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[netty114]

Hi.  I put a little piece on the section about HRT and was advised to write on here to get more views.  I am 54, was put on HRT 4 years ago after suffering for 2 years with hot flushes and night sweats.  The sequi patches worked within 2 weeks - no more sleepless nights and hot flushes! Fantastic. 2 years later I changed to a conti patch - had a breakthrough bleed but then all plain sailing again. Then about 8 weeks ago I had what I thought was a period, decided to tell the doctor as I knew that I shouldn't be having a bleed.  She immediately took me off the HRT.  Aargh! A week later I had an internal and external scan which showed some fibroids and was booked in for a biopsy for further investigation. Cue the return of the hot flushes and sleepless nights. I am now waking every hour in the night (have been for past 7 weeks) and pulling myself through the day.  I was put on amitriptyline but stopped after a week as flushes continued, still waking throughout the night and felt even worse during the day than I did before. I have had the biopsy (ouch!) and was due to get the results next week but the appointment was cancelled yesterday with no new date given. I so hoped I would be near to getting the HRT back (obviously depending on the results) but now goodness knows when that may be.  My doctor has now suggested clonodine but after reading the experiences of some lovely ladies on this site, I'm not sure I want to try it. My room is cool at night, door open, fan on, just sleeping under a sheet (which warms up very quickly!) but these damn sweats won't leave!  I just want to sleep for longer than an hour at a time.  Any suggestions gratefully received ........

[Joyce]

Oh I sympathise with you netty! I came off HRT, oestrogen only,  cold turkey a number of years ago. Truly awful. This time been doing it ever so slowly. Took GPs advice to reduce further. Fine to start with, but after a few weeks the flushes were getting really bad again, so I've upped dose again to more comfortable level.

At night I have two Chillows which I swop to keep cool. Not cheap, mind you.

[dahliagirl]

I don't know why, but I had night sweats for years when I was on the pill.  It was constant during the last 4 years.

I used to wear a thick cotton jersey nightdress, with wide straps - absorbent but with enough sticking out for cooling purposes.  The bare back and shoulders was particularly helpful. Then it was a matter of sticking various parts out of the bed, without waking up too much.

My best duvet was a lightweight cheap 'feels like silk' microfiber duvet from the supermarket.  I tried an expensive feathery one which was always cold to start with, then too hot in the middle of the night.  I am usually cold all the time and found that I needed to be nice and warm when I went to bed.  Otherwise I would have to snuggle down into the bed to warm up enough, fall asleep, and wake up in a puddle.

I found drinking plenty of water helps. I had to do this anyway after a kidney stone.  For some reason (probably stretches bladder!)  it cut down the night wees!  A glass by the bed helped sort out my body temperature in the night (and replace some of the fluid).  If you can't sweat properly, you can't cool down properly.

I sort of learned to not wake up properly to adjust, and to sleep in a puddle 

I thought I was going to be in for a really bad time of it when I came off the pill, but it went away.