Night sweats - is there anything to make it stop?

[Janus]

Just that really! I am nearly 48 and must be going throught the menopause. Not that many symptoms but the night sweats are awful. It’s every night and I wake up soaking. I just sleep in a cotton vest and cotton pants but have to change both every night as they are wet. It’s really getting to me as I actually wake up freezing too as I’m wet and shivering. Is there anything to take to make it stop, natural or from gp?
Thanks.

GP told me to get Menopause Tablets from Wilkinson's - £1 - & they were a massive help. Friends had good results too. I still got flushes but definitely not as often.

I started taking 1 milk thistle tablet at bedtime this week as I have been experiencing some digestive (overindulged probably! ) issues and I have noticed that I haven't had a night sweat since taking it. I'm not sure if it's a recommended treatment but hey it's working for me.

I reacted strongly to the hormones in the pill, basket case, but hrt has a smaller dose and doesn’t effect me the same way (had to try a couple and I’ve got a v understanding GP who was happy to try things out and explain stuff to me.

It’s bloody fantastic stuff for me, I was on my knees with symptoms of the menopause and if I’d been trying to deal with the crap I’ve had over the last 18 months (dh depression, his job loss, severe work stress, family life altering illness) without it, I honestly genuinely believe I’d have been sectioned.

Expat Is there any need to be so aggressive in your tone?

FWIW you made the point about not being able to use certain types of hormones. I felt it only fair to point out that HRT is not synthetic estrogen. This is important for other women to know even if it's not of any value to you.

You gave the impression you did not use HRT solely for that reason. Which logically would mean you could not tolerate your own estrogen as HRT is replacement- exactly the same as your own.

There is a HUGE amount of confusion and misinformation about HRT mainly due to the old research and the old types of HRT which were not body-identical. Similarly the Mirena and the Pill are totally different types of hormones to most HRT.

My post to you was supposed to be helpful because you didn't know that the Mirena was a synthetic estrogen and you said you didn't use HRT because you couldn't use 'hormones'.

There really is no need to be so rude when someone is offering information.

And not everyone knows about the risks of black cohosh and other herbs etc. It's your opinion that it's patronising to point this out.
YOU may have researched it but not everyone has.

Painful sex, urinaly symptoms, no libido, palpitations, no sleep, anxiety etc etc at only 40!!

Hrt has saved my life literally.

Layer, did you have to fight for it? I've been going through this so long now but in recent months I have felt so low and depressed which is why I'm pushing again for help. I've been tested for everything else, at one stage they thought I might have leukaemia which resulted in 3 months of blood tests as my white count is high, this took a huge toll on both me and DH. TB has been ruled out as has thyroid problems. Every dr I have seen in the last 2 years agrees the diagnosis and that if over 40 they would just prescribe HRT. I'm gong to do as Polly suggests, go back in and if they can't help ask for a referral. I will try a female dr just incase this helps. The night sweats started when I was 33, I'm nearly 38 now and I have a long record on file of exact peri symptoms.

Janus, thank you, I will have a look and see. I did use St jons when I had post natal depression and found it to be really helpful. I didn't get on with the mirena either, I think I would try that now if I had. I turned into a monster and gained a tonne of weight in 4 months. They really don't like taking them out either do they, I had to beg on several occasions whilst being told to let it settle! I hope the bits your trying now help, and I am sorry for talking about my woes on your thread so much!

it will have to be unendurable to take HRT as artificial hormones also very negatively affected my mood and I now have PTSD and depression from life events that I didn't have when I used Mirena and POP so I don't want to chance HRT.

No one made a patronising or erroneous response to the above.

It was perfectly clear what was said- 'no to artificial hormones as they have affected my mood.''

There is no need at all to drag up random comments in my other posts, out of context , and bring them into your post.

If you feel something was missed which made the comment about HRT NOT being artificial hormones, that was all you needed to say.

Hi @ohhhthepain

My gp prescribed on symptoms. I started crying in the surgery because I honestly thought I would never have a sex life or any kind of life again! My nice gp had a look and diagnosed vaginal atrophy and that coupled with my other symptoms were enough to get hrt.

It has taken me a few tries to find the most suitable but even the least suitable made me feel so much better.

I have to also use vagifem every day and am also on the highest dose of hrt premarin 1.25 which I take everyday apart from Wednesday and Saturday when I halve it. Everyday made me a bit jittery. I take this alongside 100mg utrogestan every day. I prefer to do this rather than cycle because my moods are stable this way. Although some women get erratic bleeding with this.

Patches and gel did not suit me - premarin felt like it was made for me.

Yes there are risks of course - as there are with everything. Heart risk strike risk obesity blah blah but I drink within limits don’t smoke exercise am healthy weight so my risk is overall very low.

Oh I have a blob of testosterone daily too.

My happiness and quality of life, sexual response etc is very important to me and now all of those things are great again. Hair, nails, skin etc lovely.

You can take my hrt out if my cold dead hands - not before

Sirry rushing out not proofed anyv question ask away!

Lasagne are you in the UK?

Yes I am @nickynora

ohhhthepain, feel free to add anything you want and anyone else, I'm learning such a lot from this thread!

I'm beginning to think I have more symptoms than I thought, the night sweats are definitely the worst. But I'm also getting dizzy spells here and there, complete inability to retain anything (to the point I'm the joke to all my friends, who all seem to be in their late 30s, wait until they get here in 10 years time!!), rubbish sleep (mostly due to night sweats but also just randomly waking up and then reading for an hour or two to try and get back to sleep for at least a couple nights of the week), rubbish libido (which I thought was due to all the random bleeding I've had over the past year or so so it's made me feel pretty crap about sex as even when I wanted it I was bleeding so it's sporadic at best!). I am going to make an appt with GP for a month's time and give the supplements a good go but then go and at least have a good chat about the HRT. I can always try it, if I hate it I'll just stop.

Thanks Layer, I have to admit I cried in my last appointment, my sex drive is fine but I am horrible to live with, even to the stage of my friends finding it hard work to like me, my husband has said I am impossible to live with when I get bad. I have to make an active effort not to be rude or snappy. I'm normally a really light hearted, fun and nice person balancing my husbands grumpiness but I am showing him exactly how to do grumpy haha. I want the old me back.

Janus, I have gone from being rigidly organised, running what is actually quite a large successful 'small' business that we've built up from nothing and have trebled in size every year for the last 3 at least, I can't even get my head round sending basic emails sometimes, I am forgetting the most ridiculous things that are impacting on our clients or on the finances - such as large invoices coming in or sending plans out for approval. I need to get my head organised and just have this fog. My periods started hitting the 2 week mark a year or so back, although they do move around slightly I can predict them to a degree but the length of them is depressing and impacts on sex as you say. Although the last one was very odd, just spotting for a week (earlier than expected) then a very short period of about 4 days with only one heavy day, I'm really hoping this plus the awful low mood I have signals the end might be in sight. I'm so glad you started this thread, its such a nice supportive one, I feel tearful knowing I'm not the only one, I hope its helping you as much too! And now I'm all teary again.

I had literally become a shell of my former self. I would have panic attacks, and things that I used to do without a second thought were confounding me

I think that's the thing for me, I just don't have time for all this!!!

I have 4 children, luckily all school age (we started having children late in life!!), a husband who works away about 6 days a week and no family at all near us. So everything's down to me. If I forget to pick a kid up (I haven't!!) then it's all my fault. I'm juggling so many things each day, I just need a clear head to try and remember things. My calendar on my phone is now my bible and this week I even had 'buy cat food' as my morning reminder because the poor cats had no food for 2 days despite me going to the supermarket, I just forgot! Lots of tuna instead! If I had to work as well, I would literally tip over the edge.
Does anyone struggle to wake up too? I now set 2 alarms as 1 just won't wake me, I literally drag myself out of bed and hobble to the shower in a complete daze.
And now I've started getting headaches, I hardly ever get these.
I am grumpy too and normally the most chilled, relaxed person but I'm fighting it, it's like I won't let it win! Thought about taking up meditation, am going to look into this again.
It's all good fun isn't it?!!!

To be fair, PP, I don't think you realise how hectoring your tone can be sometimes. I fully appreciate you give out a lot of good, relevant advice on here but you do assume that those of us who don't follow your path are doing so because of ignorance. I do feel you ask people to justify their decisions when really they shouldn't have to. We all have different experiences, and all have different approaches to our health, and are all at different stages in this process. We're surely all here to support each other, not to tell others what they should do? I fully believe women should be signposted to relevant information but then that women should make their decisions with qualified people.

Hope you don't take this to heart, I just feel toning down some of your responses would make this community so much more supportive and pleasant to be a part of.

Hi all,
Another short-tempered menopausal woman here. We have made some deletions, and would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that saying 'you are coming across like x...' can be every bit as much of a personal attack as 'you are x'.
As with every other stage of female existence, we're all just trying to get through it. Please let's cut out the personal attacks.

Thanks.

Layer I’m with you! I was feeling exactly the same and hrt with risks or no risks doesn’t matter for me anymore. It gave my life, my libido, my skin, my health back and I’m grateful for it! Am I vain? For sure! 😂

Sigh, I miss ALL the good rows. ;-)

I've had a look into my situation a bit more, if you are under the threshold age and not showing up on the blood tests they can give you the combined pill which is meant to help. I need to stop smoking anyway and fly long hail very soon so I'll get both of those out the way then go back to the GP.

I hope everyones doing ok and various pills and potions are having a positive effect.

I have awful night sweats and broken sleep. I have a good diet - no caffeine, no alcohol, exercise a LOT. I've been considering extra HRT (I'm on Vagifem only atm) but there's NO WAY I'm going back to having periods. I've had a lifetime of flooding, fibroids, failed endometrial ablation, anaemia the lot and NOTHING is worse than that. I'm 55 in June, more than 2 years since my last period. I'm also worried about weight gain as I'm still slim and toned but developing a distinct "menopot" belly.

Is HRT for me? I've agonised over it for ages.

I've chosen HRT , I had just about all of the symptoms . If you've just got night sweats then I guess the decision is a bit harder to make . Both these resources are good

drmarkporter.co.uk/new-nice-guidance-on-hrt-key-changes-2015/

www.nhs.uk/conditions/hormone-replacement-therapy-hrt/alternatives/