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[Donnadoobie]

This might be long, I am on a bit of a rant.  Apologies

So!  I recently watched a Stephen Bartlett podcast about the menopause.  His guest was Doctor Mary Clair Haver, a gynaecologist from the US.

I started watching out of interest really, to see what she recommended.  I left the podcast an hour later feeling absolutely bloody furious!

My story briefly. Noticably started peri when I was around 42 ish.  The only symptom I had back then was extremely heavy periods, so bad that I sometimes had to change protection after 5 minutes.  I became severely anaemic. I had a scan which showed a small fibroid and the mirena coil was mentioned but never materialised.  I was prescribed, Tranexamic acid, another GP gave me the Progesterone only pill, which I had to stop before I probably murdered somebody!

Now, if my memory serves me correctly, I think my last normal period was in September 2015, with a small more spotting type period in Feb 2016.

I was never given or offered any form of HRT.  I assumed because I had hypertension ( very well controlled av 103/65)

In 2019 I has uncomfortable feelings which I firstly thought was bowel cancer, sent myself for the free over 50’s screening colonoscopy, but no, it wasn’t that.   Still feeling uncomfortable I thought it might be thrush, so I bought a diagnosis kit.  The kit made me bleed, so I went to the doctor. Without a word of a lie, without an examination, she diagnosed Bacterial Vaginosis and sent me home with some antibiotics.

Guess what?  Nothing got better and then one day, I was so scared that I had vaginal cancer that I went to the GP again, a female .  She did examine me, said I was very dry and skin looked as if I had eczema.  Took a swab, told me to do kegels and sent me home with canestan hydrocortisone cream.  Swab came back clear, I gave up.

A few months later it was time for my smear test.  It was very painful. She said she would ask the GP to prescribe Vaginal Esteogen.  Which I have been using for the past 5.5 years, no issues, no problems.

Then a few weeks ago I watched the podcast.  I became more angry.

She said that evidence into breast cancer use and HRT had now found to be flawed.  HRT patches show no evidence of blood clots.

Women prescribed HRT within 10 years of their last period benefit from healthier, hearts, healthier brains, lower cholesterol, better libido and reduced anxiety

Am I right about this?  My father had heart disease, my mother had Alzheimer’s, I have raised cholesterol, since menopause.  Could I have benefitted from HRT all this time?  Can I benefit now? (I am 63)

I feel angry women are not being treated for their symptoms, are palmed off with other things when all the time it is the bloody menopause! 

I know I am preaching to the converted and all of you are so much more knowledgeable than I am but I have so many silly symptoms that I can now attribute to the menopause from watching the podcast.  Anxiety, raised cholesterol, tinnitus ( yes she said that) low libido, worried about my heart ( because of my Dad) worried about my brain ( because of my Mum) and maybe, just maybe, this could have been supported.

After 10 years I guess I have missed the boat but feel angry that nobody pointed me to the direction of the boat to see if I liked it, or it made me happy.

I know this will resonate with lots of you.

Sorry for the rant.

[Dierdre]

There's no age limit to start HRT and if you feel you could still benefit from it I would definately try it.

[CLKD]

There is another thread running on this .........

[Ayesha]

The other thread 
https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,73521.0.html

[Donnadoobie]

There is another thread running on this .........

Yes it posted 3 times for some reason ( my muddled brain probably) but could not delete 2 of them

[Ayesha]

The website does that quite often, nothing to do with your technical skills 

[Snowcat]

I’m not surprised you feel that way.  I had an early menopause aged 32 and an ovary removed a few years later and nobody even mentioned HRT to me and at that age I wasn’t aware of all the trauma that lay ahead!

The gynaecologist consultant who started me on systemic HRT plus vagifem & Ovestin cream, told me that the studies done looking into the link between cancer and HRT were indeed flawed, and the risk is nowhere as great as they said at the time.  In any event he said if the benefits outweigh the risks with any type of treatment or medication it’s worth trying.

It’s never too late to benefit from HRT - I know I could never manage without it - I tried and it was disastrous! I use the patches (as I’ve had blood clots in the past and the patches don’t carry that risk) vagifem daily (have done for many years) and estrogen cream twice a week at the moment but hoping to stop the cream when the patches kick in properly.  It’s all a bit trial and error but you should be able to have whatever you need to be comfortable.  There is no clinical reason not to use these things daily if necessary. I’ve read somewhere that you’d have to use vagifem every day for a year to have used these things equivalent of one oral HRT pill!