Hi all,
I've been lurking for a while and getting some great info to take to my GP re HRT. Figured it's now time to properly introduce myself. I'll apologise now for the long read.
My name's Anita, I'm 51 and in full menopause.
Didn't realise that I started experiencing perimenopause 5-6 years ago but hindsight is great huh.
I've a pretty long list of medical issues including;
Oesophageal reflux (approx 30 years); on omeprazole twice a day.
Menieres Disease (approx 20 years), with bilateral hearing loss, severe in one ear and moderate in the other, with tinnitus in both as well.
Joint Hypermobility Syndrome, most major joints are painful and have been for decades.
Fibromyalgia, diagnosed about 7 years ago at the same time as the Joint Hypermobility Syndrome.
Vestibular Migraines, diagnosed Nov 20, after debilitating vertigo attacks started in Apr 20.
I was on the pill from age 15, due to heavy periods every 2 weeks and me becoming a raging b**ch, lol. Changed over to the mini pill aged 40, when I was told that I was "too old" to stay on the other pill now.
Once on the mini pill I stopped having periods very often and those that I did have were very light (like the end of a period). Last one was Feb 20.
Started getting lots of different issues last year, most put down to my Fibro (don't GPs just love to use that):
Sore gums went from what would be "that time of the month" (if I was having periods, but wasn't), to most of the time and then my gums started receding, revealing grooves in my teeth and making them painful.
Hands started hurting every morning, then all the time and lost so much strength in them.
Vertigo attacks increased and felt dizzy/at sea most days.
Anxiety started rearing it's head.
Hot flushes started, along with cold sweats and night sweats..... with the odd heart palpitation with the hot flush.
Finally the lightbulb moment with the hot flushes, I'm menopausal, holy cow. I found this forum and started doing my research, only to find that most of my symptoms were/could be menopausal.... inc the Vestibular Migraines with Vertigo and constant dizziness. Through all the calls with the GP and the consult with the Neurologist, no-one thought Menopause (so I suffered for 2 years, needlessly).
Spoke to the GP about menopause and in Sept 21 I came off the mini pill to see if I had a period, nope; GP wanted to see if I was still peri or full on.
Nov 21 GP was great, seemed happy that I'd done my research here and I started Evorel Conti as my HRT.
Within 2 weeks of being on the HRT patch my hot flushes etc disappeared, dizziness got a bit better and I felt better, except for an upset stomach.
Then 4-5 weeks in my ear pressure started and anxiety went thru the roof, with a lot more heart palpitations.
18th Dec after an absolutely awful anxious night I ripped off the patch and called the GP in tears. She prescribed Propranolol, to help with the heart palpitations, anxiety and may help with the dizziness.... she wanted me to stay off the HRT till the anxiety was under control.
All the menopause symptoms returned within 2-3 weeks, with a vengeance, inc being very very dizzy.
After more research here I realised that the progestogen was likely the culprit for the stomach issues, so in Feb 22 I asked the GP to start HRT again, Utrogestan 100mg and Oestrogen gel (Sandrena 1mg was prescribed); started them 28th Feb.
Ear pressure and stomach upset started again quite quickly, but persevered, as I know my hormones have to settle and the menopause symptoms had tailed off quite quickly again.
A month in I just couldn't stand the raw stomach and nausea, so wanted to switch to Utrogestan vaginally. Emailed my GP saying what I wanted to do and didn't hear back quickly, so just did it. Finally GP reception said GP would call me to discuss in 2 weeks (glad I already started anyway, as the stomach issues are much better, not fixed, but better).
GP call went quite well, but she's emailing a specialist re the vaginal use, she'd never heard of it. In the mean time I'm going to try Sandrena 0.5mg twice a day, so see if that makes any difference to the ear pressure and GP prescribed me steroid nasal spray as well.
Yesterday was the worse day so far for the ear pressure (haven't got the new HRT prescription yet, so still on Sandrena 1mg)... then anxiety went thru the roof last night. Ended up taking 2mg of Diazepam (used for vertigo attacks usually) and going round my neighbours at 23:30 (luckily he was still up), after an hour had to take another 2mg but felt ok enough to go back home. Didn't get to sleep till about 4am so feeling pretty tired today.
Unfortunately the ear pressure and anxiety have kicked in again this morning, so thought writing it all out might help distract me..... and it has.
Hope you're all having a better day than me.
Anita.
Author
Topic: Anxiety, Vertigo and now it seems Progestogen intolerant..... (Read 1535 times)