Menopause and mental health

[Burnamer]

I started HRT 2 weeks ago and am generally feeling emotionally strung out and finding life tough (that’s not just in the last 2 weeks).
I'm just looking about how peri-menopause wrecked your head and then HRT fixed it.

I was a hot, sweaty angry mess before HRT but it really did sort me out. Had to try 3 types but 3rd one worked! Good luck op

Thanks @Peterbear
I don’t have much in the way of physical symptoms, more the emotional / mental ones. I swing between being convinced I am married to a saint or an arse. 🤷🏻‍♀️

For me there was a definite link between menopause and mental health. I am not someone who has been troubled by anxiety or depression in the past, mild arsey-ness around period time but nothing too severe. 2 years after my hysterectomy (I kept my ovaries) I was so anxious and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I wasn't eating, was waking at 3am with a pounding heart and feeling of doom, crying all the time, worrying about things which had never bothered me before. Horrendous. Saw the GP who prescribed Prozac, didn't start taking it straight away and started feeling better on my own in a couple of weeks. 18 months later the same thing, again back to the GP and a script for something else, Citalopram I think.

Looking back I was clearly peri-menopausal and needed HRT not antidepressants. I started HRT about a year ago and have felt much more even since replacing oestrogen. In fact, I think I am on a too low dose at the moment as I can feel the anxiety starting to resurface.

Please have the discussion with your GP.

Thanks @HeraldicBlazoning I have started HRT and am waiting for it to kick in. All my actions seem completely rational in the moment but when I look back from 24 hours distance I’m not so sure…
im not as confident and don’t trust my judgement.

I've recently started HRT and it was predominantly because of the psychological issues I was getting.
I lost my job because I just couldn't think properly, kept forgetting things and of course, that caused anxiety because I was terrified someone would ask me a question and I wouldn't remember the answer.
I'm still having periods, though they were starting to become more irregular and I'm in my early 50s, so I know I'm perimenopausal but most of my symptoms were mental.
It has only been a week for me but I can feel a change. I'm feel calmer and the anxiety has definitely reduced. I'm hopeful it will continue because I felt like I'd lost myself and my confidence was rock bottom.
Early days but I can see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks @Londondreamer I appreciate the response. Best of luck to you - I had honestly never appreciated the magnitude of the effects before now.

I developed increasing anxiety in my 40s (now 49). It worsened in the last year and most mornings I would wake up feeling stressed and overwhelmed. During the day it would usually subside. It didn't really matter what I had to do that day. I just felt like I couldn't cope. I started taking estrogen and progesterone about a month ago to reduce hot flushes at night. That hasn't really reduced much but my morning anxiety has disappeared. It is amazing to think there was such a simple solution to what seemed to be wholly down to lifestyle (single parent, demanding full time job, teenage children). I'm hoping it will eventually reduce the hot flushes too but this side effect is definitely worth it.

I started HRT after developing a whole bunch of symptoms - anxiety and what I can only describe as self-doubt among the worst. I increased my estrogen when anxiety started sneaking back - but HRT definitely worked for me.

Those that say your mood/anxiety got better
are you all on the same one ?

can you say which your on, so to see if there’s a particular one your using. Or are you all on a different one ??

The menopause sent me bat shit crazy. I had 6 months off with acute stress. After 3 months on hrt I felt so much better and much more like my old self.
My sex drive never recovered though and I divorced my husband as I suddenly saw what he really was and I hated it.
The menopause takes the rosy spectacles right off.p

I'm on Sandrena Gel and Eutrogestan, the lowest doses at the moment to see how I got on. I had a bad reaction to the Eutrogestan at first until i discovered I didn't have to take it orally only. When i switched, it all seemed to settle down.

As others have said, I really had no idea the menopause could do this to a person. I went from being very confident and capable, to a shell, afraid of everything/everyone, with zero self esteem.

Hopefully, with everyone talking more, this aspect will get more attention.
I dread to imagine the untold number of women, who were ignored or mis diagnosed and felt like life was over for them, when they could have been helped.

1st post - My Wife's been going through the Menopause for the past 2.5 years, she's 53 & to say life's been hell would be an understatement.
She's always suffered with depression & has been on Citalopram for years but Menopause turned her into a total wreck. She's slashed her face multiple times with a knife, used razor blades on her waist & hips & on several occasions tried choking / hanging herself. Mood swings, hot & cold, unable to sleep & on 17 occasions she's wandered off in the early hours in just sox & night clothes, running from her mind & trauma, other times screaming & wailing whilst holding her head shouting 'make it stop' over & over.
She's attended 2 mental heath support courses, a total of 16 sessions & still suffers. Took me 6 months of constant calls to the Dr before I finally got her Everol Conte patches which have now been substituted for an alternative Everol patch since having her coil changed.
Been together 30 years, married 20 & I no longer know the Woman I married.
Try being as helpful / supportive as I can but not sure it makes much difference & all the while this is screwing my head up too.

@chadfagin I am so sorry to hear about your wife and how this must be affecting you.

I just had to reply as my mental health is also being badly (to put it mildly) affected. Today I got up and just thought I can’t do this again, I don’t want to go through this pain yet again. I am on HRT Utrogestan and Evorel 75. I have been reading that Utrogestan can have a depressive affect on people and can make it all worse so I just stopped taking if for the last 3 days and now I feel even worse.

I am at a loss and have to do all my own research as my doctor does not seem to know much about hormones and depression. I am on Sertraline and they just want to up the dose or change to another one.

@Krazykitty 20 years ago before we married My Wife stopped taking her Citalopram thinking she could ween herself off but that resulted in her becoming the polar opposite of who she was, everything she stood for morally went out the window & she became an entirely different person, thankfully she went back on the pills & came back to who I knew. Since Menopause kicked in her Mental Health has gone through the roof sadly & become cold & distant. What I always regarded as a happy marriage descended into despair & permanent strain.

My mental health is better than in decade so I am perimenopausal. No depressions or anxiety. I am wondering if estrogen caused my mental health problems and now it's less active I feel fine.

Estradot 50 and now 75 (patches) and utrogestan.

I'm suffering badly. Severe mental health and death a anxiety. Am post menopausal now and haven't had a period for a year and a half.

Ah I’m so sorry.

I’ve done stupid things such as over pay council tax etc in recent times and think about death even more.

No period in now two months but getting period pain which is par of the course but I don’t understand how you get period pain if things aren’t working as they were before. Sadly the peri nurse went off sick so you are booked a 10 minute appointment with GP who agrees to forever repeat prescription of hrt so they don’t have to see you for years I suppose. No bloods done no nothing.

The only thing I got out of GP is whatever you do don’t stop progesterone as if you don’t have this the lining thickens. This is said to someone with fibroid history and an unusual thin lining but yeah ok. The nurse wrote the Estrogel was the saviour but that makes fibroids grow and I wouldn’t like the growths on inside of the thighs nearest the womb inside so not convinced either really knows.

I have occasional emotional outbursts, crying over some sad movies I watch or a sad song I listen to. I sometimes go on a day without talking to any family members and having no shower for 3 days (which is really gross) but I manage to track my symptoms through journaling. Virtua hugs OP

Hi, I've been on Evorel Conti for about a month now and have started with severe dizziness and vomiting for the last 2 days. Is this a common side effect or has anyone else experienced this? I'm hoping it might just be a virus but I don't have any other symptoms.