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[laszla]

I posted a while back and was advised to give HRT (I'm on femoston 2/10) at least 3 months before coming to any conclusions which was sensible.
It's now been over 4 months and my anxiety if anything is worse, my periods again very heavy. A bit of background, I'm 51 and prior to starting hrt I had been and continue to be badly affected by a bereavment and yet I do feel I have sense of the difference between grief-related anguish and general, ie. hormonal anxiety.
I was so hopeful when starting this that if nothing else I'm surprised a placebo effect didn't kick in, but it didn't.
I do all the other boring stuff you're meant to do, 5 a day, 30 mins exercise, meditation/hypnosis bla bla.

Is it unusual for this stuff to have no noticeable effect? I asked my gp about changing the hrt form as I know many of you here try different stuff, gels, patches etc. Her response was that the substances are the same or similar so she can't envisage it would make any difference changing (but would not refuse I think if I asked to try something else).
I assume many of you do think the form can make a difference, what are my other options? I don't detect much of a difference btween the estrogen and progesterone weeks though in the last month I noticed bad pms which used to be alleviated by agnus castus.
I assume it's not a good idea to take agnus if on hrt but perhaps I'm wrong?
I have no other symptoms by the way, either prior to or during hrt, it's really the anxiety, pms, heavy bleeding and terrible mentrual cramps in that order that are the problem.
Thank you.

[CLKD]

Sounds like a review of which treatment you really need is required - do you have a Practice Nurse to discuss your symptoms with.

Also, do consider talking with your local 'cruse' group, bereaved giving support to the bereaved. 

Have you tried an anti-anxiety medication, perhaps it would help you feel better over-all so that you can make informed decisions.  Painful periods can be relived by I think I took Feminax, it was the drug which worked best for me, other pain relief at the time didn't touch it.

[Joannie10]

I was at a 'Menopause clinic' today - was referred by my GP who admitted 'HRT is a bit of a minefield and no magic wand' that felt it was better for me to speak with someone who had more knowledge on the subject than she did.  Obviously too soon to say if what I have been given has worked but just wondered as mentioned is there someone else you could be referred to that could offer better advice on this?   Having tried a couple of HRT's that weren't quite sorting me out I had been wondering how I could ask my GP if perhaps there was another GP in the practice I should be speaking to that was more in the know without offending her but it was her that made the suggestion.

[aspie65]

I have tried 4 types of HRT.  The first two made me feel angry and agitated almost straight away.  The third one, Prempak, was awesome.  It lessened all my symptoms with no side effects. Sadly they stopped making it.  I am now on oestrogel/utrogestan and it is not as good for me sadly.  I have noticed no side effects, thankfully, but my hot flushes have changed, they are now longer and focus on my back, whereas before they were shorter and affected my front.  My point is, that YES different HRT's can have very different effects on someone and we are all completely different.  I would strongly advise you to try another type.  Perhaps just go to see your GP and demand the oestrogel, perhaps they will comply.

[NorthArm]

Hi There

The doctor you spoke to is right in that the oestrogen are similar in each product. However, tablets can be less effective due to the way they are metabolised by the liver.

Go back to her and insist on patches to try. Look at the various treatments available (tabs at top of page) and go back to her armed with all the info you can find....

Good luck with it all xx

[dangermouse]

You could ask for Utrogestan as your symptoms all point to sufficient, if not too high oestrogen, and very low progesterone. Its all about the ratio between the two.

NHS can only provide the strong bioidentical progs (as they don't have more therapeutic amounts you can get privately) as they only prescribe it for womb protection when taking oestrogen, but may be worth a try and you may be able to play around with the tablet to have less? Or you could ask for synthetic for heavy bleeding which it's commonly used for in younger women and for PND.

Or you could suppress the cycle with very high oestrogen or the pill. Hope that helps!

[laszla]

Thank you so much for all your helpful feedback, I think I will try going back to discuss other forms, eg gel, with my gp who, although not particularly well-versed in the subject, is still amenable to suggestions. I think I will also try going back on the agnus castus as that helped a lot in the pre-menstrual runup before I started taking HRT.