Had to stop HRT. How long before I start feeling bad again?

[chewingawasp]

Just that really. I was diagnosed with breast cancer yesterday and advised to stop taking HRT. I've been on it less than a year but it made me feel so much better that I'm now worried that I'm going to start feeling awful again. It should be the least of my worries, I know, but still...

www.menopausematters.co.uk/diet.php

You could read through all the lifestyle stuff and make sure you are doing the 'right thing'. Look at Michael Mosely's Mediterranean diet (not the fasting bits )

And start a yoga class or something to help you through treatment?

I wouldn't bother waiting to feel bad - do what you can to make things better and look after yourself now. I am sure the feeling bad will catch up in its own time .

Who knows, maybe the year of hrt will have given you enough of a boost to settle.

Oh dear- so sorry - sympathies.

Have you had a treatment plan yet?

I think, tbh, you need to wait and see how you are, what type of b cancer you have, and what meno symptoms (if any) appear.

There are various other drugs apart from HRT that may help- the NICE menopause guidelines touch on these so you could have a read and discuss with your specialists.

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng23/chapter/recommendations see point 1.4.25 and follow the links

There are specialists out there who will say that ultimately it is your choice- there are women who have had breast cancer who do use HRT again, if their quality of life is awful. I'd wait and see what your options are once you've had treatment and how you feel.

best of luck.

Thanks. I have been eating healthily for a while now and lost a lot of weight so will keep on eating the right things. No treatment plan yet as further tests are awaited but I should know fairly soon.

Hello Chewing

I am sorry to hear about your diagnosis. I have also recently been diagnosed with breast cancer after four months on HRT.

I also had to stop HRT suddenly about six weeks ago and found that it took about four weeks for the hot flushes to come back. I notice that your post is a few weeks old so hopefully any menopausal symptoms are still at bay. Mine seemed to leave me alone until after I had my surgery.

I am currently scouring the Internet to try and find the best way of controlling the flushes without resorting to yet more drugs or things that would interfere with my cancer treatment. I have not really come up with anything really helpful other than avoiding coffee, alcohol and spicy foods. Cutting back on coffee and avoiding alcohol seems to have helped a bit. Some people say that vigorous exercise helps but as I am just post surgery that's not an option yet. I am going to try sage supplements because they at least don't seem to do any harm and may even work - who knows ! Finally, I am also looking at breathing techniques that can help control flushes when they start. To be honest I wish that I had tried all these options before starting the damn HRT in the first place. Sending you every positive thought for your treatment .

Thanks castor. Good luck with your treatment also. I stopped the HRT just over 2 weeks ago and haven't noticed anything adverse yet. I have since found out that my cancer is not hormone reception so I didn't actually need to stop it. I will keep off it for now until I know what treatment I will be having but I'm on Fluoxetine which my GP says stops hot flushes so I'll see how I get on.

Hormone receptive I mean.