Please recommend the best HRT for me.

[RosieSun]

I’m a regular poster but have name changed as I have never started a thread and nervous about this. I’d be glad of advice.
I have my 2nd GP appointment the day after tomorrow for menopausal symptoms, where I am expecting to be prescribed HRT. I suspect I have been peri for 4 years, but I didn’t realize, as my symptoms accumulated gradually as follows:
20lb weight gain; hair thinning; tiredness; vertigo; mild hot flushes; stress incontinence ; back ache and stiffness; low mood; general rage and now high anxiety with frequent chest soreness and shortness of breath. The anxiety is dreadful and the worse symptom by far. I am on the mini-pill, married but no sex life to speak of, but I want this to change once I’ve sorted myself out.
I stopped the mini pill at the start of the year when I wanted to check if I was menopausal. I had no periods for 4 months, then the heaviest two of my life (could barely leave house some days) and so I went back on the mini pill.
I have read up on HRT and I think I would like gels/patches but I got the impression at my first appointment that they were going to give me a combined pill instead, which will be disappointing if true. I don’t want a mirena coil fitted as I had one before and encountered problems with its removal.
My bloods have been taken twice with FSH readings of 72 and 70.
Until all this my health was good. I am 47, a bit overweight (BMI 26/27), diet not bad. I don’t smoke and gave up alcohol in the summer as I was feeling so lousy. I had covid in Sept 2020 and I thought I had long covid before reading up on the menopause.

Sorry for the long post, just trying to jot down any significant factors. If anyone reading this is has experience of HRT and can recommend a prescription for me that would be great. (I have read many websites, including Louise Newson’s.)

Sorry - thought I corrected all the typos... 😳

@RosieSun - hope you find a way to resolve things - if you can talk to DH it might help generally?

@putthehamsterbackinitscage Hello. What good news!. Has the HRT helped you with other symptoms too? And do you think the weight gain is just from eating and drinking more, as opposed to side effect of HRT or anything? Perhaps you have just been happier with a better appetite?

@RosieSun I've just turned 48.

@KarmaComma . It’s a rotten bloody age to be! I’m 47. One thing after another. Teenage kids, parents getting old n crazy, mid-life crisis with relationships and career! On top of this all these meno symptoms accumulating. I’ve tried giving up alcohol. HRT and now ADs. I really hope it all starts working a miracle soon. This is day 6 of Sertraline and I still feel sick most of the time. Unbelievable..errghh!!!

I hope you get your gel back soon.
i Am to collect my new patches tomorrow. Down to my last patch when I should still have 3 weeks of then left. Buggers won’t stay on!!

Fingers crossed your symptoms calm down soon!

Chemist have my gel in now, which I discovered by accident popping in to get 50 patches, but apparently the iou they gave me last time isn't valid. They said they gave me sondrina instead - which is not true, they had neither gel last time which is why they gave me an iou. I also had a bit of a Barney with the GP surgery because no one bothered to call/text (they usually send a text) to tell me the 50 patches prescription was done last Wednesday, so I've been suffering all weekend for no reason. I was furious this morning and have had a go at everyone. Im not asking for miracles here, just basic competency! Argh!!!

As you can possibly tell, the rage has not subsided.l

@KarmaComma . I feel rage on your behalf. Total incompetence with your IOU note by the sound of if! I’ve actually had my own medical mild rage issue. Apparently NHS won’t cover cost of GP surgery completing a simple one-page form for my DDs college application. Seems they only do this ‘privately’ and are allowed to charge whatever they like. I totally get they are very busy and should apply this principle to give out letters for skydiving or trips to the Seychelles etc (I should be so lucky!). But charging £32 just to confirm an under18s already diagnosed condition seems really mean! Let’s try and have a rage free day tomorrow…lol

Hello. I have loved reading through this thread and am wondering why there are no more posts. @RosieSun are you still active? I have just started Oestrogel after 5 years of trying to do peri/meno myself and finally decided it’s time to get some help.
Reading these threads has been such a leveller and I’m bereft to find nothing beyond 08/06/2022!
Also am interested to know how people have got on. Hope to find you 🤞

Hi & welcome @LondonImpala !! I’m still here but usually under a different name and email. (So didn’t even get notification of your post and actually came across it by chance). This is how ditzy I am - I started reading my OP and thinking ‘I’m really like her’ until I realised it was me as the OP 🤦‍♀️ .
How are you getting on with HRT? Well done trying yourself for 5 years! Has it relieved your symptoms?
Im ok but not having best of times health wise. I was referred to a gynecologist and attended 1st appointment this week. I’ve had strange bleeding and lower back ache/pelvic soreness for a few months(.This has caused ridiculous health anxiety and I’ve already given myself many diagnoses).

I’ve had 2 ultrasounds and am to get another one, a hysteroscopy & biopsy. I was meant to get the hysteroscopy this week but was hysterical with fear on arrival at the clinic and they agreed to get me back to do it under GA.
Other than all this I was getting on fine with the HRT - gel & Utrogestan, as I developed a reaction to the patches. I tried to wean myself off HRT in the autumn to see if if helped my above problems. It didn’t and my peri symptoms of anxiety/ depression, night sweats and aches & fatigue came back with a vengeance so I got right back on it.
Please do post here how you are doing!

Oh my goodness @RosieSun how awful. So sorry to hear that - hope the tests come back conclusively and you are able to get the treatment you need. I am 9 days into the Oestrogel and cannot say I’ve seen any difference yet. Still having the red-hot waves which are driving me mad - I wake up boiling so kick off the covers then wake up freezing, etc etc. The worst thing for me is the brain fog and inability to retain detail - I thought it was a Covid hangover, but honestly feel I’m going nuts sometimes. Just stare at my boss as she tells me off for being rubbish and have no response to give. I have a friend on oestrodot patches which she’s been using for a year and she says it has changed her life - clearer, no flushes, lost weight, no more anxiety. I want some of that! I know it takes a few weeks for the gel to take effect so am holding out for that.
Sending you positive vibes for your own recovery :)

Thank you @LondonImpala . How much gel are you on? Remember they start everyone on the lowest clinical dose, so it may be you need more, I’d give it another few weeks to see though. I hope you get improvement. Your friend is lucky it’s all working so well for her!

I find HRT has really improved night sweats (I used to get up in the night sometimes with a nightie so wet I could almost ring it out), the aches in my bones and joints and to an extent my anxiety, depression, brain fog & urinary urge. These things all go up and down- presumably with my own levels when the HRT isn’t enough of a buoyant. Best of luck with it - it can take a while to adjust to the correct dose.

Thank you!! I’m on one pump of gel morning and night. I’ll stick with it as she said it could take 3 months… I’ve waited 5 years, so suppose I should be patient!
Good luck with your tests 🤞

Thanks @LondonImpala You are wise being patient, but that’s good you also have scope to increase your dose if needed.