Panicking about starting HRT

[UsernameNotAvailableNow]

I'm 40 years old with a strong family history of early menopause (before 40). I've had symptoms of peri for years, but as I also have a coil and xantbtracj my periods, I've struggled to get anyone to take my concerns seriously.

Moved house, new GP, worked up the courage to speak to her about it, and she was wonderful. She did my bloods once which showed hormone levels within normal range, but said she would prescribe on symptoms alone.

And now I have Evorel25 patches and I am bricking it about using them. Stuck one on last night, within half an hour I have a sense of panic.

What if I'm not peri and I'm taking something dangerous for no reason?

Please can anyone share their experiences of these patches? Thank yoy

What if I'm not peri and I'm taking something dangerous for no reason?

HRT is not dangerous and especially for someone your age. You are just replacing natural hormones- topping up.

Might be a good idea for you to do some reading around HRT generally.

But if you're only 40 and you've had symptoms of peri for years perhaps it's for other reasons? Hormone imbalances are pretty normal way before peri starts and if your bloods are fine I'm not sure why she'd prescribe hrt.

What problems are you struggling with the most? I'm all for managing things as much as we can before medicating but obviously HRT is there for when things are not manageable.

For example if sleep is a problem have you tried upping your physical activity to promote good sleep? Sometimes the very obvious does help.

Blood tests are notoriously unreliable and very few GPs do them at the right time of a cycle. Days 2-5, and on 2 consecutive months.

Family history is important- if your family history is of prem menopause, then you are likely to be the same.

If you use HRT and it helps, then that was what you needed.

Thank you for the responses. I should have said my results were at the lower end of normal, so even with a low dose HRT, it should still only bring me to within a higher level of normal.

I've tried loads of things to manage symptoms naturally:

• limiting caffeine and generally having good sleep hygiene
• very very little alcohol
• never smoked
• health weight, excellent diet aimed at improving gut health
• daily walking, regular strength classes and cardio
• healthy BMI

Despite all of this, my sleep is shocking, increasingly frequent night sweats, very sore boots, itchy skin, a vagina that is drier than the bastard desert, and brain fog so bad that i genuinely worry I have dementia.

I also started peri at about 40, and a lovely female GP encouraged me to go on HRT (after excluding other possible conditions). I asked her "What if I take too much HRT, seeing as my levels of everything seem to be fluctuating wildly?" She explained that I don't need to worry about the progesterone aspect, as the Mirena coil is safe for use by menstruating women as well, and that it I was having too much oestrogen the first symptoms indicating that were likely to be nausea and bloating. So if I had that and it didn't go away within a few days I should come back to her. I did not have any such symptoms and over several months gradually increased my oestrogen dosage until the meno symptoms no longer troubled me.

But I do recognise this anxiety you're feeling. I had it too. I don't know why HRT seemed such a huge step, but it did. Maybe the anxiety is part of peri. Panic attacks, anxiety attacks and mood swings are!

Oh, and over the years I have sometimes forgotten that I changed patch yesterday, thought I didn't have one on and slapped another on, so I end up with double dose for 3 days until the next change day. Never had any issues from that, either.

I felt the same before starting HRT and I've seen a lot of posts on here along similar lines. I actually wonder if one of the symptoms of peri is health anxiety. I was definitely very anxious and the idea of taking medication which could have serious side effects only made my anxiety worse. But once I'd started HRT, I stopped worrying and the anxiety eased off.
I'm not saying HRT is or isn't right for you. I'm just saying I recognise and sympathise with anxiety holding you back from starting HRT.

With all those symptoms what do you think it could be other than peri?

Why do you think HRT is dangerous? Has some good benefits

Thank you all for your reassuring words, I really appreciate them. I think @WhereAreWeNow is right and its the anxiety talking. As I lay awake last night I realised I was catastrophising about various other things, so I think this is just it.

The patch is on anyway, and I've not had a stroke yet so it's probably fine 😬

I wish I had been given HRT. I have osteoporosis, terrible arthritis, autoimmune disease and went through all the horrible bladder and other problems. I am convinced HRT would have prevented a lot of that. Everyone I know who is on HRT is feeling great.

Yes me too, I wish I had started HRT sooner. I'm only 3 weeks in and the impact so far feels transformative.

Really? I'm 2 days in and feeling like I could happily rip everyone's head off. I won't obviously. What sort of transformation are you having @vjg13 ? I feel like I am pinning all my zen goals on this.

I am sorry to hear of your experience @endofthelinefinally a family member had similar and I am very keen to avoid.

@UsernameNotAvailableNow I am using the gel with 14 days of progesterone capsules each month. The biggest change has been in my ability to sleep. Since mid November, I had been waking 3-5 times a night with a hot flush and faster heart rate, followed by an icy chill. It meant I was getting no more than 2 hours sleep with extended periods of waking in between. I am not a good sleeper generally but this was so much worse. After just over a week of HRT this seems to resolve. My periods of anxiety also seem dramatically reduced. I'm still quite snappy but I think that's personality rather than menopause!

You don't sound like you know much about menopause or HRT. Have you read up on it. Your symptoms are classic and your anxiety sounds chronic. Please watch some Davina programmes, read up on it a bit and then your questions above will all be answered.

Catastrophising was my main menopause symptoms. The number of things I convinced myself I was dying from. 🙄And then the pandemic hit and I had to ban myself from looking at all social media and news as I just could not cope with it all.

You are on a very very low dose of patch. If you decide you don't like the patches then you just stop using them. No drama. But for me I found that even on the low 25 patches I was sleeping better within 2 days, the hot flushes vanished and my mental health improved too. I would also recommend Vit D and B12.