Hey
Sounds like you are doing all the right things, and it's probably just a case of waiting for the HRT to settle a bit longer and if you are still struggling, increasing your dose, or trying a different type of HRT. It can take a while to hit on the right 'fuel mixture'. Elleste duet also comes in a 2mg, or like many of us, you might do better on body identical HRT. But it'll take time to figure it out, they say at least 12 weeks for your body to settle on a dose of HRT, so I wouldn't change anything yet. If you are in calorie deficit, exercising and eating well, you will lose weight, just slower than we did before. My gynae gave me a symptom tracker, it's days of the cycle across the top 1 - 28 and then list of symptoms down the side (everything from sleep, weight gain, mood, sweats, anxiety etc, probably about 20 different symptoms) scored 0 - 5 (0 being no symptoms, 5 being torrential symptoms) but you could just as easily create it on a spreadsheet, I do mine on paper, and that way it's quite easy to spot patterns after a month or two (you just go through with a highlighter and and pick out your 4s and 5s).
That way if you need to tackle your Gp about upping or changing HRT, you have a ready made list of reasons why you need it.
Might also be worth checking your thyroid function, if that's going to go south 9 times out of ten it does at menopause. If you are on thyroxine, being on HRT can mean you need a thyroxine increase of up to 25%.
I also drink gallons of water, at least three litres a day, that seems to help with fluid retention.
Hang in there, honestly I've lost 5 inches off my belly, and four off my waist being on HRT. I'm nearly back to the same measurements I was in my twenties. Total inch loss 30" all over. Power yoga is my weight bearing exercise.
Reb
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