Hi Emma
I just joined and am already making demands
So so glad to have found this site and forum and community. It's a wonderful resource.
I've been going through a very severe menopause in terms of bad symptoms. Oestrogen patches (Estradot 50) stopped my sweats and flushes completely for about 18 months but they came back 3 months ago. They never helped with insomnia, interrupted sleep, low mood, anxiety, increasing peeing, which were all new since menopause. I went to see a Menopause Clinic adviser who added Norethisterone 5mg, twice a day about 2 months ago. This has not helped with the sweats, flushes or insomnia although I think I may get to sleep a little quicker (only to be woken up an hour or so later with a monster sweat). My mood may be marginally better, I feel slightly closer to being able to deal with things, although exhaustion means coping is still a monumental struggle. But I have noticed a positive dislike of sex, not just loss of libido, since starting these. At my next appointment, I am going to ask if there is an alternative form I can try as in my case, the negatives outweigh the positives.
Clearly all my symptoms are caused by changes in sex hormones, so re-balancing these somehow should be able to reverse them. What I am finding difficult is to try to find what/which, how much and how much in proportion to any other.
Members are posting really useful info, but often saying "I started HRT and it really helped/didn't help...." or similar. It would be hugely helpful if members would specify in their posts which kind of HRT, what amount and even which brand, as well as which symptoms improved and which didn't. I'm trying to find out what could help for very extreme sweats, e.g. do I need to up my oestrogen? If I am also being prescribed progesterone, do I need to up my oestrogen anyway? (The sweats came back 2 months before I started the progesterone). If this progesterone (Norethisterone) does not seem to be making any noticeable improvements to my symptoms and may be making some worse, is there another type or brand that has helped others? Or have people generally found it doesn't help with symptoms and is only taken as cancer cover for people with a uterus? I haven't found my conversations with GPs and menopause advisors helpful in this regard, some may not know and they are all always in a hurry and running late.
So my 2 suggestions:
I'm sure no-one wants advertisers and scammers pushing their particular products and publishing skewed information on here. But what I think would be invaluable to many people is if people provided
more specific and detailed information about what worked and what didn't linked to which symptoms in their posts. Even more useful along the same lines, would the owners/organisers be willing to discuss running
a questionnaire to try to get a picture of what has been helpful to people for which symptoms? HRT not being one of the possible answers!! This would be good research which would also be helpful for health care professionals. I've searched the National Library of Medicine as well as googled broadly and there is virtually nothing comprehensive and practical there for women actually going through difficult menopause. Unfortunately thousands of time-wasting, popular health websites are clogging up the space but informing little or not at all which is I guess why people eventually come here
Many thanks and all best
