Unsure if I should keep having HRT- side effects not great

[Justnotsureaboutit2021]

Would really appreciate anyone's experience of this and how quickly side effects of HRT went or drastically reduced, if at all.

I started HRT (oestrogen gel and utrogestan pills) in early June 2025. I currently take 1.5 pumps of oestrogen a day and 2 utrogestan pills on days 15-26.

I started HRT mainly because I had awful joint pains, high anxiety, low mood, awful sleep, brain fog and digestive issues. I was also wanting to take them for the health protected benefits, osteoporosis etc...I did a tonne of research before going on HRT which included an appointment with a private peri/menopause specialist so this has all really thrown me that what was helping now seems to be doing harm.

The first month on HRT was great, I've not felt that good for a very long time and I was so hopeful that it was doing me some good. However, in the past month things have nose dived, currently experiencing:

• acne during the progesterone phase. Previously I had great skin.
• IBS. I previously had what I thought was an intolerance to gluten and HRT at first seemed to really settle everything down in that area. In the past few weeks my digestive issues have gone to pot from having no issues at all to full on IBS.
• Heart palpitations.
• Acid indigestion. I only had this when pregnant with my children but now everything I eat seems to set it off, one way or the other.

I am very inclined to stop HRT because of the above however, I am really scared that the anxiety and poor sleep will come back which was very difficult to live with and started to impact my relationship with my kids and DH. I would be really interested to hear from others if they suffered side effects and how long that roughly lasted to help me decide if I should persevere for longer than 3 months or call it a day.

If anyone did stop and found something else that helped then that would be great to hear of too!

Many thanks in advance x

The ultrogestan made me feel dreadful. Was advised to take every day without a break but still felt awful. Was then advised to use vaginally everyday, slightly better but still totally shattered.

I put on a stone in two months which was all boobs and belly. Previously has stable weight of around 8.3 my whole adult life apart from pregnancies.

Came off it, lost weight but my figure has never gone back to how it was, belly fat that is here to stay and huge boobs.

Forgot to say, that was 2 or 3 years ago. Went on it as thought I was possibly peri due to anxiety and mood, periods like clockwork

Hi. Sorry to hear your issues. I started HRT c2 years ago. During the first 6m I had all of those symptoms. I read around it and it seemed to be a common reaction to progesterone. All settled down for me around the 6m mark. Hope yours settles soon x

Progesterone can cause a lot of difficulties for some, have you considered a mirena coil to provide the progesterone? It tends to be more easily tolerated because it's localised in the uterus rather than affecting the whole system. I have tried both and much, much prefer the coil version.

It's a sod isn't it, trying to get the right balance? Hope you find a solution that works for you.