Do I HAVE to be having hot sweats?

[DaesieMay]

Almost 50 and periods are all but stopped. Random insomnia (currently 4:11am), low mood, really low tolerance of idiots and SO easy to anger or feel massively depressed, headaches come too easy, foggy brain at times... just feel wrung out if I'm honest.
Thought HRT could help.
Telephone appointment with doctor and he said "not unless you get hot sweats - here have anti depressants"
"Whatever " was my response (though in other words)
I don't want to qualify myself as a doctor with my qualifications from google/tv/Facebook, but really? Not even a closer look? Is this right?
If I did try a private GP I'd feel weird like I was getting contraband or something. (I'm a rule following scaredy-cat). Maybe I'm grasping at straws to try fix my life situation but maybe this is causing it and making mountains from mole hills.
Just thought I'd see if anyone had advice.
Thanks in advance... best try sleep if I can or I'll fail at work/life again later! X

Go and watch the Menopause programme that Davina McColl made on channel 4 , then get back in touch with your doctor and tell them you need HRT, preferably topical to address your hormone deficiency due to menopause, and not anti depressants as you are not depressed

The NICE guidance for menopause are pinned at the top of this forum. Read the section on 'Diagnosis' . You don't need the full list of peri meno symptoms and any dr who says you need sweats needs to learn about menopause. It also says VERY clearly that anti depressants have no place in the treatment of menopausal symptoms for women who can , medically, use HRT.

It's shocking that a guide now 6 years old (2015) is still unknown to so many GPs.

No, you don’t have to have hot sweats. It’s hard to hear, but the message I took from the same sort of situation is that it’s up to you, not a doctor, to understand menopause and advocate for a solution. (In my own case I ‘advocated’ by bursting into tears in his surgery, leading to a referral to the menopause clinic, but there must be other ways….)

I'd recommend the Davina McCall programme as well. I have most of the symptoms but the hot flushes are few and far between.
Anxiety, insomnia, brain fog and crushing fatigue on the other hand....
I'm going to lie about the hot flushes when I see my doctor.

Thank you all so much. I watched the program a few weeks ago and it fitted so well for me. I might re watch and hassle the doctor.

Also, ngl, I will also start with hot sweats if I need to. I just wanted to confirm my understanding that he was wrong saying an outright no.

My gp uses the Greene Climacteric Scale for assessing peri/meno symptoms. It's well established and wide ranging. Your gp needs some education!

Perimenopause Hub group on Facebook is a treasure trove of info

I have been on HRT for 5 years. I explained to the doctor that I was anxious and easily overwhelmed - had not experienced this before. I had no physical symptoms including hot flushes. My GP agreed to HRT.

When I went back for an annual review a different GP said I shouldn't be on it for those reasons. So I think it depends on who you see (which isn't right).

The menopause part of medical training is optional and 60% of them don’t bother to do it.

maresedotes Can I ask if the HRT helped with your anxiety and overwhelm?

I'm similar in that I don't have physical symptoms but the mental ones are really bothering me

My gp uses the Greene Climacteric Scale for assessing peri/meno symptoms. It's well established and wide ranging. Your gp needs some education!

Perimenopause Hub group on Facebook is a treasure trove of info

I'm sure I read something the other day about there being financial incentives for GPs to prescribe antidepressants and bp medication but not HRT. Not surprising women are getting fobbed off. Why else would they pick one of your symptoms, prescribe drugs to deal with that, and refuse to treat the actual underlying cause?

@BeforetheFlood

maresedotes Can I ask if the HRT helped with your anxiety and overwhelm?

I'm similar in that I don't have physical symptoms but the mental ones are really bothering me

It absolutely did. Took about 2 months to kick in (Elleste Duet 1mg). It was when I was overwhelmed putting the shopping away (I had to have a lie down) that I realised I needed help. I was not myself at all.

I hope you get on well with it too.

Friend just went to her GP a couple of months ago with a list of menopause symptoms but no hot flushes. GP said no to HRT. She went to the specialist menopause clinic and has now got HRT and feels much better. How is it still happening that women are being put on anti-ds instead of being treated for the menopause. Its utterly negligent. You need a better educated Gp or a specialist.

There is so much info around at the moment about menopause I do wonder if some GPs are just rolling their eyes going 'all these middle aged women are going to turn up here expecting HRT just because they have a sniffle '.

I wish they were as keen to give HRT as they were at giving out the coil. Everytime I went to the GP or nurse from 35 onwards they would be hard selling the coil. None of those appointments were anything to do with contraception. It fucked me off no end.
Another friend is sure she is in menopause and has hot flushes and went to her GP. Their solution was to remove her old coil and put in a new one. Surprisingly it hasn't helped.

I was asked about hot sweats, I had had only a couple, but was getting a release of adrenaline every 20 minutes or so, which was like constant panic attacks starting up. I happened to get an appointment with a brilliantly supportive GP who told me it's the same mechanism that does hot sweats and adrenaline rushes. She did blood tests to rule out other stuff and then immediately prescribed HRT. She told me there is a window of opportunity and that these days they want women starting HRT earlier, being on it a max of 3-5 years. I'm 49. Push if you need to, it will make such a difference to you.

Maybe the default approach is 'I have xyz symptoms and want to try HRT'.

If your GP refuses, you quote the NICE guidance. The best drs will tell you it is YOUR decision what to do, they act as providers of information (balanced, not 1 sided) and you choose.

Even the Nice guidance says this right at the start of the info.
It says drs have to work in partnership with women and listen to what they want.

Unless you have a strong medical reason not to use hrt, they can't, morally and medically, refuse.

@TheFeistyFeminist

I was asked about hot sweats, I had had only a couple, but was getting a release of adrenaline every 20 minutes or so, which was like constant panic attacks starting up. I happened to get an appointment with a brilliantly supportive GP who told me it's the same mechanism that does hot sweats and adrenaline rushes. She did blood tests to rule out other stuff and then immediately prescribed HRT. She told me there is a window of opportunity and that these days they want women starting HRT earlier, being on it a max of 3-5 years. I'm 49. Push if you need to, it will make such a difference to you.

The 3-5 years is rubbish. How can she still be spouting that?

All the experts and the British Menopause Society say you can continue for life.

My consultant has women in their 90s using it.

That info is on their website under Consensus statements HRT.

The window of opportunity is the 10 years after menopause.

That's interesting Jingling, I did wonder why it helps me so much now but everything will be fine a few years down the track. I need to do more reading.