Doctors won't take me seriously, help!

I do understand how you're feeling.  I am now 58 and of course, menopausal.  But I remember all to well the symptoms you are describing.  I too, tried HRT in this period of time.  The one thing I can tell you is that your hormones are bouncing around, big time.  It is somewhat difficult to use HRT in perimenopause because of the wide fluctuations.  Some days, it's too much and other's not enough.  

Frequently doctors are not schooled in hormone replacement.  And therefore are little to no help.  

It isn't unreasonable that you could be menopausal at age 44, but the majority of woman don't get there until their early 50s.  However your age is perfect for the perimenopause stage, where your hormones are all over the place.  Apparently, what you are taking isn't helping your situation.  It may be a good idea to get off everything and give your body time to re-adjust.  I know that sounds a little crazy, but I found that the side effects of HRT were worse than the symptoms I was having.  I went off all HRT and while it took some time and was a rocky road, my body did calm down and I went another 8 years of fairly normal periods and felt ok.  

It isn't possible for you to do FSH and estradiol/progesterone/testosterone testing while you are taking hormones.  So if you decide to get off them, you could then do some testing to help understand what your ovaries are doing.  

The one thing that might help, is to really pay attention to your stress level, nutrition, vitamins and sleep.  Your body needs all the help it can get right now to adjust to lower levels of hormone.  

I feel for you, I too have been there and understand how awful it can make you feel. 

Hope this helps. 

I'll be brief. What I'm going to say here is based on my own experience and my extensive research on health during the last few years. 

I believe it's better if I PM you some links so that you can listen and learn for yourself ad see if it makes sense to you.

Is this okay? So, I'll put between brackets a number (#) and you’ll know it's the number of the link I'm PMing you.

If you have childhood trauma you'll likely have Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – CPTSD which in turn creates a HPA Axis dysregulation. Meaning:   you have high levels of chronic stress that have severely compromised your Adrenals functioning.  With the Adrenals mal-functioning you’ll get high levels of anxiety (1).

By being Perimenopause and with it the ovaries diminishing their function an extra pressure is put on the Adrenals. So the “orchestra” is out of tune. (2) (3)  (4)

Your Perimenopause symptoms indicate that you’re oestrogen dominant. That is: you have more oestrogen that progesterone. The patches the doctors prescribed you are estradiol (oestrogen) made. So they worsen your PMS.

On the Perimenopause you’d need natural , bioidentical progesterone – prescription Utrogestan at bed time, for 12 days before menses (5)

For all the rest (and dear, I know, it’s a lot) you need:

-          Good, caring trauma psychotherapy/counselling;

-          12 steps Support  groups (if you find it  where you live);

-          Proper Endocrinological  assessment  (test saliva + serum + urine cortisol levels, + all the other relevant hormones, Thyroid,  blood sugars, etc, etc) followed by proper treatment;

-          Proper nutrition (increase protein) and supplements;  continue the Bs, add extra B5, + C high dose, etc.

-          Yoga or Tai chi

-          If could go to an alternative medicine consultant it could be beneficial.

I hope you find this useful.

Give us some feedback will you?

A gentle hug. Teresa