Has anyone had any experience of HRT becoming less effective?

[Kasterborous]

I started on Elleste Duet 1mg at the beginning of January. After a couple of weeks I felt so much better, the mood swings and hot flushes had more or less completely gone, as had the tiredness. I had a review with my GP at the start of April. Since then my symptoms are coming back, sort of slowly getting worse over the last six weeks, especially the tiredness and mood swings, the hot flushes are too but not as badly as the other symptoms. Do I need to give it a bit longer, or is it worth seeing my GP.

Depends where you are in menopause. However if that dose is not controlling your symptoms then maybe you need a higher dose? Also other factors can affect absorption of oral HRT eg digestive problems, alcohol etc, so maybe something has changed since April? Transdermal HRT tends to give a more consistent dose as it is not dependent on the vagaries of the digestive system although for many women it ( oral HRT) works fine.

I'm fairly early on in the menopause as I had an early menopause it started when I was 40 by missing periods but then the real symptoms started when I was 41 and I'm now 42. I can't think of anything that has changed since April diet or health wise. My GP has recommended I don't use the patches due to having eczema. If it doesn't improve over the next couple of weeks I will make an appointment.