Is there a general chat thread for peri sufferers waiting to start HRT?

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Admittedly, quite a niche group demographic, but anyone who wants a general chat really.

I’ve been struggling since my “diagnosis” 2 weeks ago, and I’m waiting to see my gp again. She has said she will prescribe hRT, I was waiting for some bloods to come back but she wasn’t expecting anything in the bloods to change her decision . My previous bloods showed Subclinical hypothyroidism as well, which could also be contributing to my symptoms. I was doing ok but then today I’ve had a total anxiety attack driving my car with my dc in the back and it just feels so overwhelming and awful. The anxiety bubbling away is so draining and I feel like I just would like to talk to people who understand how hideous this is.

so if there’s anyone out there who would like a chat thread, please say hi 👋

@Blanketenvy your symptoms sound similar to mine, I hope your trial works well for you.

Thankyou. I hope you find some relief too! X

I have just had my appointment cancelled today so having to wait another week aaah
Hooe the rest of you are doing well.

Has anyone seen weight loss after statting patches 50mg? Stomach just gone so horrible and flabby!

@ibizaLover85 no but it’s probably too early to tell really. I am maintaining my weight which is as good as I can hope for.
today I’m on day 3 progesterone and I feel really uncomfortable like I’m due on a heavy period and I could genuinely eat anything you put in front of me, I am going to go out for a walk to buy chocolate because I don’t think I’ll get through the evening in one piece! I am not feeling emotional, just like I could gnaw my own arm off. So I guess weight gain might be inevitable. I did promise myself that for the first month I would prioritise feeling better over anything else so if I need the chocolate, I need the chocolate.

I've been suffering with bad joint pain so asked for HRT. Doc sent me for bloods (which were fine) and x-rays (also fine). Now she's recommending evening primrose oil - why can't I just have HRT?! I'm 50 so pretty sure it's hormone related. If I take any more supplements I'll rattle.

@NooNakedJacuzziness I’d track other symptoms and go back. The guidelines say if you’re over 45 they should prescribe HRT on symptoms alone. Things like: anxiety, palpitations, insomnia, bladder issues/irritable bladder, hair loss, aching joints, brain fog. They should consider these as parts of a syndrome rather than independent conditions.

i’m 4 days into my progesterone patches and I feel really bloated and uncomfortable today, and absolutely craving sugar and carbs like pmt. And very, very tired. But then I did get up at 5.45 again to go for a run, and went to the gym at lunchtime- my brain is tired though and very foggy. I hope this clears soon. According to my normal cycle, I’m due on in about 4 days so it’s probably linked with that. I don’t know how the HRT cycle will affect my normal cycle, I started the patches on day 5 so potentially won’t come on until 5 days late? I don’t know. But anyway, I struggled a bit today because I just want to gorge myself on stodgy carbs and chocolate. However, normally at this totm I have insomnia which I haven’t had, and anxiety, which I haven’t had either. so maybe it is working. I just am trying to be patient, trying to resist the cravings and at least aim for some healthier carbs instead of junk and not get too hung up on weight gain at first.

I’m now on my 4th week, I feel really premenstrual and a bit emotionally fragile if i‘m honest. I was exhausted all day and feel quite brain foggy, and my palpitations and breathlessness have returned a bit. I think back to 4 weeks ago though and I am substantially less anxious overall, and I think I ache less. I have mild cramping and generally feel like I’m due on. I am climbing snowdon this weekend so I could do with not being on really, but….
I return to my oestrogen patches on Sunday, it will be interesting to see the change. I have definitely noticed a decline in my mood on the prog, although not as bad as I had dreaded, and hopefully it will improve month on month.

Completed my first full cycle and returned to oestrogen only today. I don’t feel good to be honest, incredibly heavy and painful period for a start. Then my palpitations have ramped up and I feel really breathless again.
i’m hoping that is due to having drunk alcohol last night, and being really tired (didn’t have a good nights sleep last night either and was awake at 4am with cramps plus we climbed snowdon yesterday so I ache all over too)

so hoping that’s just a blip and not HRT related!

@thenewaveragebear1983 how are you doing now?

@Weedoormatnomore hmmm, y’know , I’m not feeling brilliant. I have chest pains almost constantly (it’s like rib/intercostal pain), I feel quite tired, and a bit weepy. I’m 5 days into my oestrogen only week and if I recall from last month, I had s touch of that this time last month as well. I’m sticking with it a few more weeks. I had no pre-period anxiety or anything which was excellent. My period was incredibly heavy and the first day was painful, but it has now ended.

how are you doing?

@thenewaveragebear1983 currently hiding away in bed on and very heavy came early this month with only a little bit of signs before wondering if less stress has helped elivate some of my symptoms. Spoke to Dr he was going to speak to a consultant as I had epilepsy in the past brought on by menstrual migraines so seeing if it could be triggered by hrt.

Very lucky where I live. We have a hrt nurse who is both sympathetic and supportive. She can't prescribe though and sends request for HRT through to Dr. The presciption hasn't been approved yet (now 48 hours) so worried they are going to say no at that hurdle.

This thread has been so useful to read so thanks for starting it.

I had a horrible day today. I had chest pain, again. I thought I’d just ring the doc and try to get an appointment for next week. Managed to get a call this morning, spoke to a lovely doctor about my ongoing issues and my chest pain- she sent me straight to a&e where I had 2 ecgs and a round of bloods. My ecgs have come back with some abnormal readings and I need a 24hr trace done. My chest pain has then been on and off all afternoon and evening. It’s not as bad now as it was. I have no idea what it is and I’m so worried, and no one seems to be that concerned so they keep trying to say it’s ‘health anxiety’. I feel so tired and emotional today, I’m not sure if it’s my patches or what but I just feel an emotional wreck- is this normal on 2nd month of HRT? I thought as I got through month 1 it would only get better, but BAM! It’s hit me like a freight train this week. I’m so scared that there’s something seriously wrong with me that they are missing. GP today has booked me for a face to face next week where she wants to properly check me over, but she was really really surprised I was on HRT and said she was worried I’d been misdiagnosed.

I really don’t know where I am now, whether this is right. And worried about what will happen if they take me off it again, I cannot bear the anxiety returning, it was awful.

@thenewaveragebear1983 hope your having a better day 💐

OP I'm not a doctor and I might get flamed for saying this

I am going to stick my neck out and say I'm surprised by your experience

You're 40, right? Your bloods came in normal for meno - yet they still decided to treat you with HRT rather than treat the thyroid, which will link to your heart issues, and it's taken a month to send you for an ECG? I read your thread wondering why you were being given HRT tbh. Hair loss and palpitations and sub optimal thyroid results - why was that not their priority?

I had a nervous breakdown in July and I'm recovering well but had to do a lot of research and tests because I wasn't sure the doctor was right about the physical impact of it, which seems to be lingering. I now think he was right - it is all due to the breakdown which was a long time coming - but all bar one friend has said to me "is it peri". I'm 47 and that seems to be the default assumption. The one friend who agreed that the physical impact of a nervous breakdown may be long, and it's not going to be peri, is...a GP friend!

I mean this kindly, but did you jump to peri, and did you ask the doctor to treat that first? It seems very poor form to go for HRT as priority when the patient has sub clinical thyroid and reports palpitations.

Btw you mention climbing Snowdon. That's amazing, I could never do that. But if you're at sub clinical thyroid and have heart issues at the moment, I'd be careful in terms of activity.

The flutter you mention sounds like atrial flutter, I've had it a couple of times, my mum has full blown atrial fibrillation since her 70s. It is scary, I know.

I hope you get treated correctly but I'd really focus on thyroid and heart, and ask yourself why you wanted HRT. Sorry but it feels to me that the world is currently obsessed with peri and meno. I have been in treatment for depression and anxiety for decades but still get concerned parties saying "is it peri". everything isn't peri!

@EmmaEmerald I originally went to my gp 18 months ago with anxiety as I was having spontaneous panic attacks.
these continued, I then went back in June/ July after having another wave of anxiety attacks. Dr suggested antidepressants (again) and HRT. I did a lot of research. The bloods came back subclinical for hypothyroid but they won’t treat that. I did more research, and agreed to try HRT as they had suggested. I will say that the anxiety and a few other symptoms have been improved since starting it. The palpitations have improved but not gone.

i’m brachycardic (slow heart rate) and that could be thyroid but they aren’t going to treat that until I’ve had a second blood test at the end of October and only if I am still subclinical they will even consider treating it.

I think my heart issue is entirely unrelated to other symptoms and it is possible to have 2 things wrong at the same time that aren’t linked. Who knows? I’m not a doctor, but I will take on board what they offer me. The HRT has definitely helped my anxiety and I am very reluctant to go back to where I was 6 weeks ago because I was in a very dark place that I don’t really want to go back to.

I’ve seen and spoken to multiple doctors now and not a single one of them has advised me not to exercise. They know I am a runner and doing cardio regularly.

i have an appointment on Thursday to speak face to face with a doctor and I will be raising all my concerns but ultimately we have to at least try what they offer, if they won’t treat/prescribe for thyroid, I can’t make them 🤷‍♀️

I hope it works out OP. I have had two friends wind up with heart problems due to untreated thyroid problems - the threshold for being treated is different in other countries. They're in their 30s and it enrages me that this was avoidable.

Whatever it is, it sounds like the GP you are seeing is willing to look at this properly so I will cross everything for you that you get a solution.

just to be clear, I wasn't suggesting you don't exercise, I just thought climbing Snowdon seems really major but I'll butt out now.

@EmmaEmerald the problem is, if you google peri or thyroid or long covid or fibromyalgia…. You get the same list of symptoms. You then combine that with telephone appointments with a different doctor every time, and a failing health service with thresholds that vary even by town, and it’s virtually impossible to actually get any answers or get the right medication. I’ve been offered anti anxiety medications more times that I can count. It’s dire.

the more Iook into it, the more I am considering that this is thyroid related but until I perform appropriately badly in another blood test its not going to be considered. Apparently although I feel dreadful, I don’t feel dreadful enough. Yet. The HRT has definitely helped my anxiety and my bladder and a few other things.

Dr just phoned up said OK to start hrt after checking with consume felt really bad saying felt a but better this month had less stress since quitting my job so going to wait and see. Hope it's going well for the rest of you. 💐

@Weedoormatnomore that’s good news! What are you going to be on and when are you going to start?

I have a GP appointment tomorrow. I've had brain fog and generally irritability for ages but it's come to a head as angry moods are affecting me at work. I sit in meetings and everyone else manages to state their case calmly (zen, like a yoga instructor) and I just feel like a tightly coiled spring and end up ranting. If I am prescribed HRT, how soon might it start to work?

Going to delay starting as seemed more manageable this month. Dr has written it on my motes so if it gets bad again I can just phone up to collect a prescription!

@JamMakingWannaBe I noticed improvement in some of my symptoms within a few days.

Hi Everyone, how happy I am to have found this thread.

I've been suffering from the worst anxiety for 2 years now. I'm 41 now. Was prescribed citalopram and propanolol and just didn't work so came off it.

I've been getting the anxiety, fluttering, surging adrenaline panic feelings for absolutely no reason. It feels like I'm about to be arrested for a murder. I have started to track when these feeling flared up and it is exactly on my ovulation days and then lasts for the next 2 weeks. It is destroying my life. I have no capacity for anything anymore . I also have achey back, dry mouth, insomnia, less than zero sex drive.

I had a totally huge anxiety attack yesterday so thought it time to call the GP. I just sobbed down the phone and they just fobbed me off with trying to put me on anti depressants.

So I have found the menopause specialist Newson clinic online and booked an appointment for this Friday with one of their doctors. Costing me £295 but I am DESPERATE.

I suffered awful post natal depression and I am now convinced that was also a hormonal issue and I'm suffering again now.

It is so heartening to read that people are seeing their symptoms lift. I just want to be free of this daily panic.