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[Flossieteacake]

I am so happy you finally have some HRT! Thank goodness your GP was understanding. I bet you are relieved.

[CrazyD]

I am so happy you finally have some HRT! Thank goodness your GP was understanding. I bet you are relieved.

Thank you - yes I am!! Now hoping this does relieve the symptoms I've been having.
Interestingly, although I had a blood test when I went in April, (male GP then told me my symptoms were probably due to the fact I was slightly pre-diabetic!!) she reeled off a list of other tests she'd like doing, very thorough. I liked her a lot.

[CLKD]

GPs really 'don't get' peri menopause!   Keep this GP on side and don't tell us who she is or many will be joining the queue 

[CrazyD]

GPs really 'don't get' peri menopause!   Keep this GP on side and don't tell us who she is or many will be joining the queue 

Haha!! She has in interest in meno, and I can see why. Such a different experience to the male GP I saw only a few months back!!!!

[CLKD]

MayB suggest that she reads "Me and My Menopausal Vagina", written by a Member of this Forum and available on Amazon.  Every medic should read it!  Also, there is a MM Magazine that can be purchased on prescription - do I mean that  , perhaps 'subscription'  to keep up to date.

[meno-mel]

That's great CrazyD, I'm glad you found a GP who will treat your symptoms at long last! Hopefully you'll be looked after better by them from here on in.
This forum is good for support when you feel like the medical profession is letting you down, letting you suffer, but also it gives confidence for us to go fight some more, to get an essential medicine for our quality of life.

[SaraS]

My GP won't give me hrt that I had previously taken since my mid 50s. Their reason was that I had non-hormone related pre-cancerous cells and a mastectomy (no lymph glands) two years ago. I have been acquiring hrt illicitly online, by lying, but online pharmacies seem to have tightened up and will no longer supply me without GP consent. My horrid symptoms of very hot flushes and night sweats and anxiety have returned with a vengeance since my hrt ran out about two months ago. I am currently recovering from the other side mastectomy which was elective due to hatred of being lopsided. Results all clear. Our GP surgery is completely useless these days and it is almost impossible to get an appointment, even if I thought it was worth another try to convince them that quality of life mattered more than slight risks at my time of life. I am 73 and have enough to cope with, having very disabling osteoarthritis. Any advice from you lovely people? Thank you.

[Wrensong]

Hi SaraS  .  I'm sorry to know of your history & the difficult situation you are in with need for HRT after breast cancer.  If you have not discussed the situation with your breast care team, do you feel able to broach the topic with them, explaining, that with other chronic conditions in the mix your quality of life is poor without HRT?  As your recent surgery was elective & not due to recurrence & the outcome good & you say your initial mastectomy was due to a non-hormonal, pre-cancerous condition, it may well be worth seeking the expert opinion of your breast surgeon(s) (& oncologist if you were ever allocated one) on whether continuing with HRT is a reasonable course of action.  GPs often don't feel they can take the responsibility of prescribing HRT to women post-BC, but with written approval from a breast specialist who knows your case in detail your GP may feel more able to help you.

There are also various threads discussing the use of HRT post-BC if you might find it helpful to use the search facility.  Two have recently been started by Member Ann B - one on the use of vaginal oestrogen after BC & the other discussing American Oncologist Dr Avrum Bluming's recent paper on HRT after BC.  Ann has helpfully posted a link to Dr Blumig's interesting paper in which he references past studies & makes a persuasive case for the medical community to re-examine the use of HRT after BC.  If you haven't read his book Oestrogen Matters, I would recommend it.

If you'd like to introduce yourself with your own thread, you might also get more replies as more members may notice it & will want to come along & welcome you.

It's good to have you with us & I hope you'll find the forum a good source of info & support.
Wx

[CLKD]

Welcome SaraS - I agree, browse round; make notes.  Tell us more about yourself if you feel you need to . 

[CrazyD]

Hi SaraS, you sound in much the same situation as I had felt, as you can see from my original post. I'd definitely ask your oncologist of you are still in contact, or other BC specialist at the hospital.
If you are no longer in regular contact, try asking the receptionist at the GP surgery if there is a GP that covers women's health and menopause. If not, try and get a sympathetic GP to refer you to a meno clinic - I found out that there are 2 near me.
I struck lucky by finding that one of the GPs at my surgery covered menopause issues, but all of the above would have been my next course of action. I was also considering changing GP practice if I was not getting any help. I was give a little more confidence to push this by having these lovely ladies here backing me up. I also found a link to the NICE guidelines that say nothing about age in regard to HRT. And that choices related to non-hormonal BC are definitely to be considered against quality of life..... Good luck xx

[Wrensong]

Hello CrazyD  I'm sorry I missed your thread earlier.  I'm another on HRT in my 60s & at times there has been opposition to it, so more than once I've had to take a deep breath & calmly make my case.

Anyway what I wanted to say today was in relation to what you said here . . .

So I have Oestrogel (1 pump daily) plus Utrogestan 100mg tablets (one a day) . . .My only reservation now would be if my crippling migraines come back

Like you, I'm a migraineur & find that the continuous release of hormones from patch products suits me better than the once a day methods like gel & spray.  It's thought the hormone the spikes we get from once a day hormone applications (especially from oral HRT) can sometimes be migraine triggers.  So if you are unfortunate and your migraines take a turn for the worse on gel, you could perhaps consider swapping to patches before feeling you have to resort to low dose vaginal HRT which won't give you the systemic levels you need for symptoms other than those of GSM.
So glad your needs have been heard though & I hope you feel better for the HRT.
Wx

[CrazyD]

Hi Wrensong and thanks for the welcome!
That is indeed very useful information, thank you! We did discuss patches and gel but the GP suggested the gel for now as it seems there is a bit of a shortage of patches, so if the migraines do return that's good to know I have another alternative to try.
5 days in and I've yet to feel any change, other than my sports watch has a sleep tracker that says I've been getting more 'deep sleep' at night. Disturbed and restless sleep was one of my issues, so hoping everything else starts to respond too.

[Wrensong]

5 days in is early to know, but encouraging that your watch is telling you you're sleeping better.