How soon after starting HRT did you see any improvement?

[RubiesandRose]

I am 57 in a couple of months, and my last period was June 2014. I was very lucky and had very few menopausal symptoms, hot flushes which weren’t too unbearable (I can’t remember the last time I had one) and that was about it. However recently I noticed that I was feeling much more fatigued than usual, my skin and hair were getting drier, and I am suddenly carrying an extra stone in the last 12 months.

I spoke to my GP about HRT and after blood tests to make sure there was no other underlying medical issues, I started on Evorel Conti patches on Wednesday.

I am open to the health benefits and also hopefully an improvement in my skin/weight and general mojo, but just wondering when I should expect to notice a difference, if any?

For me, getting off to sleep first thing to improve. Emotionally a bit up and down at first (still have my moments!) and even felt a bit spacey at first.
Brain fog and anxiety issue for me. Brain fog still around but improved a bit. Anxiety has gone down a few notches but have to accept I am generally a worrier and that won't disappear even on hrt!
I'm on tablets.

It took probably six months of gradually increasing the prescription, to get me feeling something like back to bring myself. once I was up up 100 and I'd been on that dose for probably two months I eventually started to sleep better. My anxiety reduced sooner but even on maximum dose I still get a few days here and there of bad anxiety, I had three days earlier this week with no sleep and barely eating.

Sleep was instant. The first week I slept 10 hours every night. It was insane.

Then a couple of months to feel really good.

Just reading back your symptoms. I had forgotten how dry my skin was before hrt. That improved so much but I did have a couple of weeks with spots in first month. I also had some hair loss that first month but then it settled down.

Anxiety disappeared for me. It had been awful. And my confidence came back - I hadn't realised just how low my self esteem had got.

Similar here. As a chronic insomniac, the surprisng side effect of sleeping 6 hours instead of 2-3 hours took about 3 nights. Very vivid dreams as well.

I still think I need to increase my dose though.

Within a week. It was astonishing.