Can anyone help?

[Secondsight]

I have the mirena coil and hrt patches estraderm mx 50. I was having mood swings and bouts of feeling low. At first the patches seemed to make a difference but I think I'm back to square one.
I have an appointment with my GP next week so hopefully can get some help.
I'm not sure whether I'm just depressed and need anti depressants or it's my relationship or because I'm depressed I'm thinking it's my relationship.
I'm trying diet, exercise and not to feel down. I know it's difficult to give advice right now I feel like coming off all this stuff and trying without the coil and hrt.

Have you only used the coil for menopause or before?

It's really worth bearing in mind that many women need to swap types of hrt to get the best 'fit'. They are all different and including the coil there are 4 types of progesterone available- this is the hormone that affects mood.

With the coil you are getting a daily dose- albeit low- of a synthetic hormone and it may simply not be right for you.

You have a few options- increase your patch to a higher dose (75) and see if that helps.
Get the coil removed and try another type of progesterone such as Utrogestan.

If you are having relationship issues anyway can you arrange some counselling for yourself?

Thank you very much for answering. I don't think it's the coil as I've had it before about ten yrs ago and it was great.
It was put in last year due to continuous bleeding albeit light.
I found that when I started the hrt it worked well at first but then I seemed to go through some really rough patches.
Prior to starting hrt I had some counselling mainly over guilt about ending my marriage and I just seemed to go round and round in circles. I then started hrt and things improved.

I have an appointment next week with my GP so hopefully from what I tell them they can try and decipher something.
I don't really want to start anti-depressants as I've never had them before I just want to feel better though.

The usual way of dealing with this is to increase the patch for a few weeks to see if you need more estrogen. ADs are not recommended and do not help usually. (See my link to the podcast with the consultant where he discusses this topic.)

Using a continuous type of HRT (which the Mirena gives you) can override the benefits of estrogen sometimes, so you need a higher dose. It's def worth trying OR swap your patch for estrogen gel. This has the advantage of you being able to alter the dose from anything as low as 0.75mgs to 3 mgs a day.

Thank you I will speak to my GP next week.

I was somewhat low and depressed around the time of my menopause, but it turned out to be down to hypothyroidism, which is quite common among 50+ women, and relatively straightforward to treat.

So it may be worth asking if there could be factors other than the menopause itself.

Thanks ErrolThedragon did you have any other symptoms which were down to hypothyroidism?

Not that I can remember, just general crapness. I'd had a thyroid test some time before (BUPA health check type of thing) which was within normal range but towards the end of it, and DH has a form of thyroiditis so it was something we were aware of as a possibility to get checked. IIRC the blood sample was used to screen for a few other things - can't remember what exactly, maybe anaemia.

It may well be that it's your HRT and/or your relationship problems - just worth ruling out other factors before ADs.

Best wishes

Thank you. I don't think I'm going to make a decision on the relationship until I see my GP.