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[TrudyP]

Hello from a newbie.  I'm so relieved to have come across this forum, have been feeling isolated and confused and it's great to know i'm not alone.

I'm 49, I think I started perimenopause about 6 years ago, the symptoms were fairly subtle until May this year when wham!  a whole set of sold but stronger and brand new symptoms hit me all of sudden and I am a shadow of the person I was.

Not all of my symptoms are attributed to menopause and I'm currently undergoing neurological investigations for MS, I have also just been diagnosed for a vestibular disorder that will require surgery and I was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease 2 years ago and underwent 2 spinal surgeries.

However there are many symptoms that I now realise are triggered/worsened by menstrual cycle (such that it is).

The GPs at my surgery are very resistant to the idea of testing my hormone levels, they say these tests are usually inconclusive anyway.  But i'm now going to insist because I am sure many of my problems are hormone linked.

There is a strong breast cancer link in my family so I don't know if I will be able to have HRT.

I scored highly on everything except stress and depression on the symptoms test on this site so for me meno is an important part of the jigsaw puzzle of my current health issues.

I used to be an energetic, fit and healthy, fun loving, intelligent career woman and mother. I am now registered disabled (due to spinal disease and very sever dizzy problems), I can barely cope with the job I love anymore and I am so fatigued all the time I can't look after my home and family in the way I used to.

I look forward to chatting to people to people who understand and I hope to learn something from other people here.
 

[lily]

Hi TrudyP

Sorry to hear you are having a rough time.  The trouble with this stage in our lives is that we don't know what to attribute to peri/menopause and what is due to another condition and it sounds like you have a lot going on.  I think our houses and families do need to take a back seat while we muddle through.  On the work front can you maybe reduce your hours or compress your working week to have a day off?  I'm on a day off today and it was great to have a lie in, suit myself about when and what to eat and I've even caught up with some housework which had been a bit neglected.  I hope you get some answers and help soon.  Take care.

[Kathleen]

Hello TrudyP and welcome to the forum.
You will find plenty of help and advice here, not just for menopause problems but also for other health issues. You've definately come to the right place.
Take care.
K.

[Dancinggirl]

Welcome TrudyP
Keep logged onto this site - soak up everything - arm yourself with info - bring your thoughts, worries and questions to us girls and follow your instincts.
Good luck  DG x

[mags4691]

Hi Trudy... I too only just found this site this week!! I have been in the perimenopausege for two years and like you in  June this year it all hit me so hard and like you my doctors are very reluctant to treat me with HRT, I have been told to ride the storm!!  (See my post).  I know exactly how you feel with the fatigue and holding down my job.  I have been off sick this week because the symptoms were just too bad to go in.  It seems crazy to me that hormones can lay you so low and I am sure people in work think well surely she should be able to manage.  I too have degenerative disc disease and my option at the moment is disc replacement surgery which I have opted against at the moment due to the 60/40 percentage of success rate.  Better the pain I can deal with at the moment.  I am also hypothyroid, which is another issue that they cannot seem to stabilise even after 15 years.  I live alone as my family are along way up north and although I love my work and need the job to sustain livability sometimes it is just too much to continue the five day slog.    I just want you to know, that your not alone and I have hope that eventually somebody will listen and help us through this.  This is a wonderful place to lay your heart out to and to know that others share and above all understand what your going through.  Keep hopeful and keep nagging at these NHS doctors.  I am going back armed with info next time!!  tc, keep us up to date.. mags x

[andius]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-katz-md/estrogen-death-hysterectomy_b_3622710.html'show_comment_id=270875711

This article is found on the home page of this site....it is very informative.  In a nutshell, epidemiology studies show that many women in the last decade have DIED or had unnecessary illnesses related to NOT getting the hormones that they needed since the WHI study came out and changed the attitudes regarding HRT for menopause.

[honeybun]

Andius, that is just scaremongering. Sorry but that is unnecessary. Some women chose not to take replacements or can't because of family history or personal health reasons.
It's a personal choice and I don't like the inference that if women choose not to they may die.
I do take HRT...My choice.

The fact that some don't should not be a case of trying to scare them into it.

I am sure if I tried hard enough I could find an article that said the complete opposite.

Honeyb
X

[Dancinggirl]

Hi honeybun
I understand your viewpoint but I think Andius was trying to support all those ladies who ask for or need HRT and don't receive it because of the scares published around 2001/2 as a result of flawed studies. I took myself off HRT at 49 because of these scares and suffered 3 years of hell before a friend, who saw a private gynae, told me to "get a grip, put those scares into proportion and go back on HRT."
Of course taking HRT is very much a personal thing, some cannot take it for health reasons and it certainly won't be right for everyone. 
I have been very concerned when I read posts from ladies who seem to be under the impression that HRT is going to cure all their ills. However, I also read far too many posts where women are denied the option of HRT for no other reason than their doctor doesn't believe in it or has not kept up to date with the latest findings.

I remember all the scares about 'The Pill' and as a result unwanted pregnancies and abortions rose dramatically.  At 17 I went on The Pill because I suffered dreadful period pains.  My mother was appalled and frightened but my father, who was in the medical profession, had done some research and advised me the benefits outweighed any risks. The pill enabled me to have career and lead a normal life.  Now we have Family Planning Clinics all over the country advising girls on the best way to avoid unwanted pregnancies and The Pill is often the first option offered.  I think all these clinics should be extended to include managing the menopause - they're already dealing with hormones so they are best equipped to take this treatment forward. I feel sure, in time, with better understanding and a more tailored approach, women will have better options.
There are two sides to every coin and what we all want is choice.
DG x

[honeybun]

The link that was posted was a scaremongering article.
You can spin that whatever way you want but it's there to read.

I do agree that woman should be given a free choice of treatment but it has to be informed and not due to inflammatory articles that the press love to print.

This forum has been running for years and women come together to support each other, empathise and sympathise and just to lend a willing ear to each other.
We help by giving each other details of our experiences.

What we don't do is scare one another. That's not what MM is for. I have been here for a long time and have never seen that happen.

Honeyb

[andius]

I am sorry if anyone misinterprets my intention in posting this article from the home page on this (MM) site. I just wanted to make sure people saw it. Showing the other side of the coin is truly the point here! Sometimes the written word doesn't substitute for face-to-face conversation. 

I think the article is interesting and probably helpful for women who are deciding on what to do or have doubts with already taking hormones or feel badly about it.  These epidemiologists have taken the data and (scientifically) shown that for some women NOT being on hormones can be very harmful to their bodies.  20K to 90K is not really a lot in the scheme of all the menopausal women in the world, but it is important if YOU are one of the 20-90K women.  As I see it, your job is to figure out if you are one of those women and it is not an easy task and it takes time!

Doesn't it help to provide a different perspective by statistics experts who counter the prevailing attitude since the WHI came out? It is one thing to make an informed decision (which I think/hope is where society is leading) and another to be refused the help you need based on a now questioned study from a decade ago or to be afraid to talk to your doctor candidly or maybe even firmly because of these long-held attitudes.  This study suggests that maybe there is a different side....that these attitudes may not apply for ALL women.

Honeybun, I agree it is a personal choice and some women chose not to for very good reasons.  You and I both choose to and I know it isn't an easy choice.  The opposite inference (WHI produced attitudes and warning leaflets on hormone meds) is that if you take hormones you may get breast cancer, have a pulmonary embolus (clot), heart disease, stroke and die....really ?, WHO wants to take that risk?  It takes a lot of guts and a good doctor to assimilate that info.  That is why I think seeing articles like this is informative and helpful to read and gain some "balance" when making your decision.




 

[Taz2]

It is good to see things from a different perspective but it seemed a little bit vague as to what had caused their deaths. Isn't the article based on American women who have had a hysterectomy though and not the general population? Does it mean all those deaths were caused to women who have had a hysterectomy and been denied hormones? In the UK it is more usual, maybe, to be prescribed the necessary hormones following hysterectomy?  I read it back in the summer but thought then it was about hysterectomy and the damage which could be done to women who are in surgical menopause and not prescribed any hormone replacement. I probably didn't read it properly.....

Taz

[honeybun]

It was exactly how I read it and thought it gave a very confused account of what may have happened.
It's scary stuff really.
It is good to have the pro's and con's but this appeared to be over the top to me.

Honeyb
X

[andius]

Taz and honeybun...I had the same questions when I first saw the article until I studied it a bit.  Thanks for your comments.

You are entirely correct as the study WAS performed on the data for the hysterectomized women 50-59, meaning that they were limiting the lack of hormones to estrogen only, since these women would not have gotten progesterone anyway....they used separate figures for the ones who also had ovaries removed and those who didn't. Thus, those retaining their ovaries went through a natural menopause.  Then they somehow correlated it with the overall decrease in all hormone prescriptions in US to come out with the results.  There is no discussion of cause of death. He lumps them all together to get the wide range of 20K to 90K. There would be many variables here I would think, including natural estrogen levels. (That is how I personally read it anyway)

..."We estimated that over the past decade, due to a wholesale abandonment of all forms of hormone replacement for all categories of women by both the women themselves and their doctors, minimally 20,000, and quite possibly more than 90,000 women have died prematurely. We were very careful to incorporate only reliably conservative figures into our formula, so the numbers might actually be higher still. Being extremely cautious, we report that over 40,000 women have died over the past 10 years for failure to take estrogen."...

I think this for sure applies to women with hysterectomies. Does this apply to those without a hysterectomy?   He infers it in the article, but it is not in the actual study, that's what drew me in.  I know my ovaries don't work anymore whether I had a hysterectomy or not....I assume I am comparable to the women who retained their ovaries and went through natural menopause that were denied estrogen age 50-59. The hysterectomy limits the study data to effects of being denied only estrogen in early menopause, so there is no bias with progesterone. But, if your not getting estrogen in early post-menopause with a uterus, you are probably not getting progesterone either. He doesn't really make this clear IMO.  His point is NO ESTROGEN was given.

It is just interesting data to ponder about when making your choice....I'm definitely a ponderer.

Andius



 

[TrudyP]

Hi, didn't realise my post would cause so much debate about HRT. I am not that well informed about it just following medical advice,

Thanks Mags for your response. i don't blame you for holding off on the disc replacement surgery for now, I guess for some it's great, for me it created more problems than it fixed.

Saw GP today, discussed hormone tests and HRT etc, but to be honest I have so much going on they need to fix the vestibular problem then look at the possibility of MS so I guess to the doctors menopause is low on the list of my health priorities right now.

However had a massive bleed this weekend, never had anything like it before, my last bleed was very light an only a couple of weeks ago.

Just one thing after another at the moment, so exhausted by it all!!!

[andius]

Debate is a good thing!.....we all can learn from each other.
Isn't that why we come here beside the great support from members?

It is my understanding that hormone levels can function a lot when you are still having periods so that the hormones levels on a certain day may not be too helpful.  Maybe that is why the doctor isn't too interested in that at the moment???

I hope they get your other issues sorted out soon so that you can get some relief.

A