Menopause - at what point did you go to the Dr's?

Seems to be a lot of surgeries giving out HRT!
Where I live they don’t give it to you.
i went years ago and had a blood test to see if I had started and it showed I had, when I asked for help they refused as it’s not their policy to issue it!
I was recommended to take black cohosh? I think it’s called, it didn’t help at all

I started getting extremely heavy and long periods at about 43 so was advised to get mirena which I did and it was amazing for me periods stopped completely. About 3 years later I just started getting really tired despite having great sleep. I go for a run a couple of times a week and I felt I was dragging my legs out of mud trying to get around I also started getting a bit of mild anxiety and after struggling with post natal anxiety in the past I did not want this to develop so went to women's clinic and was prescribed hrt patches which have been great. I have the mirena and 50mg of patch strength and they have been doing fine for me. I turn 50 this year and have started to get joint pain particularly frozen shoulder so may look into upping my patch strength

There is a reduced risk of dementia and osteoporosis with HRT.

Since I’ve been on it my hair has grown back and I sleep better. I’m also less furious. It’s just replacing the hormones you’ve lost.

I don’t understand saying it won’t be much use. Why? I don’t get this refusal to take HRT, it baffles me.

Go now, the hot flushes are a symptom that shows you would benefit from HRT. You'll feel much better.
HRT protects you against muscle weakness, bone loss, urinary symptoms, reduced risk of heart disease by 50% if started before age 60, reduced risk of dementia, reduced risk of womb and colon cancer. And it makes you less likely to shout at your loved ones and spend your life if floods of tears.
I could tell you my long journey to get HRT but it's irrelevant now as it was before the HRT explosion a few years ago. It's much easier to get it after the exposure of the study that implied the increased risk of breast cancer which has been shown to be misleading, if there is a risk it's tiny. The risk to my sanity was huge.
Oh and look at exercises to keep your bones strong.
As an aside on healthy living into old age. My mum is in her 90s has fallen twice didn't break a bone, no cancer, no heart disease excellent health. She was on HRT until nearly 70 the Dr just kept renewing the prescription in error. She walked, no car, she carried shopping, and she gardened. She swears by vitamin D with K, Fish oils, daily walk, gardening, she uses to do yoga too. And was grateful she kept quiet about the HRT, and kept taking it!

I’m 45 next month and started HRT about three months ago due to changes in mood, cycle length, libido and vaginal dryness. The advice I received was that it’s better to start earlier, rather than after your cycle stops/ menopause. I feel so much better. It was quite unbelievable to me how quickly I felt like myself again.

I went when my colleagues in the NHS pulled an intervention and get HRT or we wont work with you anymore 😍
I hadn't realised Id become so moody and sweaty. I went on HRT and all was well.

I started at 40 due to hot flushes and very heavy periods and have been on it now for 12 years. I can’t imagine coming off it tbh. The worse symptoms for me are the anger and irritability which developed later, I just didn’t feel like myself at all.
A dexa scan I had for something unrelated showed I had oesteopina in some bones so I’m very glad I started HRT when I did.

I initially went at age 42 having increased migraines but I didn't link this to perimenopause, the Dr did. They put me on the POP but I didn't have a good experience with it. So I just kind of got on with it.

At age 45 (just) my anxiety started ramping up (I have always had anxiety and I'm ND) but I noticed heavier periods, loss of libido, hot flushes. The mental health symptoms were the worst though. I was put on HRT a couple of months before Christmas and initially it was great, then when I finished the progesterone part of the cyclical HRT I experienced very difficult low mood and intrusive thoughts. I'm now on continuous and it's been amazing.

With the benefit of hindsight, I think I would have benefitted from HRT earlier, when I started having the migraines.

eh? How do you get prescription medicine without a doctor?

I rang the Drs and was told that the practice has a menopause specialist nurse practitioner there so went and saw her instead. I had no idea they had this service.

I was at the end of my tether and waited far far too long. Should have gone sooner.

I did go onto HRT as although my symptoms were bad, I was more concerned about the heart and brain protective properties of HRT and knew that it would be impossible to backpedal the damage if too far gone.

Trouble was, the symptoms of peri crept on and I coped and managed as they were not sudden and in my face, so you do don’t you, you just crack on putting up with one symptom after another after another until it begins to properly impact your life.
Might be worth persisting and getting a conversation with the GP or practice nurse for advice.

Once the rose tinted glasses fall off you simply can’t go back. Pills aren’t going to change being able to spot stupidity.
Personally I didn’t bother with a Dr. But HRT does protect the heart and bones.

HRT will ease or eradicate your symptoms so why do you “feel you don’t need it”?

I had no hot flushes but became very irritable for no reason and constantly anxious, which was out of character. I started HRT at 44 and those symptoms went away very quickly. I’m nearly 50 now and still on it. I take testosterone as part of it and that has helped with libido and mental focus.

Your oestrogen is depleted and that constitutes an increased risk of osteoporosis as you age.

Don’t understand women who don’t want to take HRT (absent a medical reason to avoid it). If you had any other physical ailment you’d take the medicine. Why is this different?

I was scared to start HRT so started on supplements to ease my aching joints and brain fog. But then I started with tingling hands and thought I had MS or something, so went to the GP. Turns out I had low ferritin due to the horrendous periods I was putting up with, as I thought it was normal for this time of life! To prevent that happening again I had a Mirena coil, which eased my rages too. Then when things were just getting worse I added in the gel, I convinced myself to have a 6 month trial, and never came off it.
The time to go to the GP is when the symptoms are bothering you.