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[TropicalVon69]

Morning ladies, I am totally struggling today......started evorel 50 patches on sat but cut in half.....I had the best day on sat If had for a long time but on Sunday I crashed with anxiety and panic....put on other half.....Patch due for changing on wed so I tried half again but last night I had a panic attack...took patch off as couldn't take it and had diazepam to help sleep....panic had mostly gone before patches just anxiety....don't know what to do now and so frustrated and sad.....I have had a busy week and today keeping wee one off school cos I can't take any stress....so disheartened and weary.....any ideas?......had enough of this hormonal crap!!!

[Sunnydays]

Hi, I started Everol conti patches exactly a week ago. Due to my headaches with other products I was advised to start on a quarter of the patch. Ive noticed this week that I've had 2 nights where I've actually slept for about 5 hour stints (see my other posts, sleep is my main problem) and surprisingly,I haven't had the need to dash for a wee, my bladder seems in perfect control! These might both be a placebo effect I don't know, but I still have night sweats although a bit reduced in number and intensity. I do still wake up in the morning with a feeling of a cloud over me. I'm not sure how long to stay on quarter patch before going up to half a patch, and I hope I don't have to go up to a full patch as I do worry about hrt.
When I was trying out femseven patch I stopped and started quite quickly and that did make me feel quite rough so I'm wondering if you start from a quarter patch and then build up it might help after a while. Sorry, long post, but when I went on a full patch, straight from having nothing plus no periods for nearly 2 years, I didn't know what had hit me and then when I stopped abruptly I felt dreadful. Ad you say, darned hormones!! Good luck.

[TropicalVon69]

Thanks so much for your advice Sunny days....I have evorel sequi so if I quarter patch and increase it I'm not sure how much progesterone to use....I don't really have flushes at the moment but anxiety, mood swings and depression as well as muscle tension palps, vision decline foggy brain and lack of focus...negativity and horrible thoughts.....I am still peri.....just so unsure what to do as still very jittery today after taking patch off yesterday....if any ladies could say if hrt has helped with these I would be grateful....just unsure what to do for the best as struggling already and anxiety off the scale the last few days....thanks for reading

[Limpy]

I think the progesterone phase on Evorel Sequi are in fact the Evorel Conti patches, so there is  oestrogen (or whatever) included in the patches. Perhaps stick with the quarter patches.......

Hopefully somebody who knows what they are talking about will be along soon.

[GypsyRoseLee]

I just don't think you're giving the patch any chance to work. I really understand your anxiety about taking HRT as I was just the same 6 weeks ago.

Infact, just like you I wore the first patch for 3 days then worked myself up into such a state that I took it off. Felt riddled with indecision and anxiety about the whole sorry mess. Then I came on here and several people were lovely and very supportive. But basically they gently pointed out that it WASN'T the patch making me feel so worked up and anxious, it was my HORMONES.

And, I realised that my very best chance at controlling my hormones was to let the patch just do its job.

Cutting your patch up into quarters and then quickly taking it on/off is really neither use nor ornament. You're not giving it any chance at all to do its job. Not at that tiny dosage, and not for anywhere near long enough. You are self sabotaging.

I saw my consultant last week, and she told me that if you're peri and in your 40s you need MORE oestrogen, not less. You certainly need a lot more than a woman in her 50s etc.

To answer your question, I genuinely do feel that HRT is really starting to control my anxiety/low mood spells. Especially so since I increased my dose from 25mg patch to 50mg. But I have just finished my 6th week on it and the first few weeks were very up and down. And I don't think I'm anywhere near out of the woods yet.

But this last week I have felt a strong internal shift, and I feel 'fuller' inside. More complete and stronger again. It's made me realise how drained and emotionally feeble I had become before starting HRT.

[TropicalVon69]

Hi Gypsyrose , I appreciate your honesty thank you.....I feel that the patch was making me more anxious....I know I need to give it time I am just desperate not to feel worse as I'm sure you will know....and the anxiety I have felt made me feel as I did when this whole business started....I think I will try the half patch again today and keep at it and take Valium if necessary....I felt the whole patch was just too much.......feel free to give me a talking to lol.....did you need to take anything while starting?....I relate to your emotionally weak comment and so pleased for you that you are feeling better...thanks for your input ladies xxx

[Sunnydays]

Good lucky tropical. I'm sure you will be fine doing it this way. I know I'm on conti rather than sequi but for some of us the anxiety about a full patch is too much. I know I'm only a week into my quarter patch but I feel calm that I'm in control xx

[TropicalVon69]

That's great sunny days....glad quartering your patch is working out for you and that things are improving......its not anxiety I feel about the patch its feeling wired with the patch on....put half on today though and feeling OK so onward and upward.....hugs to you all ladies and hope you enjoy your holiday gypsy xxx

[GypsyRoseLee]

Hi Tropical

I really don't think any patch is strong enough or powerful enough to affect you so much in such a short space of time? I honestly don't.

It's just your anxiety screwing with your head. I was just the same as you. I think I had convinced myself that as soon as I put a patch on there would be a roll of thunder and a seismic shift in the Earth, or some such nonsense 

I felt like I had taken an irrevocable step and was somehow going to be a changed person forever. It felt very final and momentous.

The reality was that the hormones in the patch are very gentle. They are there to help you not hurt you. And left alone to do their job, they aren't going to 'change' you. They are just going to help return you to how you used to be before all this peri nightmare started.

I think just wearing a quarter of half a patch is a bit pointless. It's not going to help you as much as it needs to. You're just consigning yourself to still feeling stressed and anxious about wearing an HRT patch without the benefits of it actually working and making you feel better. I don't see the point? You're putting yourself in a pretty pointless state of limbo, neither going forward or going back.

I do understand that 'wired' feeling though and it scared me too. But I figured that my body had been depleted of oestrogen for over a year so by adding oestrogen back into my chemistry was bound to have some side effects. I tried to envisage the 'wired' feeling as a positive force. An encouraging sign of the oestrogen starting to flex its muscles and rejuvenating my poor, drained circuitry.

I do feel such a lot of empathy for what you're feeling. I know I felt just the same the first weekend I started HRT, and then 2 weeks later when my mood really dipped with my withdrawl bleed arriving. A sort of hopeless despair that nothing was going to help me and that it was all in vain.

But that's not the HRT making you feel that way, it's the bloody fluctuating hormones and low oestrogen.

These last 2 weeks since I have been on the higher dose  have felt a slow return of my old self. I feel slightly more sassy (for want of a better word) and have felt irritable once or twice. I have felt impatient and also found myself giggling. All emotions which I haven't really experienced in over a year. I had become such a pale, watery copy of my old self. Too drained and emotionally fragile to do much more than a tepid smile once in a while.

It's a bit frightening to have all these emotions slowly being switched back on but also wonderful. I was only half alive before, in fact probably only a quarter alive?

Please, please stick with the HRT and be good to yourself 

[Wanderer]

Morning TropicalVon69. Why are you cutting the patch in half, were you advised to? This patch is quite a low dose anyway, and I agree with the other ladies, that you are not giving it time to work. I have been on this patch since October, and only now feel that things are starting to improve, energy levels, concentration, aches and pains, gut problems etc....... and I am 4 years POST menopause! Having said that, I am looking to change it, as I am very sensitive to the Progesterone part, and I now have mini bleeds every 10 days or so, not what I really want! But I do think that you are expecting a lot on a teeny tiny patch!

WANDERER xxx

[Briony]

I just don't think you're giving the patch any chance to work. I really understand your anxiety about taking HRT as I was just the same 6 weeks ago.

Infact, just like you I wore the first patch for 3 days then worked myself up into such a state that I took it off. Felt riddled with indecision and anxiety about the whole sorry mess. Then I came on here and several people were lovely and very supportive. But basically they gently pointed out that it WASN'T the patch making me feel so worked up and anxious, it was my HORMONES.

And, I realised that my very best chance at controlling my hormones was to let the patch just do its job.

Cutting your patch up into quarters and then quickly taking it on/off is really neither use nor ornament. You're not giving it any chance at all to do its job. Not at that tiny dosage, and not for anywhere near long enough. You are self sabotaging.

I saw my consultant last week, and she told me that if you're peri and in your 40s you need MORE oestrogen, not less. You certainly need a lot more than a woman in her 50s etc.

Couldn't agree more with GipsyRoseLee!

I stressed so much when taking Evorel 50, often worrying I should have cut them in half first and convincing myself that the anxiety and aches etc I was experiencing were due to being on too high a dose. Since then, I have realised that in fact, I needed a much higher dose and in fact, the HRT was doing nothing for me - my symptoms were still due to low estrogen. Since then, I have switched to a low dose combined pill and the boost in estrogen, combined with  the pill's ability to control my own random  hormones, has helped more than anything else.

Cant say things are perfect, but I do feel my quality of life is massively better than pre Qlaira.

[GypsyRoseLee]

Hello Briony

I think when you're already feeling very anxious and wired it's easy to also panic that, with a patch, you might OD on oestrogen and feel even worse. But, I suspect it's actually very rare to suffer from too much oestrogen and that most women need far more oestrogen than they realise. Especially when they've been running on low oestrogen for months/years.

I have definitely felt a difference since being on a higher dose (went from 25mg to 50mg nearly 2 weeks ago). I feel more buoyant and fuller, more like my old self. Last night I had trouble dropping off to sleep which is the first time since being on the higher dose. But instead of immediately getting panicked and fretting that I would never fall asleep all night, and that today I would feel dreadful, and that 'Oh no the HRT can't be working'. Instead I just mentally shrugged and thought 'Well if I don't drop off soon I will put the light back on and read for a bit, it's not the end of the world.' Next thing I knew it was 6am!

I am very interested in that you are doing well of Qlaira. If HRT doesn't work out for me my GP mentioned this could be an option as I still have regular periods etc but am desperate to even out my awful mood swings and dips of depression that just come and go in seconds.

[Briony]

I so empathise with your situation, GypsyRose Lee. 50mg seemed like a massive dose to me, and every slight hint of a headache, dizziness, anxiety, seemed to make me panic out of all proportion. Looking back, it makes me laugh as now I am on Qlaira, I am taking three times that amount some days - apparently 50mg patch = 10 mg estrogen tablet?  (and Qlaira's a 'low dose'pill so others take far more than this) and I certainly have no new symptoms (did have a few aches and spotting in the first few months, but this has now - fingers crossed - totally improved). Hang in there xx
 

[Greenfields]

I'm on Evorel 50 and my Dr described it as a mid-level range in terms of hormone doses - so I hadn't given much thought to how 'high' the dose was.

That said, I've been on them a full month now and it took a while for things to settle down.  Especially if you are peri-menopause because your own hormones are also doing their thing underneath the HRT - so you're going to get fluctuations.

If the Dr has advised you to cut the patches then obviously follow the treatment.

However, if you're doing this by yourself with no advice, I would say it's probably best avoided - how is your body going to get used to evening out it's system in terms of a consistent dose of hormones if you put it on one day, take it off the next, put half a patch on one day and maybe 1/4 patch the next?

I was told by my Dr that it takes a few months for things to settle down - and, certainly I have found this to be true.  I'm better now than I was the first few weeks of taking it.

Whatever you decide to do, be consistent for a while and record the things you notice - then you'll have a record to take back to the Dr and you might spot patterns yourself.  If you chop and change, you have no way of knowing what factors are impacting how you are feeling and what symptoms you are experiencing.

PS Was also thinking after I posted the above comments that, when I began HRT, I thought that getting better would be linear - i.e. I would get better each day.  However HRT is different - some days you can feel better and other days you can feel worse - there isn't a consistency in terms of wellness.  That's why it's better to take it for a while and then review how you feel.  Having said all that, the first lot of HRT I was on I had all the most severe side effects and the Dr I was with didn't check up on me - it wasn't until I changed Dr's and was instantly switched to another HRT that I started to feel consistently better (still some ups and downs but nothing like what I experienced on the previous HRT).  So, if you experience a lot of side effects then it's worth going back and asking the Dr to review the medication level.  Otherwise, I think its more helpful to persist with things and review after at least a month of consistently using the HRT at a specific level.