HRT experiences

Women's health
1

Hi everyone,

I'm 46. After 3 years of battling with all the typical peri menopausal symptoms, tests having rules out everything other than a little mild wear and tear in joints in hips and left foot (osteo arthritus - which they say is typical for anyone my age), a specialist has recommended HRT. No period now for 4 months, prior to that, every 2 weeks, and before that, another absonce of 5 months, so, they are all over the place. I'm otherwise very healthy.

I've tried so many natural alternatives, and not a lot of significant relief from the symptoms; joint aches and pains, headaches, irritability, hair loss, feeling the heat, tiredness, depression.... Regular exercise has helped though, although I can no longer run, and even walking hurts, so limiting to cycling and swimming. Also, Citravescent Vit C + natural sea salt seemd to help a little.

But I am desperate to go back to feeling like my old self, and am prepared to give HRT a try. I know there is so much controversy out there about HRT, and also many people who will point to Bio-identical HRT. However, have spoken to a few specialists about this, and done a fair bit of research, aparantly, the Bio HRT still uses the same hormones, but have not undergone the same stringent testing procedures by the FDA as the regular HRT's. So, am likely to stay away from these.

I would be really interested to hear your experiences with HRT; what were you on, if you had any of the above symptoms - particulalry joint aches and pains, has it helped, how long before they started to work, what were side effects etc?

I am nervous as typically don't do well on any medication. When I was on different pills in my 20's, I would always have unpleasant side effects. Two years ago I tried the Mirena IUD, and I hated that...felt depressed, sore boobs like I was pregnant, and felt bloated. All pain killers (like ibuprofen, tremmadol etc) make me feel like rubbish the next day. So if I try HRT, I may start off on low doses, but will let specialst figure that one out :-)

It would be great to hear your experiences...

2

I HAVE BEEN ON HRT FOR ABOUT 1 YEAR .AND ILOVE THEM.MY MIND FEELS BETTER,MYBODY,SEX,MY WELL BEING .GIVE THEM A TRY,IF YOU DONT LIKE THEM DONT GO BACK.

3

Hi Anna,

I'm on a bio identical. Basically it's derived from plants. The older HRT is made from horse urine. I think some are synthetic.

I've been on it coming 15 weeks. It's helped with depression and anxiety constant bathroom trips, libido.

I had really painful feet which have now gone but sore shoulder joints are still there.

Before HRT I tried all sorts anti depressants, herbs vitamins nothing I tried helped as many symptoms as HRT has.

It's worth a try I decided to give ita go for 3 to 6 months to see howi felt, now I wish I'd tried sooner.

4

I have not tried Hrt but I am on macafem right now it seems to be working. It's all natural it helps balance out your harmones

5

Hi Anna, I am 62 years old I went with bioidentical  hrt. When I went into menopause I was miserable with hot flashes every half an hour. It was dibilitating. I was fortunate to not have many of the other symptyms that you are suffering from. I used the Hormones for 8 years and was back to normal except for a metallic taste in my mouth on occasion. I expected that being on the hrt would get me through meno and I would come out symptom free on the other side. A year ago my Dr. advised me to go off very slowly which I did and also supplemented with Estroven. After 8 months all symptoms were back again plus tremendous fatigue and no ambition to do anything at all. I have been so miserable that I caved and went back on my hormones.  MY advice to you would be that if your quality of life is as poor as you say it is you might want to try it but be prepared to have to stay on them for a very long time. As for myself I would rather have 5 more years of quality life that 10 of misery.. Maybe if I was patient they would eventually go away on their own but from what I have read there is no quarantee that I wont have years of Menopause ahead of me.That should give you some things to think about. Good luck!

6

Hi Anna

I'm 46 too and in the same boat as you with all the hellish perimenopause symptoms. But I'm still getting my period although it was just a day or two. My doctor put me on the birth control pill. I can't say that that's helping as I'm still having lots of symptoms still. Did your doctor give you that as a choice?

CC

7

Anna, I was diagnosed with Hashimotos when I was 36 and was put on HRT at that time since my ovaries shut down. I've taken several different kinds over the years, a compound, Premarin, Estradoil, Activella etc. I liked Activella the best but had to take Prempro the past couple of years because I had medicaid at the time and they wouldn't cover Activella because it's expensive. But I've been taking HRT for close to 3 decades - then I quit taking it a few months ago and bam!

I suddenly felt like my joints aged a hundred years. I felt crickety and stiff My hair was dry and I started adding a few drops of essential rosemary oil to my shampoo to help with hair loss. So, just a few days ago, I decided to take it again, only I'm taking it every other day. I'm hoping my joints will just go back to normal. One of the best articles I've read on HRT is The Real Facts About Menopause by Maryann Hammers March 3rd this year on the lifescript website. 

“Further review of clinical trials and new evidence show that hormone therapy may be a good choice for certain women,” the Mayo Clinic reports.  Your risk from supplemental hormones depends on your age, personal and family medical history, the number of years since you reached menopause, and other factors. In some cases, they may do more good than harm."

Read it when you have time - it's very thorough and makes me feel better. I don't have a family history of these things, and I've read of other women who've been taking it even into their 70s with no problems. I already take a low dose and I'm taking it every other day just to see if I can make it work with less.  The only concern I have is the risk of stroke but I don't have it in my family and I don't smoke and don't have high blood pressure, don't smoke etc. And I've not had a problem so far. 

I would try Activella at a low dose and see how it works for you if it's cool with your Dr.

Best wishes!

 

8

Activella is estradoiol - plant-based, the estrogen is bioidentical,  and it has less side effects. Butt it's lower-dosed which won't work for those who need something stronger. The compound I used to take was expensive and good, but I read that you're not always getting what you're supposed to with that.  

9

Anna, I was put on bioidentical progesterone without any testing to see where my levels were and it was the wrong stuff for me. I started feeling worse and after a few months, I took it upon myself to get saliva testing since my doc told me she wasn't going to test but just rely on symptoms to treat me. Well, when I got my results back, my progesterone was thru the roof! My estrogen was on the low end of normal and I was completely imbalanced and out of wack. No wonder why it didn't work. Then after stopping the progesterone cream, I started having withdrawal symptoms from the progesterone cream to add to my already horrible peri symptoms. I was never informed that some women have a benzodiazapine type withdrawal from progesterone, and boy, I sure did. I am still going thru it and it is making my peri symptoms 10 times worse. Please do yourself a favor and have saliva testing done to ensure that you will be given the correct dose of hormones if you decide to go this route. I sure wish I did, it would have saved me this increased hell I am dealing with.