HRT - Some truths and what worked for me

Hi. I started menopause a couple of years ago and have been on HRT patches for several months now. It was really a lot of trial and error for me, because there are some things the doctor doesn’t let you know. Everyone is different, what works for some doesn’t work for others, but I’ll tell you what worked for me and what didn’t. First off, it will take a week or two to get any relief from hot flashes when you first start therapy. I think it was 2 full weeks for me before my hot flashes were completely gone. Next tip; if you haven’t had a hysterectomy, I wouldn’t recommend estrogen-only therapy or you will start having menstrual bleeding again. If you are on combination therapy and have more estrogen than progesterone you may also have menstrual bleeding. I originally started out on Climara Pro patches, but had a hard time getting them to stay on. They fell off every time I showered and that was a problem, so I switched to Combipatch. They were smaller and stayed on better, plus I liked the fact that you switch them out every 3-4 days rather than every week. However, the side effects were horrible. After about a week on Combipatch I started having heavy bleeding. I had horrible cramps, worse than any I ever had with my regular period, as well as sore breasts, irritability, & low back pain. It was so bad it was making me nauseous too. The symptoms didn’t stop until I quit using the Combipatch. The reason for this was because there wasn’t as much progesterone in those patches as there were in the Climara Pro patches. I didn’t don’t know about that at the time, but progesterone is what keeps the bleeding in check. After trying the Combipatch  I went back to Climara Pro. I was still having the adhesion problems, though, and the patches that did manage to stay on for the entire week (I used waterproof medical tape to keep them on) began to smell really bad. This was not working for me so I came up with a system. I really couldn’t stand the smell (due to not being able to wash the skin underneath the patch) so I started taking my patch BEFORE I got in the shower or bath, every single time.  I would just set it down, adhesive side up, on the counter before I got in. When I got back out I dried the area thoroughly, swabbed it with alcohol, let it dry again. Then I put the patch back on the area and ran a warm to hot blow dryer over it for a couple of minutes. The warmth from the blow dryer heats up the adhesive and makes it sticky again. This eliminated the need for the medical tape, and the ability to wash the area underneath the patch took care of any odor.  Also, I contacted Bayer, the maker of Climara Pro, on Facebook and complained about my adhesion problems. They sent 2 months worth of patches to my pharmacy for me, free of charge.  Now that I know how to keep the patches on, I would highly recommend Climara Pro. It took care of all my menopause symptoms and I’m experiencing little to no side effects. You may have some breast tenderness and light spotting for the first few weeks to months until your body gets used to being on the hormones, but that’s about it, and it’s so much better than the torture of hot flashes. Oh, also my libido has returned after being on HRT so that’s a bonus.  I think that about covers my experience so far with HRT. I’d love to hear any tips or tricks anyone else has had when dealing with HRT. 

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