Hello ladies. I haven't been on here for a while. 
. I wonder if anyone has any suggestions or advice please. Im 48 and started the menopause probably about 4 or 5 years ago. I take Femoston 1/10 - oestrogen & progesterone tablets. My main question is about my hair loss. .... My other question is - how do I know when I've "gone through the menopause"? Also should I still be taking the Femoston 1/10 if I no longer have bleeding? My GP tried to take me off it me saying I couldn't be on HRT forever (I did put on a post about this last year & everyone was really helpful). I insisted I stayed on them as Iam convinced they help with my moods and anxiety. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you x
Hi catfreak
Sorry this bit of your question got missed because your main question was about hair loss!
The answer to the first is - you won't know if you've gone through menopause if you take HRT and start when you are still peri-menopausal - as I was at 53/54. According to the stats on this website 80% of women will have reached menopause by age 54 but that still leaves 20% who haven't! The only way to find out is to stop HRT for a year and most women don't want to do that until (if) they decide to stop! However if you've been peri-menopausal for 4 or 5 years ie you started skipping periods back then - well you may be almost there now!
Have a look at the NICE Guidelines on menopause (link on home page of website) which give the latest recommendations on HRT.
Regarding stopping HRT - your GP is totally out of date! The general consensus is firstly that any HRT taken before the average age of natural menopause (51/52) DOES NOT COUNT in terms of any risks there might be to future health ( and these are controversial anyway) - because your body should normally be making oestrogen until this age. You are 48 so not there yet so you can take HRT for another 4 years or so and then if you want - take it for a further 5 years and then re-assess. However the general advice now is that for women who are otherwise healthy and experiencing symptoms, and aged under 60 - the benefits of taking HRT exceed the risks.
The main thing is to start under 60 and within 10 years of menopause to minimise stroke risk/cardio-vascular problems. The breast cancer risk - and links to HRT is still controversial. Also the important advice is that lifestyle measures can reduce cancer and other risks anyway - ie body weight, diet, smoking, alcohol, exercise, stress, sleep etc. If you can take steps to improve/maintain your health overall if you need to, then any risks of taking HRT are small by comparison eg to drinking too much and being overweight, eating a poor diet full of eg bad fats, sugar and carbs.
Femoston in any case is one of the better types of HRT - because the oestrogen is estradiol (same as our body makes and as in most HRT types) and the progestogen is dydrogesterone - thought to be second only to progesterone itself in relation to breast cancer risk.
I think hair tends to reduce when we reach menopause and presumably due to decline in oestrogen and/or testosterone (and possibly also imbalance between the two) and a low dose HRT may not be sufficient to stem this loss. As Annie0710 says - it would be good to have tests to see if there are any other obvious causes for your hair loss if it is substantial and noticeable.
Hurdity x
