Thank you for your kindness, much appreciated.
At 63, I seem to be very old for this forum and I'm pretty used to be told that by now it's all my imagination. Thankfully, my brilliant husband knows that is definitely not so. He even snapped at an acquaintance that she should be very happy if everything is rosy in her life and it would serve her nastiness right if she ends up in living hell too. I can understand his sentiments, but wouldn't wish this on any one.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It's good to realize I not on my own anymore. My amazing Mum, at 94, has dementia, so cannot be there for me now.
My tale of woe goes back to my first period aged 12, in 1966. I was adopted in 1954, aged 3 months, so have no family health history. My Mum says this never helped her to try working out any cycle for me. It always was erratic from the start. At that time doctors never believed anything could possibly be wrong with a child in that way, you were regarded as an attention seeker. A girl whose periods are so erratic as 2 in one month to 1 every 6 months if I'm "lucky" is apparently normal. Mum was furious for me, but still no one listens.
On I go, through school, a career in the RAF and life in general. In my 20's I take a huge deep breath and to see my GP; male, approaching retirement, so you can guess the outcome. Yep, I imagined it. He duly retired. His locum replacement was a wonderful young lady. She did an immediate smear test and we await the results. I get a phone call from the same GP, she'd like to see me, in the next 10 minutes would be fine, err umm! Yes, my results are back and YES there are problems. Another smear is iffy, but we'll keep a close eye on things.
Now I get my lovely new female GP. She sends off a blood test to see the dose needed for my HRT. Happy me is ready to bounce with joy!. Now things get somewhat surreal. She gets an urgent call from the laboratory - surely the age/dob are wrong. This sample came from a person in their 60's or 70's! Ooops. A call to me and off I go to hear my hormonal fate. Luckily both she and I have a warped sense of humor. I do get the correct hormonal dose for my just 30 year old me and my OAP hormones! Life sort of settles down for a time. No moods, no too damned hot, still stupidest period shows ever. Another smear, another iffy result, but this time it's a big iffy. More pretty photos. Before those results arrive I hemorrhage, my GP rushes down and does another urgent smear whilst we wait for the ambulance to arrive. It's all great fun!
Results all arrive back at the same time. A visit to the gynea is arranged for the following day. Result, I win 1st prize, an immediate hysterectomy. I was 35. Two days after the op my registrar comes to have a chat. I ask him to be straight, he tells me "Two years and you would have had a wooden overcoat". Interesting! They, thank God, got the lot, I've been lucky. Now the 'fun' really begins. I go back on HRT. React to the tablets, so we go on to the patches. I'm highly allergic to the sticky stuff! That really was painful. Back we go to the tablets, I like these. Next stop, I turn 50 and the HRT/breast cancer scare rears its horrible head and I have to wave bye bye to nice HRT. The last 13 years have and continue to be HELL. No matter what is tried, nothing helps in the least. Well, not quite so, I get put on a very old fashioned beta blocker. In very tiny doses it can help in horrendous menopause cases. It sort of worked for a couple of weeks. I liked those weeks😸. Now I discover that it might be possible to go back on to HRT. I'm going to get all the stats and info together before making an appointment with my new female GP. Wish me luck!
This must appear to be War and Peace, good book but heavy going, much like my gynae history! Hope I have not bored you silly. Actually, I'm amazing me by writing this, not like me to be so open.
All good wishes,
Carole
