Atrophy - is it a problem?!

[Gardencraazy]

Any advice appreciated dear mumsnetters!

am late 50s, currently zero sex life (!!!) , on HRT patches, I do half patches to avoid migraine - at recent smear test, nurse said I had atrophy, ok no worries I said, feeling so embarrassed/ confused / worried! So she said nothing more! Maybe she mumbled about a cream but I rushed out 😳

Should I worry ?! Are there long term implications? Should I be asking for various meds or whatever to help alleviate?

Please help! Feel so embarrassed about it all!

Ah, I see!

After numerous unhelpful appts with my GP, I was referred to a menopause clinic which completely sorted me out. She gave me the cream and pessary on prescription and explained frequency of use - basically you can use both as often as you like. I had had a prolonged dry period (in all
respects!) and as I had a weekend with a “friend” coming up, she said I’d better use them daily for a few days beforehand. What a game changer that was. ☺️

You can get it over the counter but the pharmacist takes you aside and asks you about the date of your last period/are you on any other medications etc.

I was buying it for a few months after seeing it recommended on a youtube thing (😳), until a female pharmacist said why don’t you save the £8 and get a script? So I did 😄

I’ve been on Vagifem pessaries for years now - I’m 63. Atrophy has always been one of my worst menopause symptoms and I was told by my HRT provider that it is a symptom that must be treated because leaving it can create really serious issues down the line. I use a pessary every day.

I can't comment on the applicator mine works fine. The cream won't make you nauseous, you're not swallowing it I hope.

With mine it was a month of every day then two or three days a week.

No-one warns us about the atrophy. If mens penises shriveled up, itched and bled they'd be shouting.

It bloody annoys me that Mumsnet made me aware and I had to fight for a year to get the cream. It's rationed so when I ran short got a private Cost tube of it online.

I was looking into buying but saw it cost £48 per tube !

Mine privately is £18.95 a tube. Identical to the one that the GP prescribed

@Cheese55 That isn't right.

You can by Ovesse (trade name for estriol) and it's £20 (which is pricey) - you can buy it online.https://www.ovesse.co.uk/where-to-buy/

Mine is on a private prescription (not online) and I pay around £12 for the generic version, used to be called Ovestin.

I didnt look fully into it as first ad on Google was 'Chemist 4 U' and said £48 but yes can be cheaper

Looks likd it is more like £20 a thbe, don’t know where I got the £8 from! But getting it wasn’t a problem at all; I just asked for it and answered a few questions. Best to get it prescribed though.

Agree completely!

I spent nearly a month in hospital earlier this year after developing sepsis from a UTI, thanks to atrophy.

Took me nearly dying to get it finally put on my repeat prescription.

Does anyone know if this can be taken as a preventative. I don’t have any symptoms now (53, on hrt) but I’m thinking maybe I ought to be using it to stop anything developing in the future. Or is that not advisable? TIA.

If you have no symptoms and are on hrt it probably isn't necessary. Many women find hrt enough. you can use it if you want to, but you'd need to ask your GP or buy it at the retail cost at a pharmacy.
If you weren't on hrt I'd possibly say yes, use it.

@ferniemcburnie you can do non medicated things first like pelvic floor exercises and using non-hormonal moisturisers and creams just to keep everything tip top and then if it proves problematic, more intervention can be used. It seems obvious to me to start with the basics, even with HRT we dry up as we age in every day (eyes, skin everywehere) and so dealing with that proactively, and with the loss of collagen/sagging in skin including bladder/pelvid floor seems sensible to me.

Is anyone having difficulty emptying their bladder, I use vagitabs 2 per week, haven't used the cream. Would this help

I had absolutely no symptoms when a gynaecologist diagnosed early atrophy during a hysteroscopy for post menopause bleeding. I started pessaries/cream immediately and noticed a difference in sensitivity very fast. Vaginal/vulval oestrogen had been great and I'll use it forever.
I think VA is very insidious and if you wait for symptoms then it's already quite bad.

I had symptoms GP tried me on creams etc. they never mentioned VA once. Took a Mumsnet thread I stumbled across eureka 💡. Took another twelve months of useless prescriptions before I put my foot down .

It is insidious.

Problems like this can be caused by a bladder prolapse.
You might need examining by a gynaecologist.

Using a cream won't help if you're already using Vagifem.

With respect Jingling changing from pessaries might help @Biiz . I used vagifem for over a year with no problem but then they started causing uncomfortable bladder feelings/urgency. I swapped to cream inside and out and it was all resolved. I think the pessaries can be a bit drying for some people. I use an estring now and its fab.

she can try of course. When the bladder drops lower with prolapse that makes emptying harder as the 'angle' changes. It may not of course be the issue but it's worth considering.

I have got a packet of Gina sitting in my cupboard - does anyone use it ? Does it work ? How long does it take to see a difference. Getting a GP appt is so difficult that I just went and bought OTC from the lovely pharmacist but it’s quite expensive !

I wonder if this is what I have? I’m 51 on HRT but I keep waking at 4am scratching myself like crazy.. and then I go back to sleep wake up in the morning sore and during the day it calms down and then nightly again the itching starts. I do it without being fully awake as well. I have just realised I haven’t had any discharge for maybe a year + as well so this post and googling has just made me realise I may have this. I’m not sexually active so no way of knowing about dryness with sex etc

@rivalsbinge , itching or feeling hot / dry / irritated in your vagina or vulva could definitely be signs of peri related issues. Highly recommend vaginal oestrogen cream. It feels so nice to apply - really cooling and smoothing,like putting a lovely body lotion on dry skin. My issues were mostly to do with weeing a lot, and it took around 8 weeks to feel much difference but I've been so impressed with the improvement

I agree.

I have interstitial cystitis and Sjogrens which causes a lot of dryness and vaginal issues and I’m in a support group for women with these issues (6k members) and so many say the cream has really helped but the pessaries made them sore / made things worse. If you have dryness and vaginal atrophy you won’t produce enough moisture to dissolve the pessaries properly and they can irritate you internally.