practiced yoga when I was taking the other medication (Nuvelle Continous).  And I felt calm at the end of the practice.   

When I practiced yoga when I was taking Nuvelle Continuous, I did it one evening when I was "hyper" for want of a better word - full of energy, incredibly alert - and doing the yoga was nice but I didn't feel the benefit of it because the hormones in my system were obviously completely out of balance.  It was bedtime and my system was acting like it was raring to go for the morning!  It didn't feel good.   

I am going to try and do some yoga each day as I think it will definitely help me.

I don't know whether the new Dr has chosen the right meds for me.  She asked me what I thought about having a mid-level oestrogen patch and I said I really didn't know - because I'm just not well up enough on this to know.  So she's started me on that.  I'm really hoping it works because the thought of months (or years) of chopping and changing fills me with dread as I really need to function well again sooner rather than later given my personal situation.