Print

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

[rainbow376]

Hi All,

I am new to the site, thank you for adding me :-)  Apologies in advance for a lengthy post too.

I had been on HRT for about 21 months up until last month.  I initially had to fight to have it as my GP prescribed it when a locum was in and it made the world of difference and then they tried to stop it as I have a strong family history of breast cancer (Mum and 2 of 3 sisters had it).  After going to Bupa I was allowed to continue at my own risk. 

I am 55 now and recently discovered I have a meningioma tumour in my brain which is about 3cm in size.  Too big for radiotherapy so I have to wait til January to see if it has grown and if I need surgery to remove it.  At the moment it is having no impact and was only picked up on a scan of my jaw for a different issue.

I was advised to consider stopping HRT by the Neurosurgery team and after reading something that suggested HRT might even cause meningioma tumours I took it into my own hands to gradually reduce HRT and stopped it altogether about 3 weeks ago.

This last week or so I have been really struggling to concentrate.  Its probably been gradual but it suddenly hit me.  I work in IT supporting Accounting and Foreign Exchange applications and usually I am good at my job, but this last week I just find myself not able to stick to one task as my concentration is terrible and I feel unproductive and useless.

I should add that in addition to coming off HRT, I had been on the antidepressant Fluoxetine at 20MG for about 9 years following a very stressful period of family life that saw me struggling to cope.  More stress than depression but I guess it comes under the same thing.  Anyway, I started a new relationship just under 2 months ago and decided the time was right to try and come off that too.  And have been on a reduced dose of 10mg Fluoxetine for about 6 weeks.

I need to sort out my concentration so have gone back to putting half an HRT patch on the last two days to see if it helps.  I think it has a little, but its very early days.  But its bitter sweet, I need to concentrate to work but am scared I could be accelerating the growth of my tumour.  Next scan is planned for January.
I should add that the only symptoms of Menopause I suffered with were hot flushes periodically (no sweats), concentration issues and extreme fatigue.

I had reverted to taking Menoforce Sage for the flushes, which I found helped before I was on HRT - and have only had the odd very mild flush while I was off of HRT - nothing significant.  But its the concentration issue that has led me to go back on it temporarily.  My plan being to still come off it but to reduce it more gradually and try and manage with half a patch for a few weeks and gradually reduce it to 1/4 and then to nothing over the next couple of months.

I am also taking WellWoman over 50 supplements to ensure I am covered on other things.
Does anyone else have any other suggestions re how I can address the concentration issues other than HRT?  Or any other advice to offer or similar issues generally?

Thanks in advance.
Lorraine

[bombsh3ll]

I am not familiar with the evidence on this but I would be asking the following questions-

What level of evidence is there that hormone therapy causes or accelerates the growth of meningiomas?

Is there any evidence that stopping HRT causes their regression?

Do you have any previous brain imaging that could give you an indication of how long the meningioma has been there and if/how quickly it is growing?

If you were premenopausal, would the treatment plan involve removing your ovaries or inducing chemical menopause? (I suspect this would be no).

What about alternatives such as tibolone?

[Penguin]

Nothing to add re the hrt and those are good questions to ask above.
Re the fluoxetine, did you drop straight from 20 to 10? If so, I'd say that is too big a reduction in one go and you need a proper taper plan (even if it means using a liquid form of the drug) to reduce much slower. I'd also advise caution against stopping both hrt and the fluoxetine at the same time. I'm not saying go back up a dose with the fluoxetine but certainly don't drop again without a proper plan. Imo a GP isn't the right person to advise on tapering, they always advise too quickly.

[KaraShannon]

Agree with Penguin on the tapering, GP's do always advise too quickly.  That's been my experience with any medication.

Also thinking that 'chemically' your body has had a lot of change recently. 

We don't know if the change in fluoxetine has led to the concentration problems, but as it's a common menopausal symptom, it could well be the stopping of hrt. 

That then begs the question as to how much of a link do these doctors think there is between hrt and a meningioma.  Huge respect to them of course, but I'm also thinking of what Dr Newson says about us merely replacing hormones that we've always had.

I wonder which studies these doctors are referring to and which type of hrt was used.

You probably don't need more questions right now, I imagine you just need to feel more settled and able to concentrate.   

I do wonder if red clover would be helpful but I have no idea if there are any documented effects on a meningioma or on tumour growth in general.  Maybe worth asking the doctors what they thought about it.  If you don't know it's a herb that has phytoestrogens and may be enough on it's own.