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[Alli8]

Seasons Greetings ladies!

I wonder if anyone has a similar story?
I started experiencing typical menopausal symptoms in 2021. At the time I was on Cerelle mini-pill and had not had a period since 2016 due to the continuous pill. After a lot of mis-diagnosis (you're depressed etc) and me thinking I was heading for a nervous breakdown I was prescribed Evorel Conti due to my age (50 at the time). I started taking this in August 2022 whilst still taking Cerelle.

All was well and I felt much better until March this year when my doctor took me off Cerelle. Since then I have literally piled on the weight - to the point where I won't even stand on the scales. I have gone from a jeans size 12-14 to an 18 in 9 months. I eat low carb and have done for years, walk a lot daily (I am a postie) and generally fast most of the day as I don't really eat breakfast or lunch. My diet and exercise is unchanged.
I am repeatedly told by the medical profession that it's the menopause not the HRT but according to my doctor I was already post-menopausal when I was prescribed the HRT so surely I would have noticed before?
I have found a lot of info online regarding the norethisterone in Evorel Conti and that it could be responsible for the weight gain. I have also looked into the desogestrel that is in Cerelle but this doesn't seem to have any weight gain side effects.

Has anyone had the same problem? I have finally managed to secure a telephone appointment with my doctor for January 8th do I will see what she says.

[Suziemc]

Hi Alli8

I can't comment on the norethisterone as its many years since I took that but I, along with a lot of menopausal women, have put on about 2 stone and gone up two dress sizes. Part of this was over a couple of years and part when I started on HRT but I think it's a menopause thing rather than HRT itself.  I've decided to just accept the new me. Too many pressures are put on women to look a certain way, particularly at this time of year with the relentless pushing of diets and slimming clubs!

I listened to an interesting science based podcast the other day that might be worth you listening to - it explains some of the science behind body fat and the way distribution of fat changes as we age.

https://zoe.com/learn/podcast-body-fat-health-and-aging

Please try and love you as you are, keep yourself fit and healthy and make the most of life.

Suzie

[joziel]

Please please ask the GP to test your thyroid thoroughly. On the NHS you will only get TSH and free T4 tested, but it's better than nothing. If you want to do proper thyroid testing unfortunately you have to go private - but you can do it yourself at home with a finger prick test from Medichecks.com It's the Advanced Thyroid test there.

A lot of women get hypothyroid stuff starting up around this time, it's very common. Some thyroid meds can make all the difference....