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[Dandelion]

My GP, not my regular GP, phoned me up yesterday, regarding my HRT as I need some new patches.
Fair do's to her, I had forgotten to attend my appointment, so she rang me, which I was pleased about, but she asked me how long I wanted to stay on HRT for and I told her I would like to stay on it for life.
My reason is that lack of oestrogen causes me to have un-manageable anxiety and depression, very bad IBS, massive weight gain, and puts me at risk of osteoporosis)
I said that my life was just not worth living without HRT.

She said, that this was not possible.
She said women go through menopause naturally, when they come off HRT, (bullsh!t)
I said I had no quality of life without HRT but she said that although she did not want to make my life bad, she said it is too risky and went on to describe cancer.

Call me morbid, but I would rather have my life cut short by cancer than live with depression.
I would even consider taking my own life early, so as not to have to go through old age etc. I also have non meno anxiety and depression and a lot of crap in my life, some self-caused and some insoluble practical and personal problems, so, menopause induced anxiety and depression, on top of this, would lead me to the decision to bring my life to an early end before any real shit sets in)
(not suicidal at the moment by the way:) ) but, if I had no HRT, I would euthanise myself for deffo.

Anyway, I respectfully asked her, "As it's my own body, would I not be able to make a choice to run that risk of cancer and stay on HRT?" and she firmly said "no"
She said that when I turn 50, they will be sending for me to review my HRT, due to me starting perimenopause at 42, which she said was quite early.

This is just a rant really, and I hope that Dr Currie is still on hand so that she can help me, at the time, because it was her that helped me get HRT in the first place as the GP's were funny due to me being a migraine sufferer (non headache migraine with aura)

Anyway, I cannot believe that professional knowledgeable GP's are still basing their knowledge on that sh!te study of 2002, from WHI.

[Jenna]

Dandelion - maybe your GP should read this!

http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/newsitem.php?recordID=159/In-response-to-the-paper-RE-Duration-of-Menopause

[Dandelion]

Dandelion - maybe your GP should read this!

http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/newsitem.php?recordID=159/In-response-to-the-paper-RE-Duration-of-Menopause

Hi Jenna

Thank you for that link, I have bookmarked it.
One GP wouldn't even read the email from Dr Currie, saying it was complicated, but luckily, I went to another one, after having bought a private box of hrt patches and she read the email and prescribed me the hrt I needed. Sadly it is really difficult to get an appointment with a specific GP, so, before my 50th birthday, approx 6 weeks in advance, I will make an appointment with that kind GP and show her the link plus any letter I may need from Dr Currie.
I have been having meno symptoms for 6 years now, but I know a woman who started hers at 40 and although she is now 53 and on hrt, she would still get bad flushes if she came off, and has been getting them for 13 years.

I have no clue why some women have long lasting meno symptoms while others get off with just a few flushes.
I took for granted that I would have no problems in meno, as I was really lucky with my periods, no PMS or gynaecological problems at all, just a little period pain which was sorted with a paracetamol.
I was wrong to take for granted my meno would be uneventful, it's been really rough. Thank God for evorel though.

[peegeetip]

Hi Dandelion

I'm so angry just reading how your being treated there. I'm going outside soon to take my frustration out on the garden.

"I said that my life was just not worth living without HRT.

She said, that this was not possible.
She said women go through menopause naturally, when they come off HRT, (bullsh!t)
I said I had no quality of life without HRT but she said that although she did not want to make my life bad, she said it is too risky and went on to describe cancer."

This almost seems to be like an abuse of your rights to be left along in peace!

This was exactly what I was trying to explain in regards to the almost abusive way that people like your doc use the "NATURAL" card against us.
This has to stop. If other people on the forum can't see your plight then that is part of the problem too.

As doctor currie said in the magazine 38 page 10.

http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/issue38/#p=11
"It should be your choice and certainly not being told you have to stop"

Not sure if you need to get Dr Currie involved as others have but someone needs to take that doc you've got to task.

Fuming with you 

[Dandelion]

Hi Dandelion

I'm so angry just reading how your being treated there. I'm going outside soon to take my frustration out on the garden.

"I said that my life was just not worth living without HRT.

She said, that this was not possible.
She said women go through menopause naturally, when they come off HRT, (bullsh!t)
I said I had no quality of life without HRT but she said that although she did not want to make my life bad, she said it is too risky and went on to describe cancer."

This almost seems to be like an abuse of your rights to be left along in peace!

This was exactly what I was trying to explain in regards to the almost abusive way that people like your doc use the "NATURAL" card against us.
This has to stop. If other people on the forum can't see your plight then that is part of the problem too.

As doctor currie said in the magazine 38 page 10.

http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/issue38/#p=11
"It should be your choice and certainly not being told you have to stop"

Not sure if you need to get Dr Currie involved as others have but someone needs to take that doc you've got to task.

Fuming with you 

Thank you, I really like this post.
The tragic thing, is that our GP's really believe that all women have to "go through the menopause".
I'm not sure if it's a form of social engineering. Get as many ill-pissed off women is society as possible, just like they are raising the fear-energy level with austerity and financial insecurity for the futurer, in the general population, what better way of inducing more fear than stopping hrt for women and the knock-on negative infinitely multiplying negativity from the ill oestrogen lacking women, to everyone they come into contatct with, and everyone these people come into contact with and so on ad infinitum.

The GP's would not listen to me, I had to show evidence of Dr Curries email saying it was ok to give me HRT. Otherwise I might not have got it, and to be quite frank, I may not be here today, to write this post, as I was collecting an overodse cocktail at the time.

[Ju Ju]

Many doctors are scared of being held accountable for prescribing something that might cause cancer, but they won't be held accountable for you having poor quality of life. After years of poor health I sought help from a private gynaecologist at the age of 60, who tells me I can take the low dose HRT 'forever' if I so wish. This is my body, my decision; I know there is risk, but I have gone for quality over quantity of life. The thought of living another 30 years of extreme exhaustion was unthinkable. It is amazing how much difference a small amount of oestrogen has made and I have been given expertise help in finding the best progesterone regime for me. Life is good.

[toffeecushion]

I am still waiting for my gp to acknowledge that my symptoms are menopause related.  Each time I go I ask if the 'symptom of the day' could be caused by the menopause and they say no.  I know that they can be as I have searched online before I go there, but it leaves me worrying that my symptom is something else.  To be honest I don't want HRT and would rather take supplements etc for as long as I can, but it would make so much difference to my mental health to be told that it is all related to the menopause and not some undiagnosed illness.

[Dandelion]

I am still waiting for my gp to acknowledge that my symptoms are menopause related.  Each time I go I ask if the 'symptom of the day' could be caused by the menopause and they say no.  I know that they can be as I have searched online before I go there, but it leaves me worrying that my symptom is something else.  To be honest I don't want HRT and would rather take supplements etc for as long as I can, but it would make so much difference to my mental health to be told that it is all related to the menopause and not some undiagnosed illness.

I'm speechless, and so sorry but all your sx could be meno.
My little patch sorted my bowels, flushes etc right out.
I've just gone up in dose for my evorel, and my bowels are playing up a little, but  I expect this to settle down in a few weeks, as hrt seems to take about five weeks for me to fully kick in.
My sister is not quite a year older than me, and is just starting to get the first flushes of meno, and she has chosen not to use hrt.
I did choose and i am glad I did, but  I respect others choices to do what they wish.
My meno sx were just too rough for me to cope and I don't think the GP's fully acknowledge my sx are meno related.
I got medication for my bowels, beta blockeras and phenergan for mental symptoms, but only one GP in our surgery has prescribed me the hrt that is soooooooo helping me have a life worth livng.
I agree that when it comes to life, quality over quantity every time.

[dahliagirl]

I was told that I would be limited to 5 years on hrt because of the risk of breast cancer, by the doctor who first prescribed it.  This seems nonsensical to me as I am perimenopausal and may well still be at the end of 5 years, never mind what happens afterwards.

I am hoping that a. New NICE guidelines will change this view
and b.  that this was just the view of the doctor that prescribed it who retired immediately after, as the others in the practice have been a lot more helpful so far.

I don't suppose the GPs pay towards the incontinence pads.

[Taz2]

It's such a shame that your GP has taken this line Dandelion, and she sounds so unsympathetic - not a great bedside manner! She may be thinking about the advice which says that if you begin HRT before the age of 50 then, when you do get to around 50/51, it is usual practice to have a break just to see where your body actually is as regards menopause. This has happened to two of my friends who were both hysterectomised in their thirties. One had her break at 50 and found she no longer needed any HRT and has sailed through menopause for the last ten years with no symptoms and the other found she was hot flushing within a few weeks and re-started HRT after a two month break.

Each case should be dealt with individually I believe. You may find that you don't need HRT but I appreciate you feel worried about stopping it for a while.

Taz x

[peegeetip]

Hi Taz / Dandelion

if you want "so unsympathetic" then try and watch Kim Cattrall's rework of the "Sensitive Skin" dark'ish comedy.

I won't spoil the first episode, but the "attitude" of younger unknowing women just about made me wet myself.

There is a sneak peak on youtube that doesnt give too much away on the scene I'm talking about.
You have to see the full "interference busy body" at work.

I think they showed the full clip on the recent the Graham Norton Show.

Hope you get the chance to see it on Sky Arts Channel Not sure on the series in general but it has some bits that definitely you'll get and say that's me, him or us

Hope that helps cheer you up too.
 

[GypsyRoseLee]

I was only 42 when my peri symptoms started. On my darkest days when my anxiety & depression was at its worst, the thought of having to spend the next 15-20 years suffering many, many more such dark days was absolutely terrifying and soul destroying. It would be no life. Certainly not one worth living.

If you haven't been in that very dark place, then you won't understand how terrifying it is.

I am on Day 15 of HRT, and touch wood have felt so much better for the last week. I feel so much more like the 'old me' again. Sleeping much better. Diarrhoea disappeared. Feel optimistic about life in general.

If I could look into the future and see that:

A) by taking HRT I would continue to feel as good as this for the next 20 years but would then die of cancer (probably caused by HRT) when I was 70.

OR

B) I didn't take HRT because of the health risks, and lived to the grand old age of 85 but suffered with dreadful anxiety/depression for 20 years during menopause.

Then I would ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS take option A) any day of the week and twice on a Sunday.

My really dark days and those nasty wretched 'in between' days I was having wasn't 'living'. Inside I felt like I was dying.

Quality over quantity every time.

My 40s/50s and 60s are meant to be my golden time. Children more independent. More free time. More disposable income. Working less hours. I want to embrace it openly and enjoy it all.

I want to actual 'live' before I die. I don't want to keep dying another day, and another day, and another day because I feel so anxious and low inside. Only to then die in the end anyway.

The Spanish have a proverb "A life lived in fear, is a life half lived".

Well, I am not going to live in fear/anxiety anymore. And I'm not going to only have half a life. I am going to live as a full a life as possible, thanks to HRT - and if I end up with cancer then I will never look back and I will never have any regrets.

[Limpy]

if you want "so unsympathetic" then try and watch Kim Cattrall's rework of the "Sensitive Skin" dark'ish comedy.

Er - This appears to be drama, a play, i.e. fiction.
It's not real. 

Perhaps the unsympathetic bit is supposed to be part of the comedy. The author may assume nobody could possibly take it seriously.

[honeybun]

Totally agree Limpy, can't really take that seriously at all, as you say ....comedy, fiction but I suppose some would think otherwise. 

I think I have said before, but my mum aged nearly 93 had a troublesome menopause. There were not that many options in her time so she spent a good few years doing the best she could. But...she did come out the other side and had a very full life before extreme old age took over.

So there is hope for the natural way of dealing with menopause...my mother is living...moaning...sorry breathing proof 

For me, I'm greedy, I want both quality and quantity. Not sure if that willl happen but I can but hope.

Dandelion...I hope with help from Dr Currie you will be able to continue on a regime that gives you quality of life.
After all it's your choice, and you should be the one that has ultimate control of your body.


Honeybun
X

[Taz2]

Honeybun - was your mum ever offered HRT? Just curious as my mum would have been 96 this year and took HRT for a year while in her fifties. It really helped her and I remember her friends thinking she was very daring to try it!!

Taz x