I started taking oestrogen in May following a hysterectomy earlier in the year. I had been on (cyclical) progesterone for some time before the hysterectomy and had no issues with it. From May to August, I felt pretty good with introducing oestrogen cyclically. In August, Ihad an illness and began to feel absolutely dreadful afterwards, multiple hot flushes each night, palpitations, terrible fatigue etc amongst other things. My doctor suggested I increase the oestrogen and started to take it daily rather than cyclically. She thought the consistency would help. I did this and in a few weeks I started to feel worse. I developed headaches and they ranged in severity from daily mild headache to intense migraine with aura. I realised quite quickly it was probably the HRT and went back to my doctor. They told me to reduce the oestrogen again or to stop it completely. I have reduced it and things are slightly improving but it's definitely still not better. The symptoms I have are complete screen intolerance and intolerance to bright lights at times. Occasionally I can use screens but it's very short-lived, e.g. 10 minutes. I can't watch TV for example. This is incredibly difficult for life and work ( i can hardly work). I also have an intolerance to general kind of visual movement, e.g. movement on TV or also if something is bouncing up and down, my brain doesn't seem to be able to handle it. It feels a bit like vertigo. Has anyone else experienced anything like this when starting HRT? I can't decide whether it is worth carrying on and seeing if it begins to improve. It has slightly improved since I reduced the dose. Or better to just give up completely. However, I did have symptoms before I started it - obviously, that's why I started it and I am worried that they will return with a vengeance. If I am not on a screen symptoms are much much reduced, I feel mostly OK but if I do something that involves a lot of eye focus eg driving / reading it can also flare up the eye pressure / pain / headache.
Any advice?