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[Penelope]

Hi everyone.
I am interested to know when women start HRT do you feel just fine and then all your meno symptoms just start to disappear over the next few months and weeks ?

OR do you feel really un well as your symptoms disappear and you struggle to get through each day as your hormones slowly balance themselves out and  you come out the other end feeling great at  about 7- 10 months in?

[Dotty]

Hi i was really ill when I started HRT, both physically and emotionally.  I had been ill for a number of years but the doctors didn't know what as wrong with me.  I know realise it was all due to peri menopause.  I started on tablet form HRT and was on it for 3 months.  It was the highest dose of oestrogen but it made very little difference to my symptoms.  I saw a private specialist and moved onto Oestrogel, Utrogestan and Testosterone. Once I was on the right dose of oestrogen I began to see improvements.  It took about a month to begin to see improvements and gradually over the next 3 - 6 months I got my life back.  I would say it probably took about  year for it to fully work.  I've been on that dose for 2 years now and I'm doing well.  I won't say I'm brilliant or 100%, because I don't think anything removes the emotional scars and worries caused by being so ill for so long.  But I can now lead a normal life again thanks to HRT xxx

[Sammiejane]

i had very emotional rollercoster on the gel estrogel and never subsided after year of taking it i took 9 week break and felt almost immediately my mood level out and other side effects i got disappeared, however i have no ovaries and took estrogen only i am trying estrogel and utrogestan and only been a week but started with headaches which are becoming less and less no bloating as of yet sleep a lot better as not being on hrt this was the first for me to go down hill flushes were never a major issue 2 at night and now my mood seems to of stayed same as it was off hrt i also have a little more energy adding in progesterone no nasty side effects yet but to early to tell the biggest way for me would be if i start shedding hair again as this was a side effect for me on the gel but i?m hoping in 3 months time i will of found a regime at last x

fingers crossed

[Ladybt28]

I'm pretty much like Dotty Penelope, I could probably have written her post. xx  I too found the tough bit is the learning to live a bit again...it's very weird   I will never be "fixed" but I'm better than I have been in over 20 years!

[Dotty]

Ladybt.....   i think we've noticed before that we are very similar xxxxx

[Ladybt28]

yep ...it was flaming awful wasn't it Dotty! but we are kinda "alright now"!!  I try very hard not to dwell on the how and the why cos I can't go back but it's a bloody disgrace really if you think about it too hard    It's not like hormones are anything new!! How you doing with the "learning to live again" thing?    Maybe I should start a "learning to live again" thread?
xx

[Perinowpost]

Hi Penelope I think it must depend whereabouts in meno you are and how long you've been suffering. I say this because I felt well immediately after putting my first patch on, the progesterone though that was another story and took longer to get right.

I've learnt from reading others experiences on this site that sometimes it can take a few attempts to get the right hrt for you x

[Penelope]

Thank you ladies.I just could not find the answer to this question on the forum.
You get bits and pieces but not the over all view of those first months.
I was starting to think 🤔 everyone is off living a fantastic life after a couple of weeks on HRT.🌹

[collysully]

Dotty, can I ask you what regimen you're on?  Do you do continuous or sequential?

[Ladybt28]

I wish Penelope....I could have only dreamed of that as you know! 
Trouble is everyone is so different....it seems the more "stubborn" cases rock up and stay on the forum  I was at it 3 years before I found the right regime!! and then the first 5 months on that were rocky to say the least but when it settles it settles but no one has any idea when that will be.  What works for me won't work for you and what works for someone in 3 months probably took me 5 or 6....there are no hard and fast rules.  Doctors just spout the theory of how it "should" work and the timescale it "should" work in but everybody's experience is different. 

You are on day 70 something if I remember from another post? Apologies if I have you mixed up with someone else. ...I read a lot on here x

[Penelope]

Great answers ladies now I'm getting a better picture.
Do you think that those of us that have been hormonally unwell for decades seem to take a lot longer to even out into our HRT.?
That's the conclusion I am coming to after hours of reading this forum.

[Countrygirl]

I've been on hrt just over a year and still am not right, emotions and anxiety are all over the place and I really struggle with the overwhelming fear, but I'm still here and before I went on it I was ready to give up on this world. So even though I'm still struggling it has given my family some peace of mind that I'm not in that dark place all the time x

This forum and the ladies on it made me see I wasn't unhinged and a waste of space, but that I'm in a real hormonal mess that has really messed with my mind and body and still is, but at least I have hope I will find the sweet spot and start recovering thanks to the compassion and advice I've received on here x

[Sammiejane]

i second that this forum has been a god send to me especially myself going through this so young and having no one to talk to other then my husband who bless his heart just doesn't get it x but is a support to me and without him i would of give up x we hadn't been together long when my troubles started and then 4 yrs into our relation i had the hysterectomy and ovary removal not something he had signed up for or me but we are strong so this forum has helped me understand an awful lot which frankly GP and other specialist haven't had the time to explain i know under NICE guidelines now this has changed but still didn't help me 6 yrs ago x

[Dotty]

Collysully - I'm on continuous xx

[Ladybt28]

That's always been my theory Dotty....the longer the imbalance, the harder it is to find the right thing and the longer it takes to sort itself out.

Countrygirl - makes me mad, mad, mad that it takes this forum to stop us thinking we are "unhinged waste of space" as you put it!  It is outrageous that for years we go to doctors explaining how we feel and they look at us like we are a bunch of hypochondriacs. You only have to look here on the forum that it happens over and over again.  Hormones affect fertility, pregnancy, contraception, menopause....more than 3 quarters of a women's lifetime experiences could be governed by them and yet they are dismissed off hand.  I broached the subject of hormone imbalances on a regular basis with my doctors and all bar one looked at me like I was a "nutter" and the one who did listen was powerless to have the tools or get the tests at the age I was to do anything about it!!  If I could work out what was needed to be done to stop it happening I would be on it like a shot.  Maybe this shortage thing will be some kind of blessing in disguise because its now in the press on a regular basis about what happens when women can't get their hormones.  In this case it's due to shortage but having a GP who wont give you the right thing means you end up with the same results for women.

Stellajane - the celebs have access to private specialists because they have money...they don't rock up at their GP's practice looking sweaty and generally deranged in case it ends up in Hello Magazine! It might improve things if they did though!   NHS GP's do not even get training on menopause.  It is a separate module that they must "choose" to take if they want to learn anything about it.  Yes celes make it look simple which is not a good thing, but on the other, just lately, it has made the issues around meno much more in the public eye...bit of a double edged sword.  We just need one of them to have the b*lls to stand up and say that NHS GP's need proper training...but I suppose that's not a good story really!!!