Sweating

[Frownlines]

One of my most distressing peri symptoms is sweating. I sweat excessively and it's always my face! I'm so self conscious about it, I dread going anywhere. The slightest temperature change, the slightest exertion the tiniest bit of anxiety (which is made worse by sweating) start me off!
I'm on Evorel sequi patches but have only been on them for a month so I haven't noticed any change in my sweating yet. I take sertraline, which I've been on for 2.5 years and my GP prescribed Gabapentin to help with the hot flushes before I started hrt.
Is there anything else I can try? I've tried all sorts of supplements and herbal teas (including sage). I feel like my only choice would be botox!

The obvious answer is to increase the dose of your estrogen which is what 's supposed to be done if HRT isn't controlling symptoms. It's also very early days and you might find if you give it another few weeks it will improve. Drs say try a brand and dose for 3 months.

Whatever dose you are on, you could increase it. OR you could swap to Oestrogel so you can adjust the dose yourself. (You'd need to take Utrogestan as the progesterone, 12 days a month.)

It's also worth talking to your GP about the ADs you're using because you may not need them when you're now on HRT. It's also not good medical practise to prescribe alternative drugs to HRT for sweating, (as your GP did) as HRT is the first treatment (except for women who can't use it.)

@JinglingSpringbells Thank you replying.

My GP prescribed the Gabapentin while I was waiting for my appointment to be seen at the menopause clinic. They were reluctant to px HRT based on my mother having had bc. The Dr I saw in clinic had no issue with giving it to me. I tried to wean off the Gaba (was on 300mg 3x) but I'm finding the 100mg 3x really difficult to come off. I think it will be a case of biting the bullet and just doing it. Sadly it's a really addictive drug.

I'd love to come off the ADs. All my perimenopause symptoms have been labelled as health anxiety or as written on my notes "hypochondriacal disorder". I worry I've been gaslit into thinking I now actually need them!

As you said the obvious answer is to increase estrogen... this is only obvious if you know this is the practise lol. I'm going into my second month now so I shall ask the GP about this. Maybe I had (unrealistic) high expectations of what to expect and need to give it more time.

You may be aware of the many experiences of women being given ADs when in fact it was early peri and estrogen was needed. There are several examples on the website of Dr Louise Newson (although the Library on the site is so full, you do need to search!)It's become a national scandal and menopause experts are trying to educate GPs on this. This is just one example here on her charity website. https://www.themenopausecharity.org/2021/10/21/common-misdiagnoses/

NICE suggests that the next step with persisting symptoms is an increase in estrogen.

I'm not familiar with patches (there are lots!) but the usual dose is either 50mcg or 75mcgs and younger women often need the higher dose (ie 75mcgs.)

I don't think your expectations are unrealistic. My own experience was a big improvement in flushes within a week (this was a low dose of gel) and the end of night sweats when I increased to the average dose (2 pumps.)

Good luck with it.