HRT - are these cons worth the pros? So depressed and unhappy

[paulapantsdown]

I am 5 weeks into taking Premique low dose, and while some of my peri symptoms have disappeared, the overwhelming tiredness and depression that has swept over me the last few weeks is making me wonder if its worth it.

Symptoms that have gone -
waves of tiredness
hot flushes every 20 minutes 24/7
insomnia
anxiety

new symptoms -
totally overwhelming exhaustion, could sleep 12 hours a day
sadness and depression that is paralysing me

I'm due back at work next week (school), and the entire holidays have been wasted as I have achieved nothing I was supposed to get done.

Should I just knock it on the head and live with the peri symptoms or ask my GP for a different brand? Do these things settle down?

Any ideas really welcome x

Is this a sequi or continuous regime? (Bleed or no bleed?)

You shouldn't feel like this on HRT- you should feel brilliant!

TBH Premique is an old fashioned type made with horse urine. Not prescribed that often.
Ask your GP for maybe Femoston- same type of oestrogen as our own and the progestogen is very like our own.

It's continuous, but I did have a bit of a light bleed last week for a couple of days. Wouldn't call it a proper period.

Thanks for the advice.

A lot of us find that using a sequi regime is far better. You can't work out which of the 2 hormones is giving side effects if you take 2 daily (as with a conti regime.) The downside is a bleed each month but this can be preferable to the side effects of daily progestogen.

You might find it helpful to read around all the types of HRT. A combined pill is just one type. You can use 2 separate products- estrogen as a patch or gel, or tablet, then a separate progestogen for 12 days a month, or in the case of patches, a sequi type patch.

I've never used conti and I'm 10 years post meno. Don't want the side effects that may come or the added risks of using progestogens daily.

You shouldn't have been prescribed a continuous combined HRT anyway if you are still peri-menopausal and as Polly says - it could be the progestogen making you feel like this! I am same as Polly - well post-meno but still maintaining cyclical HRT (and putting up with a bleed) because the prog makes me feel tired and if I took it all the time I would defo have less energy!

It sounds as if you might be progesterone intolerant or at least intolerant to the particular progesterone you are taking as has already been suggested. In any case, if you weren't depressed before and you are now, it needs investigating.

I was suffering from anxiety and depression before I started taking HRT and two weeks after taking it I felt fantastic and you should too!

Don't give up on HRT. Just go back to your GP and find a solution that suits you.

Femoston works very well for me and lots of other women on MN so it is worth considering.

Hello. This is my first post. I was just checking to see if other women were experiencing the same symptoms as me while taking Premique low dose.
I am approximately 6 years into the Menopause and as hard as I tried, I just couldn’t stand the sweats, insomnia, constant tiredness etc so I decided to request HRT from my doctor.
I am on my 4th week of taking premique and can’t seem to stop crying or feeling as though I am worthless.
After reading some of the other posts, I can see this has happened to other women.
On 18 December I am starting a new job and need to get myself feeling like a human being again.
M

If this is continuous HRT- progestogen every day- that will be making you feel rotten- very common. Best way forward is to change to a sequi regime - you will have a monthly bleed- but you will take progestogen for only 2 weeks out of 4. Also, Premique is a very old fashioned type of HRT. It's synthetic estrogen AND progestogen. You might be better with something like Femoston or a patch. Don't give up yet- looks like your Dr has given you the only one they know about and it's not the best.