Weaning off HRT

[RatatouilleAndFeta]

Anyone want to do this together?

I've been on it for 1.5 years.
Have tried the spray, the patches, testogel, the vag oestrogen... I'm feeling anxious all the time and have put on weight. My boobs are like melons. I'm tired of thinking about it all the time!

Today I bought some fish oil. And I have the menopace tablets.
Going to try to swim every day and add in some yoga.

Majorly cutting down on carbs, sugar & alcohol.

Am a bit apprehensive about how much my joints ached pre-HRT, but
I feel like if I can lose the extra 3st I'm carrying, the joint aches might not require the HRT anyway.

Oh am going to stick with the vag cresm as it's very low and definitely has a positive effect.

Am weaning off, as I was on a 75 patch and had some 50's left over.

I'll post how it's going here every day.
Be lovely if anyone is thinking of quitting, and wants to join me?

😊

samthebordercollie
Thanks for your kind post. I actually don't know what type it was, i just remember her saying there was no genetic link. They gave her tamoxifen and that sent her loopy mood wise and so they said to not take it as it wasn't oestrogen linked. So I don't know.
Sorry to hear your mum also suffered with it.
Well i think you're when you say about exercise and i feel awful not doing any now but I just can't bring myself to do it when I get this all-over aching.
I

Sorry my phone just bounced around and I accidentally posted before finishing! At least I didn't lose the whole post! So yes I was saying.. I can't exercise much but will try to get back into palates. I can't drink wine either any more...sob! 😭I get too much acid reflux.
But i have to say i definitely vote for the non HRT route!

Samthebordercollie Sorry meant to say "you're right" when it comes to exercise!

@samthebordercollie Can I make a suggestion on a couple of things in your posts?

First, even if you stop HRT, think about using vaginal estrogen to help your bladder. It's not absorbed into the system and many women on systemic HRT also use it (as well.)

The idea your mum got cancer because of being 'injured' by a ball is a myth. There used to be this idea that any impact on the breasts was harmful but that myth was ditched at least 30 years ago.
Likewise, the genetic link. If you are concerned about a genetic link you can ask for a genetic test.

Alcohol is a big factor in breast cancer and even 1 large or 2 small glasses a day raise the risk higher than HRT (saying this in case you weren't aware.)

@JinglingSpringbells thanks for the suggestion of the oestrogen crème I'll see if I can get some. I drink a lot throughout the day because si do lots of sport so that probably doesn't help!
6 weeks of HRT now and no night sweats, plus mood is definitely better. I don't think I ever really needed to take it as my symptoms were minimal compared to many women and as testosterone isn't available in France there was no help with loss of libido which was a problem.
Thankyou for the info on physical injury not causing cancer - mum was partial to the odd gin and tonic so maybe that was the cause of her breast cancer. She didn't smoke and wasn't overweight, which are other risk factors.

@BooseysMom how are you doing? I'm 2 months off HRT now. I had both a bone density scan and a mammograph last week and both are fine. I'm still sleeping better, mood better, only thing is I'm losing weight and I don't want to or need to, so maybe that isn't HRT related.
@alloalloo Do you have regular bone scans in the UK? Here in France we have one every 3 years. My bone density is a little above the normal for my age so I don't need HRT for that reason. But I've always been active and ran a lot over the last 10 years which helped keep it normal. It's worth getting checked. Re night sweats - mine haven't returned...yet!

We don't get bone density scans here in the uk unless very unusual symptoms

samthebordercollie

@BooseysMom how are you doing? I'm 2 months off HRT now. I had both a bone density scan and a mammograph last week and both are fine. I'm still sleeping better, mood better, only thing is I'm losing weight and I don't want to or need to, so maybe that isn't HRT related.

Thanks for the post. Yes all the same here, thanks. Been in bed all day with a weird cold/cough bug which is like Covid but tested negative. My last period came and caused more misery than usual! The few days running up to it was horrendous and I had to take a day off work, then it came and was painful and heavy but thankfully only lasted 3 days. Now I'm back to the aching.
Glad you sound like you're doing ok off it and sleeping better. It makes a big difference. I'm glad I'm not on it still as it wasn't working anyway!

Btw I like your name! We had a border collie called Sam when I was very little.

The all over body aches, stiffness upon waking had come back with a vengeance after 3 months off hrt.

My all over feeling of extra fatness had gone though and my dolly parton boobs had started to go down.

The aches and pains, bad sleep and brain fog have prompted me to try again, i'm going for a low dose though. Will report back. Boobs feeling massive again after a few days 🙈 but ache's immediately improved.

Ah no. It looks like we have to choose between being plump or pain free...looks like staying on it for me, as I like to be active.

I walk 5 miles a day. I also alternate daily between strength work, swimming or a gentle run - mindful of cortisol levels.

I probably need to cut out bready carbs etc.

Good luck with your decisions and well done for trying to cut HRT.

@BooseysMom I hope you feel better soon! Sam the border collie is my running buddy, with his daughter Maggie. They are good motivators for getting me out running in all weather.
@TheBushOfYourGarden argh, so 2 months is too early to say being off HRT is working or not. I'm really sorry your body aches and stiffness came back, and hope a low dose works.
@arghtriffid I think being active helps. Do you worry a lot about cortisone? I run 40 miles a week, weight train 4 times a week for 90 mins a session and walk loads, but I don't seem to have any high cortisone symptoms.

peri menopausal here (48); went cold turkey on hrt (Evorel sequi 50 patches) 7 days ago.
I just felt so bulky, bloated and depressed during the progesterone phase that I couldn’t bear it any more.

I've been on evorel Conti patches for about five years now. Does anyone know if the hot flushes are likely to come back if I stop using them? I'd like to lose weight and I'm unsure if the hrt patches are contributing towards my weight gain.

My hot flushes haven't come back since stopping HRT, indeed sleep is better.

Thanks. Can I ask how long you were on hrt and how long you've been post menopausal? Any other symptoms that came back?

I've been off HRT for 3 months, no symptoms have come back, I've lost a little weight (didn't need to) am sleeping more soundly and no hot flushes. So all good so far.

Thank you for the reply. How long had you been on hrt?

For 2 years

How's everyone doing? @BooseysMom how are you feeling?@TheBushOfYourGarden are you feeling better now you are back on HRT?

I'm 4 months off now and sleeping is fine, no hot flushes except one night when it was too hot in the bedroom. I do have a few aches and more stiffness but not sure if that's down to overdoing all the running and strength training I do or the lack of oestrogen. Hair growth is better but that could be down to numerous factors.

samthebordercollie
Thank you for asking! I thought I was feeling ok but it comes and goes in waves and I'm in a low one atm. These dark evenings are really not helping. Also the insomnia comes and goes. The night before last I woke at 2am for an hour and last night I slept through until 6am! Late for me!
I don't get the night sweats too much. I do remember a weird thing happened once when I woke up I thought I had wet the bed, it was literally soaked!! It must have been a hot sweat and I didn't even wake up!
Glad you are doing well off the hrt.

I went back on HRT because I hit a real low mood - though it may have been post Covid - and did a month. Put on half a stone almost immediately!
came off again two weeks ago, mood still good and weight coming off really well without too much effort, and painful boobs, ovulation pain and crap hair all gone.
but - I think brain fog is back.
yes it’s rubbish, the choice between weight gain or thinking straight…

@Twoshoesnewshoes It's strange, I can't think of any reason why HRT should cause weight gain but it seems to for many women! I hope you manage without it. I'm still not sure if Im better or worse off with HRT. The problem is there are so many other factors which can cause painful joints, brain fog, weight gain, hair loss or bad moods.... it's hard to say if its due to the menopause or other hormonal inbalances.

Im 19days off hrt. Lowered my dose to minimal then stopped. I actually feel better so far, just waiting for that to change but hoping its not going too. I seem to have more motivation without it. It seem to have not done a great deal for me. I still got a stash incase i fall flat

Good luck @SamR36 , I feel better too, although insomnia has hit recently.
Anyone know something to try! I used Kalms nights before which were good, but I can’t take them with my SSRI.

I've gone back on HRT. The night sweats started getting more and more frequent and I was noticing more joint pain than I had when on HRT before. I do a lot of sport and have read that oestrogen and progesterone help in muscle growth so it's probably in my interest to have some. I've just gone on a minimal one pump of Estreva.