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[SadLynda]

Been waiting with you for this appointment and so hoping you would get some joy at last.  So sorry you had a rubbish experience yet again.  I am on my 3rd GP practice, just had my second visit to the GP and she was amazing, yet again.. so they are out there.  As the others have suggested go for a consultation with Dr Evans if you can, but I would also be looking to change GP's too.

  to you, as I know how hard it is when nobody will listen to you.

[GypsyRoseLee]

Thanks for everyone's kind support. At my appointment yesterday I felt like I had travelled back to 2003. And peri often makes you confused and doubt yourself, so it was very stressful to hear a so called specialist tell you that oestrogel is inferior to oral HRT. And then to tell me that high dose oestrogen will likely cause cancer and diabetes! I just felt like sobbing. She also told me that she predicted the latest NICE guidelines would be debunked in 5 years because the medical profession can never make up its mind.


I can't see Dr Annie until the start of March but it isn't that long and I'm hoping it will pass quickly. I am going with a friend who has recently been told that she cannot be menopausal at only 43, and despite her missing periods and having dreadful vaginal dryness. So she has booked an appointment too.

If I wasn't so low and drained by peri I would be raging at how women suffer due to medical ignorance.

I now intend going back to see a new lady GP just started at my practice and to tell her to ignore the recommendation from the doctor I saw yesterday and that I want to revert to the 50mg Estradot and separate Utro that I was on for 3 months over the summer just until I see Dr Annie. I am really hoping she can work with me on this, but I am very aware that I have chopped and changed so much these last 6-8 months that I am scared she'll just dismiss me as being a headcase.

[Briony]

I feel your anger. It's shocking, more so coming from a young female doctor. 

I would consider printing out the relevant parts of both the NICE guidelines and the NAPS guidelines when you next see your GP.

As an alternative to the 50mcg patch and Utro (given your previous experience on them)  have you considered a very low dose bio identical pill - Zoeley or Qlaira? Both would provide more estrogen than the patch (well, Q for sure, not entirely sure about Z) plus they would actually control your own fluctuations. This would be free and available from your FPC if the GP still wont oblige.

I know you have a nightmare with both BCP, as I did with Marvelon, but having taken Q for nearly a year in the past, I know it's much milder. My only real issue with it was a bit of random spotting and the very, very occasional blip day when my own hormones seemed to be raging in the background. It was a far better experience to either the 50mcg patches or Marvelon.

Do you reckon an email from Dr Currie would hold any weight with your GP?

[Hurdity]

Wait - just to understand - you have waited FIVE MONTHS for an appointment at a menopause clinic and all you have seen is a GP with specialism in gynaecology? We have one of these at our own practice and you only normally wait a few weeks , sometimes sooner. She sounds like she didn't know what she was talking about.

In your position I would not take the Elleste Duet - as Mary G says - it has norethisterone in it - what's the point of trying something with a progestogen known to cause side effects when you have already tried other progestogens? I agree that your best course of action is at least to go back to the patch and the utro - start with 50 mcg and then maybe increase if the dose isn't high enough.  I can see this is tricky re your meno-doc but maybe you can get to see your docs before the letter gets there? In any case you should still be able to reject her advice and especially as it is just a normal HRT tab that your own doc could have prescribed!

Yes e-mail to Dr C might be an idea if you haven't already done so, but it would be quite complicated I expect with all the things you've tried and their side effects.

Don't despair yet but I do so feel for you after that experience

Hope you manage to get an appointment soon so that you can feel better

Hurdity x

[GypsyRoseLee]

Thank you Hurdity. I still feel too low and drained to feel much in the way of outrage. I feel psychologically battered by it all. It's awful to pour your heart out and to have your experiences trivialised or politely dismissed.

I am going to try and see the new GP at my surgery and just see if she will prescribe me 50mg patch/gel with Utrogestan to tide me over until I see Dr Annie at the start of March.

I would love to get a higher dose patch, or even try Qlaira as Briony suggested but I just don't have any fight left in me at all at the moment. I can't believe I typed that as I used to be notoriously feisty back before peri menopause drained it all out of me.

[GypsyRoseLee]

Oh God ellie66, that is amazing. From what I can see it's just £55 for 3 monthd of Qlaira + £15 for the actual private GP consultation. Is that right?

[ellie66]

That seems to be right. It would tide you over. I would tell them you have had it before keep it simple so they write the prescription.