Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Penelope]

Wonderful contributions ladies fantastic posts.

I do wonder about the medical negligence we who have suffered for so long have endured.
And the effect not just on us but our families around us.
Is the negligence because we are women?
How quality of life has been so very low for such along time.
What are they learning at medical college?

If this forum was here 26 years ago it would have been a God send and saved me from such desperation
it's a shame women going through post natal would not think to look at this sight.

Have we women really come that far in the world.
I had an uncle say what a wonderful life he has had.He is 85
I was actually jealous think Wow wish I could say that.

And it all comes back to the medical profession!
All we can do is spread the word about this site.😀

I have 26 years to peel back and I believe the longer we have had the imbalance  the longer it will take the HRT to work in the 75 days on it I have had every symptom I have had over those years Wow it's brought back some memories symptoms I would never ever have put down to hormones.

[Katejo]

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!!!
 

I had a gynae appt. for a hysteroscopy today. At the end the doctor wanted to refer me to my GP to discuss alternative forms if HRT. She looked really surprised when I said that I would much rather have another meno clinic appt because I had little faith in the GP'S knowledge of HRT!  1 doctor in the practice once shouted at me for claiming that it was safe to use Estriol for more than 3 .months! That was several years ago but still .....!

[Penelope]

Avalon I totally understand.
The medical professionals are just not held accountable.They get paid by us what ever.

My husband spouts if you take your car to get fixed and they don't fix it you don't pay till it is fixed!

The problem is we believe they know what they are talking about because they have a seven year degree behind them.
Bring back the life long family doctor that new us from children and cared about us.

[Ladybt28]

Wonderful contributions ladies fantastic posts.
What are they learning at medical college?

Thing is Penelope I wrote on another post, they don't learn about menopause at medical college at all. It is not a compulsory module they have to "choose" to take it!  It doesn't come up in their 7 year degree!  How mad is that! x

A lot of GP's are men so maybe that has a lot to do with it and also there are all those sentences repeated over and over like mental conditioning...."it's part of the natural ageing process" and "it won't kill you" and "its part of getting older" and the stuff with pregnancy is the same "it's not an illness".  Well pregnancy .."it's not an illness" until something starts going wrong and/or pre-eclampsia nearly kills you or your baby.  When everything is ok, "its natural" but like anything when it goes wrong, it most certainly isn't!!

There has been a huge knock on effect in my life...When I was a teenager, I suffered terrible anxiety and became quite unsociable...when my babies were born I didn't have the same experiences that I saw other mums have and I am sure I don't have the same relationship with my sons that others have.  I organised my work to accommodate my "unwellness" and basically keep a roof over our heads.  The affect on my work life means that it has affected my pension (lack of one) and therefore is going to affect my old age. 

I feel very much like you Penelope when people talk about the wonderful life they had, I'm quite jealous and I shouldn't feel like that and yes...you put its so well Avalone "I've had a crap life. Kinda like a bad dream". 
It hits home more now I am better than I was...I thought I would always be like I was and spent years searching for the answers, now the answers are there...you just think WTF!! (sorry but hey? what else to say!)  Yep and it's all hormones, not some unusual strange or rare disease needing years of research...just hormones.
I too wish this site had existed and it should be renamed "hormones r us"! so everyone can have a section and post for pre-menstrual problems and PND and meno and anything else hormone related! xx 
Maybe we need the site promoted on billboards and bus shelters??? xx

[Penelope]

Surely LadyBT there is something that can be done!To help the young girls coming through.
I can't bare to thing of other girls young ladies going through what I have.To be told constantly it's in your head or a mental health issue.
I suffered for many years in silence because I thought they would take my children from me!
Looking back now that was silly but I never new then that panic attacks and anxiety were like it is on this forum NORMAL for many many women!🌹

[Countrygirl]

That's the thing you constantly are made to feel like it's just you and it's all in your head as other women don't suffer like this it's just you.

Even though I now know others are suffering the same as me I still find it a lonely place to be in, the self doubt and the constant anxiety wear away at your soul and makes you hurt, but the shame of feeling like it makes you cut yourself off to protect yourself which in turn makes you worse.
I have never felt so alone and scared of what the future is going to bring and at 48 my thought is is this it x

[Penelope]

Yes country girl I used to always think that way until finally 3 months ago I got the diagnosis of Hashimoto's and they have put me on HRT.
I feel my misdiagnosis is criminal and I shudder to think I could have ended it many times.
And my son has been effected also directly as the result of doctors not doing there jobs properly.
Country girl it feels very lonely and isolating and the honestly women can post on here the better for all of us.Things really do need to change.

For the first time in decades may there be an end to all this misery once  these so called hormones right themselves. 🙏🍀 🤞

[Baby]

You go to the docs cos your HRT is not working and so they say you must have a mental problem because it works for everyone else. NO IT DOESN'T.  And if it wasn't for sites like this you would believe them.  Think we should have t shirts made up with something like More help for menopause women. Maybe a March to London!! X

[Hurdity]

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?

Good news story here....

Yes I felt just fine - symptoms just disappeared never to return (unless I stopped HRT or reduced dose) - and pretty much stayed that way subject to a few tweaks.  Peri-menopause was up and down as my hormones came and went along with my flushes, sweats and tears (cried buckets in peri!). However these were soon banished once I started HRT. The first combi patch I tried also gave me migraines as the prog didn't suit me (norethisterone) but when I changed to body-identical progesterone things were much better (although still got prog withdrawal migs). Never had to struggle through each day. Once the flushes and sweats were gone I could function perfectly normally - although obvs not quite so wonderfully as my pre-menopausal self. Zest for life and raging enthusiasm, rampant libido etc never come back in quite the same way  . Can't complain though.

Some tweaking needed along the way - just re oestrogen dose, and prog cycle but all in all I've never looked back (13 years on).

Hurdity x

[Penelope]

Hurdle it you that's a great post.Had you hormones not been out of w k for long?

LadyBT28 you would think that over half of doctors patients are WOMEN! Hormones you would think be a huge chunk of there degrees?
 It would be great if those starting HRT could blog on here for there first Ten months that would help others a lot.

[Ladybt28]

Penelope and Countygirl...I felt so lonely all those years too....I really thought it was just me!  Don't worry countrygirl, this isn't it..it can be made better but it requires quite a lot of patience and perseverance.  I would count myself a "good news" story but it was a really long haul to get to where I am and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need to be "on it" for years to come.  I'm 58 and worry I am going to run into the "you don't need hrt after 60" idiot doctor somewhere along the line!

You are so right Baby...they do make it sound like its in our heads and things do need to change, I have said this over and over and if I really knew how to change it then I would be a "menopause activist" but again who is going to listen to little old me!  Like Penelope I can't bear the thought that somewhere out there, there are people feeling just the same as us about their lives and I really never want it to happen to another person to suffer with "homonal2 problems not just meno problems all their lives from when they are teenagers with PMT or problems with the pill right through to PND and then onto meno..It's just such a waste of a life...but really what to do, we would need people with medical clout who feel as we do??  xx

[Penelope]

Analon I know they get kick backs and island holidays in New Zealand for antidepressants they dish them out like lollies.
LadyBT there has got to be something we can do to stop this madness.
Since I was diagnosed 3 months ago I have told 4 other women they have all gone to the doctor and asked to be tested and found a fight on there hands to get the TSH tests but did and all four women have tested positive for Hashimoto's are are now all in morning as I have been for a life lost
Feeling sicks and being made to feel like hypochondriac.
Are there any doctors on this site that could help us?
Can we right a book do TV interviews.
Women do not take antidepressants try hormone treatment first!

[Penelope]

Avalon you made me laugh you are so right why does asking for a thyroid pane of blood tests make them so shitty.There has got to be a reason.
Every single women reading this site should have full thyroid bloods done and read the results themselves NOT let the doc tell you they are normal!!!!!
Would love to know why we have to fight for them or they just do one test The TSH that is most often normal and does in no way shape or form the full test for thyroid.🌹