Menopause Matters Forum
Menopause Discussion => All things menopause => Topic started by: sweettooth on December 05, 2020, 08:45:49 PM
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Hello dear ladies,
Hoping I can get some positive advice or positive stories. I went on estrogen only beginning of this year, I had to go privately as I had a history of estrogen positive breast cancer thankfully a early one. Anyway I had horrendous adrenaline/anxiety whilst trying to get my levels up, my blood pressure also started to rise a lot so I stopped after 4 months and the withdrawal was 10 times worse! My bp went back down and after about 10 weeks off estrogen & I felt great, just a dull headache every morning.
Now my headaches are improving but I have this awful anxiety which I know for sure is hormonal and sometimes when I get flushes or a headache the anxiety will lift. I am on ADs but I’m wondering if there is anything else I could suggest to GP to get me through this bad spell?
Please give me positive feedback as I’m quite vulnerable at mo.
I def cannot try hrt again.
I’m now 60 xx
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Hi. Ask your GP for a dedicated anti-anxiety medication. Some ADs can help ease symptoms but initially 1 should be prescribed something suitable for the problem.
Flushes can come after anxiety surges.
Deep breathing can help. Also doing tense/relax exercises: i.e. laying down, starting at the feet tense toes, hold, relax. Working all the way up the muscles groups, usually be knees I'm asleep.
Betablockas helped me a lot if you don't want to go down the valium route. Let us know how you get on.
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Aw thanks Clkd, did u find this went eventually?
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Hi Sweettooth,
HRT also raised my bloodpressure and gave me a lot of other symptoms like anxiety and headaches. Although I stopped HRT I still have most of the symptoms. My GP send me to an endocrinologist and if appears my cortisol levels are to high. Maybe worth looking into? High cortisol can give a host of symptoms besides anxiety, even flushing.
I'm sorry you have to go through this and I hope you will find a answer.
Alicess x
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Hi Alicess
That’s very interesting! I have thought of seeing an endocrinologist thank you.
Can I ask were you prescribed anything by him?
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My son was diagnosed with this. He was given a one off steroid treatment that is supposed to shock your adrenal gland.
It was semi successful. He did improve after but it took a while, on a low dose anxiety medication, to get him back to normal.
Not all GPs acknowledge adrenal gland fatigue as a problem, so not easy to get diagnosed and treated.
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Which anti-anxiety medication was recommended?
Cortisol - the waking hormone - used to disturb me anytime after 3.30 a.m. and leave me terrified :-\. A betablocka helped ease those surges.
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Escitolopram.
Not sure if that spelt correctly.
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I'm not prescribed anything yet, they are still trying to figure out whats causing the high cortisol levels. I have a dna- test and a dexa- scan shortly.
Alicess
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Tnx Shadyglade - that's what I take. 5mg in the morning, 10mg at night. I stopped the betablocka in March this year due to background headaches on waking.
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Hi sweettooth. I'm sorry to hear you are feeling unwell in a difficult situation. Glad to see you have had some good advice from the other ladies. Have sent you a PM.
Wx
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Thanks to you all for your kind and helpful messages. I definitely think meditation & relaxation would help so I will start that for sure! I do eat well, take magnesium etc. I am going to mention endocrinologist, it won’t do any harm.
Thanx xx
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Hi sweettooth
in my experience that awful morning anxiety is by far the worst symptom of menopause. Mine seems to be associated with progesterone, in the sense that it started when I started taking progesterone after several months of feeling better on high-dose estrogen alone. I've been through every anti-depressant in the book, plus beta-blockers, pregabalin, herbal remedies etc. and in the end it got so extreme I took an overdose. Right now I'm on two psychiatric medications - quetiapine, which is an anti-psychotic but functions as a mood stabiliser at low doses, and duloxetine, which is an AD and the first one I've been able to tolerate. Feeling a lot better but now trying to wean myself off diazepam, which I've been on for several years. I really wouldn't recommend you go down that route - short term they work well but it's just too easy to become dependant on them and that brings all sorts of extra problems....
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You’ve been thru the mill Rachel I’m glad u found something helping! It seems to be quite a common symptom x
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Exercise helps some people: jogging, swimming, horse riding. Or taking up art but when I'm anxious I can't make appts to go horse riding nor can I sit still enough to paint :-\. I think people who jog have the ability to switch off?
Let us know how you get on?
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Hi, I developed severe anxiety at 47 and was put on citalopram, which I've been on and off for years. The worst part is being woken by a massive cortisol spike every day at 4:30 am, as someone else described upthread.
There is a supplement called phosphatydylserine which regulates cortisol and has really helped me. I just take 100mg when I need it. It's popular on Survivingantidepressants.org.
Other things to try: blackout curtains. The body naturally produces more cortisol in the early morning to get us out of bed. For some of us it seems it produces too much! This is stimulated by light, so the blackout curtain helps calm it down. It takes a few weeks to work, but it's great.
L-theanine is also great at taking the jitters off caused by morning coffee, which I personally cannot give up. Good luck🤞 it's a tough one to crack.
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Thanks cherry, I will certainly look into that.
I didn’t have this anxiety and had been off estrogen for 6 years but it started when I introduced estrogen again and especially the withdrawal was horrendous! I am wondering could it be residual ......I stopped it end of July. No ovaries. I am wondering if there’s still a small amount causing these fluctuations?!