Hope my story on menopause may help?
Posted , 8 users are following.
Hello I have been reading these discussions and this is my story and I hope it may help.
my menopause/peri menopause started when I had my last baby at 33 years old I was ignored by my doctor at 35 - she said you are too young (my mum had early menopause) I suffered and boy I Tsuffered till I was 37 my periods had completely stopped for 8 months and I had done a diary and taken every herbal remedy - the last straw was when I was on my way to pick up the children from school at around 3pm and I nearly fell asleep whilst driving. I went armed to the new doctor who immediately put me on HRT one week later confirmed I was in full menopause....
HRT saved me, I felt me again no more night sweats anxiety weight gain depression constant hot flushes mood swings fatigue bones aching headaches just a few of the symptoms - fantastic wow brilliant all gone with my magic pill.
I am now nearly 49, oh dear the last few years tons of changes including divorce new home older children being abusive to me like their father. New partner then that ends mother with invasive bladder cancer and dementia moving end of partnership court cases with ex husband for custody him lying I won. 7 years of bad luck - then my health started to go down hill around 5 years into this. 6 months ago just want it to all end so depressed tired and the fatigue hot flushes weight gain achy bones all the symptoms again however I didn't recognise. Thought it's my age? Been seeing the doctor for anxiety and depression since last year all foggy so tired!
June this year doctor does extensive blood tests for everything- all clear my liver kidneys heart everything good! So what's wrong?
the night sweats must be cancer so bad the lack of sleep!!
no
a new doctor after a run around as I said I feel I'm going through the menopause- my body doesn't like proestrogen so new HRT now taking wow amazing I have energy I feel normal no more mood swings no aches no headaches. My doctor said we will review HRT as other doctors have when I am 50 years old I said I will sign a disclaimer I never ever want to come off. My new doctor said that is my choice I can have as long as I want and if I want to try another HRT fine. To add to all this I have had scans a smear and a mammogram all clear.
Reading some of the discussions my reply is why oh why come off if it makes you feel so miserable love it and except and just keep up the checks and be happy - if I die at 90 I will still be on it. I said to my doctor I will sign a disclaimer I have the right to choose. Don't feel guilty. If we have a headache we take a tablet same thing.
1 like, 19 replies
VauxhallGirl suzydoo
Posted
Glad you have found a brand of HRT that agrees with you so well!
Not many women on here seem to be so lucky. Some of the time it seems to just make more problems!.
I recently had a full hysterectomy, so assume i am now in freefall meno....so far just foggy brain and night sweats. If i am lucky and that's all I get, I will think myself lucky and stay as I am.
I have heard that some women, when they stop taking HRT, all the meno symptoms come back!
So surely its just delaying things?
suzydoo VauxhallGirl
Posted
The point I am making is ladies why suffer why??
We have flu jabs our babies have injections
I just don't get it why say I'm just having a few symptoms I can deal with? I tried too in my mid thirties I truly did every book every remedy even soya milk which I hate now - life is so short every day is a blessing.
Today was my first day back after a nearly 4 weeks off in which I was poorly which included severe bleeding cramps and extreme fatigue it was booked off as holiday. Day13 on new HRT and I have managed to get home from work walk the dog with my daughter shop cook and just feel normal tired. Tomorrow is a full day so let's just see how I feel. Normally I go to work get home go to bed! The black mood has also gone.
Sorry to ramble as I say everyone has different views this is just mine from my own experience.
suzydoo VauxhallGirl
Posted
raelene_44389 suzydoo
Posted
Just wondering which HRT the Doctor gave to you?
I'm so happy for you to have your health back.
XX
XX
suzydoo VauxhallGirl
Posted
i hope you don't take me the wrong way as I am on your side but why say you are lucky just to get night sweats they are just awful? That's your choice. So long as you don't get clammy during the day have depression and anxiety as a little mix into it.
I am speaking of my experience having gone through it all again whilst on HRT only in the last few years I was happy to change so far I am feeling me again. I am not sweating at work I felt smelly. I shower at least once a day. I am 9 stone and 5ft4 so not over weight and eat very healthy walk the dog and exercise and take vitamins - I cannot change anything in my life so HRT is really my only option!
you do not say how old you are - just think you do have the options research and listen to that voice in your head. Just a suggestion there are low dose options ClImagest that I was on successfully for 10 years does a 1mg version.
I hope I have helped
xxxx
suzydoo raelene_44389
Posted
Thanks yes its given me a new lease to life which is short anyway so why should I suffer and boy have I - I have been thinking back to when it restarted because I was going through many life changes (which incidentally can have an effect on HRT) I can say it's been down hill for 18 months.
I realised that the proestrogen the second half of the Climegest I was taking was causing my problems. Hence after a good half hour with my doctor she has put me on tridestra which is 70 days of oestrogen whoop whoop fabulous my hair is already getting shiny and my energy levels returning. There's a downside though 14 days of proestrogen then a period. My friend said she will mark it in her diary just to be more understanding ha ha!!
There are many different types of HRT if his doesn't work I will try another
😎 xx
VauxhallGirl suzydoo
Posted
No I forgot to say, am 51 years old....so am thinking Doc will say I am too old to start anyway.
Night sweats not too bad, and I am a dog walker, so just me and the dogs out in the countryside, so not like an office environment, where you would feel horrible when you got sweaty. I am in shorts and vest top most of the time, so not so bad.
I say I will think myself lucky because so many women on here are suffering far worse meno symptoms than me. Aching joints, merciless headaches, foul moods, etc.
Fair play to you for taking the HRT route - I have nothing against others taking it - but I would rather handle it now and get it over with while I am in my 50's.
If, at some point I start to get other symptoms, then I may rethink.
susan21149 suzydoo
Posted
I wish i were like you, but i am so nervous about a lot of medications and the way they react with my body. I just want to have a normal nights rest with out being anxious, i just want to get off my ativan with out any side effects.
I was taking a small dose of estrogen and progesterone but i started bleeding plus i am on psych meds too.
I had to stop my estrogen and progesterone, i had to stop my trazodone and my nurontin with how they reacted with my body.
With being diabetic, having blood pressure problems and my heart rate going up and down and my hypothyroidism they say HRTs are not for every one like me.
What can i take because i am at my ends witt here because psych meds make me sick and i am so scared of trying a new one
The only thing i am taking is my ativan and yes It still make me sick at times like raise my heart rate until it starts working than i have sleep apnea and there are times i have trouble sleeping what am i suppose to do just feel like crying don't know what to do
suzydoo susan21149
Posted
something awful all clear. It's what comes first your hormones will cause you to feel sick and low!? It's knowing your body and using your gut feelings..
what I did and I advise is write a diary for a few weeks note all your symptoms- make an appointment with the doctor - read Google go to your local Library find out what books there are get them to order in if they don't have (I've worked in a Library)! Read and get informed so you can go ready to discuss with I suggest a lady doctor.
Im sorry I can't give you a miracle answer you have to branch out to find the right answer and when you do you will know it's right?
i hope I've helped in some way and I will be thinking of you sweetie xx
susan21149 suzydoo
Posted
I will keep this advise glad you are doing great
sheryl37154 susan21149
Posted
Do your own research as well, and go armed with knowledge.
sheryl37154 suzydoo
Posted
Those with problems with hrt have been given the wrong stuff. Ask for oestrodiol hrt - it is bio identical - refuse tablets. So currently that leaves patches and daily gel. Research it.
There used to be an implant pellet - that was fantastic - my body would take as much oestrogen as it needed by itself. I used a 12 month up in 9 months. Then they stopped selling them. However, I found a compound chemist company who still makes them with a script from dr.
After having my gp implant it, 3 weeks later I felt the surge (in my breasts) of it taking effect. Great, went off the patches. The head sweats returned but we were in the middle of a tropical summer. Fatigue, getting angry easy, night sweats, my brain could not think, no libido, etc. You know the drill. However, I have haemochromatosis, and these are also symptoms of that! So it took 4 months or me to realise (remember, I could not think very well), and ready to kill anyone who came near me, before I realised the implant was not working.
I phoned the compound chemist to query it - was it exactly the same as the original, was there something that would prevent it from being absorbed, I could still feel the little lump under the skin.
Eventually I think it came down to the fact that it had not been implanted where there was sufficient fat to be absorbed. (Not much fat on my belly anymore.) I went back onto the patches quick smart - a new one every second day instead of 2 a week. Blessed relief, everything back on track, except for the damn head sweating. And with the head sweats come loss of hair. My full head of beautiful hair that I had built up over the years, is falling out by the handful.
We always put hair loss down to hormones (or lack of - it is also a feature of haemochromatosis), but watching a drs' tv show, they had a hair specialist on who said that the acid in the sweat makes our hair fall out. Whatever, I just want it to stop!
Another 6 year long episode of head sweats was caused by a pituitary gland tumour causing excess prolactin. When I was finally diagnosed and was given the medication, the sweats stopped. Excess prolactin causes oestrogen to be ineffective, so we are pushed back into menopause again.
So if you continue to have hormonal problems despite hrt, ask for all pituitary hormones to be checked, and Iron Studies to check on your ferritin iron levels, try a better hrt, and to top it off, get your vit B12 and D levels checked.
Progesterones are often the problematic ones, I don't think there is a bio-identical one. Don't waste your money on the 'yam' creams, research has proven that it does not transfer to a human the same as it does to mice.
I take 10mg/day of medroxyprogesterone (Provera/Ralovera) without any problems. My gp doubled my script without discussing it with me, tried it during the troublesome time with the pellet, but went back to the 10mg as I thought it might be contributing to the problem.
I have bought another implant but am waiting to get back on track, so that I know immediately if the pellet is not working properly this time. I will also make sure the gp implants in a fatty place. She should have known better - but they don't. I will be more assertive.
Ladies, stop taking all these horrible medications to offset the symptoms of menopause. Use a good hrt instead - it is more natural.
Stop clinging to myths - yes, with some women, the symptoms will come back after stopping, as I have experienced. BUT there is no reason to stop and suzydoo has already said she is NOT going to stop. With some of us, menopause symptoms stay with us forever, because our bodies need it. So luckily we can do something about that, and protect our health at the same time, and stay on hrt forever instead.
Susan, do you have a Family Planning Clinic near you? That is where I found the best drs for hrt. However, where I live, the state government in their wisdom, stopped funding them, and they had to shut down. But search out the equivalent in your country.
VauxhallGirl sheryl37154
Posted
suzydoo sheryl37154
Posted
hello I love this statement so so true thanks for your feedback....
Really appreciate all your knowledge you are a few more steps ahead of me
menopause started in my thirties 33 after my last baby. 37 found a great doctor suggested HRT - (I'd been on natural remedies for 18 months)! I Said yes please. She did the blood tests and a week later I was told by her how have you managed you are in full menopause! Yeh exactly!
12 years later and the worst divorce 7 years ago and coped with help of Climagest my wonderful friend. So didn't recognise what was going on 18 months ago to about 2 months ago when it clicked. After having 2 sessions counselling as I was crying all the time she as a nurse said go to the doctor for blood tests all clear low in B12 perhaps that explains the fatigue I thought? Friend told me how the second half of her Climagest she's not feeling as good - click click click - yes yes that's it I'm having full menopause every other 2 weeks my periods were getting longer and the cramps over the time. I was anxious depressed and boy the night sweats I'd have to wrap myself in a towel in the middle of the night! I was going to work clammy tired oh the fatigue i thought I was dying! I felt sick and ill. I eat really healthy cooking meals from fresh I'm not over weight walk the dog and exercise - (when I had energy lol)!
after scans and my male doctor saying go to one of the female doctors when I announced I wanted to change my HRT. So several weeks later saw a female doctor she said there was a special doctor to see and would write to me. A month and more suffering later a phone call from the surgery saying sorry that clinic doesn't exist now whose your doctor?? Ha ha ha!! I said he doesn't want to see me and the lady doctor passed me on all I want is new HRT? Appointment booked. Felt nervous apprehensive what if she sends me away? Really bad weekend of very heavy bleeding blood clots and cramps. Phoned surgery Monday morning tablets prescribed to stop. The doctors appointment was already booked Wednesday morning - I wrote a list a long list I have to add to my symptoms I was armed and ready I wanted a new prescription and I had the evidence.
What a fab doctor yay! Spent over half hour did examinations and smear (all clear) worked out proestrogen doesn't like me too often. So now on Tridestra yes early early days but boy the difference isn't a little one its HUGE!!!
my 15 year old daughter who lives with me full time always asked about why I am on HRT she now knows as she saw me the last 6 months.
My best friend is now jealous as I'm going to have 70 days of oestrogen lol!!
If this doesn't work I have your advice and will follow. Why is HRT such a taboo????
suzydoo VauxhallGirl
Posted
up to you?
i have said I will sign a disclaimer
life is short I don't want to feel so crisp at 48 nearly 49 so my wishes!
sheryl37154 VauxhallGirl
Posted
sheryl37154 suzydoo
Posted
I was just about ready to punch the lights out of an endocrinologist who was only a fill in for my regular, who got hot and fiery about hrt. He was of a different ethnicity and that makes me wonder too. A different personal belief. Not scientific knowledge at all.
We have to stand our ground and fight for our rights to be healthy, but we have to do the ground work and come armed with knowledge.
yves40 suzydoo
Posted
I know your conversation was a few weeks ago, but I was wondering how you are getting on with the Tridestra? I was prescribed this today as it seems I have issues with progesterone and I am hoping that this may do the trick, only taking it every 3 months