Menopause Matters Forum
General Discussion => New Members => Topic started by: mags4691 on October 15, 2013, 09:39:41 AM
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Hi, I found this site and had to join, it seems it has appeared as a bit of a light. I have recently been at my total wits end with the menopause symptoms and can find no help or ease of it at all. I am in my second year now since my last period and at first the symptoms were easy enough to bear, but these last few months/weeks/days have almost been unbearable. I must have at least 30 to 40 sweats/hot flushes per day and night, no let up, at the weekend I had joint pains, a migraine that had lasted three days, no energy, pale skin and the heat that radiated from me I could have warmed the whole house with!! not to mention bouts of crying and stupidly feeling sorry for myself. I have visited my doctor.. twice and asked her to start me with HRT. She does not believe in it and says I should ride the storm, I am only putting off what will inevitably happen. But I told her the symptoms were particularly severe and she said that the anti-depressant (that I have been on for quite a few years now) had something in it that would help with the flushes and if they weren't helping she would up then. This I refused, I don't want a higher dose of antidepressants!!! I then visited another doctor within the practice and he said he could not override what I had already been told and I should go back and ask her yet again. This lady doctor is adamant that it is not good for you, even though I said it is surely my choice and I just want to be able to live my life again.
I work full time and after such a terrible weekend I was unable to go into work yesterday and again today, just beginning to feel slightly better today. This is taking over my life, affecting my work, and I am in the middle of a house sale which I find so difficult to cope with. I dont have family or a partner here so I am very much alone. I would like to know if you know of anyone or who I could turn to who would actually listen to me about my symptoms and try me on HRT. Are there specialists? Private Doctors? Clinics? I would change my doctor but at the moment I do not know where I am actually going to be moving to and cannot do this until I will be in the right catchment area. It is lovely to see so many people experiencing similar things to me and to know I am not going mad!! But oh to find someone who will actually help!! Thank you for reading this and for letting me get it all off my chest so to speak. I also suffer with hypothyroidism, which is sometimes difficult to control too, even though I have had this for about 18 years now. I am 49 and live in East Sussex, nr Eastbourne.
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Hi
Welcome, this is a really good site and saved me from being carted off to the funny farm. Can truly empathasize with all that you are going through. I had been a few years from last period when was hit with every meno symptom going. My doc at the time did not believe in hrt but managed to get it off another doc in the practice. I have tried a few but have settled on gel and utrogestan. My original doc was like yours in that he said I would ride the storm and if I did go on hrt I would only have the symptoms again years later when I came off. This may be so but I had to hold down a job and was about to become a grandma and just couldn't cope.
If you look in the green menu at the side and go back to docs armed with a lot of info about low hrt and just try to hold your ground and insist.
Take care and hope this helps a bit.
Lesley x
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Welcome mags. I have only one piece of advice which I am sure will be echoed by other members.. You need to change your doctor!!
Taz x :welcomemm:
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Thank you.. I will indeed be changing my doctor but as said before, I need to be moved first. I guess its the feeling of wanting something NOW and not weeks ahead and yes I will definitely insist, one thing I am not is a quitter, but it does seem a one way struggle sometimes. What is wrong with GP's don't they get updates on things?!!
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Hello and welcome.
You are having a very tough time and you need a better doctor. I agree with all the other posts on this thread. I am outraged by the lack of understanding and knowledge of some GPs. :cuss: Your doctor is a women as well - either she is young and idealist or she floated through her menopause with no problems - either way she should know better >:(
At 49 you are still too young to be without oestrogen.
I did a google search for your area and there doesn't seem to be a Meno CLinic in Eastbourne.
Do you know where you will be moving to?
Can anyone else looking at the thread suggest a private doctor for mags4691? What about Professor Studd? http://www.studd.co.uk
Good luck and keep us posted.
DG x
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I also did a bit of research on docs & our local private hospital have an NHS gynae doctor (turns out he delivered my last 3 kids as one was sadly a stillbirth & we stuck with him as obv the next 2 where high risk.) It was £200 for first appt but I guess getting your mum back is well worth the £. I've not taken the plunge yet as would hate him to say the same as the GP. So might be worth a quick try as they do menopasue stuff too not just all things birth just private in his case sadly. Bev x
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Hello mags 4691.
Welcome to the forum and sorry to hear you are suffering so much.
I just wanted to add that I think for some of us the meno symptoms really seem to kick in when we've been without periods for a year or two. That has certainly been my experience and wasn't what I was expecting to happen. My GP is of the opinion that after three period free years we should start to feel better and frankly at the moment I'm hoping he's right!
Wishing you well.
K.
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Thank you to all of you who have replied to this.. It has made me feel better as a person knowing I have people out there sharing similar emotions. I am not moving far enough.. only 5 miles where I am at the moment so will still be in the Eastbourne area effectively. It is a shame that there is nothing in East Sussex, Brighton, Hove, Hastings.. what do all these menopausal women do?? There seems to be no menopause/well women clinics anywhere in this region. Hopefully they have better GP's than I do. My doctor incidentally isn't English but Dutch I believe, perhaps that has something to do with her outlook. I promise to keep you all informed and if anybody does know of anyone locally, private or otherwise I would be so glad to know. take care lovely people .xx
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:welcomemm: mags4691
You will get lots of support on here. :)
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Is your nearest one Portsmouth mags? My nearest was Oxford which was about 120 mile round trip but it was worth it.
Taz
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I have to say my GP's have been next to useless. I started going February this year backwards & forwards going downhill slowly until a month ago when things got so bad I was at crisis point. I'm not even sure if the AD's & benzos they now have me on are a sticking plaster & its hormones I need. I really don't understand why things are so bad with the NHS, I wrote it all down for them but were testing me for things like pylori which is to do with stomach ulcers which came back negative of course after weeks of them loosing samples etc. I feel really let down by my GP practice. B x
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Hello and Welcome bev567901 :welcomemm:
Tell us a bit more about yourself. Age? Are you still having periods? General symptoms?
There are a lot of girls posting on this site who have a wide variety of experiences and expertise including Dr Currie, who is the gynaecologist who started this site. Maybe we can offer a little common sense help & guidance.
Stay with us.
DG x
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Taz..I saw the Oxford clinic on Google but I think the nearest to me would be London!!. :-\
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Go for that one then. I guess it depends on which part of the "Eastbourne area" you are as to which is nearer - there's probably only about 20 miles in it but I would prefer to drive Portsmouth rather than London and I'm not great on public transport - I like to leave when I want and not when a timetable says I can :)
Taz x
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I don't feel bad about changing doctors.....I had one doctor I saw once a year until I was 49 who delivered my kids. He died from a heart attack right as I was becoming menopausal. I have since seen 8 doctors in the last 8 years, only 3 were willing to discuss HRT and 2 others offered vaginal estradiol (which I took). ;D The ignorance of menopause and the symptoms that need to be handled just to maintain a livable life for some of us is not on most doctors' priority list...the 2 OB-GYN doctors I went to both refused HRT and said menopause is not a disease and could be managed naturally...both younger women :o !!
Keep up the persistence to get what you need for yourself!
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Hi everyone.. I thought I would update you as to what has happened since I last joined here one month ago. I went back to my practice and was able to see another lady GP who, although wasn't totally against prescribing me HRT she had reservations because I smoked and because she felt as did the first doctor that HRT carried too many risks.. However, I persevered and as I had been off work yet again, I told her how it was absolutely controlling my life at the moment to the extent that time I felt so awful and ill that I couldn't even attend work. She has put me on a very low dose of combined HRT which I have now been taking for one month... This is may be where I need your views again here.. how long is it until I will notice a change?? So, far I have felt nothing, the sweats remain during the day and at night I'm soaked with them. I do not have any side-effects, which in one way is good, but on the other I feel that they are not working.. Am I being too impatient. Should I have to wait the full three months before coming to that conclusion? The doctor wants to see me for a check up at the end of two months. I would value your views as to how long it does take for HRT to kick in, or if I am not feeling anything now is it likely they could possibly be the wrong dose? Thank you.
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Well done on getting the HRT Mags. I still haven't managed it but have read quite a few posts saying you need to give the meds a chance of 3 months. I hope they work for you xx
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Hi mags4691. Well done for getting the HRT :ola:.
What HRT have you been given? You say it is low dose but how low? Lower dose HRTs may take longer to kick in. I'm sure others will be along with more advice but I think I read somewhere that lower dose HRTs will take longer to work as the oestrogen needs to build up in your system - I could be wrong about this.
By the way, I assume they have tested your thyroid function?
You mentioned you were moving and it sounds as though life is pretty stressful - anxiety and stress will certainly increase sweating etc.
I am personally concerned that you smoke and this may be the reason your doctors have been so reluctant to give you HRT. If you can give up smoking this would help enormously - I know this is tough. The trend is very much towards giving the lowest dose to relieve symptoms and as you smoke this will be even more important.
I certainly think you need to give the HRT longer to work.
Keep posting. Good luck DG :hug:
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Hi mags
Glad you managed to get some HRT!
I have looked back at your posts and you said you were hypothyroid and I know this does interact with HRT - and especially if you take thyroxine at all, and needs careful monitoring I understand.
Personally I would have thought you should have noticed a difference by now if you have been taking it for a month, so you may well need a higher dose - but better to increase it gradually.
As dancinggirl says - what HRT have you been given? If it's an ultra low dose then it's not surprising that you haven't noticed anything! They are all listed here:
http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/postmeno.php
I agree with dancinggirl about smoking - this is likely to increase the risks, and therefore the transdermal route ie patch or gel would be far preferable to tablet HRT, if this is what you have been given.
Here is the abstract if a paper (published in 2005) which discusses it (I've put in red the bit about transdermal) :
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15638743
Smoking, estradiol metabolism and hormone replacement therapy.
Mueck AO, Seeger H.
Source
Section of Endocrinology and Menopause, University Women's Hospital, Calwerstrasse 7, 72076 Tuebingen, Germany. [email protected]
Abstract
Many women receiving hormone replacement therapy (HRT) smoke; in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), one of the largest interventional studies on HRT to date and which recently had to be discontinued, 50% of the 8,500 women on HRT had smoked before or continued to smoke during the study. Remarkably, there is little knowledge about the impact smoking has on the efficacy and side effects of HRT. However, it has been proven that, depending on the type, duration and intensity of nicotine consumption, smoking can reduce or completely cancel the efficacy of orally administered estrogens. Not only does smoking diminish the otherwise well-established beneficial effects of estrogen on hot flashes and urogenital symptoms and its positive effects on lipid metabolism, i.e. by reducing cholesterol, but smoking also specifically reduces estrogen's ability to prevent osteoporosis. The reduction or loss of therapeutic efficacy is mainly caused by dose-dependent elevated hepatic clearance, partially in conjunction with lower estrogen levels, and has been demonstrated only with oral estrogen applications. This failure of therapeutic action should not be compensated for by increasing the dose in smokers as this might result in the production of toxic, even potentially mutagenic estrogen metabolites--compounds recently associated with a higher risk of breast cancer. The favorable effects of estrogens are not lost in smokers when they are applied transdermally. This route enables low dosage and also avoids the formation of unphysiological metabolites by bypassing the liver. Women who continue to smoke despite all warnings should therefore only be treated via the transdermal route. Oral contraceptives, but not HRT, are contraindicated in elderly smokers. However, the principal conclusion of the WHI study was that the lowest dose possible should be chosen, especially in patients with an increased cardiovascular risk, as is the case in smokers.
I'm not trying to alarm you but provide additional information to help you, and perhaps persuade you to start to give up smoking - which will be so much better for you at this stage in your life. And - as well maybe to change the route of HRT.
I do hope this is helpful
Hurdity x
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Hi all, thank you so much for your advice, kindness and support. I am making every effort to stop the smoking.. I have replaced quite a few with an E cigarette now and whilst at work I am very limited. I will keep trying I promise. I have heeded the warnings Hurdity, thank you. I asked for thee patcsh of HRT at the time of my appointment but she was reluctant to start with that. I have been put on Premique low dose 0.3mg/1.5mg, modified release. I am concerned too about the thyroxine levels and I am monitored for this at three monthly intervals because even before HRT the levels dont ever seem to stabilise. Its almost like they guess at a figure!! Ive been hypothyroid since 1995. Yes moving hopefully in two weeks so maybe all these things will settle just a bit.. Thanks again its great to have you there.x
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Hi mags
Well done for your efforts with smoking - sorry I wasn't trying to preach or imply you hadn't thought about it!
In your position I would definitely go for a bio-identical HRT - not Premique. The oestrogens in this one are known as conjugated equine oestrogens - from horses , so many of the them are not the same as in our boides. Also the progestogen is a synthetic one. Body identical hormones are least likely to involved risks, and as I said below, transdermal oestrogen (pacth or gel) would be better.
I don't know why the doc was reluctant to start with patches - because there are low dose patches you can start with (25mcg) - but you would need a separate progesterone. Try to find out as much as you can about HRT from the menu (headings in green on the left) and ask us if you want to know more. I would suggest patch oestrogen and separate progesterone such as utrogestan (micronised progesterone). You will need to be clued up though so that you can talk knowledgeably to your doctor!
Hope the move goes well and keep up the good work (re smoking)!
Hurdity x
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Hey Mags
Can inbox me anytime and will send you hugs xxxx