I was recently diagnosed as menopausal after having mood swings, bad anxiety, paranoia etc. I was on a low dose of anti depressants for anxiety which were working OK until very recently. I had also lost all my confidence, even though prior to this I was very independent (eg I have travelled to many other countries on my own). I was still taking contraceptives which masked other potential menopause symptoms. After a mental health assessment, I was advised to have the FSH blood test as they did not believe I had a mental illness and that my symptoms were due to the menopause. For that reason, I don't know if my periods would have stopped without taking contraceptives. I came off the pill to have my blood test which showed my results as over 30mg and therefore already in menopause. I'm 46.
I then started on Novofem tablets around 3-4 weeks ago and I started on the red tablets (estradiol) and I initially started to feel better, around 80% better. I say only 80% as I definitely wasn't back to my old self yet. I changed to the white tablets around a week ago. These contain both estradiol and norethisterone (progestogen) and I've gone downhill again. I wanted to go out for a solo hike today (something I did regularly) and instead, I stayed home because I feel unconfident, insecure about leaving the house and now I don't really want to do anything. I had other things scheduled for this week that involve interacting with other people and I've cancelled them, as when I feel like this, I can't get myself in the mood for anything.
I also take 50mg of setraline anti-depressants and the GP said he could increase them but I don't want to do that as I've had higher doses of that in the past and it didn't make much difference and gave me more side effects which I'd rather avoid.
Has anyone else had an issue with the progestogen tablets and not the estradiol ones?
