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?

😊

Sorry for the late reply. Thank you for your kind words. Now the 'period' is here, I feel like another person! It's horrible cos I don't know from one month to the next how bad it will hit me. I did manage to get away last weekend and it was great. I just told myself you can do it and I did! Alot of what I suffered with is mental. Thanks again

I’ve just ditched Oestrogel - checking in. I have a Mirena and also vaginal oestrogen pessaries, and had felt on an even keel - then I got Covid in April and everything went wild. I started bleeding every day, increased gel to try to combat that, which worked but I swelled up horribly and my boobs were so sore and swollen even lying in bed hurt.

I’ve never been able to take the combined pill due to side effects (fine on the PoP) so wondered if I am just over-sensitive to synthetic oestrogen?

I stopped the gel on Wednesday and am bleeding again now with horrible cramps/headache.

HRT wasn’t the magic bullet for me it seems to be for a lot of people, and I gained a stone almost overnight. I’ll be interested to see what happens, but also am open minded to going back on it if needed.

I've decided to ditch the HRT to.. I've gained almost 3st since I've been on it 4 years just over.. despite quite a strict diet I've not shifted much weight at all. I've quit wine already and have a very low intake of carbs. I swim once or twice a week so will up that and continue with vitamins concoction I've got going on. I'm on femoston, it's worked well enough but I'm just conscious about endlessly taking tablets for the rest of my days.

Yep me too! I have been on Evorel 50 patches & Utrogesten for 6 months and have gained a stone! I am eating more or less the same and exercising more. Nothing makes any difference. Also although I feel great now , I know that as soon as I start the Utrogesten I will go downhill and the regime isn't doing anything for this.

How's it all going OP?
I've not succeeded in quitting yet.
Just can't face the bladder problems without systemic HRT.

It's total shite all of this.

Week today for me, can't say I've actually noticed any difference (so far)..! I'm taking my usual vitamins and also doing intermittent fasting and a week in and I'm down 2lbs already. Flushes were my main concern and I can't say they've been anywhere near as bad as they were when I first started HRT.

@rockingbird do you experience bladder issues at all?

Mine seem to flare up without systemic HRT, which is a real pain.

Just can't face all the weeing every 5 minutes!

I wee a lot...! In fact I'm never too far from a toilet.!!! I'm also now drinking a lot of water with the fasting so it's even more of an issue 😵‍💫 was it less or more with HRT I've no idea. Sorry, I appreciate that's completely unhelpful.

How we all doing?? My night sweats have returned with vengeance 😅

Im back on hrt and have upped the dose!

I ditched mine 2 weeks ago and I'm (touch wood) feeling ok. A bit warmer and waking up a couple of times in the night but overall I seem to be coping.

I'd just got to the point where I wasn't feeling like me... so I just want to get everything out of my system and see who I am.

Stupid question, but how long does it take to get HRT out of your system??

I'm on Evoril Conti patches only. Why do most people get other hormones to add to them?
I'm thinking of cutting back because I'm getting spotting and painful breasts. I hadn't had a bloody period for over 2 years! They've got you coming and going, haven't they?! It seems it's either this shitshow and the risk of osteo, or bloody flushes all the bloody time and brain fog that risks you losing your job.

Anyone got a better way forward?

Week 4 off HRT and my flushes are back.. I'm waking early but was anyway so that's fine. I'd say a month to flush out your system. I'm sticking with it, I don't want to keep masking this process and want to see if there's any alternative.

Hi all, I'm 5 weeks off my HRT. I feel.......OK. I definitely don't feel as low, though I do have a bit of brain fog this week. I think I can cope with it as long as it limits itself to a few days each month. Oh, and my headache is back though I can manage it with ibuprofen/paracetamol so far.

I'd take the brain fog and headaches over the crushing low I experienced on my patches. Don't quote me on that though 😬

@rockingbird I guess I have another week or so to go before it's all flushed out. I'm waking early but not letting it bother me. I'm warm but nothing like the flushes I had before HRT.

My main reason for taking HRT in the first place was to stop migraines which I've only ever had at puberty and during pregnancy before. So they're clearly hormonally driven.

I've got medication to take if I get one, so fingers crossed the hormones have settled and the migraines won't come back.

I too want to clear my system and see where I am. I came the long route to HRT (via antidepressants 😳 and migraine medication) so I'm keen to be 'just me' for a while. Whatever that is.

Hello, I am back on the Oestrogel. I wasn't sleeping well, had constant bleeding, headache-y, and my boobs were like something out of a Carry On film. Interestingly in the first week off it I felt really good, and several people commented that I had lost weight.

So I restarted, and seem to be back to the start in terms of my stomach looking six months pregnant (which I had initially and then it settled down). GOD, none of it is easy, is it?

I feel like I'm just floundering here. I'm using my patches cut in half and have been feeling ok, but I'm now in such a painful, heavy period I'm shaky. Is this 'normal' for patches? I was told I might 'experience some bleeding' but this is terrible! I don't want to go back to flushes, they were exhausting. Does any of it disappear completely? I just want to see a light at the end of the tunnel!

Fml 🤦‍♀️ I've had to go straight back onto HRT. What an awful experience I've had.!! Hot flushes pretty much all night.. dripping in sweat (please tell me I've lost some weight)! Waking 2/3 times a night and giving up by 4/5am. I'm absolutely shattered. Itchy feet 🤷🏼‍♀️ I was starting to tear them apart. Anxiety was back and I just wasn't feeling great at all. So is this it? I put up and shut up? Take the tablets and numb the symptoms forever more.. pretty depressing thought!

In the same boat!
Bladder has gone crackers, been weeing for England all day and irritable as hell.

Even worse, I don't even think I'm absorbing the oestrogen from the 100 patch. Where the fuck to go with this now, who knows!!

Dear god, so so done with life and hormones 😡

It's awful isn't it! I don't feel like I have any control of my own body anymore. The weight is piling on, but without the tablets I'm in a terrible state. I had a meeting in London last week - rarely do f2f so nice to get out.. I was a fucking hot sweaty mess all day. I just cannot go through life like that. I don't drink, have one coffee a day.. eat very little and drink loads of water 😬 I used to laugh at people who said they could look at food and put on weight.. I was a size 8 now I'm a 12 and hiding behind baggy clothes. It's so bloody depressing. How the heck is davina like a stick and full of energy?? I need to magic formula!

@rockingbird, trouble is, it's the likes of Davina who make us feel worse! She leads us to believe that a patch or a squirt of gel, is the silver fucking bullet that fixes all symptoms. Bollocks is it!

Without my patch, I'm in a right fix too. Now the fucker isn't even working properly anyway.

I work with kids.. I need to get my shit together and get to the end of term in one piece!

Onwards and upwards i suppose!

Absolutely agree..bollocks to Davina and her weird too thin & muscly body!! 😂

How is everyone now?

I had my patches upped to 75 and whoever said boobs like out of a Carry On film is completely right! This would be sexy if it wasn't for the fact I just want to kill my husband and bury him in the garden. 🤔

I'm too scared of coming off them now as I know that emotionally i'll crash and the aching, etc will be unbearable. (Don't get the flushes yet)

Good luck everyone x

isnt HRT meant to benefit your health overall?
Genuinely wondering why you’d be keen to stop.

HRT isn't numbing the symptoms. It's treating the underlying cause of them - which is the hormone deficiency. It might not do that perfectly and it may cause side effects, but that's what it's trying to do.

Well, after a month of no HRT, I've slapped a patch back on today. The sweating during the day was just ridiculous - I turned into a river - and the night time weeing was leaving little time for sleep!

At least my experiment worked. Do I need HRT? Looks like it. I'll see how I get on this time...