Anyone on HRT? What has it done for you? Has it given you back your life? I'm in a dilemma.

[BorntoDillyDally]

If you could score it 0-10 what would you give it?

I'm 52 in a few weeks and believe I have been in perimenopause for 5+ years.

I have been under a lot of stress during these last 5 years and put a lot of my symptoms down to that. I care for my elderly mum who has Alzheimer's and breast cancer (and heart disease, osteoporosis, cataracts and glaucoma..... 😞). Life with someone suffering with dementia is hell tbh so no wonder I am stressed.

I don't suffer from sweats much at all and (thankfully) atm, I sleep well but I am knackered all the time. I have anxiety so bad from the moment I wake until the evening when it settles (I can not emphasize just how bad my anxiety gets). I cry every day and over nothing and everything, I am super low too, no joy in my life at all, I have reached a point in my life where I would be happy staring at a wall all day until I can get to bed, what a bloody way to live!
Zero libido, itchy skin, thinning hair, very achy at times, dry skin etc. Alongside these emotional/physical symptoms I have dreadful digestive issues (nausea, acid and burping mid cycle with bloating, gas, diarrhoea and/or constipation all other times,). My digestive symptoms have definitely worsened during this time despite suffering with IBS half my life (I used to have it under control).

I live a healthy a lifestyle as I possibly can. I walk my dog every day, do yoga/stretching and weights during the week. I listen to a recording of hypnosis from a face to face hypnotherapy session, each night. I follow a healthy diet (under a dietitian's advice) for my gut issues. I don't drink any alcohol and in fact only drink water. I avoid foods I know exacerbate my issues (dairy, wheat etc). I am slim with a low BMI and always have been yet I still struggle every day.

I have tried antidepressants but they make my gut issues worse.

I think I have tried everything and do everything to help but I now feel feel HRT may be my only chance of feeling normal again but I have endometriosis and adenomyosis which was only picked up a year ago and I'm still on a waiting list for a laparoscopy. I worry HRT will worsen this.

I have spoken to 3 menopause specialists. One was a GP specialist and one a specialist from a gynae at a private hospital. Both suggested I should try bio identical HRT despite my mum having breast cancer and my fears over this, they said the risk is low but I'm still worried. Not helped by my last consultation a few weeks ago with a menopause gynae from my NHS hospital telling me that HRT should be a last resort for me and even suggested I take a braca test! She suggested venlafaxine but from everything I read about this antidepressant it says it only really helps sweats which I don't suffer from.

I know I need to protect my heart and bones and because of my poor mum's situation I very much fear dementia which hrt 'possibly' could protect against but this last consultation has put me off hrt as I already fear it for possible BC risk and worry what it could do to my endometriosis as well.

What is everyone's thoughts on hrt? Has it helped you?

Hi, so you still have a reduction from anxiety even though the progesterone is now local.. so the oestradiol is working as anti anxiety. Can I ask how much your dose is? I has hyperplasia 9cm and bleeding and went up to 200oral progesterone which seems to have regulated it.

I was actually lounging in bed thinking about all the positive benefits HRT has brought when I read your thread! So obviously I had to reply. I’m only on the tablets- lowest dose but they’ve made a big difference to me. I’ve been taking them for 2 years - since I was 47. I’m not intending to increase my dose at the moment but I’ll see what the future brings.

1. Mood - this was the primary reason for me seeking HRT. It’s honestly not a total exaggeration to say I felt suicidal - as if I’d fallen into a black pit of fear and despair. HRT has sorted this - I feel normal- and no brain fog. Happy a lot of the time.
2. Joints aches and pains. I’d really been suffering with sore hips for several years and just chalked it up to aging. Gone since taking HRT. I can’t remember the last time they were sore.
3. Restless legs at night. This was driving me insane and really affecting my sleep. I’d first experienced it when I was pregnant but it really ramped up a couple of years ago. Gone since taking HRT.
4. Bladder issues. I was always a bit prone to urine infections so didn’t put 2+2 together and realise it was peri. I thought I had a “grumbling bladder’’ where I had continual low level infections. I was always getting antibiotics and it never really helped. I also needed to pee as soon as I lay down to sleep which I found really frustrating. Since HRT - totally fine.
5. Sleep generally has been much improved. I did have a sleep relapse at Christmas where I just couldn’t sleep at all and was nearly passing out from lack of sleep. I wondered then about upping my HRT dosage but tried a combination of CBD oil and magnesium. It knocks me out like chloroform. The evidence is clear from my Fitbit readings. I’m going sleep much faster and sleep quality is much improved. Something to think about.

There are probably other things too. These are the mains ones I can think of though. In an ideal world we would all have access to dedicated menopause clinics. Middle aged women do so much heavy lifting in society. It shouldn’t be too much to ask that we are kept fit, healthy and happy while doing it. I would give it a go if I were you. You can stop if it doesn’t suit. Good luck. You deserve to feel your best.

HRT, and Sertraline (specifically for the awful anxiety), have given me my life back. Symptoms were crippling me and I was worried I wasn’t going to able to keep working (senior full-time stressful job that I need to keep). You’d have to prise them out of my cold, dead hands frankly.

I'd give it 20/10, totally gave me back my old self. Better skin, better sleep, better mood. Less anxiety, I have the energy and motivation to exercise again, so losing weight. I wouldn't have said I had bad symptoms, just felt sort of flat and I think it gradually snuck up on me. Really I should have done something way earlier.

If you have crippling anxiety to the point you describe, Venlafaxine will be transformative. It helped me function relatively normally from being so anxious I couldn't leave the house. It's rough to start with, but after a week or so, it really kicked in. I've been off it for a few years now

I started hrt a month ago, mainly because I was having hot flushes at night which meant I wasn't sleeping. That's also been amazing. I take a progesterone pill and an oestrogen spray. I now sleep properly. I'm 56.

I'm 50, been on HRT for about 2.5 years, and it's a 10/10 for me in terms of how I feel. I did and still do all the good stuff Iike healthy diet, low alcohol, exercise regularly, good sleep routine, but (and this was all new to me) I had awful anxious moments, brain fog, panic, huge mood swings, aching joints. I've felt a huge and sustained improvement since starting HRT in all areas apart from the aching joints, but I put that down to sitting for a long time WFH and am tackling it with yoga, stretching and more movement in the day.

I'd give it 5 out of 10. Maybe I'm not on the right one. I had an endometrial ablation when I was 40 so very difficult knowing what my cycle is.

Another 10/10. Low mood tipping into depression, endless UTIs and no libido fixed by patches, ovestin cream and testosterone.

But you have different risk factors and different symptoms. Tough decision.

OP, what you described with tears every day and anxiety and no appetite for life sounds very like I felt for a year before getting on hrt.

For me personally, I started feeling more human - more like 'me', like there was a solid core in me, within a week. Within four months, I felt 70% back to stable and well, within hair thickening up too. Now seven months in, I feel I love life again, and have emotional and physical energy and the capacity to look forward to things again.

Now, it sounds like you have some really tough stuff going on in 'real life'. (Very sorry to hear about that). I didn't. Nothing much was wrong in my 'real life' So it was clearer for me that my problem was physical/hormonal....

But if even a part of what you are going through is hormonal, it would be worth trying to give yourself a helping hand. I do think you might know very clearly if it was helping within a few months... so in terms of your health concerns, I don't think a few months of taking it is going to shift the needle on risk factors... then at least you'd be more informed about deciding whether to take it long term.

While scary, it could make sense to take the Braka test in parallel. Knowledge is power. Then in 4-5 months, you would both have more info into whether hrt could be effective for you, and into your risk factors?

I'm not a doctor- so all these thoughts are just my personal reflections....

Improved my sleep, energy, mood and libido. I haven't lost weight but at least I stopped gaining. Definitely helpful, and with no side effects.

I started in May last year.

I had:
Night sweats
Day sweats
Insomnia
Achey feet
Achey everything else
Appalling mood swings
Bad temper
Hair went weird
Dry skin
Itching
No libido
Anxiety
Strange sort of paranoia
Cried every day

Put patches on. All the symptoms went within 3 days, with the exception of my libido which is still missing.

The tetchiness, aching feet and feeling a bit warm have returned in the last few weeks but at about 10% of the severity of before. Maybe I need a higher dose now?

I mean I started HRT in May last year!

I used HRT for 4 yrs, oestrogen patch (40mg) and Mirena coil. I had a mirena coil fitted from age 40 which in itself help all the way through perimenopause. By 53 I was experiencing mild hot flushes and mood swings, but what drew mw to HRT was the joint and muscle pains.
HRT sorted out the flushes and mood swings but did nothing for the physical symptoms, I persevered but at 57 was diagnosed with hormone sensitive breast cancer so had to stop HRT immediately and take hormone blockers (Anastrazole).

If I'm honest post breast surgery and a couple of months into hormone blockers I felt the best I had done for years, I had so much more energy and my mind had cleared. Unfortunately I had to have radiotherapy which floored me. Three years on I am now back to normal. The hormone blockers cause a lot of muscle and joint pain which is worse in the winter so I'm looking forward to the summer. It has been a difficult winter because we lost my younger sister to pancreatic cancer, grief has set me back a little but I'm getting through that.

My other sister wanted to go on HRT 18 months ago, having a science background we did a lot of research, obviously her risk of breast cancer is significantly increased ( our late sister had breast cancer 22 yrs ago although not hormone sensitive). After trawling through a lot of data we found that using HRT for 12mnths does not appear to increase the risk of breast cancer. My Dsis decided to take it for 12mnths to get her over the worst symptoms. She has now stopped using it and has not really noticed any problems.
There is a risk, albeit small, but it is important to do your own research. I took the risk but was one of the unlucky ones, but I was lucky to have the very common type of breast cancer that is very treatable and my risk of it returning is very low.

I would be sceptical of anything you read online, the "Oestrogen Matters" book was written by an American doctor and is not widely supported by mainstream oncologists. Louise Newson is quietly being discredited and criticised by breast cancer surgeons who feel her approach is a little maverick and not based on sound research. As for good old Davina, turns out her brain cysts, likely present form birth were the cause of many of her symptoms which is why HRT didn't completely work for her. I do support the inroads she made into improving menopausal treatment for all women but I think that it is a choice and no one should feel pressurised into using it.

Finally, it is not and never will be the elixir of youth. You can't stop the aging process, it may slow down some aspects of aging but cell death is genetically controlled. We all have our own sell by date. When you look around at the 80-90 yr olds who didn't have the option of HRT there is a great deal of variation in how they have aged.

I put weight on and my breasts grew a lot bigger

Are people getting testosterone from their go or privately? As I am on evorel sequi and have been for 3.5 years but my get up and go has just got up and gone away. Plus I seem to be surrounded by mega driven women (I used to be one of them!) and just can’t bring myself to care!! When I should care!

I had totally lost my mojo, was achey, had some night sweets, couldn't see the joy in anything, I was very low.

HRT has given me back my life.

10/10 from me.

Agree with AngryMum that there is a link with breast cancer and use mainstream medical advice. I had breast cancer and was told never to take HRT. I had no risk factors or family history.

I have to use natural methods and don't get any hot flushes, am normal bmi, fairly cheerful and only occasional ache which goes with vitamins. Just keep to a normal BMI and exercise 3 to 5 hours a week. No utis since chemo in 2022. It was long term antibiotics I needed for those. Do get moody now which never did before and issues sleeping. But very driven mostly.

The other side effect of HRT for me was it caused massive fibroids to grow. Which in turn caused sciatica. Since coming off HRT sciatica has gone. They don't tell you about other benign risks, apparently fibroid growth is common.

Is an American doctor less good than a British doctor? Not sure what the argument is there. Dr Aaron Bluming was a Clinical Professor of Medical Oncology and worked as a
senior investigator at The National
Cancer Institute. He’s spent decades researching HRT and the risks and benefits. His book merely goes through all the studies. My own GP recommended it.

From experience Oncologists are experts in cancer not menopause and HRT. Of course their job is to keep people cancer free. So they can be very black and white.

I would say any choice to go on HRT is a very individual thing as is the risk assessment. But the current advice is that for most women the benefits outweigh any risks.

Yes I have to get mine privately but you may have some luck with your GP. It can only be prescribed for loss of libido.

What people don’t realise is libido isn’t just to do with sex it’s actually your motivation in general!

Could I please ask if anyone uses testrogel what benefits they’ve seen please?

I have been prescribed it for libido, but reluctant to start it though I’m not sure why.

I am on lowest dose estradot (that I may ask to increase slightly as night sweats are starting) and utrogesterone tablets.

This is my concern regarding my endometriosis and adenomyosis especially as they are hormone sensitive. I do worry HRT may worsen these issues.

Can I ask which vitamins help you?

It’s made me not want to kill myself so that’s a 10 immediately.

I was an anxious mess, not sleeping, paranoid, grumpy and just awful to live with. HRT patches have made a massive difference to me and I don’t plan on stopping using them.

I have endometriosis & PCOS & was referred to menopause / hrt specialist gynaecologist on the NHS who prescribed me estradot, utrogesterone & testogel (although I’m reluctant to start the testogel but not sure why)