Will HRT help with sleep?

[HippyChickMama]

I am 43 and I think I'm peri menopausal, periods have gone haywire over the last 6-12 months, hot flushes, itchy skin, disappearing eyebrows, night sweats and aches and pains. The very worst thing though, I am having very vivid dreams all the time and waking up feeling as if I've not slept, I don't think I'm achieving enough deep sleep. I've been to the GP and they've requested a blood test to confirm peri and rule out thyroid issues, if it is peri will HRT help with poor sleep? I can cope with the other symptoms at the moment but I'm so tired 😩

Magnesium supplements help with sleep. High strength. They’ve been a life saver! HRT didn’t do anything for my sleeping but has made me more emotionally stable.

Im glad the dr is checking thyroid, several of your symptoms sound like I felt before I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism.

www.healthline.com/nutrition/magnesium-types

@ItsLoudInMyMind thank you. I am taking Menopace which have some magnesium in but probably not enough, am also drinking 120ml of prune juice a day for sluggish bowel, I believe there's a fair bit of magnesium in that too but maybe worth trying to increase my intake. Interestingly, I have believed for some time that my thyroid may be under active, I've previously had tests but was always borderline.

HRT definitely helped my sleep. My sleep had been disordered for so long that I had come to accept poor sleep, frequent wakings and disturbing dreams as my new normal. I'd forgotten what a good night's sleep was. I didn't even bring it up as a symptom!

Improved sleep was one of the first things I noticed on HRT, before it even started reducing the hot flashes and the mood swings.

Thank you @WashAsDelicates, if it does turn out to be peri I'm hoping that will be the case for me too

My sleep improved significantly, I assume largely thanks to the Utrogestan tablets as they knock me out a treat. It's like they reminded my body how to sleep well so I still mange to sleep OK during the two weeks I'm not taking them. Hope you manage to get your HRT and it does the trick.

Thank you @Moomin37 I think it has become a bit of a pattern as the more tired I am, the less settled I am during the night

It will almost certainly help you, not least because of the fact that your hot flushes and night sweats will subside. Also FYI a blood test isn't needed to diagnose perimenapause as hormones fluctuate so much at this time. The Dr should prescribe on symptoms alone, although a blood test would indeed be useful for checking your thyroid.

It hasn't helped me at all unfortunately. Although I have suffered with poor sleep long before I started peri menopause symptoms. I was on the progesterone only pill for years and that hasn't ever had any affect! Now I'm still on that but also on utrogestan and estrogen patch but no sleep 😕 I'm a hopeless case!

I had ‘stressful’ dreams before I got my HRT and they have settled down. 🙂

It's helped me. I still have the odd bad night but I'm a million times better than I was pre HRT.

@LifeInAHamsterWheel same. Sleep is appalling to say the least. I'm at a loss as to what to do next.

HRT helped me considerably with sleep. I was waking up repeatedly, often as a result of hot flushes. That was the perimenopause symptom that finally got me to seek help! It made a huge difference.

One word of caution - I did have to try a few different types of HRT before I found the one that worked for me, so I'm afraid it might not be an instant result.

Thanks all. @Seaoftroubles the blood test is because I'm under 45, the NICE guidance only advises diagnosing on symptoms alone in over 45s. I know that menopause age is often hereditary, my dm had a hysterectomy at 30 so nothing to go on, although maternal dgm says she had her last period at 50. The thyroid test will be useful, either way I just want a solution to the poor quality sleep

HRT was very effective at improving my sleep and anxiety.
I also take magnesium now, and sleep like a baby.