Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Circles]

Hi there Charmain
i just had to say i totally agree about th alcohhol!!! i just cant tolerate my usuaul levels  which obviously impacts on my entire soial life and stress management techniques - not only can i not drink my bottle of wine (red) but even my gin has startd to tast a bit rubbish too. im losing th drink feelig completly. My womn friends tell me this is normal and that gives me some consolance (?) but its like saying goodby to a whole way of life...sniff... ive just started Femoston (7weeks) and about to put up another post about it as i go to see my  hrt friendly very helpful gp (fifth one i tried mind ) latr this week. Hope things continue to improve for you!! its all fizzy water from now on !!! 

[Eve]

Hi.. I have just been put on Premique, tho my last period was only 10 months ago.. I have suffered so much with hot flushes and night sweats.. every twenty mins or so at times and night sweats have lasted for 2and half hours on one or two occasions.. I have been on clonodine hydrochloride for about 3 months and they havent done a thing.. so as a final resort the doc has prescribed Premique.. I would really like to know other ladies experience of this and I am a little anxious about having been put on it less than a year after my last period.. the reason for this is I suffered from Endometriosis and hrt with a bleed aggravated this conditon. Thank you for your views in advance. 

[Shula]

I tried so hard to get through the menopause 'naturally' but some of my symptoms, particularly anxiety, got unbearable a few months ago, and I finally went on HRT two months ago. So far, for me, I'm finding HRT very good! I'm on Kliovance, and haven't noticed any side effects other than some odd aches and pains in the early days while my body adjusted, but within a couple of weeks I felt much calmer, and much more back to my old self.

[santessa]

Hi Everyone.  This is my first time on the Forum and wow.  I just want to say a very big thank you to everyone for all your advice.  I have been suffering meno symptoms now for 2 years.  I have tried all sorts of remedies including magnets.  I have been thinking for a while re starting HRT as I just can't cope with the hot flushes, night sweats that leave me and my sheets soaked, mood swings, loss of concentration to name just a few symptoms.  My hisband bless him who is so supportive is frozen as I just can't cope with heat.  I have finally had enough.  After reading all your comments, good and bad, I have finally decided to give it a go.  Ive booked my appointment to see my GP on Wednesday and just hope she agrees to it.  So wish me luck everyone and thanks again.

[flushtered]

Hi santessa and welcome to the forum - I'm not on hrt yet, but would like to know how you get on.  Keep us posted please.

[Shula]

Best of luck, santessa!

[Kinney]

Hi everyone
My name is Karen I'm 46.. Nearly 47.... I've been on hrt for 17 days now prempak low dose, so far it's be good headache yesterday and today not sure if its related.... I went on these cause for the last 3-4 years I've felt so so low and this last year well I really felt like I was not even worth anything to anyone felt totally useless, no energy, no motivation for anything, sex drive was zero....really had the force myself to go to work,,,,,wanted to just sit on my own for hours..... Went to dr a few times ...their we're to busy to listen... I knew it was not normal to fell like it and was getting worse....went and saw my own dr had to wait as he was booked way down the line but wanted to see him as he has known me for 20 odd years... Went as I was no makeup wanted him to see me and how I felt... That was 17 days ago ...I feel so much better my mood lifted almost at once like my body had craved this hormone....I don't feel like doom and gloom everyday I feel happy not like a magic pill just normal in my head again lol... I will keep updating to see how to goes but at the mo I'm so happy to not have brain fog..x

[Taz2]

Hi Kinney 

You will find lots of help and support on here. You might like to also post under the New Members thread as this post may get missed and we do like to welcome new members.

It's so good to read that you are feeling better.

Taz x

[Susza]

Conflicting information is good it means there is a debate, but it is only helpful to the end user if we can access this information which is why i have joined this forum as this is definitely a topic that has only just being openly discussed.

A answer i am seeking is if you take HRT we are informed it puts your hormones back to a pre- menopause level, but does that indicate it restores them to a peri-menopause state?

[Hurdity]

Hi Susza

 

Everything is discussed openly on here and has been for some time - and you will find lots of old threads talking about HRT and hormones.

To try to answer a bit of your question:

I presume you are referring to oestrogen? If you take HRT it does not usually put your hormones (oestrogen) back to a pre-menopause level - because the natural cycle of oestrogen varies between lowish to very high around ovulation and most HRT gives a constant amount of oestrogen all the time.

Some women who have early menopause do take much higher doses but it is difficult to re-create the cycle of what happens naturally - constant very high levels can also cause problems and is not what our bodies are used to.

The aim through HRT is to give you more oestrogen to a level which alleviates negative symptoms and sometimes do more than that - depending on your circumstances.

During the peri-menopause there is no steady state and oestrogen fluctuates widely within and between individual women - you would not want to recreate this as it is the fluctuations (in oestrogen and progesterone) which give rise to some of the unpleasant symptoms.

There is a huge amount of information on this site if you look down the menu on the left which can help you understand what is happening to you and what HRT can do.

Why not introduce yourself in the New Members Section, tell us something about yourself and hopefully we can help you with any decisions you are trying to make - at least discuss with you.

Hurdity x

[Limpy]

Conflicting information is good it means there is a debate, but it is only helpful to the end user if we can access this information which is why i have joined this forum as this is definitely a topic that has only just being openly discussed.

A answer i am seeking is if you take HRT we are informed it puts your hormones back to a pre- menopause level, but does that indicate it restores them to a peri-menopause state?

Hi Susza -  Welcome

As Hurdity says, there's lots of information in the menu on the left hand side.

You ask, very sensibly to my mind, does HRT restore hormones to peri / pre menopause state.
I don't know whether anybody has fully measured or established hormone levels at these times.
If this is the case, it's going to be difficult to state definitely what HRT needs to do.
If it's not measured, what are we aiming at?

However, having said that I feel much better on HRT than off!

[Hurdity]

Hi Limpy

I did try to answer that!

Do you mean whether they are measured in an individual? In which case probably not - mine weren't - but there is a reference range of oestradiol levels for women at each stage of the menstrual cycle that is well documented.

There has also been a huge amount of research to determine serum estradiol levels post-menopausally as well as after various types of HRT - the levels of the latter are all given in the leaflets which accompany each product or can be found on the web under the SPC ( Summary of Product Characteristics).

Many women get their oestrogen (estradiol) levels tested after menopause too, before and after taking HRT, although one reading along doesn't tell you much.

I have explained in my post what HRT is aimed at and why it does not aim to restore levels to pre-menopause. Maybe I didn't explain clearly enough - but it was meant to be a short answer explaining the essence of it...

Hurdity x

[Limpy]

Hi Hurdity

Thanks for  that.

I did mean as measured in an individual, mine wasn't measured at all until meno was suspected.
Definitely nothing before.

I think I was getting at the fact in this country blood tests only seem to be taken when something is wrong.
Not just for menopause, in medicine generally. We don't seem to measure things to establish what is the normal base state for an individual in good health. How can faults be identified if we don't know what normal is for a person

Sorry it's a bit muddled

[pearlriver]

 
Hi, my own experience of HRT.  I started on hrt aged 51 when a blood test confirmed I was menopausal.  I was not getting any untoward symptoms but had always suffered low mood and low libido and had heard so many good things about HRT making you feel great and livening up your sex life so I thought I could do with some of that!  To be honest, I felt no different on hrt and two years into taking it I was advised to come off due to benign breast cysts.  I cut down slowly and then the trouble started.  Just hot flushes, very bad and frequent.  I could not stick it so went back on hrt - there was no history of breast cancer in my family so I thought I would be ok.  I tried a few times to come off hrt but each time the hot flushes came back after a few weeks worse than ever.
Then last Christmas I was diagnosed with breast cancer picked up on a mammogram.  Thankfully it was caught early and I had surgery end January and am now awaiting 20 sessions of radiotherapy and 5 years of hormone treatment.  As my tumour was hormone receptive (feeds off oestrogen in the body) I had to come off hrt cold turkey.  I had my last tablet on 10th January and waited with baited breath for the dreaded flushes. 
It has now been two months since I stopped hrt and yes, I am getting hot flushes and night sweats but no worse than when I tried to come off hrt gradually.  I can cope with them.  I think that we will always go through these symptoms and hrt only delays them which is ok if you are working and want to delay til retirement.
My GP and the Breast Surgeon both say that there is no evidence that taking hrt caused my breast cancer but that is something I will never know for sure.  I have told my daughter she must never take it even if offered it (she works abroad where the guidelines may differ from UK).
Sorry for the essay.

[pearlriver]

 :-\I forgot to mention that I am now 61 so was on hrt for nearly ten years.  I started on patches and didn't like them as left marks on my skin which was difficult to clean off so I took femoston conti tablets for many years.  I think they come in two strengths and I took the lower strength.

Pearlriver