Dear All
I'm a newbie although I've been reading this forum for several months now and so glad to have been told about it.
As the heading says – I just don't know what to do....I've been on and off HRT since 2013. Meno has been a very hard journey at times. I turned to HRT in desperation. My main symptoms were what seemed to be anxiety attacks in the middle of the night – I was waking up a couple of times almost every night with terrible palpitations, generally not sleeping well, and also dreadful feelings of anxiety, emotional, mood swings, dark thoughts.......... This went on for 3 years before I found out these symptoms are associated with peri-meno. I remember sitting on the train one evening going home from work, starting to feel physically so uncomfortable almost to the point that I just couldn't sit there any longer and then I had a sudden strong urge to get off and throw myself under the next train. It just felt like a really logical thing to do/that something was driving me to this. Is there something deeply biological, evolutionary about this? Really awful. I've never shared this with anyone, although told my GP at the time that I had started feeling suicidal.
My first HRT – Evoral 50mcg patch caused me to wake up every single hour with terrible palpitations and feelings of anxiety so stopped using it immediately. Seemed to magnify my worst symptoms. Since, I've tried tablets, other patches, and I'm now on Sandrena Gel – started with .5mg -and Utro.vaginally
When I first started on the gel, within two days it was an injection of energy. Really brought home how much I had declined from my ‘real' pre-meno self. However, my sleep declined quite rapidly until a week later I had gone from sleeping 6 hours per night, which had been a recent improvement, albeit not the best quality sleep, down to 3-4 hours in one go and then awake for 3-4 hours. I'm exhausted now.....I really, really need a good night's sleep. Been on this regime since the end of July this year. Have tried increasing the gel at the meno nurse's suggestion up to 1mg and then 1.5mg but this seemed to make me really tense and jittery and I couldn't tolerate feeling so tense, and I had too many vivid, disturbing dreams.. My posture even became hunched. So I've put myself down to .75mg gel.
I've also tried using 100mg and 200mg Utro sometimes on alternate days and tried 100mg oral followed by 200mg vaginally. This month I've taken 200 mg Utro consistently vaginally and it helps me sleep more deeply and helps my mood and to feel calm – however, I can only sleep for 3 hours and feel so tired that my life revolves around managing my lack of sleep and I'm too tired to do too much.
What's going on – why is HRT affecting my sleep like this? My sleep has been all over the place for these last 3 months. No consistent pattern. There have been a couple of weeks in 2 different months when I started feeling a bit better and sleep better, then for no apparent reason it all changed back again.
What should I do – I would be so grateful for any advice, observations, suggestions. Change HRT – persevere – try the Mirena – change dose - persevere.....the meno nurse also suggested that I move to a continuous regime but I'm not too sure about this. I'm just about to turn 52.
I also wanted to day how helpful the knowledge and understanding of the women on this forum has been to me over these months. This should be replicated by medical professionals who, in my experience, are sorely lacking in this respect
Thank you
Poppies
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Topic: I just don't know what to do about my HRT (Read 2285 times)