Hi Wendy
Sorry to hear you are suffering.
Like you when I had Covid last summer my menopause symptoms reappeared with a vengeance even though I was on HRT.
I would suggest you try increasing your oestrogen to ease your symptoms. You may find gel easier to tweak than the patches but that's a personal preference. I increased to 4 pumps of gel at one point to ease symptoms but now down to 3. However as Flossieteacake said you need to take guidance from your GP first relating to the family cancer link.
Personally, anxiety and health anxiety have been my worst symptoms throughout my menopause journey. I had been fortunate never to have had anxiety prior to menopause and cant believe how much i have been affected by it. Increased oestrogen did help with this but I think its a fine balance as I had another bad bout of it earlier in the year and only managed to reduce the symptoms by lowering my dosage. It appears to be a bit of a moving target keeping the balance between oestrogen and progesterone dosages as your own levels fluctuate. If you think your health anxiety is hormone-related I would try and increase your dosage (if you can) to see if that helps before trying anxiety meds. A lot of ladies use both to help manage it but I would just try one thing at a time to see what is or isn't working for you.
The oestrogen definitely helped with awful muscle aches which were the main reason for me starting HRT.
I supplement HRT with Evening Primrose, sea buckthorn oil, magnesium, zinc and vitamins. I have no idea if they really help. I started taking them at the beginning of my menopause journey before cracking and going on HRT after 7 years. I think there is a thread on Alternative Therapies that may help in that respect.
Good luck with your appointment. Let us know how you get on.
