Hey all
Nice to meet all my people. I'm Louise, I am 50 and one year into the menopause, no period since around March 24. I did not start HRT until July of this year for no other reason than I didn't feel I needed it, although looking back clearly I did. I consider myself fairly lucky in the sense that so far I've not had TOO many physical symptoms, general itchiness, I'd say I'm warmer rather than get sweats but all in all not so bad.
The reason that drove me to start HRT was the mental health side of menopause. I already am on Citalopram 20mg to manage longstanding anxiety and it was doing a fabulous job for the last 10 years consistently and my life has really opened up for this reason. So it was no surprise really to me that of course I'd suffer with anxiety during the menopause. It was horrendous morning anxiety that built up over time until I was so low, not sleeping, getting going to bed dread because I knew I'd wake up the next morning feeling anxious. Meanwhile normal life goes on doesn't it? Job, adult kids, grandson to look after so I bit the bullet and after talking to an amazing ACP at my practice started on 1 pump of oestrogel and 100mg Progesterone daily..
I will say, amazing, within a week I already felt so much better and by 3 weeks in I honestly felt mentally the best I had in a very long time, it was at this point it dawned on me that I should have done this ages ago. Anyway fastforward to 4 weeks and do NOT ask me why but I decided to put myself up to 2 pumps. WHY??? Anyway all was good for around 3 to 4 weeks around 1st September ish and the morning anxiety began to creep back in, subtle at first but has built up over time. I'm now at the point where I feel generally dreadful, morning anxiety that does fade but I'm left with what I can only describe as tenseness in my body, not sleeping great, have a constant dull headache and the last few days very emotional. I think I am taking too much oestrogen, at first I was of the mind well I'm post menopausal so surely I need more not less. But after doing some research I now am thinking it's the oppsosite or I'm very sensitive to oestrogen. I have always seriously struggled with PMT and pregnancy related hormones so I do have good history of being hormone sensitive.
I do have an appt with my ACP on Thursday but in the meantime I'm dropping from 2 pumps to 1 as I just can't handle it any more. Has anyone else found this?