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[Tracey E]

Hi everyone, I've had to stop HRT because of various side effects to Estrodrial. I'm 5.5 weeks on now in my journey and just wanted to give everyone an update on my current menopause symptoms.

Over the last few weeks most of my side effects have diminshed, ie: acid reflux, palpitations, aura migranes and hot flushes. My hair has stopped shedding too, I did have a couple of anxious moments along the way but they seem to have settled. It took the full 5+ weeks though for them to get better.

I still have VA, which I know I will have for life, for that I'm taking Vagifem daily and Yes products. At the moment these seem to be keeping it at bay. I'm booked in to see the menopause specialist to see if there are any other additions that may help the VA symptons. No idea how long that will take!

I have found taking up daily Yoga extremely useful over the last few weeks.

https://youtu.be/Ok2N3NuXMo0

This along side my magnesium spray for the dreaded palps (what a brilliant product).

I would just like to say, there is hope after stopping HRT, it's not for everyone and there are other products/alternative therapies out there that may help you. I struggled on for 1 1/2 years thinking it was the progesterone component of my HRT that was to blame for my symptons when in fact it was the Estrogen.

So good luck to anyone thinking of or attempting to leave HRT regime. It is a ma~oossive step but it is a conquerable one. Stay positive! ❤

[coldlittleheart]

Hey Tracey, it's great to hear that things are getting better for you. I was thinking about some of your previous posts and now I see this. As you might remember, I am on my second trial of HRT, started in July and altho I feel calmer, no hot flushes, I started shedding so much hair that it is starting to distress me, I also have a few side effects I could live without. So like you, I am thinking of stopping taking it altogether again.

[KiltedCupid]

Good luck Tracey E - I stopped cold turkey for varying amounts of time and seemed to be fine up until the 2/3 week mark when mood dipped drastically and I got palps. Didn't have day sweats or flushes but a few night sweats. I'm down to a 25 patch and happy on this but may reduce further soon. My body just seems to be intolerant to higher doses of oestrogen and that's only happened recently, so I wonder if there's a point, post meno, when your body just doesn't want the same level of hormones. Never thought I'd be here as I used to love my oestrogen but we must listen to what our body is telling us.

Please keep posting with your findings, I'm interested to know how it's going.

[Tracey E]

Hey Tracey, it's great to hear that things are getting better for you. I was thinking about some of your previous posts and now I see this. As you might remember, I am on my second trial of HRT, started in July and altho I feel calmer, no hot flushes, I started shedding so much hair that it is starting to distress me, I also have a few side effects I could live without. So like you, I am thinking of stopping taking it altogether again.

Hi, it's a serious decision to contemplate but I felt worse on it than off it. I was fine in the beginning taking Estrogel and then things gradually got worse. Whatever your decision I really hope there's some light at the end of the tunnel because it can be a long journey.. X

[Tracey E]

Good luck Tracey E - I stopped cold turkey for varying amounts of time and seemed to be fine up until the 2/3 week mark when mood dipped drastically and I got palps. Didn't have day sweats or flushes but a few night sweats. I'm down to a 25 patch and happy on this but may reduce further soon. My body just seems to be intolerant to higher doses of oestrogen and that's only happened recently, so I wonder if there's a point, post meno, when your body just doesn't want the same level of hormones. Never thought I'd be here as I used to love my oestrogen but we must listen to what our body is telling us.

Please keep posting with your findings, I'm interested to know how it's going.

Hi Kilted, maybe there us a point of no return for some. I'll keep you posted on what the memo clinic advise. Maybe it's a common symptom of HRT or maybe as the doctor says 'You're a complex case'. Take care. X

[coldlittleheart]

Hey Tracey, it's great to hear that things are getting better for you. I was thinking about some of your previous posts and now I see this. As you might remember, I am on my second trial of HRT, started in July and altho I feel calmer, no hot flushes, I started shedding so much hair that it is starting to distress me, I also have a few side effects I could live without. So like you, I am thinking of stopping taking it altogether again.

Hi, it's a serious decision to contemplate but I felt worse on it than off it. I was fine in the beginning taking Estrogel and then things gradually got worse. Whatever your decision I really hope there's some light at the end of the tunnel because it can be a long journey.. X

Thanks, I know it is, I didn't take the decision of going on HRT lightly either, I was quite against it to begin with. But things got so unbearable last year, I gave it a try and it got better in some ways, but worse in others and that wasn't a trade off I was happy with so I stopped and things went downhill again not long after.

I am not that hopeful things will get better with HRT. I have a phone appt tomorrow with the GP who has special interest in menopause at my surgery, I emailed her and she said she'd ring me at lunchtime. We'll see what she has to say. She said before that I didn't have progesterone intolerance - she has not met me in person, so I don't know how she would know that, but I felt awful whilst on utro and not long after my last pill I started feeling like a heavy weight had lifted. I have more energy, but I have other problems other than hair loss, like slightly raised BP, GERD, constant spotting and I am only on 1 pump Oestrogel too. So hmm. Maybe I am just not meant to have hrt at all. Who knows. We'll see what she suggests.

I hope you keep feeling better!

[KiltedCupid]

Good luck Tracey E - I stopped cold turkey for varying amounts of time and seemed to be fine up until the 2/3 week mark when mood dipped drastically and I got palps. Didn't have day sweats or flushes but a few night sweats. I'm down to a 25 patch and happy on this but may reduce further soon. My body just seems to be intolerant to higher doses of oestrogen and that's only happened recently, so I wonder if there's a point, post meno, when your body just doesn't want the same level of hormones. Never thought I'd be here as I used to love my oestrogen but we must listen to what our body is telling us.

Please keep posting with your findings, I'm interested to know how it's going.

Hi Kilted, maybe there us a point of no return for some. I'll keep you posted on what the memo clinic advise. Maybe it's a common symptom of HRT or maybe as the doctor says 'You're a complex case'. Take care. X

Many thanks, will follow with interest.

[Tracey E]

Hey Tracey, it's great to hear that things are getting better for you. I was thinking about some of your previous posts and now I see this. As you might remember, I am on my second trial of HRT, started in July and altho I feel calmer, no hot flushes, I started shedding so much hair that it is starting to distress me, I also have a few side effects I could live without. So like you, I am thinking of stopping taking it altogether again.

Hi, it's a serious decision to contemplate but I felt worse on it than off it. I was fine in the beginning taking Estrogel and then things gradually got worse. Whatever your decision I really hope there's some light at the end of the tunnel because it can be a long journey.. X

Thanks, I know it is, I didn't take the decision of going on HRT lightly either, I was quite against it to begin with. But things got so unbearable last year, I gave it a try and it got better in some ways, but worse in others and that wasn't a trade off I was happy with so I stopped and things went downhill again not long after.

I am not that hopeful things will get better with HRT. I have a phone appt tomorrow with the GP who has special interest in menopause at my surgery, I emailed her and she said she'd ring me at lunchtime. We'll see what she has to say. She said before that I didn't have progesterone intolerance - she has not met me in person, so I don't know how she would know that, but I felt awful whilst on utro and not long after my last pill I started feeling like a heavy weight had lifted. I have more energy, but I have other problems other than hair loss, like slightly raised BP, GERD, constant spotting and I am only on 1 pump Oestrogel too. So hmm. Maybe I am just not meant to have hrt at all. Who knows. We'll see what she suggests.

I hope you keep feeling better!

I had GERD whilst on HRT, originally thought like everyone else it must be the Utrogestan, until I realised I still had it after only taking Estrogel alone for 3 weeks. Utro made me have the worse PMT symptons ever, worse than when I was ovulating. When your bad days outnumber your good it's time to rethink. You could always request an appointment with the meno clinic Coldlittleheart.
 

[Tracey E]

TraceyE - very positive. If side effects have diminished after 5 weeks I'd say you'll be ok. Its when they keep getting worse as the weeks go by its not such a good outcome!

Hi Stella, I hope so although I don't want to count all my chickens yet. It's a weird one but I had more hot flushes on HRT than off it. I don't understand it at all, maybe the memo clinic will shed some light on it.

[KiltedCupid]

Tracey E - I get sweats when trying to increase hrt, both oestrogen and prog. I think it's quite common, and really confusing!

[KiltedCupid]

Utrogestan makes me very hot for the first 5 days of taking it, especially at night. Its a different heat from hot flushes though - more a boiling up but without the sweating!

The joys of hormones 

I've just pretty much paraphrased that in another post! I think ladies need to be aware that utro does this and not blame it on low E. It's more like a heat from a fever than a flush though.

[coldlittleheart]

Hey Tracey, it's great to hear that things are getting better for you. I was thinking about some of your previous posts and now I see this. As you might remember, I am on my second trial of HRT, started in July and altho I feel calmer, no hot flushes, I started shedding so much hair that it is starting to distress me, I also have a few side effects I could live without. So like you, I am thinking of stopping taking it altogether again.

Hi, it's a serious decision to contemplate but I felt worse on it than off it. I was fine in the beginning taking Estrogel and then things gradually got worse. Whatever your decision I really hope there's some light at the end of the tunnel because it can be a long journey.. X

Thanks, I know it is, I didn't take the decision of going on HRT lightly either, I was quite against it to begin with. But things got so unbearable last year, I gave it a try and it got better in some ways, but worse in others and that wasn't a trade off I was happy with so I stopped and things went downhill again not long after.

I am not that hopeful things will get better with HRT. I have a phone appt tomorrow with the GP who has special interest in menopause at my surgery, I emailed her and she said she'd ring me at lunchtime. We'll see what she has to say. She said before that I didn't have progesterone intolerance - she has not met me in person, so I don't know how she would know that, but I felt awful whilst on utro and not long after my last pill I started feeling like a heavy weight had lifted. I have more energy, but I have other problems other than hair loss, like slightly raised BP, GERD, constant spotting and I am only on 1 pump Oestrogel too. So hmm. Maybe I am just not meant to have hrt at all. Who knows. We'll see what she suggests.

I hope you keep feeling better!

I had GERD whilst on HRT, originally thought like everyone else it must be the Utrogestan, until I realised I still had it after only taking Estrogel alone for 3 weeks. Utro made me have the worse PMT symptons ever, worse than when I was ovulating. When your bad days outnumber your good it's time to rethink. You could always request an appointment with the meno clinic Coldlittleheart.

I had a good conversation with the doctor today, as I have a hard time tolerating most medications, I am a little tricky to treat. The utrogestan made me so tired I could barely get out of bed most days, when I stopped it to induce a bleed, it took no time for some energy to come back. So it seemed clear that I am sensitive to that. I explained that what made me decide to contact her was that I am seeing more scalp and this shedding business has worsened in the past couple days, yesterday, I ran my fingers through my hair and 30 hairs - I counted them - came out :/ That was it. I messaged her and she gave me a phone appointment today. She suggested that I stop HRT for now and see how that goes. She mentioned tibolone but I am not that keen on trying that, it seems to have a fair few side effects. She said she could refer me to the menopause clinic, but as I have intolerances to a lot of medications, she wasn't sure that they would be able to help, although they might have some ideas. She was very positive ad sympathetic though and said that maybe my symptoms wouldn't come back as bad or even at all, which I doubt but that would be nice, and that this won't last forever. I am just dreading the crazy feelings I had before,  it is a tricky one!

[Tracey E]

Hi Coldlittleheart, it might be worth  attending the menopause clinic, as you know I'm waiting for another appointment. I guess some of us are more sensitive than others to HRT and I'm hoping they may have a trick or two left up their sleeve. Stay in touch as we appear to be in the same boat... X

[KiltedCupid]

Coldlittleheart - 1 pump oestrogel is a low dose. I'm so sorry, I can't find your info as I'm using my phone, how old are you and where in meno? Have you had a full set of bloods recently including sex hormones, thyroid, ferritin, b vits? These all affect hair growth and mood/energy.

[coldlittleheart]

Coldlittleheart - 1 pump oestrogel is a low dose. I'm so sorry, I can't find your info as I'm using my phone, how old are you and where in meno? Have you had a full set of bloods recently including sex hormones, thyroid, ferritin, b vits? These all affect hair growth and mood/energy.

Hi KiltedCupid

I'm 57 so about 5 years in, thing is, I had problems with hair loss for several years, but stabilised it about 2 yers ago. My ferritin was very low and I managed to bring it back up. My last blood tests were fine for thyroid, ferritin, D and B vitamins (there were other things that my GP checked I forget what they were). All was fine. They didn't do my sex hormone profile because NICE guidelines say not to. I realise that one pump is a very low dose but my hair wasn't falling out until I started HRT last year, so as it made me more anxious and depressed I stopped it after a few months. Not long after, the shedding stopped and I saw new growth. Then I put up with my low moods and anxiety and other symptoms up until this past July where I couldn't cope anymore, so I was put back on HRT and my hair started shedding again not long after. Also utro was making me really tired so I discussed with GP and decided to try to go on a cycle. After I stopped utro to induce a bleed, the fatigue lifted, but then the shedding got much worse. I spoke with my GP yesterday and she suggested that I stop the HRT for now and see what happens. We both agreed that it seemed unlikely to be a coincidence that both time I tried HRT, my hair started shedding loads and she thought that maybe my body doesn't like the extra hormones. Also hair loss is one of the side effects of Oestrogel.