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[Nas]

Has anyone stopped HRT and been okay going forward?

I honestly don’t think it’s doing alot for me, but equally, I feel wretched when I’m off it.

I took my  patch off on Wednesday night as it was curling and irritating. Today I’m  feeling jittery and all over the place. I can’t seem to tolerate the higher patch ( 100) or gel. I can’t get in touch with my specialist either!

Ideally I want to know exactly how HRT is helping and whether I will return to some kind of baseline with hormones. I’m post menopause by 4 years now.

Anyone ditched hrt and doing okay without ?

Thanks

[Flossieteacake]

I cannot answer your question but please be careful, Nas. Going from 100 to nothing may make you feel unwell.

[Dotty]

Hi Nas...everyone's different.  Some will stop HRT and feel fine.  Some will stop and see their symptoms return quickly or slowly.

I have a friend who was taken off HRT at 60 and she's been ok, but I have another friend who as taken off at 60 and has gone back on at 68.

It's just a case of what your body does and you'll only know that by stopping. and seeing.

[Nas]

Thanks. Yes i know the only way  is to stop and see. It’s that which worries me. I can’t afford to feel ill whilst my body settles. I’ve a busy job and a family.  It’s so hard trying to find the right dose etc , just seems easier to ditch the hrt.

[Katherine]

Hi Nas, I stopped HRT recently and I felt fine for about a week then I sort of crashed it was awful and I don’t recommend stopping abruptly. If you want to come off it I would do it with the supervision of your gp. I didn’t feel like it was doing much for me but when I came off it I realised just how much it was actually doing and am now really grateful for it although I am trying to work out the best way to take my utrogestan at the moment. X

[Nas]

Hi Katherine,
Yes I feel this is going to be the same for me. Initially I feel okay, then suddenly, the mood drops, the bladder goes awol and I’m weeing for England!
I also have a coil fitted, so I get a bit crampy with no oestrogen.

I guess I wanted to see where things lie with no HRT, but the symptoms may be grim whilst I find out. Suppose the body adjusts eventually and then we decide what we can live with and what we can’t.

Thanks again x

[Petra]

I stopped two months ago (from a low dose, i.e. 25 mcg patches) and was OK for about 5 weeks when the night sweats started to return. The sweats are the main reason I went on HRT in the first place, around 2015 (I'm 60 now) as I was getting drenching night sweats about every 2 hours making sleep impossible. It was Total Hell!

At the moment, I'm getting on average 2 sweats a night (2 a.m. ish then 4 a.m. ish), some drenchier than others, so already I'm in sleep deficit -- since I often can't fall back to sleep afterwards. I vowed to stick it out for 4 months to see if things settle out, which will take me till mid January, but I'm not sure I'll last that long.

If the sweats stay like this or get worse, I am definitely going back on HRT. But I figure my body is still adjusting and that I should wait as long as I can to see what's what. Not optimistic though.

As I said in a post elsewhere, I generally attribute my other symptoms (tiredness, grumpiness, irritability) to the lack of sleep, but who knows.

good luck!! Oh, and FWIW, while my GP said to ease off the HRT, the ob-gyn who performed a hysteroscopy recently told me it didn't make any difference whether you went cold turkey or cut back slowly on the HRT. The GP also said it takes a few months to get back to your own baseline hormone levels...she reckoned 3 months based on what she saw when a whole heap of women abruptly went off HRT after that very damaging Women's Health Initiative study came out. And I quote: "Three months later, they were arriving at the clinic by the busload demanding to go back on their HRT." I reckon that'll be me soon, minus the bus.

[Kathleen]

Hello ladies.

I have mentioned before that I am awaiting an appointment with an NHS consultant and in the meantime I am reducing my HRT as per his original advice almost two years ago.

I am now using a pea sized blob of Sandrena gel which I think equates to 25mcg of Oestrogen. I haven't used any testosterone for about two months but I still use about 100mcg of progesterone alternate nights. The prog is Cyclogest and I have 400mcg pessaries which I have to cut into quarters.
This whole routine feels very amateurish and that is a worry but Newson Health told me to cut the pessaries and the NHS consultant said that a very low dose of Oestrogen may be right for me so I am sort of following medical advice lol.

In the past two weeks I have experienced a few night sweats and daytime flushes. So far I can manage these. My lingering Meno problem is low mood, anxiety and general mood swings. These continue and I have noticed that the daytime flushes now accompany the onset of a low mood so I feel reassured that they are linked.

I appear to be taking myself off of HRT which would be fine if my emotional state would stabilise. Other Meno symptoms that I have had in the past have reappeared but then faded away eg a bit of VA, some headaches, poor sleep for a few nights and mild muscle pain. Who knows if all these symptoms will come back to haunt me in the near future but so far it's just the flushing and mood problems that I am dealing with.

Hopefully I will get to talk to medical practitioner of some sort in the near future but until then I will continue with my regime and post updates when I can.

Wishing you all well ladies and take care.

K.