Menopause without HRT?

[twoheaped]

Is it possible to go through the menopause without HRT?

I have never taken the contraceptive pill, or used a chemical device as I just didn't really fancy the idea of taking hormones.
Now I guess the menopause will be coming in the next few years and I have found little information on going it alone, as such.
Can it be done? I'm still not keen on the thought of taking hormones.

Where is the credibility in that. What studies actually say that people who are on HRT live longer? That's a shocking thing to state.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry Dignity7 and Real

Do you honestly think that quote is my words? look carefully. The ... didn't work due to the lines breaking up. They were supposed to put it in italics to show it was a QUOTE.

All of that post is copied and pasted from the International Menopause Society Report. I suggest you go to this link and read it.

www.imsociety.org/manage/images/pdf/4429e3dd302aac259ad68c3be7f60599.pdf

If you have any issue with the 'sensitivity' of it, perhaps write to all the experts who contributed to it? Their names are there.

Please read links and educate yourself before commenting. If you don't want to, that's fine, but stop criticising people like me who have researched and written about HRT for 10 years (and I don't just mean on a forum.)

Do you not understand what this means?
A reduction in all-cause mortality for women who initiate MHT around the time of menopause

Do you think the IMS has made it up? That it's work of fiction?

Please read the report. Take a look at the dozens of experts listed at the end and how they are from all over the world. See their research papers.

I think maybe you should read what you post & think how insensitive it is & how relevant on this particular thread.

Polly, no need to post so aggressively! I know your actual quote was in italics. It was not that, that I felt needed to be more sensitive. It was where you said this,

This means - Women who use HRT/MHT live longer.

That is, it was your paraphrase. Taken in isolation, away from the rest of the research, it reads insensitively. Especially for people like myself, who will have to face the menopause without HRT, as I have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

I get that you want to extol the virtues of HRT, and 'myth bust' regarding the caution some doctors have in prescribing it or women using it. However some of this caution is because there is a genuine contraindication. You don't need to oversell the HRT. Doing that is a bit alienating for those who will have to manage menopause without it. This is how I feel reading it anyway.

I read it that way & I am still feel rather sad it was posted.

I think it's utter oversell rubbish. we can all cut & paste. Personal experiences are what people want from this thread. So.....is it possible to get through the menopause without HRT. For some yes, for some maybe, for some no.....but lots of choices/alternatives to HRT.

My experience yes, my twin sister's experience no. Do we argue with each other over choices......hell no, we have better things to talk about.

'Shoot the messenger' seems to be the approach here. This is a long and very serious report into women's health by highly respected scientists across the world. I'm not going to think about what I said because the words are from the report. If it upsets you that 'reduced mortality' means 'longer life' (for a large group of women on average) then you are easily upset!

If you want to ignore the research of numerous specialists in this area and have their findings sugar coated then carry on ignoring the evidence.

I can't control whether you feel happy or sad on reading the facts. If the report says that mortality is reduced overall in women who use HRT during the 'window of opportunity' what do you think that means?

I don't see how cutting and pasting the conclusion /summary from a serious report by world experts can be considered 'utter rubbish^ Dignity. And how do you know that people want personal experiences? They are that- personal. I'm sorry but resorting to calling a serious report 'utter rubbish' is completely ridiculous.

Were you one of the banned posters from MM Dignity? You seem familiar with a group of them who left and came over here.

Polly I'm a user the others on this thread. Thank you for posting from reports. It means I don't have to go looking for information myself. I want personal experiences & tesearch

I don't always agree with Polly but agree that her report posting is useful. Information is power.

As this appears to be about the only non-made-up thread on the site I am enjoying it.

Unless you are all really teenage boys...

If you have no symptoms, great.
If you do have symptoms, you can choose to do nothing, explore alternatives to HRT or use HRT

And just to re-emphasise the point I was trying to make about the long-term consequences of oestrogen deficiency (which was also made somewhere up thread) and to add to the point about early menopause and it being advisable to take HRT until the usual age of menopause (51 ish) - if you have no symptoms, great - in the short term - but it could be beneficial to your long-term health to at least read these recommendations and reports so that you make your individual choice in full knowledge of the scientific view as Polly says. You may "sail through" happy in your natural approach - but end up with severe osteoporosis for example which might have been lessened through timely HRT (despite lack of menopausal symptoms).

Unless the OP made other points about her individual circumstances precluding her from taking HRT ( I really can't re-read the whole thread at this point!) she did not say anything about being contra-indicated - but posed an open question as to whether it was possible to go through menopause without HRT - which of course it is - but as above any decision needs to be made in full possession of up-to-date information and recommendations, and I understand that this is what the reports and information in this thread is trying to achieve.

Of course it goes without saying that those who are in good health have the greatest of sympathies with those who are suffering adverse menopausal symptoms and medically unable to take HRT - but that doesn't mean that a discussion about the merits and scientific evidence should not take place.

Why would I have been banned. What a strange thing to say. I will ask my doctor if research says you will live longer on HRT?

Thankfully no teenage hormones here. Just old fluctuating ones!

You may end up with osteoporosis if you don't take HRT. Will ask my doctor that as well. I have an appointment tomorrow so I will be interested in his medical opinion.

Sorry 'will end up with..... that was the post.

Lulu &Polly

Of course it goes without saying that those who are in good health have the greatest of sympathies with those who are suffering adverse menopausal symptoms and medically unable to take HRT - but that doesn't mean that a discussion about the merits and scientific evidence should not take place.
'
Shoot the messenger' seems to be the approach here. This is a long and very serious report into women's health by highly respected scientists across the world. I'm not going to think about what I said because the words are from the report. If it upsets you that 'reduced mortality' means 'longer life' (for a large group of women on average) then you are easily upset!

The sensitivity comes across in tone rather than content. Of course discussions can take place. I would have preferred Polly's mortality quote not to be emphasised by it's isolation (in a single post) and extra paraphrasing for added emphasis.

I'm not being oversensitive, I don't think. It's how I read it and I assume other people could come to this thread, given it's title, looking for relief from menopausal symptom which does not include HRT because they are unable to take it. My posts are not about 'shooting the messenger* just an exhortation for the tone to be modified in order not to make those who are unable to take HRT feel they are totally excluded from the discussion or advise given, as a matter of course.

Unless you are all really teenage boys...

Thanks for that. Just because it would be medically unadvisable for mr to take HRT does not mean I am a teenage boy!

That should say me not mr! Typo.

*Unless you are all really teenage boys...

Thanks for that. Just because it would be medically unadvisable for mr to take HRT does not mean I am a teenage boy!*

Erm, you do know I was joking about trolls elsewhere on MN, don't you?

Oh, ok, i see you do, sorry! I was worried you'd taken me seriously,

I will ask my doctor if research says you will live longer on HRT?

Is this a question or a statement Dignity7?

With all respect, if you think your GP knows as much about the menopause as the scientists who compiled this report, by all means ask. I'd also ask if they have read the report.

Questioning a major report by top world wide specialists who have spent their entire lives working with menopause and HRT ( see the acknowledgements at the end of the report ) and criticising that report as 'utter oversell of HRT' (and that a GP may know better) is just, well.....words fail me! And continuing to snipe at me for posting it is totally unacceptable. I won't be bullied off this forum.

No one has bullied you. I just said that I hadn't realised that the consequences of not using HRT were as you posted. Reasonable to ask doctor. Why would you take offense of my opinion of the report. It wasn't written by you only posted. I don't understand your aggression?

It is a fact I am going to ask my doctor about the research that was posted as I hadn't realised that those statements are being made by the medical profession

I think you are overreacting that I want to discuss it with my G.P.