Hi Lizzyb
Sorry to hear about your symptoms. When you say your periods are going haywire - in what way do you mean? Have they started becoming irregular - sometimes longer gaps between them, sometimes shorter, heavy, light etc?
Your doctor is right to prescribe HRT as first line of treatment for menopausal symptoms including anxiety, rather than anti-depressants - in fact this topic was covered only this week in Woman's Hour! I presume it is the 1 mg dose you have been given to start with?
At your age it is important to take HRT if you are in peri-menopause and as oestrogen levels drop overall - to help protect your heart and bones. It might take a while to settle and sometimes women need to try a few types before settling on one they like. Do keep a diary of how you feel at different points in your cycle and on different parts of the HRT so that if you continue to experience symptoms you might be able to pin-point the cause.
At this point medication is not advised - as I mentioned - and there are other ways to try to cope with anxiety than ADs (which can also depress libido).This week also there was a new post on the Dr Daisy blog on this website about CBT and self-help measures (there is also the site nomorepanic.co.uk which has some behavioural strategies) and there are various books that have ideas to help ( there was a thread on this somewhere!).
Here is a link to the blog:
https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/daisy/Dr-Daisy-jan2018.pdfI hope this helps and do keep posting if you need more advice and support - there is always someone here!
Hurdity x
