Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Franco]

Hi ladies

Wondering if this has happened to anybody else?  I've been on mirtazipine for depression for many years now and started Estradot patches 18 months ago.  I had a hysterectomy 15 years ago and kept my ovaries and think the ADs masked a lot of my symptoms.  I had many of the menopause symptoms at 52...had them for years but not joined up the dots.  Eventually feeling so low, tearful, fuzzy head, night sweats, weight gain etc my GP did the blood tests and offered HRT.  It wasn't until 3 months after being on the patches that I started to feel better and then realised just how bad I had been feeling for years but it had become the norm.  Such a relief to start feeling normal again!

For the last couple of months I've felt myself slipping back...feel really low and anxious and seem to worry constantly about getting older.  When I see older people with health problems it worries me and I think 'that could happen to me'.  I know I'm becoming withdrawn again and I am quiet most of the time at home, feel anxious and tearful...my husband has picked up on my mood change...feel so sorry for him....he's been there through everything with me, depression, losing my mum.   I'm struggling with work and don't want to be here...feel the need to be on my own and not engage with people.

Sorry for the rant...my question is could the HRT have stopped being effective for me?  I'm on 75mg patches twice a week. 

Called my GP surgery this morning but they've been hit by the cyber attack and struggling with appointments and said if it's non urgent please call back next week.  It's not an urgent appointment but I feel like I'm slipping further down and really scared.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[CLKD]

It could be either the ADs or the HRT that needs a tweek in dosage.  In the meantime have a chat with the Pharmacist in your local Chemist, most have private rooms now. 

I found after 10 years that the AD I was taking pooped out, in that my brain became used to it - my GP prescribed something else which has worked 4 the last 15 years.

[Lizab]

In addition to what CLKD posted, I would say that it IS urgent. I am also one to say I'll be ok, it's not an emergency so I can wait, but if you're already slipping, go now. As you know it takes weeks for a new AD or hrt to show full effect, so you will not get immediate relief from any change. Go ahead and get in there so they can make whatever adjustments need to be made. Your wellness is as important as anyone else's!

[Franco]

Thank you so much for replying.  I will definitely call the surgery on Monday morning and insist on an appointment.  It's scary with already taking ADs and HRT that I can still feel like this...feel really inadequate.  I know lots of women my age who don't seem to be struggling with menopause and not on any medication but then I don't discuss this with anyone other than my sister so who knows what other people are going through.  Thank god for this site 

[CLKD]

Stop comparing yourself?

Also, don't forget there is a UK Bank Holiday soon!

[dahliagirl]

I keep meeting the ones who 'sailed through' too 

[CLKD]

I never discuss it with anyone so don't know whether 'they' sailed through/not  - actually, I'm not interested in how others might have managed 'cos when we feel well it's easy to forget the bad days 

[dahliagirl]

It is funny how when you hit a bad day, it seems like you can remember every single one from the beginning, but when you hit a good day they fade from the memory again.

[CLKD]

Yep, it's something that has puzzled me for years, since a Psychologist suggested that "try to remember the happy days in order to over-come the bad ones" - yeh?  because my anxiety is physical that is impossible.  But anxiety is triggered by a learned pattern which I can't shed no often how I try to 'feel' the happier times  (clear as mud?)

[dahliagirl]

If you can be bothered, take a photo when something nice happens, then keep them in a file on the computer/ in an album /stick one in a frame, or a pinboard.  Even if you only keep it up for a few days, you could end up with a nice pinboard of photos 

[CLKD]

I am surrounded by photos, paintings, prints 

[dahliagirl]

It works for me - if I go somewhere, I take a photo, then look back and say 'oh yes, I remember enjoying that'.  Otherwise it slips from my mind into that abyss.  Sometimes, it seems even better after the event  .

Now, I even take photos of my cakes before they vanish.

I took photos of my twins when they were doing nice things, as much as I could, as I knew that I would not have any more and I didn't just want to remember the sleepless nights.  I enjoyed that for years - stops me remembering what they put me through - perhaps I should do it again now they are adults