To think this is HRT

[Lennon80]

Please help - on second week of HRT first week had the odd glass of wine was fine. Last night had one large wine and a cocktail and didn’t sleep a wink. Awful anxiety - weird cold sensations in my body.l that travel around. Has this happened to anyone else?

It’s not the hrt, it’s how alcohol affects you as you get older. If you largely stop drinking and have the occasional glass or two you really notice how negatively it affects your sleep. I don’t bother anymore.

I’ve taken hrt for about 15 years and that hasn’t been my experience. In fact I don’t sleep without it. Granted I don’t drink much so maybe not a good comparison to you. I would say any medication needs time to settle down and adjust. Hrt is a long term medication and you’re only in week 2. I guess all you can do is talk to your doctor about it in your follow up consultation that I presume you’re having at about 6/8 weeks?

I feel a bit disingenuous responding as not on HRT, but I don't drink precisely because it absolutely destroys my sleep. As others have said taking time for it to settle is likely wise.

I was suffering from awful anxiety before HRT and the first week of starting it I felt cured and back to normal and now I’m back to exactly how I was again.

As ive got older, I can't handle sugary drinks (like cocktails or pop), I cant eat sweets, end up with insomnia. I dont think its HRT.

It's the alcohol, not the HRT.

That’s just what booze does to some of us as we get older. HRT largely sorted my anxiety but if I drink more than a small glass of wine, I sleep terribly and experience a night of angst. This situation is easily remedied by drinking just a shall glass of wine a couple of times a week. Many of my friends don’t drink at all any more for the same reason. It’s a pretty small price to pay for good mental health.

Yes sorry, I agree with the others. It's not HRT, it's alcohol. I'm another one who's stopped drinking in my 50s for this reason. HRT makes me sleep like a log.

HRT did nothing to help my anxiety or sleep. I took it for 4 years, paid a fortune to Newson clinic and ended up on a fairly high dose but it had absolutely n effect.

You need to give HRT around 3 months for things to stabilise, until then symptoms can be very up and down.

Alcohol does that to me these days.

I am on HRT, but I don’t think it’s anything to do with it. Alcohol affected my sleep, gave me horrible anxiety and left me feeling generally shit for days after drinking before I started HRT.

I pretty much don’t drink at all anymore as just 1 drink affects me now.

Milk thistle before bed will sort you out

I was researching HRT because I sleep terribly. Quite a lot of people seemed to think it didn't help with sleep and some said it made sleep worse. Others said it helped. As that is the only thing I need it for, I have been dithering about whether it is worth giving it a try.

Alcohol just affects you differently as you get older.

Was it red wine?

Agree with all the other posters who have said this - I just can't tolerate alcohol post-menopause. I never had HRT.

Hrt isn’t like antibiotic where the dosage and effects are highly predictable. It covers a variety of substances, dosages, and varies from one individual to another.

My gp tweaked the amount, of oestrogen and progesterone, the type (I didn’t absorb the gel well, and was fine with the patch until it changed and the new one gave me a rash, so now I’m on a spray. I was able to reduce the dose because I absorb the spray better than the gels. I’m now on testosterone as well - a fairly high dose probably because it’s only available as a gel application to my thighs/bum and I don’t absorb it too well. But we knew that would likely be the case so started at a higher dose.

Hrt for me has been 9 or 10 different combinations and dosages. It didn’t work until it did, iyswim.

Someone else could be on a completely different dosage, combination and application to me, and we’d both call it “hrt” but you can’t really compare. My sil takes her oestrogen orally, and about a third of the amount of progesterone because that’s right for her.

Hopefully it will be more streamlined by the time our daughters get here.

In terms of sleep, that was one of the symptoms my gp was monitoring to judge if the dosage was right for me. It took a while to get there but we did.

hth lol

Hmm, I'm menopausal, not on HRT and can drink like a fish with no insomnia or hangover.
I do get some nights where 4hrs sleep is enough, and I have to get up as I'm bored.

🤷‍♀️

Yes

It's probably a histamine issue. I asked this because I reacted really badly to red wine last year - had half a glass and felt like I'd been poisoned. Cold feeling through veins, then hot, shivery, brain fog, nausea etc. lasted hours.
Ended up diagnosed with MCAS.
Hormone fluctuatioma cause fluctuations in histamine. And if you're sensitive to histamine you can then react to food and drink that is high histamine. Red wine is one of the worst. It might settle once the hrt is stable. But if not, it might be worth getting some tests done.

This is really interesting - thanks so much for commenting. Do you think it’s worth taking an antihistamine now?

Thank you. That is a useful explanation.

It's worth trying! If it is a histamine sensitivity you might need something a bit stronger but give an antihistamine a go and see if it helps at all.