Hi Bomber
Oh dear! Are you in UK? Whether you are or not - unless there are health reasons why you should not continue with HRT then you should be able to carry on with it as long as you want to!
Your doc is terribly out of date!! 55 is so young! The risks such that they are, do not even start to count when HRT is taken under the average age of menopause which is 51-52. That's the first thing.
Secondly there are other patches that do come in a low dose - Estradot for example which are much better than Evorel as they are much smaller.
Thirdly there is no need to reduce in dose at all nor come off HRT!!!
If it isn't broken then why fix it? Unless there are reasons not to - then I would hot foot it back to the doc and go back onto your 50 mcg patch - and by all means change to Estradot. Transdermal oestrogen is much more effective than tablet oestrogen anyway as it is not subject to the vagaries of your digestive system!
I presume you either have a Mirena or have had a hysterectomy hence you don't mention progesterone?
If you want to have a look at the NICE Guidelines in menopause they are here
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng23/chapter/Recommendations - and if your GP won't play ball please go to a different doc in the practice who is up to date with HRT and the menopause and is prepared to prescribe HRT for longer periods, and understands the data on risk.
Hurdity x