Is this my new normal? Because it's shit!

[CakeKiller]

I'm 49, been on HRT for nearly 3 years now as I started peri at around 42. Estradot 75, plus cyclical Utrogestan that I had to up to 3 tablets instead of 2 due to breakthrough bleeding.

I was doing ok but in the past few months I just feel exhausted and achy all the time. I've had blood tests which showed normal iron but low ferritin so I've been taking supplements for that alongside my usual multivitamin and vitamin d spray. And even though I get enough sleep, I'm always knackered.

I have a reasonably healthy, mainly veggie diet and used to exercise 6 days a week, 10k steps every day but this year that seems to have all gone out the window. I still try to do my workouts but last year I hurt my back and this year my neck and it seems that everytime I get back on track, something happens to put me off again.

I've been piling on the weight around my middle too, even though to look at me you wouldn't think i was overweight, and my blood test showed elevated cholesterol so I'm trying to get that down. My diet was decent to begin with but this means I've got to give up loads of the foods I like, which makes me feel even more miserable!

It's really starting to get to me and all I want to do is lie in bed all day. Is this normal? Is it what getting older is like? I expected to feel like this at around 65, not 49! Has anyone experienced this and found anything that helped??

Same here, I had to stop the GP prattling on about not eating butter and full fat milk to tell her I’m dairy intolerant 😂

Is this normal? Is it what getting older is like? I expected to feel like this at around 65,

It's not normal and it's not what 65 is like either!
Many of my friends and me are around that age or older and none is lying in bed all day or feeling as you describe. They doing sport, travelling, volunteering, working, looking after young grandkids, etc etc.

Blood tests for estrogen are not accurate. I've had many discussions with my consultant on this and they explained why.

I've read most of the posts here and think first you should try increasing your estrogen to the max- 4 pumps of gel or 100mcgs patch (with the right amount of progesterone to protect your womb) and make adjustments to your diet.
If you're eating what you did when you were doing 10K steps a day, you are going to put weight on.

What's the plan for your cholesterol? Is it a change of diet first and then statins if that doesn't help? You said the only 'bad thing' you eat is butter but that you're going to have to change your diet and give things up.
Is that just the butter?

The British Heart Foundation website has useful stuff about diet and cholesterol. It's often more about what you add rather than leave out- more fibre from plants (beans, pulses, fruit, veg, wholegrain cereals) and less high fat dairy including 'hidden' fat found in cakes, biscuits etc. And taking more exercise.

If your joints are an issue has your GP done a test for inflammation to check for things like rheumatoid arthritis?

Also, if there a history of high cholesterol in the family? It can be hereditary and diet /exercise alone sometimes isn't enough.

This is EXACTLY what I was thinking. It is of course possible to have both things going on at the same time but I have an underactive thyroid which started before menopause and a lot of the issues with tiredness sound more related to that than menopause in my opinion. Also the cholesterol - if you have an underactive thyroid then your body doesn't process cholesterol in the same way, even when you're medicated.

It's a simple blood test to check your levels, definitely worth making the appointment.

No, no history of cholesterol in the family and mine is not that high (5.4 when the upper level of 'good' is 4.9) so the plan is to try and address it by diet.

I am well aware that its my lack of activity that's causing the weight gain and not HRT itself so will talk to the doc about increasing my patches to the maximum and also about testosterone. Interestingly, a friend started on testosterone gel recently and despite feeling much better, her blood tests revealed that her testosterone levels were much the same as before.

Joints are ok, it seems to be just muscular aches and pains and a general feeling of exhaustion. It's been a stressful year at work so I guess that could contribute to it too.

@sheinisshit I had my thyroid checked as part of my full blood count and that came back as fine.

I know, I really need to make that GP appointment!

Do you eat much oily fish? It's good for joints and your arteries- especially if you can eat canned sardines, salmon etc 3 x a week.
Do you eat a lot of red meat?

iirc the nhs initial thyroid test doesn’t test everything which is recommended for a full thyroid screening. I paid privately. Also look at the actual numbers and check yourself if they’re in a good range rather than accepting the nhs version of normal

I would ditch the vegetarian diet!

TSH was 1.91 which seemed around around the midpoint of the 'normal' range? Ferritin was also 'normal' but not high enough for hair growth, hence the supplements, so I take your point about what the NHS refers to as normal!

I do eat oily fish, though not as often as that so maybe I need to up it. I don't eat very much red meat but starting to wonder if i should up that too. Come to think of it, I gave up red meat totally for a year in my late 30s and seemed to coincidence with a time when I constantly got ill 🤔

As if on cue, I've just had an email from Hormones & You offering DHEA tablets for tiredness and testosterone cream that, upon inspection, doesn't actually seem to contain testosterone! Seems it's an initiative by proponents of 'bio-identical" HRT (Marion Gluck is one) so I am immediately suspicious.

And another joyous thing I forgot to mention - periods are a lot more painful and longer than they used to be! Who'd be a woman, eh?

I feel exactly the same, I don’t feel the same anymore, I’m 47 on hrt.

Gah, Estradot is out of stock again at all pharmacies near me! I've found it online so will order it once I speak to the GP about upping my patches to 100mcg.

Get thyroid checked and look into creatine.

An update: I'm still waiting for my Estradot 100 patches to arrive but I feel much better than I did last week. I did recently up my Utrogestan to 3 tablets on the suggestion of a doctor as I was getting breakthrough bleeding. Now I'm wondering if the extra progesterone could've been what was causing me to feel so shit? Something to monitor, I guess.