Menopause Matters Forum
General Discussion => New Members => Topic started by: Diane on January 09, 2023, 03:55:28 PM
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Hi my name is Diane I am 5 years post menopausal but just under 5 weeks ago I decided to start HRT. 50mg of estrodot and Ultrogestan 100mg every other night vaginally. I feel worse being on HRT massive panic and anxiety has anyone experienced this? I want to just come off it completely would I have any side effects after only a short time
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Yes. and Yes.
Welcome. Why did you begin HRT, which symptom would you like to ease first? :welcomemm:
Some find that keeping a mood/food/symptom diary of use to chart progress.
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Hello Diane and welcome to the forum. I am sorry to hear you are feeling unwell. Ultrogestan is notorious for causing anxiety and low mood and I suspect this is what has caused you to feel unwell. You could ask to try a different progesterone if you wanted. Many members have just stopped HRT without weaning off it.
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It's usually advisable to cut down first but after only 5 weeks you'd probably be OK. After a break of 5 years it would be more usual to start on a lower oestrogen dose. Anxiety can be a symptom of too much oestrogen and your body isn't used to it. If you want to continue on hrt I would take a couple of weeks break then cut the patch in half and use oestrogen only for a couple of weeks. When you add the utro you'll know if that's the problem.
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Hi Diane,
As sheila99 says, you should be OK coming off after just 5 weeks. Her advice about starting with a lower dose is very sensible. If your body has been post menopausal for 5 years, it is going to be a bit of a shock to suddenly have a relatively large increase in oestrogen.
Some ladies start on too high a dose and experience real anxiety because their body knows something is changing quite quickly. If you want to give HRT a good try, you could start with as low as 12.5mcg (quarter of a patch) and see how that goes with the anxiety. If it goes OK, then you could add another quarter after a few weeks. You might find you only need a small amount to address any issues you are having post menopause.
Alternatively, if you didn't want to cut the patches you could ask for oestrogel and start with half a pump. The mantra is 'low and slow'. It seems arduous, but may get you to where you want to be with HRT.
Re the utrogestan, you could give that a miss for the first month since 12.5mcg oestrogen is so small and unlikely to make too much impact for a few weeks. Taking utrogestan every other night should be OK but it can cause some ups and downs initially until the body gets the message that a pattern of taking the utrogestan has formed.
Many of us have no issues with utrogestan and find it to be calming, especially if taken orally every night.