Hi anybody thought they had finished with menopause but symptoms returned?
I’m 56, at age 40 I had a hysterectomy but kept my ovaries, life was good until about 3 years after when I started with what I thought was a sickness bug, wasn’t sick but had the most horrific nausea with a vile pain in my back, this went in for a week but then got knocked off my feet with depression (until then I thought depression was just feeling down) I used to wake up at around 5am every day with utter dread at the day ahead, was divorced with 2 young children and if it wasn’t for my mum looking after us all daily I don’t know what I would have done. Along with the depression was no appetite (went down to 7 stone) bouts of nausea where I lay in my own sweat in the bathroom floor all night and anxiety so bad I couldn’t leave the house, also silly annoying things like throat clearing and mucus overload. One day my mum marched me back to the doctors (was there most weeks and had various tests for different things but none helped) a differed Dr asked me how my periods were, I’ve had a hysterectomy I told him and it was almost a lightbulb moment, my ovaries had stopped working and I was in menopause, after 4 months of hell I was put in elleste solo and a low dose of citalopram, after a month I felt better and went back to work. Jump to age 54 (2 years ago) and I think I should be well past the menopause so over the next 12 months I gradually weaned myself off the elleste solo so at 55 I was off completely. So at the beginning of this year when I’d been off hrt about 9 months I start to get silly symptoms, post nasal drip and sinus problems then the odd day I would think to myself ooh I feel a bit down today but would just shake it off, then my anxiety got bad and I wasn’t enjoying my job any more and lost confidence in myself, also had horrible aches in my elbows, knees and back which kept me awake sone nights, then in November the depression hit me again and I had to call in sick, I called the Dr who upped my citalopram but made no difference so whilst on yet another phone call to the doctors she mentioned hrt and I thought it sounds like menopausal symptoms again so she prescribed a small dose of oestrogen via patch, the difference overnight from lying in bed dreading the thought of the day ahead I actually came down and had a conversation with my daughter. Probably didn’t give them time but wanted to feel normal like I did before so I’m now back on elleste solo tablets with the original 10mg of citalopram (which I never came off)
So I’m wondering if it’s the same menopause and I shouldn’t have come off the hrt or was the first menopause a medically induced one from the hysterectomy and the ovaries stopping working and this is the proper one? Also as well as the depression I’ve now got the mucus clearing throat thing going on and also awful post nasal drip, I can’t take ante histamine as it gives me a nosebleed, anybody else get this?
I’ve been off work since November as my job is safety critical and I can’t make mistakes and I’m due to go back this week, I don’t really feel up to it to be honest, been back on elleste solo 6 days but was on estraderm Mx 50 before so all in all been back in oestrogen about 5 weeks, is this long enough for me to feel better.
So sorry for the long message but just want to feel normal again xx