Hi Lisa M,
I am 55, nearly 56. I agree that HRT isn't the magic bullet for many of us. I have been having symptoms for 10 years apx and, having tried all sorts of different natural therapies and supplements, after 7 years reluctantly tried HRT (gel & utrogestan). It helped reduce or alleviate many of my symptoms, but because of my own wildly fluctuating hormones I was never able to get the balance right. I felt it was mainly the balance of progesterone that wasn't right, although I do also think I ended up on far too much oestrogen. I was on a sequi regime which I preferred as I was still having some bleeds, although the GPs were keen for me to be continuous (due to my age) which I tried but that didn't feel right.
I reduced my HRT doseage last year, gradually over the year, and when I got down to 1 pump of gel and 14 x 200mgs of utrogestan felt it was the "sweet spot". I finally came off it beginning of November. I felt fine for a month which was brilliant, but by January not only had many symptoms returned, I also gained some new ones including very very low mood which I have never suffered from. It was so bad I made the decision to go back on HRT at end of January (Evorel Conti 50) and within days my mood lifted and many symptoms reduced. I am nearly 2 months in and getting on better with the continuus patch than I expected, despite not being perfect. I may have to increase to a 75 patch to hit a couple of remaining symptoms but I will see as I don't want to introduce other ones due to too high oestrogen.
It is encouraging to hear that you feel so good after stopping HRT. All I would say is don't get despondent if your symptoms do return after a while. As many of the wise ladies on this forum have said it is worth trying different types of HRT to see what suits us as individuals. I definitely feel better (so far) with the progesterone in the patch than I did with Utrogestan which surprised me.
Personally I don't think HRT will ever allow me to be completely symptom free but at least it can reduce or alleviate many symptoms to make life slightly more bearable.
Good luck and let us know how you get on X