Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Wanderer]

Morning Ladies. Greenfields, I went to the Surrey Park Clinic, saw Miss Whitfield, and she was absolutely wonderful! I had an horrible experience at an NHS clinic, rows of miserable looking women in a cattle market environment, and a Consultant who looked bored, didn't take his eyes off the computer, and couldn't do an internal examination, and I had waited 2 months for that!

Miss Whitfield asks me things before I even had to tell her, and NOTHING surprised her! She is very well recognised in the medical profession and lectures all over the world. She did concentrate on my digestion a lot, and has written a lot papers on insulin production during menopause. She controversially uses diabetic medication for that, which I didn't take but everything else was spot on! She also follows up with phone calls to see how you are getting on.

I was with her for about two hours, and you can have every test done that you want, at a cost, of course, but she was excellent. Lovely lady too!

WANDERER. XX

[marras]

Hi Wanderer, I think you'll find her name is Miss Whitcroft and, yes, she is great and very knowledgeable. Insulin resistance is her 'bag' and I am on a small dose of Metformin due to a very strong family history of diabetes plus various symptoms.
CLKD, yes, I most certainly thanked them and do so each time I go there.  I don't say anything about GPs or the NHS because to be fair I have never consulted them for my menopausal problems. I shall continue to see her however much it costs.  I hope to goodness that she doesn't leave the clinic before I depart from this earth!!

[Greenfields]

Marras and Wanderer - how much does it cost to have treatment at the clinic?  Is it say 500 - 700 or a 1000 or more?

If this is too personal, just send me a message privately.

I saw another Dr today - she was really nice and seems very knowledgable - she mentioned this forum!!! She said that there was no point in me wasting money going to the clinic at the moment as she was just as knowledgable as the clinic about menopause and that they would be putting me on the same treatment that she is putting me on. She said if the new treatment doesn't work, then we can consider a referral to a menopause clinic.

She was very nice when she said this and she treated me like a human being - so, I think, for the moment, I am going to see how things go with this Dr.  I am seeing her again in 2 weeks time.

She said if the new treatment doesn't work then we may need to try something else as well - like another antidepressant for the anxiety (if it reappears). She said that you are more susceptible to anxiety and panic at menopause if you've had an earlier history of panic attacks (which I did have in my twenties and thirties).

She also said she thought that yes, I had had some kind of 'breakdown' and that she sees lots of women of my age who have had experiences like I've had - she said the combination of hormonal changes with mental stresses can impact people - and as I was in the middle of moving countries and going to start a Masters course I guess I was in the high stress category.

She said she would get me well so I can go back to Canada again but it will probably take months rather than weeks.

This gives me hope. Although whether I will return to Canada after all this I don't know - I'm still struggling to comprehend what has happened to me.

The new treatment she has given me is: Evorel 50 patches and Utrogestan 100mg capsules. I start them tomorrow. I take my last Nuvelle Continuous tonight. I will be glad to stop the Nuvelle Continuous as I have had so many side effects and have not really felt that well on it since I started it - although I have had some days where I've felt amazing - it's been really hard to figure out.

I gave the new Dr a set of typed notes outlining all the things I've experienced - she said she will read them and we can discuss it at the next appointment. I've also booked a 20 minute appointment as opposed to the 10 minutes I got today.

I really hope this works out.

[MrsMopp]

GypsyRoseLee, that is dreadful.  Maybe your GP has forgotten how she suffered.

Greenfields it does sound as if you have found a GP who will help you.  You're the second person today who's had a good GP experience.  Long may it continue.  There's no point in forking out for a private referral if your GP is helping you and money is tight.

Hope everything is on the up for you now.

[GypsyRoseLee]

MrsMopp, unfortunately I still have to see that GP socially so I can't shake her until her teeth rattle, like I want to.

I do know that she retired only in her early 50s because her menopause was so severe. But I guess she thought that was legitimate as she was the 'right' side of 50?

She just dismissed me because I was 'years too young' to have any symptoms related to menopause. I was nearly 43! It's not like I was 30, or something!

Even after I'd dutifully taken the ADs she prescribed me, and went back to tell her that I was STILL getting all the same symptoms linked to my menstrual cycle, she wasn't interested. Even *I* knew that ADs didn't just 'stop' working for half the month each month 

[MrsMopp]

Hi Gypsy Rose Lee

so she retired AFTER she told you that you weren't menopausal?  In which case her own meno probs would surely have been fresh in her mind.  Maybe she had menobrain 

[SallyG]

Greenfields,
I struggled for months in the total dark about what was wrong with me - low mood descending out of the blue, and strange feelings of 'fizziness' in my arms and knees, anger and short explosive temper came on me. My GP was very sanguine about it all - a female slightly younger than me - but did acknowledge that it was the menopause that had caused it all. She prescribed Elleste Duo which didn't seem to do anything but did put me on Citilapran which has helped a lot with mood and anxiety symptoms, which came as a complete surprise to me. I heard Dr Annie Evans on a radio 4 womans hour programme in December and contacted her immediately through googling her. I went to see her at her clinic in Bristol and was listened to an encouraged and soothed and prescribed bioidentical HRT and felt better immediately. So my experience of the private clinic has been brilliant and at the disappearance of well-women clinics in my part of the world I didn't have an alternative. I agree with Gypy Rose Lee - what price sanity?

Hugs SallyG

[Greenfields]

Thanks SallyG, that's good to hear.

I'm on Day 10 of my new treatment and I feel sooooooo much better!

I love my new GP as well - she was so kind when I saw her and so knowledgable.
I really wish I had switched practices sooner - if I had been given this treatment in April I would be a month ahead of myself in terms of feeling better - but ce la vie.

It's really made me aware of what a crap shoot it is in terms of not only finding a Dr who is kind and knowledgable but also finding an HRT that works for you.

And that's terrible really because it has a huge impact on one's life - and capitalism doesn't make allowances for illness, especially if, like me, you're on your own.

I'm hoping things continue well but, if they don't, then I definitely would explore private options but I'm fortunate in that I have (at the moment) the financial resources to do so. The fact that so many women suffer without proper access to appropriate medical care on this issue is shocking and says much about how sick our current society is.