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[Vanessa1]

For some of us myself included . I had no choice but to go private , I have / had severe VA .

Various " experts " I have seen wanted to do pudendal  nerve blocks / nerve blocks INTO my vagina / nerve blocks into my vestibule / Botox into my bladder. Potent steroid cream. A concoction of various drugs , with serious potential side effects.

I start d the potent steroid cream , at a time when I did as was told oh dear why a BIG mistake , I was told I had LS lichen Scerlosise.

My NHS gynae said you will want to be on HRT for a few months !!!!! a few months VA is for life.

I still see on here ladies being given short change, so yes it's good to be told there is help out there , if you are getting nowhere and where as desperate as I was.


So I then started researching ( at this point I was now suicidal ) I am 80% better it is VA. I kept saying to the experts is this VA , no your to young still having periods etc etc etc.

So yes the credit card has been my best friend , because unfortunately some of us do have to go private , and by passing on hat knowledge it may help someone else to not go through what I have , it wasn't just me but my husband / children also.


If a post " irritates" then look the other way.

I have had severe VA;  fortunately Femoston 2/10 combined with Ovestin cream prescribed to me on the NHS has resolved the problem with no need for me to 'go private'.

This is exactly the sort of post/attitude that makes me not want to come on here *looks the other way* 

[Maryjane]

I genuinely do not understand my post offended you so much .

For me ( and others on here ) I tried the NHS route , i was offered very expensive procedures.

My GP said I could have vagifem twice a week , with the need of progesterone every now and then to protect the womb for two vagifem a
week !!!!

I always value Hurdity/ Dancing girls opinions ( and others ) who are so knowledgeable, but for some yes we do have to go private .

There's a lady I chat to privately on here , who has also had to go private as she so obviously had VA , but was getting nowhere and I had an update last week where she is much improved , and she has past on the knowledge to someone else who is now improved .

So I most definitely do not think my kind of post , requires someone to leave .

and I apologise if it has done so. 😊

I read posts here quite often by an OZ lady who suffers dreadfully from VA, and she said if she knew what she knows now she would have walked over broken glass , to have taken HRT , so for me that has had to be private.

A virtual 💐

 

[Clovie]

I for one, am happy to read input from all posters  and am thankful for everyone's posts! 

If there was a subject I wasn't interested in being discussed within a post, I would acknowledge that person's right to discuss it and hold that opinion, but perhaps just disregard for myself!

We are all valuable contributors surely?   

[Justjules]

Oh heck, there's another poster gone now.....

I think the reason Professor Studd is seen as the meno magician is because we are all getting short changed from the NHS and our GPs for a start!!!  If you're lucky to have an understanding GP who is clued up on the meno, then that's great but most of us aren't in the fortunate position of having that so feel privately is the only way to go.  Does it really matter if he gets mentioned so often for goodness sake???

Maryjane, you've absolutely nothing to apologise for....

[babyjane]

I have followed this thread because it is topical.  Considering we are all at some point or other in menopause I am surprised there are not more spats and disagreements.  On the whole I think the whole forum conducts itself well and has a nice balance to it.   The occasional over reaction is inevitable given our hormonal situations and frustrations.

[dazned]

I had to resort to the private route but saw someone local to me cost £180 ( less than my car insurance ) ! He perscribed the same as Prof Stud for half the price then wrote to my gp who then carried on prescribing utrogeston 200mg capsules and estrogen . Job done.    some off us have good gps who would/can perscribe this straight off I think you just need to stand your ground in a polite way and state you want to try x,y or z.Studds regime isnt the be all for everyon. Remember that there are thousands of women out there on all sorts of pills,patches,combos all happily living their lives to the full 
Whatever works for you thats my motto ! 

[Emma]

The RCOG-BMS response is here
http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/newsitem.php?recordID=174/RCOG-BMS-response-to-Breast-Cancer-Now-Generations-Study-on-HRT-use-and-breast-cancer-risk

[Dorothy]

I think that the reason some women find it upsetting to have private treatment recommended so enthusiastically, is that for some of us it just isn't possible.  I was eventually able to get the help I needed via the NHS, but I know that when I was still looking for answers (and in constant discomfort from VA) I found it really stressful being told 'you need to go private'.  I would get a real sense of panic rising because I knew there was no way I could afford a private consultation and if that was the only way, I was going to be in constant pain for the rest of my life!  So I'm not surprised that women who are unable to afford a visit to Prof Studd get edgy when he is presented as either the only or the best solution.  I don't think it is anything personal toward those who have benefitted from going private, it's more fear that there is no hope, no answer, no end in sight for them.

[SueLW]

If a post " irritates" then look the other way.

I have to say I agree.  Some people will not be able to get what they need from a GP.  Others will not be able to understand enough about what they need.

Some people need/want/have to go private.  Yet it is very hard to find the private help you need and to find reliable witness accounts of it, so I for one appreciate seeing things about private doctors and their regimes on here.  I am a private patient, not of Studd, but I'm considering changing what I'm doing because it's not working well and we've tried so many things.  To make that change I may need to switch clinics.  Hearing about the options on this forum is all good.

How else are we supposed to learn if we don't share our experiences?

[Cazikins]

We are going off the original topic here, but I totally agree with your post Dorothy.

I am now on benefits, my savings gone & going through the menopause, suffering other health problems as well - no I cannot afford to go private, However I have paid into the NH all my 45 years of working life & this is only the second time I have made a claim.

To be honest, I suppose I am jealous of the ladies who can afford it, maybe they have husbands who are in well paid jobs, maybe they have private insurance. But it upsets me when I see members advising others to go private (as if they hadn't already considered it)- if only it was a viable option.

[dahliagirl]

I think there are lots of problems with prescribing hrt at the moment.

GPs have been on a rollercoaster for the last 20 years with all these studies coming out and hitting the headlines and turning things around, then quietly in the background, with further study, things are not so clear cut.

I am really pleased with Dr Currie's reply.   The NICE guidelines have already taken this into account and still hold, and the work in getting them out there continues.  There is hope that things will improve.

There is also the problem with those who hold the purse strings for prescriptions.  When you look around, a lot of authorities are saying that GPS must prescribe Elleste duet as a first line, then if that doesn't work then Femoston, then if there are problems with that, they start on the transdermal.  So things like Uterogestan will not be in every GP's everyday knowledge.  The 'lowest dose possible for a max of 5 years' is still around too. So this is tying their hands too and it does not fit well with the guidelines.

Hopefully, with the knowledge you can get on here, you can work your way to a consultation (pref NHS) with someone who does know, so that the GP can be helped.

I do hate these big out of proportion headlines that are not followed through with vigour.   Really it is just telling us what was already known but in a sensational way. They are also studies that focus breast cancer and not hrt.  We have a lot more going on in our bodies.

 I have looked at the Breakthrough Generation Study's pages and they have done a lot of work recently on identifying genes related to BC and hopefully they may come somewhere to finding how it is actually caused.  Then we might be able to know what the risk is that is being tripled by HRT (whilst it is being used).

[Maryjane]

This is going off topic I agree .....it was insolently mentioned by a lady ( can't remember name ) and I mentioned I have had to go private also.

This has become abit like the private / state school discussion.

I have not seen Prof Studd , I don't think his character would suit me.

But after being told I also had herpes twice and treated for it , plus all the other things I mentioned we took out an interest free CC ( not that that matters TBH ).

There will always be those more fortunate in life , but that does not mean that these people can't mention they go private as those , who can go private by whatever means may be glad of these ladies experiences.

For those of us who do go private , we are freeing up the NHS anyway.

I was so desperate I would have sold items on e-bay TBH.

To say only one sector of the meno ladies on here can post , for fear of upsetting others is rather ?

[Ljp]

Interesting reading, and helpful in the wake of newspaper stories and latest findings.
There seems a lot of confusion regarding oestrogen and progesterone and which is most risky regarding breast cancer.
There is also confusion on best delivvery of HRT, it seems most studies are on oral tablets if combined HRT, which in my understanding are processed and utilised by the body in a different  way to transdermal.

I use oestrogel,and have the mirena coil for progestogen, I understand minimal amounts of the progestogen enter the blood stream due to the location of the coil.

In this day and age, it concerns me the Russian roulette we are left to play regarding HRT and conflicting advice and research results.
Firstly to make a decision on whether to take HRT is bad enough, then what firm, then what dose age, etc etc… it's unfair and it's crazy that at what is a crazy time of life for us women, we are made to feel more crazy with our treatment choice 😡😡😡

[Dediva Ann]

I am trying so hard to get the regime I think might work best for me via the NHS but if it doesn't work I think I could possibly put the £300 quoted to see Prof  Studd on a credit card. I too am currently on benefits due to long term ill health, have no savings, live a hand to mouth existence and have not a soul I could ask for money.  I could resent putting money on a credit card for private treatment and am also angry that it can be such a battle to get what we need on the NHS but my life seriously isn't worth living like this and I'd have no qualms about ending either (please don't worry I am quite sane, have thought it through very carefully and it will impact nobody) but the ultimatum I gave myself is not until I had exhausted all routes.  I'm that desperate now and even though I only have £30.48 to my name am glad and grateful to know about ALL options.

[CLKD]

However: unless 1 phones the Private Hospital to ask for a list of charges, one won't know even within areas what a private appt. will cost.  In the 1990s I was paying £70 for an hour's psychological counselling and my breast treatment was paid via work insurance, for which tax was taken 'as a perk'  .

For piece of mind, a 1-off private appt. is often worth spending the money on.  After all we can't take money with us ;-).  In many cases a private consultant will be a part-time employee of the NHS - so a patient may well see the same Consultant privately who can do the consult, recommend treatment if necessary and refer back to the NHS waiting list if it's a non-urgent situation.

Private Consultants who work out of Harley Street etc. charge a lot more.  It may not be possible transfer to the NHS from that kind of private clinics. 

Worth ringing round to ask the question then decide whether to stick with the NHS/not.  It would worry me if the private info I was given differed from what is available on the NHS 

Quality of Life girl, Quality of Life!