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[Dotty]

Wilks - I hope you will be reading this as I know you said you were leaving the forum yesterday. I just want to say that I've found all your posts very supportive on this forum and I would be sad to see you go.

I totally agree with you about hrt. It has given me my life back too and I would advise any woman to not be afraid of it and to take it. A healthy lifestyle didn't help me at all.

I hope you stay to pass on your experiences to others .

[Robin]

Wilks, I also I had a very healthy lifestyle which hasn't helped me with my menopausal symptoms. Hrt is finally beginning to dig me out of the hell I've been in for 5 years.

My journey has been very similar to yours so I have found your posts useful and would be sad to see you go x

[CLKD]

Also - our bodies are full of hormones, not only sexual ones.  So other hormones may be affected once ladies reach peri-menopause. 

I had bouts of sobbing the night prior to a bleed even if a period wasn't due. Sure enough the next morning ......... I know that some have problems with thyroid function at The Change.  So the over-all body can be affected.

It's about sharing.  Sorting through what suits me at the time.  Which is why my 'make notes' may be helpful to some for it symptoms alter or become worse.  Nowt is written in stone 

[CLKD]

That's good news Hasty.   Have you told anyone else with MS that you are in contact with? 

[Shadyglade]

It amazes me how different our body chemistry reacts to meds hormones etc. Just simple things like pain killers affect people differently. There is no 'one size fits all' so we all have to find our own path.

So glad you have found yours Hasty. 

[Kathleen]

Hello again ladies.

Thank you for the lovely comments regarding my post, much appreciated.

I know nothing about MS I'm afraid but am I right in thinking that for some people there is an inflammatory aspect to the illness? I ask because Louise Newson has said that oestrogen has anti inflammatory effects on the body so for those with this sensitivity HRT may be helpful. It may also be true that any anti inflammatory foods or medications may also help.

Take care ladies.

K.

[Tempest]

Thank you, Kathleen! Actually, it's not as straightforward as that - estrogen can be both pro and anti inflammatory depending on circumstances and hormonal balance:

https://www.womensinternational.com/portfolio-items/inflammation/

Cortisol also has a huge role to play too, which as I said before increases as we age and in response to stress and diet. There is more about this in the article.

Hasty, my Neurologist said it can go either way which is why we thought it was worth a go. I'm so glad it's helping you! How are you handling this weather? It's a beast, isn't it? Pseudo flares make me panic, and so far we've had about 10 weeks non stop of this heat! xxxx

[Shadyglade]

Cortisol is a demon. Now that is something that diet and lifestyle can help with. Increasingly doctors are beginning to realise what an impact it has on our physical and mental health. I have a family member for whom cortisol is believed to have played a major role in his General Anxiety Disorder.

Another bothersome hormone. 

[Conolly]

Hello ladies,


Apparently there's also something called 'good inflammation' to make things more complicated.
https://multiplesclerosisnewstoday.com/2018/06/01/indazole-chloride-promotes-myelin-repair-through-good-inflammation-in-mice-with-ms-study-reports/
Conolly X

[Tempest]

That is SO interesting, Conolly - thank you! My Neurologist says MS is still something of an enigma. We are very lucky here as we have an excellent Institure Of Neurological Science at our new Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow. It was formerly the Southern General Hospital and has been known as a centte of excellence for all things Neurology for a long time.

As an aside (and going off topic) i'm awaiting a SPECT DaT scan to measure my dopamine levels -  this should be interesting and who knows if there is something amiss there that may be adding to my symptoms and maybe why I haven't benefited from HRT but Hasty luckily has? They are very thorough - i'll give them that! xxxx

[Conolly]

Hello Tempest,


Glad to know you are in good hands, keep us posted on the scan results. It sounds very techy. 
Conolly X

[Letmein]

Tempest, I think I understand the message you are trying to pass. Like many women going through the change, it feels like it's been/is a journey that has led me to exploration and many conclusions. I've been through what feels like hell in the past 2 years, culminating 7 months ago, and it got so bad that I genuinely thought I was dying from some horrible disease. It was the worse time of my life.

Thankfully, I started to get gradually - very gradually- better and I can now look back and feel I gain a better understanding of my own health, and like you, I think the main cause of all my perimenopause symptoms has been stress. I didn't see it as such then because my life has always been full of it and I've always managed it. What I think happened is that the effect of the perimenopause (poor sleep, anxiety, poor concentration etc...) have impacted on my ability to cope with stressful events, which in result have made all the perimenopause symptoms worse, until I got stuck in that complete vicious circle.

As my GP got bored of being sympathetic and carrying out blood tests and investigations to appease me, he finally managed to convince me to go on hrt. I was on it 3 months and it didn't help me much in that it helped some aspects but made others worse. I came off it and the first two months off were the best I felt in years!

Ultimately, I think things got better because I started to work on dealing with the stress, applying mindfulness tactics that don't work immediately, but do with time. Unfortunately, stressful events are back in my life, events that I can't avoid, and I'm back to find it much harder to be resilient to it than I used to be. Poor sleep being the worse part of the vicious circle, but what I've learned and try to apply so far means I so far manage better than I did a year ago.

My view on hrt is that it does wonder to symptoms that are directly attributable to the hormonal dysfunction, but maybe not so well when the symptoms are attributed to other disorders and the menopause symptoms only accentuate them.

[Dotty]

I agree Stellajane. We're all different. X

[Hurdity]

Yes we are all different genetically but we are all governed by the same biological and cellular processes, hence we can have confidence in evidence based treatments if necessary. However as these are based on studies of populations - we cannot say how one individual will be affected or respond - but can look at the likelihood of something working or not. Similarly with the risks of experiencing certain conditions and diseases of ageing, and post-menopause - these are based on population studies so an individual can decide whether to accept the risk (eg of osteoporosis) in the absence of HRT, especially in women reaching menopause at younger than the average age ( I use this as an example) - but we have no idea whether we will be one of those - although genetic factors play a part. We each have to decide whether to do the experiment on ourselves - ie let "nature" take its course but maybe find out many years later that we are one who for whom the outcome is adverse - or else intervene when younger to try to ward off the impending effect!! Everyone needs to have access to up to date and reliable evidence-based information, as well as proper up to date medical advice - in order to be able to make that decision.

Hurdity x

[Emerald2017]

Personally I don't find anything natural or positive in meno. I don't think that it is natural or positive for our health or our survival. I don't think that insomnia, muscle loss, dryness, osteoporosis, sweating etc are natural at all! The opposite! Because they are not natural, our body suffer too much. The Nature simply don't need us after meno.