After advice from anyone, people. I'm early 50s, not had a period for 18 months now and a couple of years ago had (fairly) minor menopausal symptom - but they built up until I was struggling. I have a fairly senior professional job and I just felt shitty all the time.
Symptoms were hot flushes, particularly at night. I was waking every hour with a racing heart, feeling of doom, hot flush...ten minutes of throwing the covers off, feeling panicky and then it would fade and I would be shivering, pull covers back on, try and drop off - to then wake an hour later with the same cycle.
It got to the point where I was shattered, struggling to cope at work - also had a couple of panic attacks at work, and hot flushes. Brain stopped working, would lose track mid sentence, etc. Put a couple of stone on and felt a bit shit - went from a size 12 to a size 16/18 which I wasn't too worried about but it all knocked my confidence.
I just felt shit all the time and that I was struggling to cope, so went to GP. He was sympathetic and helpful. Suggested trying antidepressants rather than HRT - tried citalopram for a month, did nothing. Then switched to Prozac.
This was good - I felt calm, hot flushes went, slept better. Stopped panic attacks - but the down side was that over the next 18 months I piled even more weight on. I had Prozac once before in my 30s and I put a lot of weight on with it then, which mostly shifted after I came off it. This time I have hit 16 stone and a size 22. I just don't feel like me any more - and although I'm not terribly vain I do actually hate being this size. Nothing much fits, my knees hurt, I am struggling to get about and I am totally exhausted a lot of the time. I would love to get back down to a size 14 at least. Which I feel embarassed about because it sound trivial.
Anyway, I came off the Prozac in March after 18 months on it. I have carefully watched what I've eaten. Stuck to healthy eating for the last 12 weeks and I've lost 3 sodding pounds. In addition I now feel anxious, depressed, generally unhappy and twitchy. The hot flushes are back and life feels just as shit as it did 2 years ago - with the added crap of now being 16 stone and feeling bad instead of 11 stone and feeling bad.
My question is should I go back to the GP and ask to go back on Prozac again? It cut my menopause symptoms and I felt better - but I am desperate to shift this weight and can't bear the thought of piling any more on. Happy to take opinions from any of you who have been here - or any who haven't!
What would you do, folks?