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[babyjane]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3597850/Half-women-ashamed-talk-doctors-menopause-say-feel-change-just-with.html

There is a quote from Dr Currie in this article.

[Dandelion]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3597850/Half-women-ashamed-talk-doctors-menopause-say-feel-change-just-with.html

There is a quote from Dr Currie in this article.

when i was on femoston and they werent working my doc said i would just have to put up with menopause, but the flushes were so bad, i couldnt manage them, cant be doing with changing sheets during the night when i should be fast asleep, or using a fan in the winter months just to keep cool.
y doctor asked how long I wanted to stay on hrt and I said forever, but she said no chance. I said that it was my body so my choice, I want to stay on it for life to keep heart attacks and low bone density away, so that i am a sprightly old bird when I get to my 80's not some demented miserable housebound ill person, all due to lack of oestrogen.
Many women can get away without using hrt, but not all of them, and the ones that do, are the ones who really suffer.
My friends doctor wont let her go on hrt, she is diabetic so i dunno if that has soemething to do with it. The doctor said she is too young, she is 46yrs old, my meno started at 42.

The daily mail are still bleeting on about risks when it has alreaday been shown last year in the NICE guidelinnes that it is ok for women to receive hrt for life.
I dunno exactly what the nice guidelines say, but my doc wants me off it by age 55.

I have an aunt in her 60's who still has to use hrt, cos her flushes get really bad if she comes of it, that one is hard to figure, but she does suffer when she experiments with time off hrt, and has to go back on it, otherwise she cannot live a normal life, it stops her doinng the things she wants, whereas with the oestrogel she uses, she can live a normal life and be happy.

[babyjane]

Thank you for your post.  I am surprised there were not more comments.  Maybe the link wasn't popular.  However I do have a little issue with your comment

 so that i am a sprightly old bird when I get to my 80's not some demented miserable housebound ill person, all due to lack of oestrogen.

my mother was a very sprightly old bird in her 80s, still walking and cycling despite diabetes.  Mentally sharp as a tack up to the day before she died.  Hysterectomy aged 38 with no HRT at any point.  No osteoporosis and no heart issues.  Please don't generalise that everyone who doesn't use HRT is doomed.

[CLKD]

Dandelion -  ladies, once given the Facts about any risks, should be able to continue with HRT for Life! so contact your GP and tell her that quality of Life is important.  Your friend's GP is out of date  .

Make an appt. with your Practice Nurse B4 you get anywhere near 55, maybe you will get a 'better' result from speaking with her.  Of course, HRT costs the Surgery so it may be money that makes your GP want you 'off' HRT but if you had a heart condition or required medication for other chronic conditions 

[Jenna]

Dandelion have a look at point 7 here:

http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/toptips-feb2016.php

[Mary G]

These are my observations.  I think there is far too much emphasis on short term menopause symptoms like hot flushes and night sweats and nowhere near enough focus on the long term, devastating effects of oestrogen deprivation.

Dandelion is right about the DM bleeting on about risks - why is this still happening when it is now known that the benefits of bio identical HRT far outweigh the risks?  They are peddling out of date information and the doctor who suggested getting a lighter duvet is having a laugh, what sort of advice is that?  Dandelion, why does your doctor want you to stop taking HRT by the age of 55?  There is no longer a time limit on it.

Whenever there is a newspaper article about HRT, there are all the usual comments from women about the so called dangers of HRT and how they don't need it etc.  How do they know they don't need it?  Not taking HRT is one hell of a gamble and by the time you realise you did need it, it is often too late to start taking it.  It comes across loud and clear that many pre menopause women are really frightened of the menopause and frightened of taking HRT and seem to be in denial. 

I am getting frustrated with all the out of date information on HRT and lack of advice from doctors, many of whom still seem to be against HRT in principle and this is compromising women's health.  This area of health is being neglected and I fear it will cost the NHS a lot of money in the future once these women who are being denied HRT present with the horrors of oestrogen deprivation in later life.  Despite the new guidelines, we still seem to be all over the place with different doctors having very different ideas and at best very luke warm about prescribing it in many cases.  If we are not careful, there is going to be a lost generation. 

Babyjane, agreed, not everyone who doesn't take HRT is doomed but what about the millions of women who are being scared off it/denied it that then realise in later life that they did need it?  Because oestrogen is key to so many vital bodily functions, many women don't even realise that their illnesses are as a result of oestrogen deprivation.

I am in no doubt that my mother would be in much better health today if she had taken HRT. 

Still lots more work to do on this I'm afraid. 

[CLKD]

So who is writing to the Editor and Doctor fronting the article?  Mary G?

Not that Editors do an awful lot …………  [another thread]

Apart from treatment for VA I haven't required HRT.  I was already on BBs for anxiety and ADs long B4 I realised that my periods had gone forever!  I had DREADFUL painful periods for years, I took The Pill for 11 B4 being sterilised in the 1980s, followed by dreadful PMT  .  The eating every 3 hours, 24/7 helped enormously. 

[wombat62]

What Mary G said!

I never knew how much oestrogen plays in all bodily functions until I started with this forum and reading up on it. Therefore a lot of old age discomfort in women could be avoided if they could find some way of replacing the oestrogen and lowering risks. The biggest risk is breast cancer but then not everyone on HRT will get it, likewise you could get other cancers that HRT may protect against, however, being alive is a risk!

I have read that excessive drinking is a far bigger risk of bc than taking hormones, with todays culture of drinking younger women could be at far greater risk of that in later life.

I'm sure a healthy lifestyle will help but it's nothing is ever going to replace that lost oestrogen! I had a check up yesterday and the doc said that what we do in our 50's (diet, exercise) etc puts you on a course for your old age. That decade is important for setting yourself up for later on, bit hard when most ladies are struggling with meno, kids, parents etc but it does give food for thought.

[babyjane]

I agree but I tend to think that it is impossible to insure against everything life might throw at us.

By the same token driving everywhere, a sedentary job/lifestyle, stress, poor eating habits/diet these can all impact on peoples health in later life but I don't see threads and posts warning of these possible eventualities.

There needs to be a bit of balance in all things 

[Hurdity]

Hear hear wombat62!

babyjane - but there are threads and comments on exactly these things - lifestyle, stress exercise, diet and their impact on our health - several of us have post frequently about these things at this stage of life - exactly as wombat62 has said!   Not sure what balance you are talking about  - what can be more important than our overall health and especially post-menopause - a long time!

Hurdity x

[CLKD]

  .  Why does anyone think that they have to 'put up with' symptoms  . 

[Tempest]

I'm glad we've moved on in how we prescribe HRT from my Mum's experience. She was given Premarin after her radical hysterectomy at very high dose and wasn't monitored at all, and I'm sure this contributed to her cancer spreading. My Mum lost her battle aged just 54.

But then we had the WHI scare, and pretty much all HRT became virtually verboten. Women were scared, GP's and Consultants were scared (and still are). We need to move on to a well informed, risk appropriate prescribing of HRT to all women who may benefit from it. It's time the balance was corrected.

[Tempest]

Forgot to say, My Mum's experience was in the 1980's.