Menopause Discussion > Personal Experiences

Feeling worse on HRT

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Mojo-swaptop:
I'm getting a bit fed up.

I started on HRT in May, using 2 pumps of oestrogel and 200mg utrogeston on days 15 - 26. I was on this for 3 28 day cycles. I'm now on evorel sequi, currently in the 4th week (2nd week of the combined patch).

On both the gel and tablets and now the patch I feel that my symptoms have been worse than before I started on HRT. The only thing that seems to have gotten better is my heartburn/indigestion which I hadn't even put down to being a peri symptom.
Everything else, hot flushes, night sweats, irritability, period pains and insomnia have all gotten worse.
 And now to top it off I've started a period a week and a half early, before finishing the combined cycle of the patches.

I know you're supposed to give things time to work but I wouldn't have thought it would make me worse before making me better.

To be quite honest I'm seriously considering giving up HRT altogether to see if things go back to how they were before.

Mojo-swaptop x

CLKD:
Why not stop to give your body a rest?

As oestrogen levels drop muscles may become lax = aches and pains as well as hiatus hernia/heartburn.  Over the Counter meds can help.

Why were you changed from 1 replacement to another  :-\

flo69:
Hi,
HRT can certainly make you feel worse, although don't expect the GP to believe you, mine didn't, but there are many people here who have said the same. As there are more female doctors in high up positions in older life, I would expect reality to creep in sooner or later, but it hasn't happened yet.

Evorel conti contains quite a harsh progestin, known to cause severe adverse reactions in up tto 20% of women, but it is cheap for the NHS.

Evorel conti isn't bioidentical at all, this is a lie they tell women, my GP explained to me, they lie because women don't understand the dangers of utrogestan :o

I wasn't allowed utrogestan or oestrogel until over two years into menopause. I had campaigned for it and been told by my GP that she isn't allowed to prescribe them (not true either). When I finally got them from a specialist, I was sooooo very disappointed that after the hype they were just as bad.

Another one to avoid is provera (MPA), it made me go from happy to suicidal in three short days.

I've taken tibolone since I was 53, it is beneficial, despite bleeding a full five days once a month. Like all the other HRTs, it is only licensed for post meno women, but is fine for peri women unless they hope to get pregnant (not much cross over of the two groups imo). Given what I've been told about women not understanding HRT enough to make an informed choice, I'd say the post or peri debate is bullshit as well.

I found blach cohosh more effective than most HRT at making me feel better, if all else fails, but try tibolone.

Clovie:
I found your post interesting Flo.

i too have been 'lied to' by my GP, you know, the people we are supposed to trust.

my surgery , (they said the whole of my NHS area but I do not believe them) stopped prescribing utrogestan because it was apparently  SOOOOO dangerous for women, even though I explained it was the only progesterone I could tolerate because of progesterone intolerance to synthetic progesterones, and was continuing to be prescribed elsewhere they stuck to their script.
When we dared to ask, given that we had seen that it was so much more expensive than cheap harsh synthetic progesterones, if it was down to cost, we got NO NO NO, It's because it's DANGEROUS!!! :o   This was only a couple of years ago as well, meanwhile everyone else in nearby areas, all over Scotland were continuing to be prescribed it, let alone the rest of the UK and many parts of the rest of the entire WORLD.
Anyway they cut me off cold turkey. Because they wouldn't prescribe utrogestan they cut my estrogel too.
I had to buy it online at my own cost.
Shocking.

Because we complained to the practice manager about this I feel my surgery dislikes me now, paranoid? maybe, but that is how I am now made to feel. With good reason.
I have an awful relationship with my own GP surgery, just for trying to advocate for myself.

I am still having regular predictable periods and they have never stopped, but because I'm 61 - they flat out do not believe me, even though a scan 2 years ago proved it, that I was menstruating, and nothing has changed since still having periods that are getting lighter and hopefully moving towards finishing.
 Meanwhile, I am being treated as a woman with post menopausal bleeding! Being sent for scans etc which I feel may not be necessary.

Consequently, I have zero trust or faith in my GP surgery :(

 

bombsh3ll:
Shout out for the combined pill here if you're under 50!

I take Zoely, (active pills only, skip the placebos) and am period free with none of these issues.

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