Hi Discombobulated (Cordelia3)
Don't worry about posting in the wrong place - Emma (administrator/moderator) moves threads if necessary and did move yours (as Cordelia3) from Forum Guide to new members! Anyway you're back now which is the main thing!
Sorry to hear about your symptoms and also being in a high risk group re breast cancer and HRT. I presume a menopause specialist has advised you this? If you are a teacher I can understand that you need to feel as well as you can in such a demanding job.
Fairly recently there was a consensus statement produced on alternative - non-hormonal treatments for menopausal symptoms and it was specifically targeted at women who had either had breast cancer or unable to take HRT for this or others reasons.
You might like to have a look at it here:
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2053369117711646?hootPostID=6690d93930a10b86869c48433ab506e7&Just had a quick look and paroxetine seems to be the AD with best efficacy for menopausal symptoms at fairly low dose - for women not taking Tamoxifen so might be worth thinking about changing to this one if there is really no possibility of HRT?
If your periods have increased in frequency then you are probably at the Late Reproductive Stage when ovaries are still pumping out eggs but hormones begin to go a bit awry, and the next stage will be peri-menopause when your periods start to become pretty irregular with variable gaps in between. Sadly you are one of the unfortunate women who start to get menopausal symptoms at a very early stage ie the flushes and sweats. I presume you have been to do the doctor to make sure there is no other reason for these in terms of thyroid function, sugar metabolism etc?
Like Dancinggirl says - it may be wsie to have a break from teaching if you can afford to - and just get yourself back on an even keel if you can, and find a way to feel better for more of the time than not. Trying to teach with inadequate sleep must be absolute hell!
Do come back to us if you have any more questions.
Hurdity x