AIBU to wish I had known sooner about vaginal oestrogen cream?

You need to ask for a second opinion then. I'm 43, my NHS GP confirmed Peri with blood tests late last year, swapped my coil in Jan for me, started prescribing me HRT in the form of my choosing (patches) alongside pessaries.

Went back for 3 month review and asked for estrogen cream as well as the pessary and asked for the dosage of the patches to be increased.....not a problem at all.

Also made sure I knew about the HRT annual pre paid prescription......you deserve healthcare!

My GPs won't prescribe it, they just say buy moisturiser at the pharmacy.

Can you buy it on the Internet, rather then the hassle of the GP?

So many women feel miserable with a vague UTI feeling, general irritation etc, but it doesn’t seem bad enough to see a GP. So we drink more, and blame ourselves.

I really wish we were informed about the possibility before we start suffering! It’s not beyond the realms of possibility to text age related updates about these things.

Apart from anything else, it has really helped my urge to wee every five minutes. It apparently plumps up the tissue around the urethra, so that has really helped. It is not an instant fix though, it took a couple of months to see a difference. I'm late 60s, and rarely get UTI either. Which is a good thing as they can make a person go a bit doo lally in older years. I'll be using this cream as long as I'm able, and there's currently no age restriction on it.

It's 100% available in the NHS but women need to know about it and many GPs need to be more on the ball.

I'm 46 and found out about it here... It's the best thing ever. Ever. Ever ever ever.

My NHS GP prescribed it readily and said most women will need it at some point

(Not on hrt, on tamoxifen, possibly post menopausal now.)

Yanbu, it’s appalling that women aren’t offered this more frequently. I had dryness on and off for years pre menopause. Also while breastfeeding- I only found later I could have had some.

Have to say that through eating lots of ground flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, nuts and omega3 / oily fish I actually don’t need it much. I do when I remember

That’s the benefit of going private.

I initially suffered 3 UTIs and NHS gave me 3 sets of 3 day antibiotics. Went away and returned. The final time I had enough and went private. They took my bloods, saw I had ecoli, treated it with the correct antibiotics and put me on HRT + vagifem straight away. It was costly but I haven’t had a UTI since. Private tell you what you need as we’re paying for it. NHS seem to hold back as we’re not. Now I have the correct prescription I will move back to the NHS with it.

@Seriestwo 7 months of suffering was enough for me, how you stuck it out for 10 years I have no idea. You poor thing. Glad you eventually got what you needed.

I had a serious UTI and was in and out of hospital scans etc and various antibiotics saw my lovely local GP and she said strong link between vaginal dryness and menopause and UTI suggested some supplements the NHS do not prescribe, plenty of fluids and oestrogen pessaries every night for two weeks and then three times a week. Was on antibiotics was 6 months before and sex was still uncomfortable after two weeks of pessaries it was all back to normal and no UTI since.

I've been meaning to ask for this from the gp myself, thanks for the reminder!