Menopause affects very much my emotional / mental balance. I often feel very low. After a period of well-being I can suddendly "go down hill" again suffering from the typical symptons of depression.
As I don't have any other menopausal symptons I don't want to go on HRT.
Does anybody know an alternative remedy that could help with my mood swings ?
Don't underestimate the effects of fluctuating hormones on your mental health - and the symptpoms can last for years. HRT is not the scary big deal everyone thinks it is, recent research shows the opposite (google how safe is HRT for all the latest findings) Estradiol patches and prog. gels bypass your liver and are considered very safe nowadays. I only had one symptom of menopause - horrendous tendon pain which turned into a frozen shoulder, and I put off taking HRT until I was 50. I wish I had taken it years ago, and hope to stay on it for years. It has changed my life - I didn't realise how low I was. Alternative remedies just don't cut it in my opinion. Don't be scared of HRT, it will give you your life back.
Lesley - I am so glad to come across your post!
I have been in search of any information I can find. I am 8 weeks into FS and whilst I can handle pain what I am going through at the moment is evil as you would know. I am even on strong pain medication but I am screaming through the break through pain in between the slow release. On top of this nightmare the last week I have noticed my other shoulder/arm heading down the same path. I am 56 and apart from scant spotting a few times over the past two years I thought I was pretty lucky going through an easy menopause and them bang! I firmly believe this FS is menopause related. I have never thought about HRT there just wasn't any reason
Too but I am having a very big change of heart on that now. So I am interested in your story. Did you start
HRT whilst you had FS and did it help? Can you tell me more about your journey. I am so desperate to at least prevent my right arm from full FS if I can and I don't know if its too late for the left one. What HRT did your Dr prescribe for you?
Beth
Hi Bethanne. So sorry to hear you have FS...isn't it pure hell. If you go onto the Adhesive Capsulitis/Frozen Shoulder board on here, you will see lots of posts from me with some more background to it all and how I believe it is linked to hormones.
Briefly, mine started with an aching left arm in May, and I noticed other joints/tendons popping and hurting - my elbows and arms were sore, I was so stiff in the mornings I felt like I had turned to stone. I felt like I had turned into a 90 year old literally overnight. I am 50, and had noticed missed periods and knew I was perimenopausal, and probably almost menopausal. I had NO other symptoms at all, no sweats or flushes and was a bit smug, thinking I had escaped lightly, when bam, hit with this terrible joint and arm pain. Went to the doctor, but I still had full range of movement then, and when I described this terrible pain with certain arm movements - almost passing out pain, and feeling sick for am moment, I didn't feel doctor believed how bad it was, and he certainly never picked up it could be the beginning of a FS. I really began to worry I had some awful progressive disease it was that bad, and felt like I was getting no help. Then I noticed in July my shoulder was freezing up more and more by the day, and similar pain in right shoulder was starting too. I could hardly move my left arm at all by September and was in complete agony all the time, no sleep etc. Then I started feeling in in my upper back and neck (probably because I was using muscles trying to dry hair etc, to compensate for the shoulder.) I was actually 'diagnosed' with menopausal tendonitis on the off chance while having a smear done by a practice nurse, who did the subject for her thesis. She made me go to a female GP who was open to her suggestions. Not a lot of GP's know or accept it, but some Gynaes do know a lot about the link between ovarian changes, and the subequent sudden lack of estrogen. In some women it leads to acute and sudden onset tendonitis which if left unchecked, can progress into severe frozen shoulder/tennis elbow/hip problems etc. But it is nearly always the shoulder. Estrogen keeps the tendons supple, and some women are just more prone to this being the worst symptom of meno - and they tend to be women who showed no other symptoms! This is well known in Japanese women (where there is not even a word for hot flushes, as they never get them) and FS is the NO1 symptom of meno. Lots of research needed to find out why that is, and why we would be similar..diet maybe? Who knows.
FS and acute tendonitis is also a well known symptom in younger women who are on treatment for breast cancer, as they are of course on estrogen supressing drugs. So the link is there...but most GP's are clueless. You would think when a women of a certain age went in with FS they would put two and two together...it can't just be us!! Anyway....unfortunately, as you obviously know FS cannot be reversed once it had adhered - but I firmly believe my HRT stopped my right shoulder from getting worse. I went on Prempak-C lowest dose for a month which made no difference. I then asked for the higher dose, and by day three I kid you not I felt changes for the better - AND in my bad shoulder too. I now feel like I am on the 'way down the hill' in this journey instead of slowly climbing up and it getting worse day by day. I dread coming off HRT as I could not face going through this again in a few years, it has been the worst experience of my life, and I thought I had quite a high pain threshold after giving birth a few times!!! But I have been told that after five years or so on HRT, the body recognises that it has gone through menopause, and the adjustment is not so bad the second time.
Just a note...Prempak-C is a conjugated estrogen which is made from...pregnant mares urine. I personally have no moral or other objections to taking it, I would take warthog poo if it made me feel human agai 
My advise to you would be to pick a female older GP who knows a bit about womens health, have a chat and and get on HRT asap.
best
Lesley