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Menopause Matters magazine ISSUE 75 out now. (Spring issue, March 2024)

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Author Topic: 8 weeks on HRT and still feel meh  (Read 12872 times)

Caggy

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8 weeks on HRT and still feel meh
« on: March 26, 2024, 10:22:20 AM »

I’ve been prescribed Everol 75 and 100mg utrogestan daily which I’ve been on for 8 weeks now. My sleep has really improved which is a positive but I’m like a zombie in the day, so weary. I haven’t slept properly for a year, so I have a lot of sleep to catch up on. I want to give it a really good go before I look at other options and don’t want to go back to not sleeping. My mood is quite low and I have no motivation to do anything, mainly because I feel so drugged up! Anyone with any experience of this, would be good to hear. Is it still early days and am I expecting too much too soon? I was on Evorel Conti which seemed to suit me more but my hair was falling out by the handful. My Dr insisted it doesn’t cause hair loss but I said I wanted to try something else as I had heard otherwise. After 3 weeks the hair loss totally stopped so I think it was definitely related. Anyone else experienced hair loss on evorel conti?
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sheila99

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Re: 8 weeks on HRT and still feel meh
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2024, 02:12:33 PM »

Utrogestan turns me into a zombie too. You might be better with a different type of progestin.
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Violetta808

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Re: 8 weeks on HRT and still feel meh
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2024, 10:06:20 AM »

Hi Caggy, utrogestan is infamous for causing zombie effects. I got used to it fairly quickly but not all are as lucky. Some take utrogestan vaginally (off licence) and find it has fewer side effects.

Re hair loss I found this from a quick Google:

'Some HRT contains synthetic progestogens with a high androgenic affect, which can have a negative effect on hair. HRT containing Norethisterone or Levonorgestrel are best avoided. Good hair friendly options include compounds containing Hydroxyprogesterone, Dydrogesterone, and Medroxyprogesterone.'

Everol Conti contains norethisterone so that does seem to explain what you've experienced. The Mirena coil contains levonorgestrel so be aware to avoid that one too (it's very popular). Thyroid function is another thing to check, but from what you say it does seem you were reacting to norethisterone.
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Caggy

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Re: 8 weeks on HRT and still feel meh
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2024, 08:42:27 AM »

Thanks, this is what I found too and mentioned it to my Dr, she dismissed it saying there is a lot of misinformation about menopause/HRT online and hair loss as a side effect wasn’t listed in her Drs ‘bible.’ I told her that when I stopped taking the eveorel conti the hair loss stopped after 3 weeks, she still wouldn’t acknowledge it, despite all my blood tears - thyroid, iron and several others all normal.
I can’t handle the spaced our feeling so I will try it vaginally and see if that helps.
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merrygoround

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Re: 8 weeks on HRT and still feel meh
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2024, 01:39:48 PM »

Thanks, this is what I found too and mentioned it to my Dr, she dismissed it saying there is a lot of misinformation about menopause/HRT online and hair loss as a side effect wasn’t listed in her Drs ‘bible.’ I told her that when I stopped taking the eveorel conti the hair loss stopped after 3 weeks, she still wouldn’t acknowledge it, despite all my blood tears - thyroid, iron and several others all normal.
I can’t handle the spaced our feeling so I will try it vaginally and see if that helps.
The misinformation is simply a lack of knowledge by humanity in general, your doctor is wrong to think her medical-bible has less of it than other sources, because the research hasn't been done yet.

After you have spoken to a few different doctors about menopause you will realise there is no consensus among medics.
I've been really shocked over the last few years at how many menopause questions have no answer and when you search, you see research has been suggested as necessary but not acted on, time and time again, no action.

Unless the authors of the Dr bible were/are psychic, they were filling in the blanks with best guesses and older texts rarely took women's opinions at true value, so quite possibly the women on the internet are more real than those theories ever were.

My own GP blatently lied and I'll never trust her again.
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Caggy

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Re: 8 weeks on HRT and still feel meh
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2024, 02:07:31 PM »

Yes, I’m very quickly beginning to realise that! It’s a real minefield but I trust my own research and the sources I am getting it from, Drs don’t  always know best and I’m starting to see the light! Thanks, very helpful.
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GraceVidrio

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Re: 8 weeks on HRT and still feel meh
« Reply #6 on: April 10, 2024, 11:48:37 AM »

All good now?
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merrygoround

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Re: 8 weeks on HRT and still feel meh
« Reply #7 on: May 03, 2024, 07:50:10 AM »

Caggy, you feeling any better yet?

Did you stick with it or make a change?
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Caggy

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Re: 8 weeks on HRT and still feel meh
« Reply #8 on: May 15, 2024, 07:55:56 PM »

Sorry for late reply. I have persevered  and still feel rubbish. I am waiting to see my Dr but I think I’m way down the list in terms of priority, so I’ll probably get seen sometime next month! I tried utrogestan vaginally for a week and I started bleeding so back to taking orally and the bleeding subsided. Not sure if this is a standard reaction?

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merrygoround

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Re: 8 weeks on HRT and still feel meh
« Reply #9 on: Today at 06:11:09 AM »

Sorry for late reply. I have persevered  and still feel rubbish. I am waiting to see my Dr but I think I’m way down the list in terms of priority, so I’ll probably get seen sometime next month! I tried utrogestan vaginally for a week and I started bleeding so back to taking orally and the bleeding subsided. Not sure if this is a standard reaction?
Utrogestan taken vaginally is supposed to give stronger effects on the womb and less side effects to the rest of the body.
So really it should be better at stopping you bleeding when taken vaginally than orally, but it's supposed to be gentler than many older progestins in general and maybe not as effective as norethisterone in Evorel Conti.

I was told the most common reaction to any change is bleeding and that has been my own experience, but often it takes a month or two before I bleed on a new HRT if there aren't breaks in the progesterone.
Maybe you were about to bleed anyway?

We all seem to react differently to the HRTs, or this forum wouldn't exist.
I was hyper on utrogestan, I went from good sleep to waking every two hours and often lying awake between sleeps.
After a while of this I was tired as well as wired all day long.
It made me depressed (way more than just tired) which was a deal breaker, no point in solving menopause sweats if you're going to end up a statistic of menopausal suicide instead.

I was fobbed off for a long time, including months of unusual bleeding being completely ignored, partly because of receptionists thinking they can triage the calls in the absence of a medical professional. The average receptionist doesn't know enough so when they ask for that brief description of the medical problem you want to speak to the doctor about and we reply something like "menopause" or "hrt", that's the very bottom of the list, not always reached.

So 300 calls to reception, each made at exactly 8.30am ::), might get us on a call list, but instead of speaking to a doctor after hanging around the phone all day, it's a 6pm text saying "Sorry, no more GP calls can be made today, please try again tomorrow if you still want to speak to a GP."

Some people have talked about being able to change GPs, in the UK. It's not possible where I live due to the staff shortages since you-know-what, but clearly some areas have enough doctors for people to choose within the NHS, that might be worth looking into depending on where you are.



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