Too scared to take my HRT

[BlackGrape]

Hi, I'm not in the UK but in a EU country were HRT is not really very common . Anyway after a private appointment I've been prescribed Bijuva, but I'm too scared to take it as it lists stroke as a side effect! I'm in my mid 50s and in menopause for three years. Do all HRT pills list this?

From the patient info leaflet in my Oestrogel:

Stroke.
The risk of getting stroke is about 1.5 times higher in HRT users than in non-users. The number of extra cases of stroke due to use of HRT will increase with age.

Compare
Looking at women in their 50s who are not using HRT, on average, 8 in 1000 would be expected to have a stroke over a 5-year period. For women in their 50s who are using HRT, there will be 11 cases in 1000 users, over 5 years (i.e. an extra 3 cases).

Does this help put it in perspective?

If you do some google research i think
you’ll find that those stroke figures relate to the old oral pill not to the oestrogel, sorry I haven’t got a link

Bijuva is an oral pill!

In the UK it is now very unusual if not impossible to be prescribed the pills. Standard prescription would be for patches or gel. Sorry, but yes, the pills do have do higher risk of stroke.

Can you ask your doctor to prescribe patches or gel instead of a pill?

Yes, I am thinking to go back to the Gynaecologist and ask for patches.

I'm on oral hrt at 59. Will discuss patches/ gel at my review next year. I think Bijuva more 'modern than my Femoston...

I have no issue with my oral hrt (unless something sinister happening behind the scenes!) but pressure likely to push me to transdermal at 60...Bujuva sounds interesting though as newer oral method 🤔

There have been some statements on this in a report from the British Menopause Society where is says that the clots/ risk with pills has been overstated and they are not a risk for women who have a normal blood profile (no history of clots) and are under 60.
The risk is still tiny and not nearly as risky as the Pill.

The benefit of that tablet is it contains body identical estrogen with body identical progesterone.

@Aparecium That statement is misleading. It applies only to some types of oral HRT and certainly not gel. The information ought to be appropriate to the product and it obviously isn't if it's in estrogen gel. What they have not said is that using transdermal estrogen doesn't raise risk above the woman's baseline risk.

How strange, given that it is literally the Patient Info leaflet Info leaflet for a form of HRT that apparently does not raise the woman’s risk. (I did notice that it said HRT, not Oestrogel, and wondered.) Even so, a risk of 11/1000 compared to 8/1000 is surely not worth agonising about? Especially when it can make your life so much better in so many ways.

@Aparecium It would be interesting to see the reference for that figure (I'll check my leaflet.) There may be a link next to that statement.

My guess is it's taken from the WHI report on HRT from 20 years ago which has since been shown to be flawed. (Most of the women in that trial were over 60, overweight, using the old type of HRT and not representative of most women on HRT.)

Many of the leaflets in HRT are out of date - eg the one in vaginal estrogen contains the same info as for systemic HRT (and, as above) is not accurate.