Has anyone found that HRT has made anxiety/depression worse?

[bellissimiaow]

I've suffered from worsening anxiety since lockdown and since working from home, along with many other possibly perimenopausal symptoms such as night sweats, brain fog, tearfulness, mood swings, itchy skin, insomnia, exhaustion etc. Went for blood tests which came back positive for perimenopausal and gp prescribed sequential HRT patches 2 months ago. I'm 47 and still have regular periods.

Since then my anxiety has become even worse, to the point where this week I've pretty much had a breakdown and now been signed off work with stress for a month. I was already taking 100ml sertraline antidepressants for anxiety (have taken these for years) so gp has increased these to 150ml.

I don't know whether all this is being caused by my hormones or just life, and whether the HRT has now made it better, worse or it was getting worse anyway.

I don't know whether to stay on the HRT for a bit longer to give it time to work. Its the one where you wear an oestrogen patch for 2 weeks then a progesterone one for 2 weeks - I'm currently in the second progesterone week.

Can anyone help? I feel absolutely dreadful now. I can't think straight, I feel shaky, my heart is racing and I'm breathless. The panic is overwhelming and i just want to crawl into bed and hide.

One last thing - we often hear a pro HRT argument that it is merely replacing the hormones your body has reduced access to ( they don’t disappear altogether!) If you think about it for a moment you’ll realise that this is a false analogy.
Do we treat puberty ? I think of menopause as puberty in reverse.

Puberty is the stage from childhood to being a fertile woman.
It lasts about a year or so from age 10-12 (approx.)

Menopause lasts for around a third or half of an adult woman's life- 30 or 40 years.

Puberty may be treated if for example it causes irregular or painful periods, or acne.

Until around 200 years ago, few women lived for many years after menopause. They died from natural causes or from infections and diseases for which we now have modern medicines.

They also tended not to run companies, fly planes, be Prime Ministers, and do all sorts of things that women do now.

If modern science helps women be able to function in society, be valuable to the economy as well as fulfilling their own lives, is that wrong?

Thanks everyone. @taketheredpill how long did you give it before deciding it wasn't for you? I've done 2 months and am going to reluctantly do another month but if things don't drastically improve I think I'll come off the patches. I don't even think it's worth changing to something with less progesterone because the main symptoms I wanted help for in the first place were the anxiety and mental issues rather than the physical ones. Yes I've noticed a slight improvement in my period length and it's lighter, and my sleep is a bit better but the anxiety and depression far outweigh any small benefit at this stage.

Sorry for late reply Op , I have been busy.
I gave HRT around 6 months - the side effects got worse in that time., with progesterone being the issue. The clue is in the name , that hormone is for the baby , not us!

@JinglingHellsBells

Puberty is the stage from childhood to being a fertile woman. It lasts about a year or so from age 10-12 (approx.)

Menopause lasts for around a third or half of an adult woman's life- 30 or 40 years.

Puberty may be treated if for example it causes irregular or painful periods, or acne.

Until around 200 years ago, few women lived for many years after menopause. They died from natural causes or from infections and diseases for which we now have modern medicines.

They also tended not to run companies, fly planes, be Prime Ministers, and do all sorts of things that women do now.

If modern science helps women be able to function in society, be valuable to the economy as well as fulfilling their own lives, is that wrong?

@JinglingHellsBells , You are missing the point re puberty - treating acne is not reversing puberty, which was my point. Pro HRT proponents say it’s like treating diabetes - it is not. You are entitled to your view as am I . Steroids (HRT) can have unpleasant side effects as the OP has found . Many women feel fine post menopause or treat individual symptoms with non hormonal products, whether flying planes or not lol .

@Taketheredpill You've been here before :) and said the same thing.

No dr would agree with you, regarding menopause being puberty in reverse, but if you want to carry on using that analogy and believing in it, that's your choice.

Excuse me ?? I’ve been here before ? Is that not allowed ?
Hells bells you patrol these threads on an almost daily basis!
I do rememberer having to inform you that oestrogen is a steroid . I was shocked that you didn’t know that when you recommended HRT constantly .
For such a huge site, the menopause boards are dead. Perhaps because debate is killed off …
Like many others I go elsewhere for informed debate / discussion on the menopause as a result.
However the OPs point about progesterone was so relevant I felt I had to respond .
Clearly you would rather I didn’t .
Enjoy your echo chamber.
Ps it was a dr would made the analogy , not me .

Yes, yes and hell yes ! It was awful. I really hit the floor quite quickly. Stopped taking it after 5 weeks, went on Sertraline and never looked back

@Rina66

My consultant told me today that a Mirena coil should be my next trial after trying only 1 x 100mg Utrogestan vaginally for 10 days per month (I'd been using 2 x 100mg which is a double dose apparently). I explained that I was worried about having progesterone via the coil, a device I had no control over, she told me two things to consider :

1. There is far less progesterone iemitted from the Mirena, so less chance of side effects

2. Removing a Mirena is far easier than inserting one and accordingly and the nurses within GP practises will remove them, so I wouldn't be stuck with it if I had an adverse reaction to it.

I'm still not convinced but apparently you have to have tried everything (including the Mirena) before you will be considered for a hysterectomy on the basis of progesterone intolerance.

I have found my Mirena good. My moods feel stable. I'm 57 and have it as my HRT progesterone element.