6th week on HRT

[Bruno1959]

Have been using Femseven Conti patches for 6 weeks now and so far my hot flushes have gone and I am sleeping a lot better.

Still suffering from some anxiety though - the funny thing is that I have several days when my mood is great - I feel calm, relaxed and happy and just how I used to feel before the menopause - but then my mood seems to drop which lasts a while.

I have been post menopausal for a long time (am 55) so would welcome any reassurance that this is normal - I imagine my hormone levels must have dropped to practically zero (if there is such a thing!) before starting HRT xx

[PollyPerky]

6 weeks is not very long and they do say give any HRT 3 months.
I don't know what to suggest really. HRT is not a wonder-drug for everything and if we've been moody before the menopause then it's not unlikely we will be moody so and so's after it too! It's not 'normal' imo to feel in a great mood all the time- everyone has ups and downs. But then it all depends on how low you feel. I've been on HRT for 7 years but still feel anxious and totally unrelaxed at times but that's because I've got a demanding job with deadlines!

The other point is you do not have to use conti HRT just because you are post meno. I don't, because I don't want to use 2 hormones daily, partly due to mood-altering side effects of progesterone. I've chosen to still have a cycle and there are quite a few of us who do.

[Bruno1959]

Polly not very clued up on HRT - what do you use? I thought with HRT you had to take the two hormones?

[PollyPerky]

You do have to use 2 hormones if you have a uterus, so that the oestrogen alone doesn't build up the lining and could eventually become cancerous. But you don't have to use combined HRT - 2 hormones daily. You can still chose to use sequential which is like a natural cycle, so you have oestrogen every day and then a progestogen for some days of the month and when it's stopped you would have a bleed like a period.

[Bruno1959]

Hi Polly

So would the options be Estradot patch and then utrogestan? Only thing is don't fancy having a period after not having them for many years!

[Bruno1959]

Polly - if I went down this route, how many days would you have to take progesterone?

Thanks.

[PollyPerky]

It depends. This link tells you.

www.netdoctor.co.uk/medicines/a8720/utrogestan-capsules-progesterone/

Some women - and I know quite a few- use it for fewer days under the advice of a specialist, if they find they have side effects.

Prof John Studd allows women to use it for 7 days minimum each month but your GP is unlikely to allow this because private patients have access to scans to check the womb lining occasionally if there is any concern about odd bleeding.

There are some long threads on Menopause Matters forum about using this drug and for how many days. You might want to have a read.