Crippling Anxiety and fear

[custardbear]

Hi
Has anyone felt this with HRT? I have had a few bouts of anxiety in my life and I'm in a pretty anxious situation anyway, but feel that since starting the oestrogen gel I have just sank deeper and deeper into what yesterday was crippling anxiety, I felt like I had a huge lump inside my gut and was struggling to do anything. My DH told me I had started catastrophiaing again which helped bring me back to earth thank goodness (I do this, have had this 'lump' before that GP said wasn't physically there, but it's just a horrible place I'm in at the moment 🥺

Yup. This happened to me on oestrogel. I tried dropping the dose for a bit but then when I re-upped it the anxiety was off the charts. I’ve stopped HRT altogether now (I’m 46 and peri) and will reassess after I’ve been off it for a few months. Since stopping 2 weeks ago I feel much more ‘normal’

Thanks @Flockameanie - I'm just going to stop it now, I feel a bit better today, managed to get through without propranolol so far but still anxious and got a bit of that feeling of a knot in my stomach which I absolutely hate 😣

It took about 5 days for the anxiety to go away after stopping the gel. I was really up and down for I think about 7- 10 days overall after stopping. Some really horrible lows - bleakness like I’ve rarely felt before. But after that passed I felt fine.

I've been having some anxiety issues on the gel. I've dropped the dose which seems to have helped a bit. Before the gel I was on patches and didn't have any anxiety issues at all so it might be worth asking GP about trying patches.

Thanks, I was wondering about patches, I'll ask the GP

@Flockameanie thanks. How long were you using the gel for?

@custardbear All types of estrogen are the same. (Transdermal) Patches and gel have the same sort.

Are you sure that the anxiety is not because you are anxious about HRT?

Estrogen is the 'feel good' hormone and actually relieves anxiety.

I felt like this before hrt.Crippling anxiety that made me stop driving.
I would bear with the gel a bit longer.
It could be the perimenoupause in general.

Well for me the anxiety wasn’t around starting HRT, which I was thrilled to be doing as so many friends (and people on here) rave about it. I did feel good on the gel for the first couple of weeks and had an initial burst of energy, etc, but that quickly wore off. After a month I decreased my dosage (to 1 pump) as I was horribly bloated. I gradually increased to 2 pumps over the next couple of weeks. After about 2 weeks of being on 2 pumps I started getting random and horrible bouts of anxiety and panic. I was also very bloated again and my bleed started before I even got to the progesterone part of the cycle. I was also having problems with my skin (perioral dermatitis that started same time I started HRT). The anxiety ramped up over the subsequent weeks. At that point I stopped taking it (so 3 months into the gel) as I was having no discernible benefits, only negatives.

I do not think my negative response to HRt was psychosomatic, as @JinglingHellsBells implies. For me I think I prob don’t need HRT yet. I’m peri (no natural period since Feb) and was experiencing some psychological symptoms (mostly rage, but also a bit of low motivation). For me it was the right thing to stop and I feel heaps better now (2 weeks since I stopped). Anxiety and panic gone. Bloating gone. Perioral dermatitis almost completely gone.