If you are post menopause how do you feel?

[cantheydothisreally]

And what would you tell a peri meno woman?

49 and need some hope 😞

Thank you @over50andfab .

Thanks for the posts, it us good to hear from so many women😊

I have found the digestive issues & currently the night sweats the worse things.

I have not ruled out HRT as an option. Managing @ the moment 🤔

There are -literally- as many experiences as there are women!

It's 100% individual.

Some women don't even notice the menopause except for loss of periods.

Others, have hot flushes and sweats for life. (This is medical evidence, not opinion!) Once you have them, you cannot know how long they will last. Some women are lucky and it's a couple of years, others it's till their 80s and 90s.

Bear in mind that the menopause had two stages. The first is the typical symptoms that are easily noticed , and the second (in later years) is loss of bone density, heart problems (women's risk catches up with men's , post-meno) and pelvic floor/ organ issues (bladder, womb and vaginal issues.)

Lifestyle is really important to reduce all these things, so a healthy diet (losing weight if necessary) ,exercise and managing stress help.

It absolutely is a very individual experience as our entire hormonal experience from puberty is. If you put together a group of female friends or family members there are going to be wildly different experiences both physical and emotional re periods, pregnancy, post natal, peri menopause and menopause.
It depends so much on our own natural hormone levels and what are the optimum levels for our own bodies. I think its 25% of women have no peri/menopausal symptoms as such (bar periods skipping/stopping) , and there is a % of women that have symptoms (like frequent UTIs, anxiety generally or around specific things like driving, insomnia or poor quality sleep, tinnitus, increase or developing for the first time histamine issues, memory or concentration issues) and then the % that have the more obvious/common symptoms of hot flushes, difficult periods, mood swings. Some women suffer more in peri, some in the menopause stage.
I dont think anyone can or should forecast immpending doom on anyone not taking HRT, yes advise them to check bone density with DEXA scans so if theres loss that can be factored into their decision process, and to be aware that ten years after hrt/last period may mark a point of hrt no longer being an option if theres plaque build up in arteries, but women are entitled to make their own choices for their own lives.
I went through peri ok, i was tired and struggled a little trying to juggle everything but put that down to being a new mother and working fulltime and it could just as easily be down to those things as peri. Was postmeno at 38ish, things worsened slowly and I didnt understand what was happening, put it down to still juggling life but when lockdown hit and i wasnt working for 3 months it became clear it was something else. By this point (so maybe 5-6 yrs after last period) I was waking between 2-3 am pretty much every night, i ached all over but the scariest thing was my memory. I was forgetting basic words, losing my thought mid sentance, it was a running joke in work how much time i spent looking for a piece of paper or item id just had in my hand.
Id been offered hrt in my mid thirties but i didnt think i needed it (i already had osteoporosis at that point but it wasnt clear to me that hrt would actually have helped in that area, and as my mom had o+ BC I didnt see the point in 'risking' HRT this being a time that that research piece showing a link hadnt been widely descredited)
Lots of lockown research and i started gel oestrogen and oral Utrogeston July 21 and life is just so much easier. I actually fall into a deep sleep now (for YEARS I'd been telling DP he was too noisy with the tv, microwave, closing doors and it was his fault i was tossing and turning, nope it was me), aches have gone and i function much better verbally and memory/organisation wise. Also gone is the weird apathy or lack of interest in life that I couldnt quite explain or describe.
Theres been a blip last couple of months with having covid and being allergic to this time of year anyway, histamine really is a pain in the ass, but i still feel much better and happier in myself and life than preHRT.

@MILLYmo0se
I have literally just this week started oestrogen pesseries (previous breast cancer) and calcium supplements (loss of bone density). I’m really hoping I start to feel better soon. Breast surgeon said a definite no to anything oral (I would be too scared anyway).
Oh and you’re right the brain fog is so debilitating, and the sleep deprivation. I would give anything for a decent night’s sleep 😕

Tbh I think its probably unusual for anyone to start out on oral oestrogen now, transdermal is seen as best as its body identical and theres isnt any increase of clot risk. The pesseries seem to work pretty quickly on vaginal atrophy, is bone density loss a side effect of cancer treatment too? I vaugely seem to remember that being mentioned with my mum, but cant remember was it specifically to do with treatment or for the same reason menopause can equal bone density loss ie the hormone blockers =no oestrogen.

@MILLYmo0se
Yes 6 years of breast cancer drugs which supress oestrogen have resulted in osteopenia, a pre curser to osteoporosis.

Started mid 40s with seriously low moods and lack of libido. By 49 I had ridiculous night sweats to the point that it looked like I had stepped out of the shower. Heart palpitations, no libido to speak of, Suicidal thoughts, weight gain and brain fog. Started HRT with testosterone. Night sweats, suicidal thoughts, and palpitations have all but disappeared. Still waiting for my libido though.

middleagedlurker
Reassuring to hear how things have been for you and thanks to everyone who has replied

Happy to keep the thread going if it helpful to read a range if experiences 😊

I agree don't be fobbed off by the GP however always good to remember that in most cases they probably know a damned sight more than Davina McCall. In my opinion she has a little knowledge and thinks she knows everything.

This is incorrect and not very helpful at all. Most GPs have very little knowledge about the menopause, including the up to date, evidence-based knowledge about HRT, which is part of the reason so many women are being fobbed off with anti-depressants or told to just 'put up with it'. Do you know how much training on menopause your average GP gets before they qualify? Two hours. Yeah, that much.

The Davina McCall programme was made in full consultation with renowned menopause expert Dr Louise Newson, who is working to educate more GPs on menopause, its effects and treatments for it. It's ridiculous to assume Ms McCall or any celebrity with a reputation to uphold would make a documentary handing out dubious medical advice with no expert input.

The advice given in the Davina documentaries is up to date, accurate, and evidence-based. The bottom line is that all the scare stories about HRT increasing the risk of breast cancer/heart attack/stroke/etc stem from a now-discredited study in 2002 ( the Womens' Health Initiative study) which subsequently led to inaccurate scare-story headlines in the press. Many medical professionals stopped prescribing HRT and It was devastating for millions of women who were benefitting from HRT. You can google the Women's Health Initiative study to find out more on this.

Even though that study took place 20 years ago and the researchers who conducted it have since apologised, the effects of the study are still with us today, in the innaccurate information women are given by GPs who are not up to date with more recent studies, and in the fear that many women still clearly have (shown in this thread) about taking HRT.
I personally take body-identical, regulated HRT and it's been a life-safer. I plan to stay on it forever. It is natural (non-synthetic) hormones made from yams, completely identical to what our own body produces and it has many health benefits-protecting against osteoporosis, lowering the risk of heart attack are just two. The bottom line is that we now know that women taking body-identical HRT have a 9% lower chance of death BY ANY CAUSE.
My menopausal symptoms were unbearable before i started HRT-I was experiencing constant excessive sweating all over my body which was extremely life limiting. I barely left the house because I was damp, sticky & uncomfortable all the time and because other people could see how much I was sweating. It was literally ruining my life, and modern HRT has given me my life back again. Plus, I'm helping toprotect myself from many of the conditions that affect women as we age and our estrogen supply declines.

So, my advice to anyone approaching menopause, would be:

1: DON'T assume your GP is the fount of all knowledge on this, because chances are they aren't. Don't take 'no' for an answer, if you want to try HRT you're entitled to have it on the NHS.

2: Arm yourself with knowledge. Read books, and good quality advice on the net -Dr. Newson's own website is a great place to start www. balance-menopause.com. Loads of articles, podcasts, factsheets etc about coping with peri/menopause.

3: Take the advice given by random people on menopause forums (and I include myself in that) with a healthy pinch of salt. It's interesting to read other peoples' experiences and knowing you're not alone can really help if you are struggling, but their body is not your body, and what works for them may not be right for you. Equally, you don't know where they have got their info from, or if its even correct. And that brings us right back to GPs 'knowing a damn site more than Davina McCall' 🙄

Agree totally.

I definitely know more about about HRT than my 70 year old male GP who offered me ADS. So does Davina.

It is why we all pay for private or OTC.

Menopause knowledge varies among GPs and can depend if they took it as a speciality or if they’ve done training since which is available to them. Thankfully both my GPs are very knowledgeable including the older one who should have retired a few years ago. I can’t say the same for 2 urogynaecologists I was referred to who didn’t make the connection with my issues and low hormones despite knowing I’d previously been diagnosed with urogenital atrophy.

While Davina’s programmes were good in raising awareness there were some inaccuracies that the British Menopause Society had to address following the second one, both about the claims of HRT protecting against dementia and use of testosterone. There was some disconnect in that treatments used were not those offered on the NHS so inaccessible to a lot of women.

This was rather like the recent Channel Five programme Women's Health, Breaking the Taboos and the private treatment used. I couldn’t believe it when they addressed vaginal atrophy and other than a brief mention of topical estrogen going straight to laser therapy as treatment. This isn’t even recommended in the Nice Menopause Guidelines - only for research purposes, does not always work, is expensive and needs repeating among other things. Topical estrogen should always be considered first in women able to take it.

I agree with 99% of what @ThingInTheAttic has posted.

One thing is take issue with is that some doctors (Dr Newson for example) appear to completely dismiss the risks of breast cancer with estrogen + Utrogestan. The truth is, no one is 100% certain of the risks although it's been known for years that there is a variation with different progestogens.

At the moment, the evidence (backed up by a BMS statement) is that there is no added risk for at least 5 years using that type of HRT.

The stats on BC for other types of progestogens, are approx 4 more cases per 1000 women, over 5 years, Compared with being overweight, which is the highest risk, and adds around 24 more cases.

But - very important 'but'- those figures for HRT risk are based on mostly outdated forms of HRT, (not Utrogestan.)

There is still no agreement on lowering the risk of dementia and HRT. However, my personal opinion is that it may well turn out that way simply because the majority of people with dementia are women (and they lose estrogen.)

Unfortunately, most GPs read the headlines, put out by the press, and don't have the time to drill into the detail.

I dont know I read Dr Newson views differently. I see her as arguing that woman should be given whatever facts there are and then decide for themselves whether to take HRT, their doctors should not be able to deny them a prescription, a woman should be able to balance the risk Vs whatever detrimental effect lack of hormones is having on their life.

She does say that and I agree with those thoughts.

But I also think that she sometimes suggests there is 'no risk' with Utrogestan and forgets to add that she is quoting research showing no risk for women using it for up to 5 years. (There are two other large trials showing no added risk using it for longer, but no one can yet say 'ever'.)