Husband has never heard of HRT. I find it odd...

[NoKnit]

So I'm a woman of that kind of age and I've got a gynaecologist appointment next week and the doctor has brought up HRT before.

When I was talking to my husband over the weekend he had never heard of it 🙄Is his head really in the sand? I'm not expecting him to be fully read up on it but honestly his reaction was a bit like I'd just told him I was thinking of putting after sun on my sunburn 😅

He really had no idea and I'm not sure he gets hormonal changes when women go through the menopause. It's not that he is dim either, university educated, software engineer.

Not really an AIBU but isn't it strange he knows nothing about it?

We're not that close geographically so only meet up in person a few times a year, we talk weekly. These are people I have known for 40+ years

It was around about that age my friends’ WhatsApp chats and meet ups started to include chat about HRT and health impact of menopause, or someone fanning themselves whilst someone else put an extra layer on! So there is still time

Yes - and something that for many women, whether big, small, negligible, is often raised at some point by at least ONE woman in a group of middle aged women.

However as I say… I get together in person with my girlfriends much more regularly than twice a year so perhaps it’s different

@Roosthename it's funny because both my mum and mother in law (both in their 80s) are getting fed up with their various coffee morning/bingo groups because (quote) "all everyone does is talk about what's medically wrong with them this week" !
My mum phoned me yesterday and talked excitedly about a film she saw.
She has said before it would be nice once in while to chat to her same age friends about things like films or books but no.... it's always about medical stuff.
Not all women want to sit around discussing their medical issues.

In their 80s you say? Yeah I can imagine health condition chats being pretty all encompassing and almost without exception - depressing!

That's why me and my friends don't sit around discussing HRT 😂😂
We have more interesting things to talk about.

I see my friends very regularly

trust me… HRT is just one of so much we talk about from work, love life, holidays, our teens, aging parents, social plans, partners etc

but yes - we care very deeply for
one another having been very close for 30 years so health does definitely come up

Our group chats aren’t all about HRT either, but if one of your friends is really struggling to cope with work/life and it’s possible that menopause is the cause and HRT could help, wouldn’t you discuss it? Or would you expect her to carry on in silence. I had feelings of such low worth during peri menopause it was horrendous (along with many other symptoms) Although didn’t have the expected hot flushes until much later, so didn’t at first make the connection. In fact many women are mistakenly given anti depressants rather than HRT at first. HRT was a game changer for me. Why wouldn’t I discuss that with friends if I knew someone else was struggling too.

I'm 42 (female) and i don't remember my mum going through menopause. She barely remembers it either, it was a non-event to her with zero symptoms! Her periods stopped one day and that was that.

Exactly

We discuss so much and health is certainly one part of that.

And for those of us who are slightly older, it is possible our mothers were prescribed valium (mother's little helper) during their menopausal years until the late 80s when it was realised quite how addictive it was. I know my DM had it prescribed at one point.

You never discuss anything no health related with your close friends @Needmorelego ? How often do you get together with them?

My MIL used to complain about that, especially as she was fit as a flea. A few years later and on our weekly chat she now regales us with all her health complaints which have slowly crept up on her.

Sometimes...but it isn't a general topic of conversation.
Sometimes health issues come up in conversation but it's unusual.

Maybe they do talk about it with friends but just not this group of friends

woman in mid and late forties and fifties - cancer scares, mammograms, smears, family health and yes, periods and menopause and HRT - definitely something we chew the fat on regularly, along with work, family, news and fun stuff and holidays etc

and you don’t speak about health? No one has ever raised the menopause or HRT? How old are you @Flippoflak ?

We speak about health stuff very occasionally (mostly in the context of sporting injuries tbh), but menopause or HRT has never been discussed. We're all 46-48.

A new trend of experiencing sporting injuries, particularly with tendons is a commonly overlooked early sign of decreasing hormone levels. This was my final straw in asking for HRT a few months ago after a new bout of tendonitis set in. I hadn't triggered it with anything unusually ambitious and was just following my usual cycles of training.

The last year had been a physical slog of disproportionately aching muscles and niggles, and a couple of months into HRT I'm feeling a good decade younger in terms of physical energy, and the rate of my recovery from tendonitis is finally picking up.

The sporting injuries are likely to be triggered or aggravated by changing hormone levels at this age range... worth looking into...