After previously trying to come off my HRT I was recently summoned to see my female GP who in the past has spoken of her dislike of HRT in fact she called it ''evil'' I disagree. I came off last year as I had to have some scans done but I knew then I was going to go back on when i had the scans done. I'm glad I did. The horrendous flushes, prickly skin, depression, tiredness etc. well I had it all -and as i suffer from M.E. as well this was awful. Now I have been told by one of my female doctors that I have to come off- no arguments. I have tried things in the past that didn't work for me so I am feeling that I have no say in all of this, I know the risks and the benefits(but no one mentions these) I don't want to come off so what do I do? Any help would be great!
Hi Dolly
what was the reason they took you off ? I dont take HRT, I cant due to family history it is not a safe option for me, plus I dont want to anyway, so do the natural and Vitamin route, Am I correct in thinking you can only take HRT for a certain amount of time, or am I totally wrong.. what age are you if you dont mind me asking, maybe they stop giving it after so long, are you post menopause or peri ? must be quite panicky for you when it suited you and they say no now...
hope you find something that helps you. Jay xx
Hi Dolly,
Have you looked into bio-identical hormone creams? They're supposed to be better for you than the oral therapy and most natural doctors recommend them.
Sonja
Hi jayneejay
i am not off yet but have been told i am not having any more px for any more HRt -I have no family history of breast cancer and I am not overweight either-but I feel I have no control over this. i am in my 60's by the way and yes they don't like that you take it after this time although i've heard of women older than me who still take it. I am post menapausal too having started that late. I am angry that I have no control
Hi SONJA3124
I am going to buy this cream as I may need it if they do stop my HRT
I am angry that I get no say and it is my body. I could try another doctor in the practice but am sure they would back her up- what do you think?
Hi SONJA3124
Yes I will look into that cream. I am angry that I have had no say over this. I am healthy (apart from the M.E) my weight is good and I feel I know the benefits too of HRt-but they don't mention this!
Hi Dolly
yes I can imagine you are ...
like sonja says, there are natural progesterone creams and i tried these ages ago but they made my right breast lumpy, I had a big lump, so I had to stop them, then a few weeks after the lump went, they seemed to interfere with my hormones too much and I stopped it... I just wanted my body to do what it had to to with out confusing it. ...
but you can buy natural progesterone etc on Biovea web site they sell both creams progesterone and oestrogen ... they may be an option for you, if your good with them, i used the progesterone ...
dont despair there will be something .. or see another doctor maybe they will let you have HRT longer if your healthy etc.. second opinion sometimes good ... Jay xx
Hi Dolly,
I hate to say it but your doctor is probably right in taking you off the HRT due to your age. It's not safe to stay on that type of medication for a long period of time. As far as I know you can be on the bio-identical hormone creams for as long as you want. I have a regular MD who specializes int his area so I supplement with a mixture of 2 different forms of estrogen and about 200 mg of progesterone. Testosterone is supplemented maybe once or twice a week since I'm extrememly sensitive to it. The creams are ordered from a special compounding pharmacy and sent to my home. Not that I'm a big fan of Suzanne Somers but her books on bio-identical hormone therapy were really helpful to me when I first started out. She is a bit extreme and repetative throughout the books but if you can deal with that there is really good information mixed in there too. Wishing you the best of luck. There is still hope out there :-)
Thanks for your views. I will try the cream but i don't want to end up with another problem- I think they are on a campaign -and if you feel you have no say it feels awful -like you have no voice.xx
Hi Dolly
i know what your saying and totally understand...
maybe you will be surprised if you do have to stop taking it .. maybe you will be fine as your post meno..
i am in year 9 of peri and been natural all the way... Vit B6 has been my saviour, wow boosted energy, all my feeling of doom, dread, anxiety went, and tingles and aches .. its also good for HRT too as assists absortion..
it be a year next month for me no periods so hopefully things will start looking up i certainly feel much better since B6 150mg daily since April and its my life turned around, i take other things too.. Menapol Plus etc etc
good luck Dolly I am sure things will be good for you.. and you will find something that suits.... Jay xx
I am 50 and started to have symptoms of sweats etc and missed periods, anxiety, about a year ago, now having occasional periods at random intervals.
I take the vitamin supplement 'menopace night' with evening meal and all the sweats have gone, the anxiety and grumpiness is more or less gone (although with teenage children and a job in IT grumpiness sometimes surfaces!), sleep is more relaxed although still rather odd. (One spell of sleep at the beginning of the night, then another at the end, and a big gap of being wide awake in the middle!!)
To take more control over your life, I would definitely recommend you try these vitamins, you can buy them at good chemist and some supermarkets. Before menopause I took 'Well woman' and it was a life saver - the doc had advised that high levels of vit B, taken for at least a month, can help with stress and anxiety and he was right. These multivitamins have bucket loads of vitamin B plus many other things.
There is also 'Menopace' regular whcih I think you take in teh morning if sleep is not the issue. I take the 'night' version as it include tryptophan which is good for sleep. Boots also make their own version.
I guess if you are post menpopausal there will also be a multivitamin designed for your age! I find the high dose multivitamins are the best, more expensive but definitely worth it. Low dose ones are not worth paying for.
Hi Sonja
Thanks so much for all the support and info youv'e given me, I am not feeling so alone and will try some of the vitamins you recommend. I guess I was frightened as I came off last year for three months- horrendous! So thats in my mind still. But hearing all your stories has helped me so thanks to all of you! xx
Hi and thank you too for your lovely reply.I will also try some of the things you mentioned and agree the better quality vitamins are worth paying for. My doctor said to take evening primrose oil, so It must be good for this too. To be honest she told me to cut down gradually on the HRt and I started today. So better get somthing going with the supplements! x
Hi dollydip,
I have been on HRT for the past 21 years after having a surgical menopause. I must say that I have never had any problems while on it, in fact it has been a bit of a life saver....I had a sudden and very unpleasant start to the menopause after having a hysterectomy at the age of 40yrs.
the hot flushes and night sweats were unbearable, I was constantly absolutely soaked with sweat (and a scarlet face) which was not only embarrassing but also extremely uncomfortable.
I was also depressed and began to suffer from anxiety attacks. I found that vitamin B12 and vitamin B6 helped a great deal alongside the HRT.
Ask your gp if it is possible for you to go onto a lower dose of HRT as this may be acceptable to them..
I wish you well, try to keep your spirits up and be kind to yourself....
Sincere regards, Deidre x
My GP has always said it's up to me as long as I have my HRT check ups which is mainly blood pressure check.
i decided I should try to come off just reading how the risks go up slightly on the leaflet that comes with the patches the older one gets but this is true whether you are on HRT or not and there are benefits too.
I am 62 and on combined HRT patches .They suit me but I am trying to come off very very slowly to give my body time to adjust.I am down to 1/3 rd patch twice a week and will stay at this level for a few more weeks before going down to 1/4 patch.My doctor also advised to come off slowly as last time I couldn't sleep and my skin felt it was on fire !
Compared with my friends who aren't on HRT I seem to be healthier and have had less problems am I just lucky or do the benefits out weigh the risks ?There needs to be more research .Its strange that the contraceptive pill is prescribed for years and there are stronger hormones in those.I hope that it isn't just when we get free prescriptions we are encouraged to give up because of the cost ?
i shall try without and may take green tea and soya supplement .I am not sure about natural progesterone as I read someone who had terrible side effects.Atleast if you have HRT from your doctor they can monitor it's effects.
Hi dollydip, I am angry for you too. "Evil?" I know who is evil and uneducated! First the research regarding HRT has been found to be flawed. Women in the study had to be at least 5-10 years out of menopause and have no menopause symptoms before they were allowed to participate in the study. Then wham, they are given HRT - no wonder it played havoc with their body and caused all sorts of problems including breast cancer.
Young women in their 20s are found to be getting breast cancer and it is nothing to do with HRT. Ask your dr for written proof justifying what she is saying. Ask her for a test to see if you are genetically disposed to breast cancer.
When your marriage and other relationships and your health is destroyed and you want to jump off the cliff, where will she be then?
I too had a hysterectomy at 38 and my enlightened gynae surgeon put me straight on to oestrogen implants. How wonderful they were for years. My body could take the oestrogen as it was needed. Then they stopped making them and patches are the next best thing. I stick to bio-identical hrt which is oestrodiol. The patches are a pain because they can become unstuck and itch but oral tablets are not bio-identical and I don't want them to pass through my liver. Make sure the patches are MX (matrix - which makes the hrt be absorbed slowly), the non MX ones give you a big hit of oestrogen which I was told would be too much in one go and give me all sorts of mood/headache problems. My gp, not knowing the difference, prescribed the non MX ones, and my pharmacist let me know.
I am now 63 and I am not going off them ever, ever. There is no proof that we must go off them by a certain age. Dr Christiane Northrup, a menopause guru, advocates them, and have you read about Terese Gorman - try googling her. She was still on them at 81, she is now 83 according to the date of the data I read about her.
If you go on off on you are more likely to have some problems. My current dr was anti HRT but she has not been through menopause yet and has come round to see that my body needs it. If not, I would have changed doctors. I know the difference as for 6 years I had a pit gland prolactinoma which made my HRT ineffective and I had severe menopause problems constantly and no one could identify what was happening until out of the blue, another dr referred me to an endocrinologist first time I saw her. I am never going back to those symptoms. If they did not go away naturally by 6 years, then it was never going to happen.
So, stick to your guns dollydip if HRT is keeping you healthy and happy. It keeps your heart healthy too. Heart attacks increase dramatically in women who have gone through menopause without HRT. Change your dr if you have to - go to another clinic.
Hi Jane
thanks for your thoughts. i think HRT has benefits that outweigh tthe risks
last year I lost my balance (due to my M.E.) and had a few fractures that healed quickly. I would have come off worse had I not been on HRT.I came off for 3 months last year and it was awful- like hell. Good proven research is needed I think. I am fine on it so why chnge and make my life a hell? For I know that will happen, if its not broken etc....
Hi Sheryl
Thanks for replying- you speak my language! I think the two female doctors at the practice come from a different ethinicity and thats why one of them said it was 'evil' to me I don't think this. i am feeling fine on it and I think the old saying -'' If its not broken -why fix it?'' come to the surface here. Yes I have googled Theresa Gorman and I remember her talking about how well she felt, I am thinking of writing to her to enlist her support. Honestly its awful how women of a certain age are treated- isn't it? I am healthy apart fro the M.E, which I have no control over. My weight is good and I don't smoke or drink and never visit the doctor unless i have to. Last year i had a Dexa bone Scan and all my bones were great (after i lost my balance due to the M.E. but I did well and healed quickly) If I had not been on HRT I would have beeen a sorry mess ending up in Hospital. I have no family history of breast cancer or any cancers so they keep trying to send me for tests -all come back clear,its like the WANT to find somthing wrong with me. I am going to go to a male doctor next week
to out my views across to him , but I'm worried he may back them up
any ideas of what to prepare for this visit?
Hi Dollydip
good luck with the male doctor i hope he listens to you, he may be better then the other female ones you have been seeing also... make sure you get somemore of what your on already, a stock up, so you do not have to suddenly stop HRT that would be awful... if you have to stop, explain you need to do it as slow as possible so they give you more 😀
thanks to you ladies for sharing, I cant take HRT but it still interests me and especially the patch information ... thank you and good luck..
Jay xx
Hmmm, dollydip, apart from what I have already told you, that is difficult. The news about the flawed research was spread across the tv news and newspapers in Australia long ago but does not seem to have made an impact in the UK. I would do a lot of googling to find a report about 'flawed hrt research'.
Let him know how much happier and healthier you feel while on hrt, and what happened when you went off (and I don't see why you had to have some scans). I have lots of scans (because I have haemochromatosis which has done a lot of damage to my body) and hrt supplementation does not even rate a mention. The MRI people want me to remove my patch in case it heats up, but after wasting a few because they do not restick, I left one on as a secret trial and no reaction whatsoever. I now leave them on all the time (unbeknownst to the MRI people).
If you are in a marriage, let him know that the effects of menopause without oestrogen causes you to be so unhappy that it destroys your relationship and you don't need a divorce on top of everything else.
You could let him know of the attitudes of your current dr and her ethnicity and cultural beliefs that it is 'evil'. I have found that women with ample hips and padded thighs just sail through menopause with hardly a blink and they wonder what all the fuss is about when other women complain. The fat on their hips and thighs keeps a supply of oestrogen, as the adrenal glands can still produce oestrogen.
I am the top heavy, narrow hips and thin thighs type (more like a boy) and I just cannot sustain oestrogen in my body. That is why the implants were so good.
Take copies of your tests to the new dr to show that everything has been tested and it is not causing you problems. If you have not had an Iron Studies test, ask for one to make sure that you are not loading iron now that you are no longer menstruating. That is what causes major health problems post menopause, not HRT.
Although you think all the tests are a waste of time, continue to be compliant as afterall, it is good attention. Though anything out of the ordinary does not mean it is caused by HRT.
Do write to Theresa Gorman - it will be good if she provides support to you or brings hrt to the attention of the media again. Being Australian, I had never heard of her till someone mentioned her on another blog. Print off what you have found about her, and take it with you.
If he insists the research has found it to be bad, ask for a copy of that study. For every study that says it is bad, there is another study that says it is good and causes no harm, and is beneficial.
Good luck, be assertive, and don't give up.