I'm 50 and recently started oestrogen patches for hot flushes - they've worked brilliantly. But.. my sex drive is non-existent and hasn't improved at all with the patches, so I'm considering switching to tibolone.
Would be interested to know from others on the forum:
- What impact has tibolone had on your libido?
- Has it caused any hair loss (on head)? - my hair is already thinning and I'm worried about it getting worse.
Thanks a lot!
Hi Shelley333, I have been on Livial (Tibolone) for 21yrs. I had a pretty awful time with the menopause prior to being put on them and the positive difference was apparent within 3/4 days of starting. I tried to come off them a couple of times in the past due to scares in the media, but as soon as the old symptoms returned I went back onto them. I have always felt really well and for me they seemed to enhance my sex drive which is still going great even though I am soon to be 70. I have never had a problem with thinning hair either in fact my hair is still thick. The only difficulty I have experienced, is with members of the medical profession who seem to have differing opinions as to whether we should stay on HRT long term. I am a great believer in living for NOW and not thinking of what MAY or may not happen in the future. As long as I have my regular check-ups and mammograms etc, I accept the risks they say HRT brings. After been widowed, I recently married again, a man 8yrs younger than myself and now have an active sex life. I for one am a great advocate of Tibolone but as with all hormone replacement treatments, what suits one may not suit another. LadyPink
Hi Shelley and LadyPink
i am also 50, I started my menopause properly at 38/9, have tried lots do different HRT's and tibolone is the only one that I have felt really comfortable with. I haven't really noticed any "bad" side effects. My hair is still thick a lough not as thick as it was, but I think that is just "time and tide" as opposed to nah one thing. My sex drive is good on days where work and everything else isn't stressing me to death, and rubbish on days where I am too shattered to remember my own name, haha!
my doctor always says to me that HRT is good but not THAT good, you have to help as well by being a bit sensible and not thinking that at 50 you can do what you did at 25.. Hot flushes stopped by the end of around the first week and they had previously been destroying my life, my husband says I am much easier to be around now too. Also my concentration is much better and i have a lot more energy. So I only have good things to say about tibolone. My GP too sometimes will only give me 3 months and make me go back for another check even though my BP is great, but I always just go along with it, I will only complain if they try to stop my prescription.
Hi Shelley..i note your message..and the replies.....I started this discussion on Tibolone..I am nearly 80, believe it or not, and the doctors, and Gynae. hospital insisted i stop Tibolone, which i have had for years..due to dryness which was horrible!..At this age now I am told by GPs and hospital to come off, for safety..re strokes and heart attacks. I understand their point..but I am sure after all these years, it is doing me more harm than good now. My history so far in life at this age is: large cyst on liver removed late 90s - twice in hospital;..two hip and one knee replacements; pancreatitis - and gall bladder and gallstones removed at same time; umbilical hernia, and now have another one, internal this time though; told i have small cataracts; i have had temporal artritis for over 4 years, started on 30 mg. steroids, prednisolone, came down to 5 mg., then 16 months ago i got Polymyalgia..affects neck, hips, and now my spine.all more complicated words!!..so now on 20 mg. steroids... I had to come off tibolone in April, 3-4 months ago, and my osteoarthritis pains are worse, and the hot flushes are terrible, but it HAS been hot weather..i could not cope with it, and the sun is too bright for my eyes..I still think if i was still on tibolone, i might have been much better..as tibolone also helps with osteoarthritis, if you see the instructions.....but that does not mean anything to the doctors these days apparently.....il have lost my bottom teeth, and the gums receded to nothing, just jaw bone now..i have had gum problems since i was 19, and after EVERY meal, i have religiously cleaned my teeth, and between them, to save the gums - this again due to bone problems, and osteoarthritis problems..at this age, it has caught up with me..On steroids, i did have a while where my hair was thinning, but not with tibolone...tibolone worked wonders..i have a young partner, 12 years younger..and at my age, things were good....so good....now it is getting difficult....using cream!!.....i did all that in rather an unhappy marriage, ended in divorce after 40 years..my ex. now 82, has dementia, and cannot get about at all....very sad.....but that is life....i cannot make doctors prescribe things, and i won't buy off the internet, not really safe....that is my answer....to you and the others....as far as tibolone was concerned, my doctor from years ago, who has died now, put me on it, and also a senior professor agreed at the hospital years after, she said i could stay on them for life....if it was my choice..she has now retired, so nothing i can say or do will alter the situation.....i am not too well with loads of medication, and stay in quite a lot..but love my writing, and love cooking, have five grandchildren at university now though mainly, and i used to have my own business for years....so ....good luck to you.....you are still young, fight it, with the young medical profession these days!!!! that is just my story..hope you find tibolone o.k. if you go on it....i have just had lots of things go wrong as i got older, and nothing to do with tibolone, that has been wonderful! take care.
Just a p.s. to my last long rigmarole! I also go to Podiatry clinic every three weeks, my feet have been bad for years, and i have shoes made for me on the NHS.....it is again to do with bone structure....As well as tibolone what it is good for and our discussion, it appears to me it was helpful for the osteoarthritic pains.....which are now worse. I have been told that due to my shoulder and neck pain, and i cannot lift my arm up to wash hair, and do my hair, have to do it in a weird fashion....i am told to have physiotherapy which might help....having to wait three months for that though!!!!.....hey ho!! Tibolone can help with more things than one, i am discovering, i am sure.....i am in more pain these days..
Thanks very much Barbara, LadyPink and Honeybunches, really appreciate all that information. Sounds like tibolone can improve libido and won't necessarily have adverse effects on hair, so I will discuss with my doctor at the next visit.
Very glad to hear of some of your healthy sex lives as one gets older, I was starting to give up hope :-(.
And interesting to hear about others' experience with bad hot flushes - I would never have believed they could be so bad and impact so much on one's life - what a relief that there's something to treat them. Like one of you said - quality of life right now is much more important to me than a small increase in (absolute) risk of some side effects in the future.
Thanks again ladies :-).
Don't give up hope....enjoy life....also care for others, makes a lot of difference then to how you live in the future......i had 7 elderly relatives to sort of care for over 20 years in the 70s and 80s.....really put ideas into my head of how things are when one gets older!! quite an experience really..take care.....all.....
i had tibolone for almost a month....hot flashes become less...well its summer in my country very hot anyway.... my GP just give me for 3 mons...afterthat i should check again...or there is another alternative method...such as acupuncture...i tried that too..might help too.... keep in touch guys....thanks...
Hi shelley
just wondered how you were going with the tibolone
Shelley333, I have been on Tibolone for about 15 years now, and have
several friends who are my age ( almost 70) and all have sworn that
Tiblona has improved their libido as well as given them more energy. In
the 15 years of taking this hormone I have not experienced hair loss, nor
have my girlfriends either. It has not increased my bp either, .....bp was
a little on high side before taking and has remained so, thus I take a
pill to lower that. My bones are in excellent condition, no problems with
aches or pains either. But here in the United States the doctors are so so
against a person my age taking Livial or any other type of hormone. I lived
abroad prior to coming to States and that is how I was able to take it, now
I must travel to buy my prescription. I am now in the process of stopping
the Livial, am 1 month into a lower amount and have noticed that the
facial hair around my face has started to become non existent and I have
a stiffer body and a slight pain occassionally while on the treadmill, as I
am still in process of lowering livial for next 2 months I will continue to
research and after almost 3 months of taking less and less will make my
mind up on whether or not to leave.........the doctors scare you into leaving
Livial. Oh, yes, my skin all over my body is slightly drier......but my outlook
on life is still very very good, as I was a little afraid that I would go into a
depression. Will let you know my outcome later on in the year.....who knows, since Livial worked so well for me, maybe I might go back on it.
Hope this info may have helped you.
just seen this shelley...when i had livial it was great, libido...hair was o.k...but it is different for everyone it seems...if youi read about livial here, i am now elderly, disableld, and allsorts...perhaps time i had to come off it, but i was made to by doctor..age..but others say it does not matter...might get heart trouble or storke...i have got more heart troubles now after off livial, with all my heart has to cope with..anyway, you are young...if you can get it prescribed..well done..where are you on the planet though...might be easy some places, not so easy others..good luck, take care.Barbie.
hello read your story, well done you.
i have been on tibolone for 13 years now, i am 58 yrs old. i agree with you its wonderfull for everything to do with the meoapouse, i dont know if its doing my osteirthiritis anygood or not as ive had many problems with it over the years but i dont think its down to the tibolone.
thank you so much for your life story i only hope i manage to get to your age too, God bless you dear
pauline
Great impact on sex drive - no impact on hair.
54 and love Livial (Tiberlone).
Consider the change - sure you will love it Shelley
Loui x
Hi Shelley333. Are you still looking on here. I was wondering how you got on with the Tibolone ! Did you experience any more hair loss as i have just been put on it and hair is thinning before i start it . Really worried to take it .