Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Jaylow]

For a while I’ve felt that hrt causes more cons than pros for me so I’ve lowered my dose to 1 pump of gel a day. I take it cyclically and I also get my natural periods breaking through sometimes too. So I’m always surprised at how heavy my bleeds are on a low dose of estrogen, and the pain gets too much. The pain always seems to be centred around one side somewhere where my ovary or Fallopian tube is. And it radiates to my back and down that leg.

I feel as though I must absorb the estrogen (hence the blood) but maybe it doesn’t convert to whatever it is that is supposed to help us feel better.

Is it only me? I’m reading so many success stories lately especially via davina McCall Instagram page and Louise newson. Lots of ladies who are totally changed with hrt and it’s been like a magic cure for them. I don’t understand why it didn’t work for me at a higher or lower dose.

I’ve rambled on a bit there think I’m feeling sorry for myself tonight lol.

[Pixiepirelli]

I am the same on Fem7 Conti but not sure what else to try. Have already tried Evorel Conti but it didn’t alleviate all the symptoms

[Jaylow]

Ah it’s difficult isn’t it. I started on femseven sequi but they weren’t lasting the full week and my hormones were up and down all over the place. Mind you, looking back I wasn’t suffering as much then as I am now on gel and utrogestan.

[Moonflower]

Hi Jaylow,

I know what you mean.  I started HRT earlier this year and was waiting for that magic moment.  I started on 2 pumps and after 3 months decided to up the dose to 3 pumps to see if I could feel any benefits.  All I got was bleeding, sore boobs and cramps, worse than in my prime.  So now I'm back on 2 pumps and still feel like a dizzy tired zombie with stiff joints and sore lady bits.  The only thing that has calmed down are my ectopics strangely enough, after nearly 2 years of daily ectopics, but this does make me happy as it is one of the main reasons why I started HRT, but who knows if HRT stopped them.   

[Jaylow]

Moonflower, sorry to hear it’s not working too well for you either. Ah that’s something I get too, never thought of it being connected to meno/hrt.
There has to be something else out there that helps.

[monicap]

Might not be the oestrogen component that's causing the problems. When your bleeds are very heavy I've heard that you need more progesterone. Have you asked for a referral to a specialist? If the GP can't get your symptoms under control they should send you to a specialist menopause clinic. Make sure they don't refer you to a bog-standard gynaecological clinic by mistake. Mine did initially and it was a huge waste of time.

If you don't already know this, gold standard HRT is body identical and composed of the following:

1) Estradiol (oestrogen) transdermally (patch, spray or gel)
2) Utrogeston/micronised progesterone (can be taken vaginally if you're sensitive to progesterone)

If you still have problems with libido/arousal/orgasm and and low energy:

3) Testosterone gel

I've gone down the route of using body identical everything including progesterone and I get regular 3 day bleeds. Nothing too heavy. If this didn't work for me I would consider the Mirena coil to replace the progesterone as it leads to much lighter bleeds and eventually no bleeding for lots of women. As synthetic versions of progesterone MAY be implicated in the slightly higher rates of breast cancer* seen in HRT users I'd only go down this route if body identical progesterone didn't work for me. Although Mirena is a synthetic progestin it has the lowest systemic absorption of all the synthetics.

I feel very lucky to be part of a generation of women to even have the option of HRT and as it has so many benefits I think it's worth taking the time to get it right. It's an investment in our health that'll pay off immediately and decades down the line. I couldn't have got it right without referral to an NHS Menopause Clinic though.

*despite this studies show that mortality is lower in HRT users