Menopause Matters Forum
Menopause Discussion => Personal Experiences => Topic started by: Shazzie on January 30, 2016, 03:25:29 PM
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Hi everyone
Hope you are all doing ok.
I'm a bit fed up as I stopped HRT in August as I haven't bled since 2012 and now all of a sudden the dreaded hot flushes and palps have reappeared.
I started HRT in 2010 for this same reason and while I was on HRT they stopped.
Anyone else had this experience and if so did you go back onto HRT? Not sure whether to or not.
Thanks so much for your help.
Shazzie xx
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It depends on why you stopped? Now that you know that the regime you were on worked …….. depends on how much you are able to tolerate the return of symptoms and how much they interfere with your Life. Do you feel supported at your Surgery?
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I'm afraid that this does happen. Once you stop using HRT then your supply of oestrogen gradually lowers and the old symptoms can reappear. This may take a few months - it's usually around three for me - but in some women the symptoms will then slowly disappear over the next few months so if you don't want to return to HRT it may be worth while waiting for a few months to see if you begin to feel better. My doc says that you should give it another three months from the re-start of the flushes etc. I'm almost 62 and have been on HRT since I was 53. I have stopped taking it twice before and have had to go back onto it in order to stop the sweats and flushes. I consider that I will always need it to keep myself feeling ok.
What was your reason for stopping?
Taz x
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Thanks so much for replying. I really appreciate it.
I stopped the HRT as I had a check up with my GP and we agreed that things seemed to have settled down. Stupid really because that was probably because of the HRT.
She said why don;t you see how it goes without the HRT so I though OK I'll give it a go. All was going well til day before yesterday and it all started u[ again. No bleeding at all just the palps and flushes.
I do feel supported by my GP but she does seem to ask me what I think rather than advise me.
I think I might give it a few more days and see what happens. I've still got some Evorel patches so I can always restart them.
Thanks again for your help. :) :)
Shazzie
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Thanks Taz
I am 55 and I remember being really happy on my patches but you know what GPs are like. Mine said shall we give it a go without the HRT and that was it. It's reassuring to me to hear about your experiences. Makes me feel better.
Thanks for replying.
Shazzie x
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If you were happy on it and your overall health is good then it seems daft to have to come off it. I had similar experience but at 58 where I was told (firstly by the menopause clinic and then the GP) that I would have to stop using it at 60 so better to slowly wind down from 58/59. Luckily my GP agreed for me to still use it after a year without. What a horrible year that was! A new problem also arose when I asked to go back on it in that it is in the first year of use that things such as blood clot and stroke can happen and it was as if I was new to HRT again. So many ifs and buts!!
Some women are fine when they stop and don't get a return of the symptoms - my mum took it for a year when she was fifty seven and when she stopped all of her hot flush symptoms were gone - so I guess it makes sense to try without it with the proviso that if symptoms are still there then you can go back on it. In my experience if you know that you do want to restart it then it's better to do it before symptoms become too entrenched. It can take a while to get your levels back to normal.
Taz x
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Thanks Taz.
It's hard to know when to give it a go without the HRT.
I suppose when you can see that you feel worse when you have stopped it for a few months then it tells us that we still need it. I don't suppose we know if the flushes and palps have stopped until we try and do without. So frustrating.
I know I definitely feel better on it. I've got an appt at GP on Weds to chat about it.
Thanks again for your help Taz.
Shazzie x
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Let us know how you get on? Maybe take a list of symptoms to discuss with your GP.
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Thanks Stellajane and CKLD
I agree it is a real pain. There's no warning to the hot flushes and palps. Happens any time and anywhere.
I will let you know when I get back from the docs what she suggests.
Shazzie xx
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:thankyou:
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:tulips: Thank you too
Shazzie xx
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Well Shazzie it looks like you and I are going to see the doctor on wed for the same reason. I have posted previously but I came off my HRT twelve months ago and it's truly been hell, flushes and sweats being the worst ever. I too felt so well on my HRT and want to go back on it, alas I'm now 65 and as Taz says, that bring further risks with blood clots, strokes etc........but then as Prof Studd says, so does drinking alcohol, being overweight and taking statins.....I just want my life back, these symptoms could go on for years.....so depressing
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I just want to put out there that my mom who is in her mid 70's is still on an HRT patch.
Doc tried to get her off it, but she felt so bad that she was put back on and within days she was her old self again.
Believe she has been on HRT for a good 30 years due to a full hysterectomy.
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I would have thought they would have recommended you just coming off ever so slowly over say a year and see how it went from there, dont intend coming off ever unless there is a serious reason , know the aches and pains and stiffness would come back - I do notice in my pilates excercise class of older ladies I am up quicker and in new positions with relative ease while a lot of them are struggling a bit - am sure thats the hrt,
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Thanks so much for all your replies. Sounds like a lot of us are going through the same.
I went to see a GP on Thurs morning. My usual GP had no appts for 3 weeks so I saw a locum. A young woman, which made me think Oh no. I hope she understands. I was a bit disappointed to be honest.
She said that she thinks that I should stay off the HRT since I've been off it since August. She said "just give it time". "We don't like people staying on it for a long time. And you are 55". She said don't worry about the palps. Just come to see us if youo get pain too I will make an appt with my own GP. I could end up suffering with Palps and hot flushes for 10 blimmin years. :'(
Hope you are all doing ok.
Shazzie xx
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Hi shazzie - sorry you had a disappointing visit but do go back. Before you go print off info from this site about how, nowadays, it is considered ok for women to be on HRT at least until 60 (where benefits exceed the risks) and even in your sixties (risks and benefits equal). I haven't got time to find the links at the minute but it would be worth having a good look around the various threads and the info under the drop down menu at the top of the screen.
I've been off mine now for eight weeks - I feel much better in myself in that I have lost weight, feel much less depressed and energetic (surprisingly) but the flushes and sweats are just beginning to become more regular - every forty minutes now - so I will probably restart soon.
Taz x
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Have had a quick look at the drop-down menu while waiting for the washing machine cycle to finish before I visit the supermarket (exciting life I lead!) and the first thing I found was this which says that if you are under 60 and experiencing menopausal symptoms then the benefits outweigh the risks http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/balance.php
Taz x
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That's a really helpful link Taz. Thanks so much and sorry you are starting to suffer again after eight weeks.
I've managed to get an appt with my own doc on 23rd Feb so fingers crossed she will be more helpful. :)
xx
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Exactly Stellajane! HRT used to make me feel good - it's strange how now that I'm older a lot of "me" doesn't seem to benefit apart from the pelvic floor and the temperature control!! It's so annoying. Last week there were slight warmer moments...the beginning of this week I was waking up in the night throwing the covers off... last night when out for a meal the first "real" one hit and I tried to follow the thread of conversation while that all too familiar trickle began under my breasts and then the make up felt like it was sliding off my face and my fringe stuck to my forehead... today it's every forty minutes on the button!
Taz x
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Shazzie
I agree with Taz - you should be able to continue with HRT as long as you want and especially as you are only 55 - I didn;t start it until I was almost 54 and still on it 9 years later!
Taz I didn't know you'd stopped HRT again and wondering why at this point when you went through all that suffering a while back, and especially as you don't have to take the dreaded prog any more? Since my last attempt at reducing the dose even marginally - and the consequent return of flushes and sweats, I've wimped out of even trying to come off despite the dreaded prog - at least for the time being!!
Hurdity x
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Hi Hurdity - I should have posted about it really but it was an experiment to see if I could stop feeling so anxious. Just before Christmas the anxiety was really bad and it had tipped over into the agoraphobia type which affects quite a few people who have a panic disorder (didn't know that was what I had until the GP said!). I could still go to work but anything that involved travelling too far or meeting up with people for lunch or dinner was getting very difficult. It was as if I had a piece of elastic tethering me to the house! I wondered whether the HRT could be to blame so decided to stop it. Within a couple of weeks I felt much less anxious and able to take on stuff again and my mood has really lifted too. It could be coincidence of course. I have also lost 8lbs in weight without changing anything and feel less bloated. The low stomach pain I've been experiencing has almost totally disappeared and bowels are much better.
The downside is the hot sweats beginning to return. A bit of vaginal and bladder discomfort (the main reason the doc gave me HRT back) a real increase in my Rosacea, very dry skin and not so good sleeping.
Without the HRT I know that I am at risk of vaginal vault prolapse - this is to do with tissue type as much as anything and although I can help by remembering the pelvic floor exercises every day there is still nothing like oestrogen to help keep the tissues strong. I had persuaded the doc to give me a prescription for Estradot 75 but now think that I will restart the 50 instead. Damned if you do and damned if you don't as the OH said last night!
Taz x :)
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Oh dear! Taz :bighug: . It's all a bit of a mystery really what everything is due to. I still think that some of us need a much higher dose of oestrogen to give us that feel good factor - I know in my case for example that I feel flat a lot of the time (but much better in the summer!) - not depressed or anything but just lacking in oomph like I did when I was fertile.
However replacing this through HRT obviously isn't the whole picture - after all our endocrine system is complex and all sorts of other hormones that we barely know anything about also milling around so HRT only approximates this! Not only that we all react differently to replacing it through HRT and added to that if you've had a hysterectomy this may also affect the impact of added oestrogen.
Did you actually try the 75mcg oestrogen? In your position if you are still feeling low on the 50mcg I would be tempted to try it for 3 months after getting used to the 50 mcg again just to see if I felt better - as you don't need any progesterone, but this may not do the trick!
The weight gain is not so good though - I can understand your not being enamoured of this! I have to be permanently on quite a strict diet to keep my weight down - but not sure if this is because of the HRT, thyroid, age or what!
Anyway as you say it could be coincidence but you can't really know - at least I hope you feel better overall back on the oestrogen - that's the important thing - and to protect your bladder etc :)
Hurdity x
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I didn't change to the 75mcg because I wondered whether the stomach issues would get worse with the higher dose, plus the anxiety too? Also, my blood pressure was raised - 135/88 and the doc didn't like that. She is a little bit wary (new doctor as my lovely one has left) about me being on HRT at this age and was only really swayed by the letter from the pelvic floor specialist so the blood pressure increasing (it was always around 120/70) spooked her a bit. I was supposed to go back to the machine in the waiting room three times in the next week to take it and hand the results in to reception but ... I didn't. Just the thought of sitting there with all those eyes on me ( ha ha like they would even be bothering to watch ) while I used it would send it up I'm sure!
Friends are always saying that I should try anti-d's as they are convinced I am depressed but I just think that at this age then there's not that much to look forward to which I guess could be depression! I do miss that ooomph feeling too Hurdity - got and go has got up and left as my mum used to say! It's so hard to work it all out as to what causes what but I was surprised to feel better without it. I really did think it was the progesterone which was the culprit.
I've decided to restart it tonight and make an appointment for next week or next month knowing the long wait at our docs at the minute to discuss the anxiety part of it.
Taz x :thankyou:
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I know nothing about HRT Taz, but would think that feeling anxious is as likely a cause of your rising BP as the HRT. Mine was really high at times when I was very anxious over Xmas and New Year to the point that my GP told me to stop taking it as I was just giving myself white coat syndrome at home!! Hoping it's ok when I go for my diabetic check up as thought of more pills is a big mehhhhh.