Condone/Gabapentin?

[Dita73]

I’ve been back on HRT patches for about 4 months. I was on them last year but stopped due to continual bleeding. I felt great off them apart from having constant hot flushes which were just awful. I went back on the patches and the flushes have stopped. Unfortunately that’s the only good thing for me about them. I’m having bleeding again,continual migraines and my mood is just terrible. It’s like constant PMS. I need an alternative and as the only thing I’ve struggled with has been the flushes I’ve been looking at non hormonal drugs. I was wondering if anyone has tried them and what their experiences have been?

Gabapentin is prescribed usually for nerve pain and seizures, seems incredibly extreme to prescribe it for hot flushes. I see it's not actually recommended and would be prescribed off-label.

I was on it this year for agonising sciatica and it was amazing pain relief, but I suffered horribly with dizziness and drowsiness, to the point I stopped driving (got to the point my back pain felt ok enough to do so but was off my tits on the meds so not safe).

@Ohmygodthepain thank you for replying. I don’t know anything about these drugs at all. I definitely don’t want to take anything that could make me drowsy. Being able to drive is essential to me so I don’t think that will be an option

Are you referring to codeine? If so it's an opiod so used for severe pain, it wouldn't help with hot flushes. Again Gabapentin is a nerve med again used for very severe pain, as much as possible they try and use it temporarily and they are very strong so wouldn't be prescribed at all for hot flushes and even if you could have it, it wouldn't help.

You could try low dose topical oestrogen, ans perhaps the mini pill as that should just be progesterone. If the current regime isn't working then you should go back to your GP as there are other options but opiods are not it.

@TheLivelyViper I've just realised the autocorrect has messed up the title! It’s meant to say Clonidine. Sorry about that

No idea why gabapentin would be prescribed for this and can have horrible side effects

I’m prescribed gabapentin for hot flushes as I can’t have normal hrt. Initially I was prescribed venlaflaxibe, which gave me horrible restless legs, but I did some research and found that there was a study (don’t ask me to find it again) that 3 x 300mg was the ideal dose against a placebo, so I asked my oncologist and he agreed. I’ve been on it for 12 years now, with no side effects. The hot flushes have not gone entirely but the anxiety attacks and weird tingles all over my body that accompanied them have gone.

The silver cloud was that when I got shingles a few years ago, my gp said he would have prescribed it but no need, and I was pain free, with just a weird rash.

Oh right, that's quite different then. I've attached the links to the NHS website on them, it's quite comprehensive, it says what it does, who should take them, side effects etc if you look below. That gives a great overview on the meds and are quite useful.

https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/gabapentin/

https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/clonidine/about-clonidine

Again I really wouldn't recommend Gabapentin for this and it's not going to be prescribed unless there are other reasons why you can't take other meds for it. But that would be an exception, they even try to not prescribe it for those with pain as it is very strong. Clonidine on the other hand could be looked at, I recommend looking through the link and then talk to your GP about it.

Sage tablets can really help

What patches are you taking? Is it a combined patch. There are other types of HRT to try and tweak.

Gabapentin was prescribed for me for severe sciatica, very effective but had to taper on and off very carefully over about 4 months. I also suffer from migraine and had none during that time! Post menopausal so no idea about efficacy for hot flushes. It is very powerful and a controlled drug - only given 4 weeks at a time, for an agreed period.