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Just to catch up I went to the optician today and had a thorough eye examination, photos of the back of my eye , glaucoma test , eye test
He put yellow drops in my eyes to look for abnormalities.
Everything is fine but my right eye is very dry he put some Hycosan intense drops  in & almost immediately I had relief
My left eye is slightly dry but the right being the worst . He did say that menopause can cause these symptoms

Thankyou all so much for kind words and reassurance , I’m so relieved that’s it’s nothing serious .
Mind you the Hycosan drops aren’t cheap 🙈

Apologies for the TMI !
On Saturday morning I had my usual pre- period constipation. After trying to go to the loo there was a tiny, tiny dot of bright red blood on the toilet tissue. I had a look in the area with the help of my little hand held mirror and noticed a little tear like a Papercut at bottom section of anus. I decided to clean the area with warm water and cotton pad and as I pressed on the tear a very small amount of blood oozed out.
I have had similar small cut in the same area before and they usually appear a day or two before my period.They only tend to bleed very, very slightly and disappear in a day. So far I’ve had 3 this year - every couple of months. One in 2022 before that.

I have read that progesterone and prostaglandin in second half of cycle make the blood vessels around anus swell and become sensitive.
There has been no further bleeding and the cut is healing just visible as a red line now.
I do worry about such things and immediately think it’s cancer! I’ve had a negative FIT test in March this year.

Has anyone else had anything similar ?

I did an E consult GP appointment and they have booked me in for 4 June by which time it will have gone !

While I was waiting (last year) for NHS investigations into unscheduled bleeding on HRT, I was allowed to either stay on the dose I was already on of estradot or to stop it, but I wasn't allowed to increase from the medium dose or switch to another HRT until after they scanned me.

I waited six months for the bleeding to stop being "normal" and become "unexpected", then five months for a scan date, after the scan I was allowed to change both dose and type of HRT. In all it took 13 months with communication delays added on to those 6 and 5 month waits.

I still have unscheduled bleeding on tibolone after taking it continuously since December, so next month it'll be past the six month mark again and I'll have to try to report it again, hopefully without losing my prescription.

Edit; I see you say it's only spotting? Even more reassuring I'd say, I flood every month on HRT, three years post meno, on continuous and when my aunt had cancer the blood came in a flood then too (she was 78).

Did you use the gel before the blood test ?

Ive struggled with absorbing the patches and the gel with last bloods being 320 on 4 pumps. Before going on HRT quite late at 58 my estrogen levels were non existent and I only slept very lightly for about 3/4 hours only.  Hrt has helped a little, I tried everything. Melatonin, herbs, you name it. Finally, the only thing that I found to work is 1 10mg dose of amytriptiline. It has been a revelation. I sleep 7 hours with an average deep sleep of that being 1hr 20 in deep and similar or more of REM. I feel so much better. I researched this quite a bit and found that this drug is used for bad insomnia cases. Zopiclone is so addictive and doesnt put you in the refreshing sleep zones.

Ps/ also like you, I dont absorb topical HRT very well! and agree with Gnatty, the calming sleep apps help to drift back to sleep really well for me too. Before the medication though, nothing worked

I understand. What has helped me massively is when I wake  in the night, firstly I think ooh good that's a few hours under my belt already, and then if I feel like i won't sleep immediately, I listen on minimum volume with just one ear phone in to something on Audible. It has to be a narrator whose voice I find calming - I find it's enough to stop me thinking but quiet enough so it's easy to zone out once I feel sleepy. Maybe you could try this at the beginning of the night too if you find sleep eludes you then. For me it removes all the worry of it all. x

Ah sorry I misunderstood.

Do you’ve changed the way you take progesterone ? Did you used to take 3 Noriday tablets a day for 2 weeks and now you’re taking 3 a day every day ?

I've not tried it, but plenty of people on here suggest doing exactly that and report success.
If it's a matrix patch there should be no problem, if it's a reservoir patch then you might not get half the dose in one half.
I think Evorel has a matrix in the centre?
I can't remember though, it's been a long time since I've seen one, I switched from Evorel to estradot which definitely could be cut.

Dear All,

DottyD68 has nailed it: I do all that she is doing although I found that the warm compresses and the cleaning of the tear duct (due to blepharitis) were no longer necessary once blepharitis went away. But the Hycosan night gel is a saviour: I use it every night - it's a Vit.A gel that can only be used at night because it blurs the vision but it really works.
I did not found Omega 3 or other supplements to work for me, but we're all different. I'd try the gel, the compresses and cleaning ear duct before moving onto supplements (which are not cheap). The cleaning of ear duct is done with Qtip drenched in warm water and bicarbonate: this advice was given to me at Moorfield Eye Hospital and it worked. My optician also reminded me the 20-20-20 rule when working on a screen: every 20 minutes, look for 20 seconds in the distance and blink 20 times.

But everyone is right here: no matter how much HRT, once you have it, it's for life. However, once the symptoms are under control, life looks a lot better - trust me!

All best to all.

Furyan - there are other methods of delivering HRT which may not cause fluid retention.  Have U discussed this issue with your GP?  I became bloated a few days before a period was due, awful!

Hi CLKD - I have an upcoming appointment with GP to look at this. I was thinking of giving Tibolone a try - I know there are mixed reviews about it but I was thinking if it is ‘t actually oestrogen it might give me a break? Meanwhile, i asked for another prescription of Furosemide (diuretic) to help with the retention - it helped a little before but if I could find a way to take HRT without it causing this problem, that’s ideal.

What other types of HRT were you thinking?