Hi Halebop
![welcomemm :welcomemm:](https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/forum/Smileys/extended/welcomemm.gif)
from me too!
I'm with Dancigngirl on this one.
Like you and she - I tried several herbal remedies when I was peri-menopausal and I thought they were working because flushes etc stopped - but really it was my own hormones going up and down. I "put up and shut up" for a year or so but after a while, like with you, the herbal remedies "stopped working" (but I don't think they really did in the first place) the flushes and sweats became so bad and with working full time I couldn't function very well.
I too started on HRT at the age of almost 54 (when my periods were only very occasional) and have been on it ever since.
As for what will happen when you stop taking it - this is a question that comes up regularly. You can't answer this question because some women don't get flushes at all ever, some just get them during peri-menopause and they tail off once post-meno, and some women get them throughout peri and they continue into post-menopause for an indeterminate period of time - possibly into 70's and beyond according to surveys.
If you take HRT it does not postpone the menopause! When you stop taking HRT you will already be post-menopausal so you will not have the mood swings and dramatic hormone fluctuations to cope with so that is the main difference - you will have gone through this stage. You may get no resumption of flushes, or you may get them for a short period of time or eg for up to a year and then they stop, or they might come back and stay there.
The main point is, this is not a reason not to take HRT to start with - because there is the difference in your quality of life to think about. If things are difficult now, and you decide to take HRT - then you have all the years while on it to feel better - and you may feel perfectly all right when you stop. If you don't take it now then you will have reduced quality of life - maybe only for a short while, but maybe for longer.
The bonus with taking it now is that you can help protect heart and bones - and have a shorter time of oestrogen defieciency - quite a consideration when many women live until 90 and beyond!
Have you seen this article about the peri-menopause?
http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/article-perils-of-the-perimenopause.phpHope this helps
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Hurdity x