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[claire41]

To be honest i just dont know, i have been on my HRT for about 2.5 years now i think,
a patch i cant face yet another pill entering my body i already take enough for my ohter ills,  im on femseven sequi , for the main the only benefit is that it has stoped the hot flushes most of the time, I do still get them esp at times of great strain.
 I am not sure if this is related to patch or the anxiety/depression meds.. but my psoriosis which i have had since age 10 only limited to knees and elbows, has now spread to all sort of places. Its not improved my mind as i tought it might. And i have irregular bleeds with it too, not once a month as my GP said i would. and i do miss them.  And the thought of being stuck to a patch till im 52 does not bare thinking about so i try not to, and im still uncertain if when we come off patch/pills if we have to go thru all the side effects of menopause again i just dont know yours confused.

claire

[kim 2]

Hi to you all - I'm new to the forum and I have found all your comments extremely interesting.  I am now 61 and have been on HRT since I was 50.  I decided to try and wean myself off it slowly as stopping completely did not work at all.  I took 1 tablet every other day for the past 7 months but the dreaded flushes returned. 
All I can say is that if I had known that the symptoms would return when you stopped HRT I would never have started on it without trying EVERYTHING else first.  I innocently assumed that the menopause only lasted for so many years and then you were through it!  Obviously not.  I, like a lot of you, have decided my quality of life is more important so I am back on 1 tablet a day, Climesse, and after 2 days and I am not woken in the night at all.  How long I will carry on with it I don't know. Just read in the paper of a well known lady who has been in it 20 years so that made me feel a bit better!:-\

[Forgetful]

Hi

the menopause as I see it is withdrawal from estrogen. So if you are putting estrogen into your body when its not supposed to be there  and then you stop it you will eventually get the menopause you should have had years ago  which will last until your body adjusts to having low levels again. Obviously the drug companies don't tell women this because if they did less women would bother with it.

I find I'm better without it but everyone is different.

Forgetful x

[Marina]

I've been on HRT for 3 years, but not before trying other things first. When I started getting bad hot flushes I was prescribed Clonidine, which worked very well for a couple of years. Then I had a really bad period (which turned out to be my last) and the flushes started up again with a vengeance, even though I increased the dose of Clonidine from 2 to 3 tablets per day. I was just sweating all the time.

I tried Black cohosh, and that did calm things down a bit, but not to the point where I had a reasonable quality of life. I'm the correct weight for my height, go to the gym, eat healthily, don't smoke and rarely drink, so I feel that the only risk factor in my life is taking HRT, which has worked wonders for the flushes and I feel so much better on it. I've since been diagnosed with low bone density, so that seems to be another thing in favour of HRT.

When I eventually come off HRT, I will ask my GP to let me try Clonidine again if I start getting flushes, as it worked before. However, I'm 48 now, so I expect to be on HRT for another couple of years, until I reach normal menopause age.

Marina

[lillybee]

I saw my GP yesterday and got a prescription for Premique low dose. I am praying loke mad it will work. I read lots of articles about the symptoms coming back when you stop and decided I need help now. I am having 18-20 flushes most days, I sit in work in wet/damp clothes all day, don't sleep and could cry for the Uk. I discussed with bthe doctor about flushes coming back. Some people are unlikely but many will have flushes for only a short spell. I have tried Black Cohosh, Isoflavins, red clover, combination remedies from the health shop, everything I read about I tried. I am 51 and have been like this 4 years. If the HRT works for me I will be so grateful just to feel normal. I have tears streaming down my face now, for no reason. I work full time and it is hard to cope on so little sleep. I was on a nti depressants, venluflaxine for 12 months, they didn't stop any flushes but calmed me down a bit. I decided to come off them as I don't like being on them, the withdrawal, even weening off slowly is hell, won't go through that again. I thought long and hard and decided to try HRT and just hope it will work. My doctor gave me a low dose and said she is limited what she can prescribe as I don't want breakthrough bleeds, not had a period for 4 years. Fingers crossed and I will let you know if it works

[Marina]

Hi lillybee, I really feel for you, and I hope the HRT works. I started on Premique Low dose 3 years ago, and it was fine, but then it was unavailable for a while. I think this was to do with the leaflets in the packs not conforming with rules & regs, so I guess this has now been sorted out.

Anyway, I changed over to Kliovance when I couldn't get Premique LD, and that has been fine, no breakthrough bleeding at all. So if Premique LD doesn't work out, Kliovance could be an alternative.

Good luck, and if my experience is anything to go by, you could start feeling better after 10 days on HRT. Hope so.

Marina

[Taz2]

Hi Lillybee - I hope that the HRT works - have got everything crossed for you!

You sound just as I was in December when I started on Evorel Sequi patches (was still having irregular periods so had to have a bleed-type). I am not sure about the pills but within a day of putting on the first patch I had no sweats at all. They were happening every 20 minutes day and night up till then. It has made such a difference to the way I feel - I will cope with coming off them when I have to I suppose but hope to stay on them for as long as possible.

Love Taz x

[ChrissieAnn]

  Hi Everyone I am new to the forum - I have being taking HRT Tridestra for 10 years now since a fairly early menopause at age 44.  This is one that you take for 3 months then stop for a month and have a period.  I am lucky to be really healthy and have a full health private health screen every year which I have so far passed with flying clours
However frightened by all the negativity about HRT, also having much heavier periods than I ever had naturally plus concerned that my husbands mother (no blood relative of mine) who took it for HRT for 15 years and without any family history got breast cancer, recovered from that then died suddenly of acute myloid leukaemia at age 70.  I decided to go cold turkey about 5 weeks ago.  So far I have hot flushes and night sweats back with avengeance, a bit of bad temper and lot of loss of libido, but not too bad on the emotions. Also noticed loss of head hair but gain of facial hair - grim! I havent been to Docs as I really think this is my decision.
I feel like a junkie, am desparately tempted to go back and take the HRT, am taking any amount of herbal treatments - Menopace, Ginseng and now Sage.  Do I suffer unecessarily when I was perfectly healthy on HRT? What would you do? It would be good to hear from anyone on Tridestra too.  Thanks for listening!

[Ellen]

Hi Chrissie,

   I'm not on HRT so I can't give you any advice on that subject.  I'm sure there'll be someone along soon who can assist.

[Marina]

Hi ChrissieAnn,

As I understand it, going cold turkey is not the best way to come off HRT, it's much better to gradually reduce the dosage over a period of time. A friend of mine did this after 10 years or so on HRT and it worked well for her.

Perhaps a visit to your GP to discuss it would help? I would imagine most GP's would be happy to support a patient who wanted to come off HRT and would suggest how best to gradually reduce the dose.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

[Rivadan]

For me it will be day 7 on Elleste Duet tomorrow. The flushes have reduced (down to 5 or 6 today instead of every 20 mins) and I'm experiencing far less sweating.    I would say I'm back to where I was about a year ago on the flushometer!  Even if it gets no better, I feel I could cope with this. I'm glad I didn't rush to take HRT. Holding on has given me first-hand experiene of just how bad hot flushes can get! A year ago I was telling everyone how marvellously I was coping using natural remedies such as sage leaves and progesterone cream, but in the last month they've been about as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

The test for me will come when I start on the coloured tablets - will I have an allergic reaction?  They are green, and that has not been a problem in the past - but watch this space.

[lillybee]

Good luck Rivadan. I hope mine kicks in soon if it is going to. It has been a gorgeous sunny day and I spent most of it weeping. I am so fed up being hot and wet, I can't help myself at the minute. My 17 year old daughter got upset because I was and I feel really bad about that. It just seems to be going on forever, I never feel fresh or clean, I flush, then I am wet, then I am shivery and cold, day and night. Fingers crossed something starts working soon, I have 3 months premique, not sure if they will work or when.

[Rivadan]

I've been told it takes 7 - 10 days to kick in Lillybee.

Its really not surprising we get weepy is it?  The sweating in particular just gets intolerable. Hairstyles fall out, make up runs off, and I've also (being a woman with cleavage!) started to get sore around the bra area. When you're at work 9-5 you can't keep popping off to have a shower, which is all I really want to do. Then there's the shivering afterwards. I've had two really bad colds in the last few months. I know there's a theory that you don't catch colds from being chilled but it does make me wonder.

I'm lucky in that I don't have any kids at home now (in fact I'm due to become a grandma in September so I'm really hoping to feel more myself by then), but friends who do, have told me how their symptoms are upsetting the entire family. My husband's been a rock. He's spent our entire married life up to now listening to me saying "its a bit cold in here", so he knows I'm definitely not right! I'm also in a supportive atmosphere at work as several of my colleagues are around the same age - our windows are continually being opened and closed!

[DIPSY]

Chrissieanne If I were you I would say get thee back on that h r t, why suffer when you don't have to good luck Love Dipsyxx

[DIPSY]

Rivadan I hope you love being a Granny as much as I do, they bring all the joy without the work, I know I have 3 Love Dipsyx