anxiety and insomnia symptoms - hormonal/perimenopause

[Sleepy21]

Wondering if I could get some advice? I recently have been suffering from bad anxiety and I have now started Sertraline (about 2 weeks). In June I started HRT but stopped after 18 days (stupid I know) as I started to get heart palpitations and I was worried it would make my anxiety worse. Currently most nights I am suffering from insomnia, racing heart, hot flushes and an internal shaking/vibrating feeling. Also feeling like heat/adrenaline surges through my body. I am barely sleeping. For the first time ever, I’ve had some mid- cycle spotting. I didn’t have these symptoms when I started the HRT. I attributed many of these symptoms to anxiety, and I am sure there is an overlap, but do these also sound hormonal? And would going back on HRT help? GP is quite useless at providing any insight! Thanks so much for reading

sertraline can cause increased anxiety and restlessness in the first few weeks. I would probably talk to a different gp if you can about hrt, ask if your practice has an hrt expert or can they refer you to one. I forgot to put my everol(?) patch on on Monday, realised on Wednesday when my anxiety went through the roof. Ask for a blood test including b12 - I found my hot flushes were intense especially at night before hrt and b12(1000ug you can buy them) helped somehow (my level was low). My main symptoms hot flushes anxiety and insomnia- hrt has helped with all of them.

Thank you - I think I didn’t give HRT a fair chance. Although when I started getting the palpatations, I had the GPs voice in my head saying I was very young for perimenopause (43) and thought maybe it was too much for me. I wish I’d given it at least 3 months to see

My dd finds anti anxiety meds make her more anxious. Before starting hrt I had awful nighttime anxiety and after being on hrt for a while that all went. I would probably try cutting down and then stopping the anti anxiety meds and try the hrt really again. It will take a few weeks for you to feel the difference, but I found it really does help

43 is absolutely not 'too young' for perimenopause! God, so many clueless GPs 🤦🏻‍♂️

You're right that you came off HRT too quicky. Mine took a good 8 weeks to kick in. I was suffering a lot of different symptoms including anxiety and insomnia. Not all symptoms have disappeared but those two have. Sounds like you're also having hot flushes and irregular bleeding - also perimenopause symptoms

If it were me, I would be stopping the sertraline and restarting HRT. Preferably under a different GP. If private healthcare is an option for you, Newson Health are excellent - I had 2 appointments with them because my previous GP was useless

Thank you all - I’ve booked myself in with a private hormone doctor recommended by a friend to try and get to the bottom of what’s going on. Earlier this year, I kept getting UTI’s and was prescribed oestrogen cream and I’ve not had one since I started using it so that’s another reason to make me think something hormonal is likely going on!

Keep it up with the oestrogen cream - wonderful stuff 👍

But you probably need systemic oestrogen as well. Good luck with the new doctor