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[Scottish lass]

I have stopped my hrt patches (following GP advice) to see if will settle my spotting. I had been off totally for about 10 day then had a dreadful flare up of vaginal symptoms including UTI like pain and was using a moisturizer every time I was at the bathroom. This went in for a week now I have no pain when I pee but I have a strange nettle rash type sensation which is worse when I am sitting. Has anyone else been affected like this?

[bombsh3ll]

Sadly, millions.

Spotting is not a reason to be asked to stop hormone therapy cold turkey.

If there is any concern this should be investigated whilst continuing your treatment, and the hormone therapy tweaked as needed to hopefully eliminate it.

Spotting can also result from vaginal atrophy, so an examination should have been offered for this and appropriate treatment initiated.

There is never any justification for withdrawing someone's hormone therapy without proactively providing vaginal estrogen, particularly since it sounds like you have a history of GSM anyway.

I would go back and insist that these issues be addressed.

[CLKD]

Agreed!  Again, a medic with little knowledge  . Which HRT regime had U been prescribed and did it help with any symptoms at all?   Some induce a bleed initially.

I would ring the Surgery or send in a triage form asking for VA treatment.  No point in waiting for the UTI symptoms to ease: vaginal atrophy mimics repeated urine-infection type feelings really really well! 

Let us know how you get on.

[Kathleen]

Hello Scottish Lass.

I have had episodes of spotting investigated in the past and when no obvious cause was found I was asked to reduce my HRT.
I think this is a reasonable way to determine if your dose of oestrogen is the problem.

Your problems sound like vaginal atrophy to me and I had similar issues when I came off systemic HRT about five years ago. At that time I was taking a break to see where I was
and I quickly developed vaginal atrophy symptoms that I hadn't had before. I used some vaginal moisturising creams which worked well before I went back on systemic HRT and didn't need them anymore.

Btw I have recently been taking another break from systemic HRT and the very minor brown smudges that I had been having and thought were due to vaginal dryness have completely stopped.  This makes me think that these were due to HRT and not VA at all.
 
If my VA gets worse I will ask to try a topical treatment if I don't want to return to systemic HRT.

I hope all this helps you in some way and I wish you well.

Take care.

K.

[Scottish lass]

My bleeding has been fully investigated by colposcopy and a transvaginal ultrasound and no cause was found. I did wean off the hrt at the rate suggested by the GP. My only real menopausal symptoms are my va and I am still on my Vagifem so was assuming that my flare up is because my hormone levels have altered as not on my patches. I am not GP bashing but genuinely was wondering how long it is reasonable to wait to see if things settle.

[sheila99]

IMO zero days is a reasonable time to wait. If you're bleeding it's the progesterone that needs to be sorted out not the oestrogen (assuming oestrogen is the lowest dose that controls your symptoms). If you're on a conti regime but aren't meno you're likely to have some bleeding.