Does hrt regulate moods, just feel sad a lot..

[FayeGovan]

Lots of life changes going on. I try to keep busy but sometimes i just want to sit. I just feel sad a lot. Not raging or angry, just low. Also im getting up 2 or 3 times at night to pee. I have urge incontinence and its not going away. Also feel anxious and jittery and wound up an awful lot of the time.
Am unsure if hrt would help.

Has anyone got any advice?

Yes! Yes it will very probably help, it's not a magic cure-all though, especially if you are perimenopausal and end up taking sequential HRT with progesterone for two weeks a month

I genuinely feel so much better but have two or three days a month where I feel so low it's hard to function. Recognising the pattern and knowing it won't last does help!

Thank you.
Im menopausal, last period was about 4 years ago i think. Am mid 50s.

Then I would definitely give it a go

Do you take a Vit D supplement?
Excellent for general brain health and combating low mood.

Yes i take vit d.

Im going to phone the gp on monday.

HRT may definitely help. It was a lifesaver for me.

Vagifem might help with the bladder stuff. I had lots of niggly symptoms that improved with HRT.

HRT may help but only if your low mood is caused by low hormones. There are some women it can be miraculous for but, if it is not menopause related, lifestyle measures, talking therapies or an antidepressant may be more effective

I'm 47 and still having periods, however they have 'changed' over the past couple of years. I'd also found my mood and cognitive abilities gradually change: basically felt like I was loosing my grip on everything, being 'on the ball' rarely happened, and anxiety & sadness crept in - it was taking a real effort to appear normal/happy and deal with pretty standard life things.
Spoke to the gp about perimenopause potentially causing this as I'd already tried some lifestyle stuff.... I'm now 5 weeks into hrt and I can really feel the fog lifting. It's not a magic bullet, like Pow, everything is amazing- but I have more of my old resilience, enthusiasm & enjoyment back. I can concentrate better at work, separate out all the life admin, not procrastinate as much etc.
So basicallyI'm a convert & would think it's definitely worth a try!

Ive had vagifem for a few years, at first it helped with the bladder stuff but its got worse. I got a new prescription for bladder issues but i haven't started it yet. I feel my problems are emotional as much as bladder related and i think hrt might address both. I know its not a magic pill and I'm wary there might be side effects like bleeding some friends have had. But i feel i need to try it, i just feel wrung out and depleted. I need something to make me lift up a bit, stop being so flat and bleugh. I still do laugh and feel ok but my mood can plummet and sort of flatline. I feel jittery, dreading the future, have health anxiety and being in fight or flight mode feels like normal life. I realised its not right after dh and i went away a few days last month. He was saying how he enjoyed just relaxing. I was on edge and anxious all the time, i just thought everyone was like that. I asked him yesterday of he's ever like that he said never. For me its a normal state of affairs.
That can't be right.

HRT definitely helps my mood and has been one of the big advantages of being on it, for me. I'd give it a try, if I were you. It's the cost of a prescription, that's all, you can try it for three months and see if you like it.

It won't do any harm to try it. I didn't realise how anxious I was until I stopped feeling so anxious - I honestly thought that feeling so anxious was just normal and that the things I was worrying about were perfectly legitimate things to feel anxiety over. Since I've been on HRT the anxiety levels have dropped a lot.
What it hasn't done is improve my tolerance levels - am 48 and find myself a lot less patient and more inclined to snap at people who are pissing me off.

Thank you
Am definitely phoning gp on monday

It might. One of my main symptoms was low-level anxiety and depression and feeling everything was just a bit pointless. Give it a go and see how you get on.

Is it the patches or the gel most of you have?

How much caffeine do you consume? I switched to decaf coffee and tea 2.5 years ago and within a few months I found my anxiety had hugely reduced.

The HRT helped with other symptoms - sleep, brain fog, wanting to scream at people.

I use the patches but I top up with 1 pump of gel per day. I found the tablets gave me headaches, but other have found them fab and really helpful for sleep.

Im wondering if hrt would help cut down the night time toilet trips?

@WhatsitWiggle, ive always enjoyed a cup of tea but dont drink in excess. And ive tried decaf, its yuck! I dont drink or smoke, a wee cuppa is a treat.

I have tablets. They have been great for me,

Am wondering if there's much difference between tablets, gel or patches? Does the gp recommended what they think you should have or do they ask what you prefer?

I have patches - but I am uterus-free as I had a hysterectomy so just have oestrogen, no progesterone. I have found them very easy to use, the hard bit is getting the sticky glue off.

I would give it a try, the anxiety and low mood were the reason i tried HRT and it has helped although i still am not how i was before but that could be a combination of many other things so i also take magnesium rhodiola in the morning to help and ashwangada at night to help me relax and try to practice what CBT taught me - often not well though! I ended up going with a coil for the progesterone element as didn't like the low mood for 2 weeks and had bleeding when i was on utrogesterone which led to investigations and the suggestion of a coil which sorted everything out. I have urge incontinence too and my consultant straight away doubled my HRT dose which helped a little and gave me vagifem for localised estrogen. I had to come off HRT for 2 weeks a while ago and i felt the old symptoms creeping in so i think it has helped. Im 53 and take 2 x 1mg sandrema sachets and have a mirena coil. Still don't feel on the ball though mentally and ended up changing jobs as couldn't do my old one to the standard i wanted to any more which makes me sad to think it got the better of me!

I have oestrogen gel + Mirena coil for progesterone.

I’ve been on HRT for about 9 months and it’s helped with the terrible irritability and many of the physical symptoms, but lately my mood has plummeted.

I just have no enthusiasm for anything, everything seems pointless, I’m tearful and have horrible dread. I can’t work out why I feel like this. I have so much going on with work and in my personal life so maybe that’s it, but I hate feeling like this. I started a new job today and spent most of the day trying not to cry!

Patches after hysterectomy here too.

I am waiting to get a higher dose as my symptoms have returned after about a year of good performance. There is still an issue with supply, been waiting since last Monday.