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[dogdoc]

Hey ladies.  Doing my usual nerdy read through the literature and came across this interesting interview. 

Gives you an idea of just how little they really know about the menopausal transition. 
I find it interesting that she mentions it's possibly high and not low estrogen, as well as other brain chemicals  in the early menopausal transition that causes the anxiety/ depression at this stage.  This was absolutely my experience early on and I think explains why a lot of us still having regular periods find estrogen doesn't help or God forbid makes us worse. 

Hmmmm

[dogdoc]

Suppose I should attach the link lol

http://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/full/10.2217/whe.15.33

[Dancinggirl]

I absolutely agree with you dogdoc
When i was first diagnosed as peri meno in my mid 30s I was put on quite a high dose of HRT and felt agitated and headachy.  When I was reassessed aged 40, at a private meno clinic, they put me on just one pump of oestrogel per day with 10 days of progesterone and I felt so much better - I only increased about 3 years later when I had clearly gone into post meno. 
Too often women seem to think that more oestrogen is the answer and I am always suggesting that less may be better. I do think the golden rule should be to start on a low dose for the first 3 months to really judge how you are progressing, have blood tests to see whats happening with the oestrogen levels and only increase if flushes are not under control.  Expecting HRT to control anxiety and big mood changes is a difficult one - I do feel HRT can only do so much especially as in the peri stage our own hormones are fluctuating madly.
Sometimes less is really best.  Now 60, I am finding that one pump of gel per day is doing the trick!!!!  Dg x

[dangermouse]

Yes I keep hearing this too. It's also hard to know if the symptoms are caused by the oestrogen surges as they rise up or plummet down. My adrenaline rushes seemed to start right at the end of the cycle when everything fell (but then carried on as oestrogen rose in first half of cycle).

Also oestrogen replacement isn't necessarily just to top up but to trick the brain into stopping over production as it can now sense there is enough. This may then stop the volatile surges.

In more direct terms, high oestrogen over stimulates leading to anxiety and high progesterone over sedates leading to depression, with the low of each surge triggering the opposite. However, depression can mean different things to different people where the true clinical state is one of numbness and 'what's the point' demotivation as opposed to the over emotional state of anxiety and fearful demotivation. You can never technically feel them both at the same time but it's common for depression to set in after a long period of anxiety as your brain attempts to protect you from the high emotional state.

Hormone-wise though the surges can put you on an emotional roller coaster where you feel every emotion you've ever encountered within a few hours! 

[elsie001]

Added oestrogen definitely didn't help me - felt fine for the first day but my insomnia returned with a vengence and I felt way too jittery so stopped after 4 days.  I obviously don't need extra oestrogen at this moment in time but I hope that when my own natural oestrogen does drop, my body will accept it a bit more calmly! I'm 49, peri & still having (sort of) periods.  Only hrt I'm using at the mo is mirena.

[20032003]

Aside from estrogen and progesterone, I also wonder how prostaglandins act in peri? Do they also have abnormal highs and lows at points when you shouldn't normally have them? I'm wondering if that could account for odd cramps and bowel problems throughout the cycle, otherwise normally seen just at the start of a period?

Does anyone know?

[Keepgoing]

I am in peri and eastrogen is working a treat for me before it I was a mess...on my second month and 2 pumps a day xx

[dogdoc]

Keepgoing, maybe you're farther along the journey and have 'real' estrogen lows. For me the estrogen definitely helped some parts of my cycle, others it made much worse- particularly at ovulation which makes sense if I'm taking estrogen and my body is spiking it's own estrogen.

I do think prostaglandins ( and a million other chemicals) also play way bigger of a role than we think at this stage of the game. The increasingly painful periods and ovulations I've been having are apparently down to prostaglandins at this stage. Yay

[Keepgoing]

I possibly am as had symptoms since I was 41 but last 2 years ago was really bad with anxiety and depression and it was only when I started getting night sweats that eventually realised it was peri.  Only started hrt in November first 2 didn't agree with me and it's only because of the help and information on this site I think I have finally found the right one...I'm 45 now and my body definitely needs eastrogen...I am almost back to normal xx