"In terms of NICE Guidelines and HRT in fact peri-menopause is defined as starting when the cycle varies by at least 7 days each month - even though hormones will start to go awry before that, and so it is at THAT point that HRT is recommended. Yes some women who have lower oestrogen are recommended HRT before this point - but it won't necessarily work as it is not indicated."Can't work out how to properly do a quote, but just want to add - because I think it's very important - that both my private menopause specialist and my NHS Menopause specialist confirmed to me when I asked them this question that
many women who are still having regular periods can and do require HRT and that it is often very successful. This is because (in their words) Estrogen can begin to fall (or go haywire) quite some time before your periods become erratic. It seems some women are more sensitive to that change in Estrogen than others, which I can only assume is why some people experience symptoms earlier on and some don't until the point that their Estrogen is so low / have less eggs that their periods become erratic.
I think it's important that we don't state things as gospel truth when there is much debate on all kinds of meno topics, even among menopause specialists. I personally suffered a year of absolute hell as a result of GPs robotically stating the above the quote to me and refusing to prescribe me HRT because my periods were still regular. When I finally paid to see a menopause specialist who informed me they were wrong and did prescribe me HRT, my problems disappeared within a couple of weeks of starting it. I am nearly not here today because of that failure and mis-information, so it feels important for me to share it.
Good luck to the ladies on this thread in finding something that works for you
