Hi ladies 😊
Just wondering if this is ever going to get better......I've been browsing this (great!) forum for ages and decide to plunge in join you all.
The only positive thing I can say at the moment is it is so nice to realise how many people on here I have so very many things in common with😳
I have been having incredible hot sweats for years, increasing in frequency since I was in my early 40's. (I'm now 51). The last few years they have just been horrible. I (think) I've always been a fairly energetic, organised, enthusiastic "on the go " sort of person... I now spend my life feeling demoralised and fed up at constantly over heating and pouring with sweat.......often for absolutely no reason! Sometimes I stay wet and sweaty for hours. I refuse to call them simply a hot flush! That to me implies something that starts and then fades, makes you feel warm then goes away......
I have other symptoms in varying degrees - dry itchy skin, dry eyes, rushes of rage and frustration, forgetfulness, brain fog, tiredness, that horrible stomach adrenaline rush, sleeplessness, joint aches and then occasional very short bouts of my old self surfacing through the meno muddle, before I'm back to thinking I'm going mad. I actually can't organise my thoughts enough to write this....
I've seen a few different GPs (Because of working and living abroad, then being back in the uk, and changing from one male gp who I was unhappy with because I couldn't get him to believe me when I kept telling him I was NOT depressed and did NOT need an antidepressant as well as the HRT he prescribed and said would work in time..)
Over the last few years I have tried citalopram (early days, few months to help with hot sweats before HRT). - it seemed to work for a couple of months only.
Im now on my third type on HRT - Angelique. 2 weeks in and sweating much less and sleeping better (which helps sooooo much!) but I can't bring myself to get too excited as I've been here before. I feel like I've spent the last few years in a mess of feeling sweaty, greasy haired, with a shiny beetroot red face AND feeling constantly drained. I'm sick of never knowing if I'll be bleeding and for how long. Each new hrt seems to bring a few weeks of improvement and then I sink back to the same or worse symptoms.
I just want to go out and have my makeup stay on my face (assuming I wasn't too much of a wet mess to put any on in the first place!), my clothes not be wrinkled and wet with sweat, my hair not to actually drip and to not to feel self conscious and embarrassed when people touch me. I cringe at the thought of my poor hairdresser or the beauty therapist who have to touch me or run fingers through my soaking sweaty hair😩) I'm so jealous of people who don't seem to suffer! And I'm incredibly exhausted at trying to act casual or unconcerned when I just want to run away and hide and cry in embarrassment.
(I have had tests and don't seem to be suffering from anything else btw - interestingly I have a close male family member who also sweats quite a lot... healthy under normal circumstances and when doing anything strenuous I know, and whilst I would always sweat when at the gym etc I always used to not worry about it too much. But he was recently treated for prostate cancer. He's recovered now but when on hormone treatment he suffered dreadfully with hot sweats.)
So this is an incredibly long ramble.. but that's my story so far.
Wish me luck on the Angelique.
I've just had a lovely chuckle at some of the comments on a thread about some of the stupid things people have done and attributed to "menopause brain" ...I've done so many myself it's untrue.... (our "house" phone disappeared once, only to be discovered nicely wrapped in a freezer bag, nestled in the bottom of the freezer along with the chicken breasts I'd carefully separated and bagged after buying in bulk 😳🙄)
Anyway, that's me, permanently hot, (but sadly not always in the way my husband would wish!), sweaty, hormonal, and incredibly bonkers - but trying very hard to keep a sense of perspective!
It HAS to get better!!!