Hi I just thought i might share my experience over the last 4 years hoping that it may help other women with insomnia. Particularly getting to sleep. I was 44 and one night just couldn't get to sleep. This continued and developed into CAD, Chronic Anxiety Disorder. My GP put me on antidepressants (not great) and finally sleeping tablets (which was really a last resort). This continued until over the years I have finally through years of trying found my remedy. So ladies, we are all different but we need to shout at our GPs to get us to the right people. Don't leave your surgery until you have a referral to see a consultant at your hospital menopause clinic and here's the thing...... do not stop any follow ups until they have your meds right. After 5 Years I am on HRT 25mg estrogen patches and the life saviour a HRT med called progestan (i take 200mg every night and apparently this can be increased). This makes you sleepy at night and basically changed my sleep overnight. Along with trying to exercise everday and read a book at night i am now back to my pre menopause self! I am not saying that this is for all women all i am saying is that we women need to SHOUT until we get to see the right people who can help. Best wishes to all who are tackling insomnia. I hope this helps someone. sarah
no meds here they cause cancer good luck I’ll deal with all the miserable symptoms they’re so quick to throw crap in your body
I understand your concerns and I think you are right about GPs throwing drugs at you. As I said its an individual choice. Insomnia is however a one of the most desperate side effects which i had to deal with. Clearly you may not have experienced this. But to those women needing an avenue to at least consider I just needed to put this post out. It is there so they can make an informed decision after careful consideration of all the facts.
Take care
sarah,
I agree with you totally. Lack of sleep can cause all kinds of health problems if long term. Docs will prescribe all kinds of pills to put a band aid on everything but not fix any of it. Hormone therapies today are safe and effective when done right by a doctor that knows what their doing. I feel I am protecting myself against cancer by being on bio identical hormones. I see too many women that have no life just surviving. Quality of these last years of life have to be considered too.
yes I clearly know what it’s like to have insomnia I have lived with depression anxiety panic disorder among other things for as long as I remember so yes I do know what it’s like not to sleep days on end I had a sister that was on HRT and she got breast cancer I’m good with that good luck!
scooby,
Do you know if your sister was prescribed synthetic hormones?
no she was not!
scooby,
any idea what kind she was on? Just curious as to what kind and type she would have been on that caused her issues.
I will ask her
Hi
i have a friend who spent a lot of money on getting the right treatments at some private clinic in London but not the normal HRT route. I understand the feeling regarding the increased risk of cancer and if i could have afforded these safer drug options may have given them a go earlier. However i was in such a desperate place that i would have taken anything at the time to get my sleep back.
After 4 Years I have read around this topic highlighting to my GP studies, especially in Progestan. After my GP made the call to the consultant she increased my dose and quite literally I responded overnight.
I’m just here wanting to tell women to shout more about how they are feeling due our body changes. I still think society has a long way to go to accept the how menopause affects us be it with anxiety, depression, insomnia which i’m sure are linked.
Best wishes to all the women on here what ever your choices xxxx
I have to admit that i have never suffered from depression or anxiety until i developed insomnia. It then caused me to develop CAD which i think the anti depressants helped with a little. i really do accept that HRT is a choice for each individual woman. I really wish you all the best.
xx