Jmargaret, you say I have not shared my experiences, but, yes you have obviously just not read them, as, believe me, I have, but of course I am happy to explain it to you.
Sorry ladies if you’ve heard it all before.
Jmargaret, I’m 49. I had no peri symptoms. My periods stopped aged 47. So I’m now 1 year post menopause.
Around the time that my periods stopped I started to get the odd hot flush/night sweat.
This was all new to me as I’d had no peri symptoms like this. So it was all new to me. They gradually increased and a year down the line they had become very intense. Not nice at all.
I joined this forum.
The responses I got were to go to my gp and get on hrt.
I went to my gp and to my (naive) surprise, she absolutely refused due to family breast cancer history. I did not expect this, but now completely respect why she said this.
I came back from the gp at a loss and feeling pretty awful still with horrible daily and nightly sweats. Lack of sleep etc.
I explained all this on the forum. The responses I got were that gp’s don’t know what they’re talking about and that I should see a menopause specialist to get on hrt. I did this. I travelled to London to see a well known specialist. I had a very rushed appointment, due to a waiting room full of ladies waiting to see him. He gave me his usual gel/ utrogestan prescription and told me to come back every 3 months. At a huge cost of course.
I was relieved at the time and thought I’d be prepared to keep paying this if it stopped the sweats etc.
A couple of weeks taking it, 2 pumps that is, i started to be constantly hungry. I also noticed mild breathlessness.
I decided to reduce to 1 pump per day, but the breathlessness continued to get worse. I put on a stone in weight.
At around 8 weeks of taking it I was at the stage of gasping for breath and could hardly breathe, which was quite frightening as I live alone.
I called the specialist and had to go back for another appointment at another huge cost. I was told to stop taking straight away and to give it a month to see if it was the hrt causing this. The breathing symptoms went. I then had to go back for another follow up appointment at another cost as they wanted to do a scan to check my womb lining, at another cost. I was told the hrt had caused a fibroid to grow and it was small, but I should book in for an appointment as this can hide potential cancer growths. I was told this had happened to other ladies and I should have it removed... at another cost... I declined. By this point I was so relieved that the symptoms had gone and although my flushes had started to return, they were no-where near as bad as before. So, totally freaked out by hrt, I decided to follow a natural approach which includes certain foods, good supplements and exercise. I do still have warm flushes and feel warm at night sometimes, but this feels like it is getting better all the time. Fingers crossed.
Some ladies say that one has to take hrt to prevent osteoporosis. I think that might be one option, but with good diet etc, I’m hoping I am avoiding it. I’m having a bone scan tomorrow out of interest to see if I am achieving that.
I’m happy to explain my experience jmargaret and if any questions please do ask. I’m happy to explain. All the best. X
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Topic: I thought hrt would "solve" everything but my mood is getting worse by the day (Read 7890 times)