Talk to me about HRT

I've tried them - bio-identicals that are compounded as well as patches & creams. It's been awhile - like about a year. They made me fat & crabby but took away some of my hot flashes. I imagine if I kept up with them, I would have eventually had better relief. But I kept feeling premenstrual - no matter what I used. I used to have horrible PMS & literally planned vacations around my period.

Fast forward - hot flashes are no better & actually getting worse. Sleep is really bad - like waking up at 3AM for the day. Night sweats are awful in spite of an overhead fan & another fan next to my bed. Hot flashes - I get a good 3-4/day where my whole body sweats. Didn't know I had sweat glands in my knees. Had a bone density test & I think I flunked, judging from the phone calls I'm getting from my doc.

I've tried herbs. I drink & eat soy. I've tried maca, estroven, you name it. Nothing helps. Summer has just started & I don't know how I'm going to make it through.

So, I'm appealing to the collective wisdom of the group. If you tried HRT, did you get side effects? If so, did they eventually go away? What did you use?

I have been on HRT for about 3 years. I could not function teaching when I was waking up every couple of hours and sometimes could not get back to sleep.

HRT started helping very, very quickly- a week or two if I recall. Periodically I ask my doctor and she says the new research says it's not a problem staying on them. I occasionally have a "warm flash" or two, usually in the early morning but they are so much less intrusive than the hot flashes were.

I can't think of any side effects I've experienced.

The gyn that I see, who specialized in menopause, says he has no problems with women staying on HRT for as long as they need it. My PCP has a five year limit for post menopausal women. I have noticed that research seems to change, "it causes cancer...it prevents cancer but causes blood clots.." on & on.

Dogmama,

Sounds just like finding a saddle, keep trying. That sounds miserable. I have been working with my naturopath and started taking something for my adrenal glands about 3 weeks ago, I think it is helping with my sleeping! So don't rule out seeing a naturopath as well

Gee, I am so sorry to read of your discomfort. I realize now that I must have been extremely fortunate in my menopause journey. My cycles stopped abruptly when I was 47...never to return. I did have hot flashes, but they were tolerable.

Insomnia has been my MO for many years, so perhaps that did not seem like a symptom to me. I drop off like a rock at night and wake up 4-5 hours later. Sometimes I am lucky enough get back to sleep-most of the time I do not.

I benefit from power naps, but this is not practical at work. Occasionaly I go out to my car during break and doze off midday, despite my best efforts. I feel amazingly refreshed afterward, though.

My doctor has been on my case to take HRTs for years. He thrust a prescription at me last time I saw him and I ripped it up after I left the office. But-I'm reasonably comfortable and don't feel I need them.

Your story sounds similar to mine. We even splurged to have air conditioning installed in our house because I was soooooo miserable with hot flashes and night sweats one summer.

I tried bio-identical hormones years ago that didn't help. At the time I was about 30# overweight, had little muscle, and ate well by conventional standards. What I learned is that our bodies have little hope of balancing and making good use of our gender hormones if our major hormones like cortisol and insulin are out of whack. I started on a recovery plan to get my entire body healthy and now have little trouble with hot flashes and I sleep well 90% of the time. It's been a 6 year journey of trial and error but it's been worth the effort.

Everyone is different but here's what worked for me.

1. Lost 30# - I could still stand to lose another 5# but I'm not too worried about it at this point
2. Build muscle throughout my body
3. Intense exercise at least 6 hours a week, split between 4 or more days a week
4. Drastically reduce carbs - there was a point where a serving of cooked carrots would send me into a 3 day tailspin of hot flashes and sleepless night. Now I can eat carrots with impunity and I've been able to add fruit back into my diet. I still don't eat many grains, though.
5. Work on adrenals with high quality supplements and healthy lifestyle. I've just started working this point with gusto.
6. MOST IMPORTANT! Avoid artificial sweeteners like the plague. Besides eliminating stuff like diet soda, I had to switch to products like natural toothpaste and gum to avoid artificial sweeteners. It took many months to experience benefits from eliminating artificial sweetener but it probably had the biggest impact on improving my sleep.

To this day natural progesterone does nothing for me. I'd like to go back and try bio-identical estrogen again now that my major hormones are mostly under control.

Good luck, Dogmama. I know how much this sucks:(

I forgot to add that increasing the duration of my normal exercise by more than about 20% in one day will cause me to not sleep well for the next few nights. That's why I've started on adrenal support supplements. Increase your exercise slowly if additional exercise is in your plan.

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Originally Posted by Artista

It's been a 6 year journey of trial and error (

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6 years of suffering? If I had been on that journey I'd be in the looneybin! HRT? Bring it on! It works.

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Originally Posted by withm

6 years of suffering? If I had been on that journey I'd be in the looneybin! HRT? Bring it on! It works.

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HRT works for some people but not for others. Dogmama and I are examples of HRT not being a panacea for everyone.

I should also add that I didn't really suffer for 6 years straight. It was more like 3 steps forward and 2 steps back for a few years. I've been mostly good now for a couple of years. I'm still learning, though, like recently discovering that increasing my exercise dramatically in one day can impact my sleep. Just about the time that I think that I've got it all figured out, something changes;)

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Originally Posted by Artista

HRT works for some people but not for others. Dogmama and I are examples of HRT not being a panacea for everyone.

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I'm not sure that HRT isn't the answer for me. I had such bad side effects, that I quit - but I'm now thinking that maybe the side effects would have eventually gone away. Or not. That was one of the main reason for my post.

Although some schools of thought say that you can't measure hormones because they fluctuate so much, my PCP said my estrogen level was zero. I'm not sure how that could be but in any case, it's really low. That probably explains the flashes/sweats.

I know of some things that will make me flash right now - caffeine & chocolate. I supposed if I drank, alcohol would have the same effect (but would I care? :D)

My experience with HRT was short and disastrous. Just three days in, I was sitting at my desk feeling fine, swim bag at my feet because I'd done a good swim that morning.... suddenly I felt really dizzy and strange and the whole right side of my body went numb and weak. A co-worker drove me to the emergency ward, where after a long afternoon and a CAT scan, it was determined that I didn't have a stroke. But I was advised to stop the low-dose Estradiol anyway. Lucky thing I wasn't on it any longer, apparently you have to ease off gradually.
Shortly after I tried a ketagenic diet, as mentioned in the Brain Trust book. That helped a lot; I went from about 16 hot flashes a day to 3 or 4. Unfortunately, I gained a lot of weight from the diet and have yet to succeed in taking it off.
I try to avoid simple carbohydrates as that seems to bring them on. I drink a soy beverage instead of milk (can't digest milk anymore anyway) and eat tofu at least once a week to get the isoflavones.

I had a horrible peri-menopause, starting at about age 38 and then my periods stopped at age 48. I was happy.
I had no symptoms for a year. Then I had hot flashes, some bad, but only maybe 3-4 a day. This was right at the time I started riding. I exercised before, but something about being outside helped me. I didn't gain weight, or have terrible insomnia, but all of my little medical things got worse. I just kept a water bottle on my desk when I was teaching and drank liberally when a flash came. That seemed to stop it. They went on for 5 years, some of it prolonged by a medication I was taking for osteoporosis. The only symptom I had that really bugged me was the vaginal dryness and I got an E-string for that. I would have had the osteoporosis anyway, as it runs in my family, and I took several meds that probably made it worse. I had signs of it in my early forties.
Since I had horrible reactions to birth control pills, such as pains in my legs and chest, I knew I would never take HRT. It scares me. I think diet can help, and avoiding chemicals, etc is always good, but "natural" things aren't always a panacea. And, I would be careful in investing in supplements or things that are not research based.
I would add that you might want to try acupuncture. I tried it when nothing was helping me with a wide array of medical symptoms that was diagnosed as fibromyalgia, but I am not really sure it is (was). I definitely have auto-immune stuff, so I was desperate. While I can't definitely say it was acupuncture that worked, because I was doing a lot of other things like yoga, meditation, therapy, I kept seeing the acupuncturist for a long time. Some of them specialize in women's issues; it might be worth a try.

I started peri menopause at around 48 - the worst symptom was 'mashed potato brain'. I took some natural supplements and that helped and then it all just seemed to disappear. Great! - I thought. But alas it was only a brief respite.

I started getting full blown menopause symptoms at around age 50 - return of mashed potato brain, hot flashes (an average of 15 per day during working hours) and night sweats. I was a mess and couldn't function properly in my job or in life. I tried the natural supplement that had worked before but it made no difference. Then I tried several other natural supplements with no improvement. I gave in and tried HRT and haven't looked back. I no longer have any of the previous symptoms (with the exception of a very occasional hot flash if I drink wine - not all the time, just occasionally so it must be a specific type of ingredient that sets it off - haven't seen a pattern yet).

I have been taking Premia for around 5 years and my doctor also subscribes to the theory that you take it as long as you need to. We're soon going to schedule a staged withdrawal to see if the symptoms have eased.

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Originally Posted by macski

I started peri menopause at around 48 - the worst symptom was 'mashed potato brain'. I took some natural supplements and that helped and then it all just seemed to disappear. Great! - I thought. But alas it was only a brief respite.

I started getting full blown menopause symptoms at around age 50 - return of mashed potato brain, hot flashes (an average of 15 per day during working hours) and night sweats. I was a mess and couldn't function properly in my job or in life. I tried the natural supplement that had worked before but it made no difference. Then I tried several other natural supplements with no improvement. I gave in and tried HRT and haven't looked back. I no longer have any of the previous symptoms (with the exception of a very occasional hot flash if I drink wine - not all the time, just occasionally so it must be a specific type of ingredient that sets it off - haven't seen a pattern yet).

I have been taking Premia for around 5 years and my doctor also subscribes to the theory that you take it as long as you need to. We're soon going to schedule a staged withdrawal to see if the symptoms have eased.

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Sounds like me. I took Estroven for awhile and it helped -- until it didn't. Loved "mashed potato brain!" that's me! Teaching spinning last night, I forgot the word for "shoulders." I do recall that the brief time I took HRT, my brain returned - what a relief!

I do suffer from IBS/C & it returns with HRT. Wondering if anybody had that issue & if so, does it go away? I looked pregnant with the bloating & I was so uncomfortable. That was the main reason I stopped.

Did anybody have trouble wearing contact lenses? My eyes turn into sandpaper & contacts seem to adhere to them & are so uncomfortable. Eye drops are just a temporary fix - if you had that - did it go away?