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[jedigirl]

GypsyRoseLee did you see the GP? Hope they have been able to offer help. xxx

[GypsyRoseLee]

CLKD - can I ask, did taking HRT help get rid of those awful numb feelings you had? I can really sympathise with not feeling you were able to talk AND be expressive at the same time. When I felt so bad a few days ago I felt barely able to even speak let alone make eye contact.

[GypsyRoseLee]

Hurdity - that is so useful to read, I really can't thank you enough for posting that 

Within the space of just an hour I started to feel much better Monday evening, and surprise surprise my period started late Monday night. I woke up yesterday morning feeling like a completely different person. Full of energy and bright eyed and my usual optimistic self. All that horrible, horrible emptiness and numbness had totally gone.

If I was another person reading me I'm not sure I would believe me, because it just sounds so extreme and weird. The mood swing was just so dramatic.

[GypsyRoseLee]

Hello Jedigirl   

I saw my GP yesterday, she was very helpful. She was reluctant to prescribe HRT for me, because she could see from my consultant's notes that they would need to be careful with the type of progesterone I was prescribed. However, she is writing to my consultant to ask them to fax her over a prescription instead. She also advised me to call the clinic myself to chase them up. I spoke to one of the secretaries who said she'd try and speak to my consultant about forwarding a script to my GP, and she promised to call me back yesterday to let me know what was happening. She didn't though 

I feel 100% better today because my period started yesterday, but I really can't face another week like I've just had, it was so horrible. And my poor family and colleagues have to suffer me too 

[jedigirl]

So glad you're feeling better GypsyRoseLee :-)  hope you can use yr extra strength to find some answers x

[grumpy2008]

GypsyRoseLee, I can't help re HRT but just wanted to say that your experience struck a cord with me. Anxiety & depression (flatness) have been particularly bad for me this past few months  - normally it lasts a few days or maybe a week or two, but during the last two or three months it has been constant. I'm just starting to feel better now. I know it is hormone related because my periods returned after a 9 month absence, and so did all the symptoms you described. The good news is that while my periods were absent, I felt SO much better! Hopefully it will be the same for you .

Being unable to speak or make eye contact is exactly how I feel when at my worst... it makes life extremely difficult, if not impossible, doesn't it? Even today, while I'm feeling better, I suddenly went into panic mode when a friend tried to arrange lunch for next week... silly, I know. It feels like the anxiety/fear is just under the surface, and the numbness not far behind.

I hope things get easier for you. Do keep ringing or visiting your GP if and when you need to...  although I know how tempting it is to let the situation continue on our better days 

[CLKD]

I didn't take HRT but when depressed I can't give eye contact, or concentrate on conversation when smiling at the same time.  My mind races so much that I can't multi-task 

[GypsyRoseLee]

Grumpy - we sound very similar. All my problems started 13 months ago when I noticed my periods suddenly got much lighter and my PMS was lasting longer and longer. But because I was only 43 and wasn't having any hot flushes (and hadn't grown a 'tache), and my periods were still regular I never considered my sudden anxiety and very low mood were caused by my hormones.

Like you my PMS just stretched out so that for more than half a month I felt dreadful. Then I had a month where it never seemed to lift except around ovulation for a few days. And it all carried on from there. Random insomnia. Random anxiety. Sudden on set of a very low mood (for absolutely no tangible reason).

Last month was the worst yet. Yet a week ago it all went away in the space of an hour or two and BINGO my period started (though in previous months my PMS has lasted right through until Day 7/8 of my cycle).

I have felt great for the last week. But today I am seeing my gynaecologist to get HRT. It's hard because right now I feel perfectly normal and like nothing could ever go wrong again. But looking back in my Mood Diary only 9 days ago I felt absolutely wretched, and like life wasn't worth living. I couldn't be bothered to do ANYTHING. My family and friends were suffering too.

But taking HRT seems like really bringing out the very big guns, especially as my symptoms aren't constant all the time.

But I just don't know what else to do? As it is I am losing more than half my month feeling so low and depressed. I am only living half a life, really.

[Millykin]

Gypsy rose lee
Horrible feeling like that, I'm in the same place just now. I'm 44 started peri meno 2 yrs ago started HRT in April and things picked up but past week I've been living in a nightmare. I think ABs Interfered with my HRT. I hate it when you have an appointment and feel ok so don't let everything out then it all hits again, at our age we should be enjoying life, my girls are in their 20's there should be no stopping me but I just can't be bothered don't want to venture anywhere or face anyone. Hope you get on ok
X

[GypsyRoseLee]

Thank you millykin.

Unfortunately my appointment today was a bit of a disaster.

Couldn't see my usual consultant, had to see a locum. He just did not fill me with confidence at all. Firstly, he tried to get me to take Prozac instead.

When he finally agreed I could try HRT he seemed very unsure which preparation. He eventually settled on Evorel Conti. This was despite me telling him my own consultant had been very specific that I would need oestrogen patches all month, and then oral progesterone for just one week per month - this is because I do not react well to progesterone.

I daren't take it. I am so worried that the continuous progesterone will just flip me over the edge mood-wise. My PMS symptoms are already through the roof as regards low mood, anxiety, feelings of Doom every month. I can only think that daily progesterone will give me these symptoms ALL month, surely?

Feel incredibly fed up, and wish I hadn't even bothered going to the appointment 

He just insisted I give it a go for 4-6 weeks, and if I don't like it, just stop. Then I will have to wait until May before I can see my own consultant again. What a nightmare.

How are you feeling today? It never occurred to me that anit biotics could affect HRti

[Millykin]

Hi that's a shame waste of your time! It never occurred to me either but as someone on here explained it takes everything from your digestive system so why not that? I'm in Femoston 1/10 at the moment and it has been good, I even feel much better on the progesterone part of that wishing I could have it all the time lol, I first tried Elleste duet but the prog in that didn't agree with so. Maybe you could give Femoston a try it is a kind prog few others would agree. I'm just waiting for it to get into my system again and hopefully be ok
X

[grumpy2008]

Hi GypsyRoseLee, sorry to hear your appointment didn't go so well... listen to your gut instinct, and get a second opinion if you need to.

Anti-depressants (low dose) are quite commonly taken for this stage of life, but I understand your reluctance. However, it might mean you can put the HRT off for a while?

My perimeno stage started around your age too - I'm 50 now and my periods are on the verge of stopping (I've had a 9 month break so far, they came back briefly, but I'm hoping they are gone for good this time). We sound like twins as far as our symptoms are concerned, and it came as a shock to me to feel so rotten all the time, since I'd felt relatively good after the birth of my daughter a few years previous to that. I did adjust to it, and it fell into a kind of pattern and, as I said in my last message, I've felt better when my periods are absent.

Good luck, get all the help and support you can, and don't be afraid to keep seeing your GP, maybe one who specialises in women's issues. I have a lovely doctor and she's helped me a lot.

 

[GypsyRoseLee]

Thank you for replying Grumpy. It's always reassuring to know you're not the only one feeling like they're losing the plot.

I have taken ADs in the past and I really don't think they're the right treatment for me. If I'm low on oestrogen and not tolerating monthly hormone changes anymore then it just makes much more sense (to me) to give me the hormones I need. ADs just mask the issue, and the ones I have taken in the past have just made me feel pretty flat and samey all month. No horrible dips but no nice, happy feelings either.

Right now I feel absolutely fine and good, and have felt like this for 8 days now - since my period started. I think I am having a 'good' month, where my PMS left when my period started and my oestrogen levels are rising nicely hence I feel good and I have some libido again  So, hopefully my luteal phase won't be too bad. Perhaps just a bit of low mood, and a little bit of anxiety?

Last month was a 'bad' month. My PMS didn't lift when my period started. I don't think my oestrogen levels rose enough to cause me to ovulate. I had zero libido. When I 'should' have been ovulating I experienced nasty anxiety/depression for 2-3 days. Then my PMS symptoms just got increasingly worse culminating in 4-5 days of horrible, horrible emotional numbness - where I genuinely don't think I would have cared if the police had called to tell me my family had all been killed in a RTA. I felt that numb  And when you feel like that, there doesn't seem much point to living.

Sorry for going into such detail, but I was wondering if you could identify with my experiences?

I take great comfort in you saying that your symptoms disappeared when your periods stopped. My periods are much lighter and my Mum, Aunt and both female cousins had all stopped their periods by their early 40s. I am 45 this year so I am PRAYING mine will finish very soon.