How have you decided to have or not have hrt ? What made up your mind ?

[Perimeopausepip]

Just wondering about people’s though process as to weather to take hrt or not ?

im tempted but worried

What are you worried about?

I am going to give it a try. I can't deal with the brain fog and tiredness any longer, it's really debilitating and at the moment it's making me feel incompetent at my job.

Similar to the above. Had a long talk with the GP about risks. I travel all over the country and the opportunity to change my lifestyle won’t be quick (would have to change job etc). I can’t cope with the memory issues and fatigue anymore. I’m starting on Weds. 🤞

worried it will affect my liver or cause other side effects and worried about coming off them eventually too

and suppose worried will they help or make me feel worse ?

Haven't got it as had easy and late menopause and feel great so don't want to mess with things

Bone strength and dementia protection are factors though

Dr did say I can try the gel
whatever that is !

Fed up with the symptoms and spending a fortune on natural remedies that don't work.

No more night sweats, no more painful joints. These are the wins for me,

Factors ? Factors as to why you wouldn’t want to take it ?

Meno hit me very hard and HRT gave me y life back. I never intend to come off it

I chose not to. I eat healthily, exercise and am not overweight.

When I went through the menopause I did take Menopace an over the counter supplement as I had one week of feeling a bit hot at times and that stopped it completely.

Over a decade later I feel great and I’m glad I didn’t go for HRT.

I started on the gel and progesterone tablet 12 months ago and it has transformed my life. Changes came into affect in the first couple of months.
I too had concerns as we have breast cancer in the family but the difference for me is life changing. I hadn't realised how bad all my symptoms were until they went away.
Have a look on the menopause pages, lot of very knowledgeable women who will happily share their experience.
I accept HRT isn't for everyone, and symptoms vary wildly, but it really has been a lifesaver for me and my marriage.

Factors as to why you might want to

When the symptoms are bad enough you’ll try anything because it’s your Present Life you can’t cope with, and you can’t think far enough to worry about the Future.

I literally wasn’t sleeping because I was having drenching nights sweats umpteen times a night.

HRT kept me sane and functioning. I wouldn’t have managed without it.
Protection from osteoporosis and dementia were very important for me too - my younger sister has severe osteoporosis, refused HRT and now really regretting not having it. She already has 4 spinal fractures , a fall lead to a fractured pelvis and another left her with a badly broken wrist.
She’s mid 60’s.

Never really noticed any symptoms, may have been because more or less at that time I overhauled my diet, inc going gluten free that definitely helped with brain fog.

I am a bit concerned about bone strength and dementia too, but my symptoms have only been very mild and have improved in any case (probably peaked about 3 or 4 years ago) so not sure if it's worth it. I have a Mirena coil so am on a very low dose of progesterone though.

My obvious symptoms were hot flushes, but the ones I didn't connect with menopause were my very flat mood (not suicidal, but didn't feel there was much of a point to life), vaginal atrophy causing an endless series of UTIs and complete loss of libido.

I'm on a full package of HRT - oestrogen patches, progesterone tablets, oestrogen cream and testosterone gel.

It's been a transformation - mood upbeat, libido restored, vag restored, no more UTIs - and I also plan to stay on them for the rest of my life. I'm 65 this year.

At the time I felt the long term advantages outweighed any risks by far, and since then the risks have been shown to have been over reported.

I did the whole healthy eating, herbs, exercise etc until my joints hurt so much I was crying. 3 months into HRT I feel sooo much better and I hadn't even noticed some of the things were an issue

My mum had a full hysterectomy about 20 years ago, she was barely in her 50s. At the time, she had an HRT wafer (?) inserted in her abdomen which needed changing at regular intervals. Inevitably, her appointments were always delayed which was horrible for her.

She now takes it in tablet form I think. I remember her telling me she had a review with her GP not long ago who said really, she was old enough to stop taking it (as she’s well past menopause age I mean) but she didn’t have to. So she continues. The benefits outweigh any risks as far as she is concerned.

I didn't have much in the way of menopause symptoms so never considered it. I've enough going on with hypothyrodism to even think about it now. I'm late 60s now so wouldn't want to rock my hormonal boat!

This is me too. My quality of life in peri has declined so much that I’ve reached the point where I can’t carry on without help.

I had concerns about breast cancer as it’s in the family, but my wonderful doc did a risk assessment last week and I don’t even qualify for genetic testing, so that has reassured me hugely. She’s given me some reading to do but I am pretty sure I’m going to try it, after 4 years of being gradually worn down by the symptoms. I’m still getting regular periods at 51 so it doesn’t look like it’s going to be over soon.

Well, I went into early menopause at 42 and my doctor refused to test me. I eeked it out getting steadily worse day by day for the next 7 years until I could not get up the stairs at the end of the day. My sleep was getting less and less and the hot sweats, well they aren't sweats they come from inside your body not the outside, like an internal meltdown. I went to another doctor, showed him my sleep stats on my fitbit, he gave me HRT that morning and sent me for blood tests. I put the first patch on, had 2 more hot sweats and have never had another since. My FSH was in the 90s, and he then sent me for a bone scan and I already had ostepoprosis.

So I've been on HRT ever since. That was 6 years ago. My osteoporosis was helped by the HRT and I didn't have it when I went for the next DEXA scan.

The problem is that it isn't just hot sweats. It is death by 1000 cuts until you can hang on no more. I was in so much pain getting up the stairs, it felt like my leg bones were just dissolving [is the only way to describe it].

Many women put all the aches and pains down to older age. But when you log them all and put them into a list, you often get the list that matches symptoms of menopause. So I'd recommend a white board and as you get symptoms, write them down. Once you have 5 that match menopausal symptoms, take that list to your doctor and ask for blood tests.

Unbearable anxiety, hot flushes, night sweats, joint pain, insomnia, low mood, low libido. Finally diagnosed with premature ovarian failure/insufficient after years of doctors insisting I was basically lying about symptoms and too young for peri/menopause. I need to take it until the age of natural menopause 51/52 to protect my heart, bones & brain health. After switching Gp surgery's and finally getting a female doctor who was upto date on nice guidelines on poi/pof diagnosis and treatment.

Insomnia was crushing me, brain fog made me think I was going mad and anxiety was off the charts.
menopace was all well and good for physical symptoms like hot flushes but useless with the stuff that was really negatively affecting my life.

I don’t eat processed food or carbs (bread, rice, pasta, potatoes). I eat mainly high quality protein and vegetables. Limited dairy.

I weight lift 4-5 times a week and have built strength.

But still the brain fog and fatigue continue.

The deciding factor for me was bone health. I look at DM in constant pain and restricted in what she can do and where she can go thanks to a crumbling spine and a badly healed hip fracture and decided to do everything I could to not end up like that. As soon as I was confident I was definitely peri I started HRT. The sweats and the brain fog disappeared and I realized that I had been more affected than I thought.
I has also lead me the get a couple of other symptoms that I had assumed were meno related investigated when the didn't disappeared and discovered that they had other causes - without HRT I would probably not have done this.
There is also a zero history of breast cancer in my large extended family so it's not a major concern for me.