54..new to hrt..weight gain..😭😭

[Whosaidthattt]

I started HRT Evorel patches 6 months ago and they have greatly improved my sleep, flushes, aches and anxieties. HOWEVER, the weight gain has left me soooo upset. I have always been a size 10. Went clothes shopping today and found a size 12 too tight.
I couldn't quite believe that I have gone up almost 2 sizes in 6 months! I was so upset looking at myself in the changing room and I put everything back. I couldn't bring myself to buy clothes 2 sizes up.
Where do I go from here? I'm active, I eat well and can't believe this is me.
What do I do now???!!!

I just started putting two and two together. I gained 3 stones in a year, and although I haven’t changed my eating habits, it keeps creeping up. Then the other day I went for a run and realised that my fingers and feet swelled up, as in about to burst swelling up. What I thought was fat it’s actually fluid retention.
Started digging a bit and apparently the HRT leads to renal fluid retention.
I sort of had made peace, I’d rather be fat than the awful symptoms I had before starting HRT, but I need to re-twig the balance. Lower the HRT, not add salt and see how it goes.

Started digging a bit and apparently the HRT leads to renal fluid retention.

Where does it say this? The evidence is that estrogen can cause a little bit of fluid retention early on, like 2-3kgs but it usually settles.

If your ankles are swelling up and you are 3 stone overweight, it may be worth seeing your GP because ankle swelling can be a sign of heart disease or issues with your kidneys.

I stopped HRT due to weight gain. I was actually fine on the tablets, didn't put on any weight that I couldn't lose with a few weeks of sensible eating. Then I switched to oestrogel and utrogestan. Within 6 months I'd gained over a stone. I spent January and February this year doing the low carb boot camp principles on here plus no alcohol at all for two months. Didn't lose a pound. The tried calorie deficit, 1400 cals a day. I gained 2lb in three weeks. Stopped the gel and pills in April and I've lost half a stone almost without trying. I'm sick of people telling me that the HRT wasn't the issue. I do everything right as far as healthy eating and weight loss goes.

However, I've got a bone scan this week and if it comes back showing I have osteopenia then I expect I'll go back on the pills and see how that goes.

I'm also very moody but think I'm going have to try meditation or something instead of hrt.

I have had the opposite. Three months in to using HRT and I have lost 1/2 stone. I am just not having the sugar cravings that I was having before.

Could you change back to the tablets? I just read somewhere that a different preparation of HRT can help.
See https://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/health-information/hormone-replacement-therapy-hrt/side-effects-hrt and scroll down to weight gain section.
Interesting - I think mine is water retention and at least they acknowledge it. Lots of things I read said HRT doesn't cause weight gain but so many women seem to find otherwise.

I'm worried about the breast cancer risk with the pills.

In the next few years there will be some male driven study saying actually HRT can make you gain weight, I just know it. No shit Sherlock.

Not on HRT although I am considering it. I have always been slim 8-10 but in the last 2 years I see my weight creeping up with no other changes I can only assume it's because of the peri menopause. I eat less than before and I am just as active. I really don't want to risk HRT if it is going to make things worse.

My weight was steady in the low 8 stone region for 15 years. I had been in menopause for about 3 or 4 years putting up with all the symptoms though the night sweats and sleeplessness was hardest to bear. Following the Davina campaign I was prescribed HRT and in a matter months I had put on 1.5 stone. Particularly pronounced on my hips and boobs which I remember happening when I first went on the pill years ago.

I don't believe this weight gain is purely down to menopause because I had already been in it for a while when I started the HRT. I've shifted about a stone but it has been a real struggle. What to do ?

Yeh. A group of men who are fed up of their fat, sweaty wives will step in and fix this because currently very few will agree it can cause weight gain! 🤬

That was @Redtaper

I think male scientists judge and blame women for their own weight gain and refuse to believe it has anything to do with a drug they've developed and make money from, yes.

I was reassured reviewing the literature that the benefits of HRT (cardio and bone protection) outweigh the very small risks of increased incidence of oestrogen sensitive cancers. I've no strong family history and my excess 10-15 kg of weight is probably a greater breast cancer risk for me at the moment than HRT

Yeh fed up of weight gain now. Off my patches. Maybe davina and the like are teeny tiny. Its disheartening. Def retains fluid

Everyone on here says there’s no weight gain but everywhere else says yes. Including me!! I have to pretty much wear a breast binder now to fit into my clothes as my ginormous breasts make so many of my clothes too tight now.

I think exactly the same as you. In the same way that the pill can make women put on weight HRT does the same. I also rbi k it’s like being in early pregnancy with the ballooning of my boobs.

I thought the menopause = weight gain had been disproven? Or not cause any discernible change in metabolism anyway.

i’ve put on weight as I got older but mainly because I’m far more sedentary. Even more now the kids are from so I’m not even doing the school runs or taking them to hobbies, park etc.

I walk loads as I meet my school driver at school. Its a massive down side all this weight gain from hrt......

Those of you who came off HRT, did you do so cold turkey or is it best to wind down?