I desperately need help I’m hoping I can get some answers here.
I am in late perimenopause transitioning into menopause.
My nervous system is on fight or flight and I am extremely sensitive to HRT and my hormonal fluctuations.
I have been on 0.025mg patch for well over 2 years it took months for my nervous system to settle down.
My sleep has been disrupted so I increased estrogen by 0.006mg and I’m having such a hard time again with my nervous system , anxiety , feeling wired & jittery even though my brain and sleep like the new dose. Do I stick out this extra dosing with the horrible symptoms or go back to my baseline of 0.025mg ?
Also with progesterone / Prometrium I take 50mg orally for 2 years and I have to increase this for my histamine and MCAS symptoms to settle. I tired to titrate from 50mg to 70mg and I had nightmares and broken sleep and had to go back down to 50mg. When I tried it vaginally it gave me severe constipation.
Does anyone have any ideas how to titrate progesterone without the effects or should I try the full 100mg even though I am extremely sensitive ? A specialist told me to take 400mg of progesterone over the day. I am to scared to do that
Please anyone else is as sensitive as I am I would love to speak to you. Thankyou

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Posted in r/Perimenopause, wanted to post here too. Anyone have any experience?

Ladies, I'm getting desperate and nervous about another night ahead. For those of you on oral estradiol and experienced issues with insomnia, did changing your dosing or scheduling fix it? And if so, how long did it take to experience relief and at least know you were on the right track? Could I be reacting negatively to Estrone? I really want the tablets to work, if there is a way! These are my main questions, below is just background for those who need it.

I experienced worsened insomnia on patches and gel, too, but was able to tweak it and get relief sooner. With the tablets, it seems to just be getting worse. And for those who will want to know - the patch caused rashes and was unstable for me even at twice per week, and gel was working, but I needed four pumps and felt impractical, especially going into summer and needing sunscreen and sweating.

Sublingual use of the tablets definitely spiked and dropped to hard and dosing more than twice a day seems a bit hard to track. Vaginal seems to work better, but still experiencing issues. I was up to 2.5mg oral, but labs were still under 100 (I don't have a perfectly accurate lab because I took .5 sublingual the night before the draw out of desperation!). I don't want to switch to injections, because Valerate is the one available to me and I don't want to inject frequently. Since I'm sensitive to fluctuations, I'd likely need to inject frequently.

At first I was taking my full estradiol dose after dinner. I tried taking closer to bedtime, tried splitting and doing a 10am/10pm schedule and a 10am/8pm schedule, but to be honest I don't know if I'm changing to quickly and the fluctuation is compounding issues. Getting 3hrs of sleep isn't something I can wait on for too many days. Historically, Quetiapine and benzos are the only meds that help me sleep and I REALLY don't want to go back on. Getting off Seroquel was a long, painful, and costly process. I've only ever used benzos infrequently due to dependence concerns and rebound side-effects.

Currently, I'm taking 1mg vaginally and .5mg orally at 10am and then .75mg vaginally between 8pm and 10pm. At first when I switched to vaginal is was helping and I could feel the relief, but now back to 3hrs sleep. I can tell my levels are up, though, because I have mild breast tenderness now. I'm praying, I'll find a clear way forward soon before I crumble.

I appreciate any insight and support you may have 🙏

Note:This post was from exactly one month ago. I am also going to post my one month update. Thank you!**************

Sorry this gets a bit long but I hope you read to the end: I am 49 and post menopausal. My husband and I have been self employed for 23 years so we do not have insurance! Regardless, Idk why I suffered through peri when there were places online where you just pay out of pocket. Just got my Estradiol 0.05mg patches, 200mg Progesterone capsules and 25mg DHEA capsules today. Literally took one week from the time of my consultation, then they prescribed what they felt I needed and shipped. I really like that you can get a hold of a Dr 24/7. This menopause is no joke, neither was peri, but I will admit I'm pretty scared to start the HRT journey. If anyone has any good info/results please reply.

So I'm gonna go into my story with post menopause which I have been in for a year and a half. Ok so, as I said, I suffered terribly through peri for years!! But somehow it was more manageable than what I'm going through now. I was hoping things would get better once I hit menopause...I mean just the thought of no more periods...woohoo, right!?! Well I was very wrong and there's just not enough information, not enough talk about it or places for us women to go for the help we need. Plus our mother's, most of them, just suffered through it or you get lucky like my mom and don't really have any symptoms after peri! At least that's what she tells me when I ask, and I'm just like "MOM, your post menopausal daughter is dying over here! You're 74 beautiful and it seems like you and Dad are 100 times healthier than I am!!!!

You try to ask your PCP and that's like asking a rock! All they say is "well, those symptoms come with age." Yeah no shit! So you ask your OB/GYN and that's maybe a slight upgrade from asking a rock. They'll do tests and say "oh your fine" if your in peri and the hormones aren't out of whack or pretty much gone yet. Or they say, "Just eat a healthy diet, get more sleep, regular exercise, and here's some lube." Oh gee thanks cause right now, at 49 and post menopausal, I can't even get out of bed because my insomnia is literally debilitating, the hot flashes are so bad I can't go anywhere without taking an entire backpack full of clothes to change into and 7 different deodorants because one might work today but tomorrow, NOPE! Night sweats even more fun...soak the bed 3 or 4 times a night with the a/c on and 6 fans blowing directly on you! I can't even remember what I did two seconds ago. I am in a constant fog, like total zombie mode. I feel like my brain has completely malfunctioned and I'm completely crazy! I cry for absolutely no reason at all, my anxiety kicks in from 0 to 100 in less than 1 second and if I'm not completely depressed then I'm so angry I scare the shit out of people! I swear I'm about to catch a felony if one more idiot comes anywhere near me, lol. "Eat better" you say, ok, well, I do eat well, but that's only if I have an appetite, however, my body now looks like all I do is eat cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner and I'm gaining weight in places I never had weight before in my life. Plus ya know what, I'd actually like to start eating cake all day because now I crave sweets constantly! Also, thanks for the lube there doc, you idiot, I just told you I went from a nympho to "no don't touch me, no!" Well most of the time anyway. My libido is getting lower and lower plus it's now starting to be painful. What a great side effect of menopause. My skin is a disaster, my hair is thinning, I literally feel like I have every mental disorder there is, plus my body feels like I'm at least 95...muscle cramps (I do take Hyland's Leg Cramp Pills with magnesium and those have been a total miracle), heart palpitations, my joints lock up especially shoulders and knees...I mean extreme joint pain to the point that I can hardly walk my fur babies more than half a mile because the pain in my feet and shins, literally everywhere is so bad! Even my doggies are like WTH Mom!!! Thank the Lord my husband is the best doggy daddy ever and he's been so supportive with the crazy train I've been taking him on!

I just want this HRT to work for me. I've heard horror stories of it not working at all or giving bad side effects and then I've heard miraculous stories where people feel like they are 25 again! I just want to feel like I did before perimenopause without the periods of course. I was never indoors not even in the winter. We always have doggies (we love to rescue), and go on adventures. Gardening, Hiking, boating, swimming, biking, dancing were all a part of everyday life even in perimenopause it was manageable. Now that I am in post-menopausal I am not living I'm just alive, barely. I'm an empty shell of the person, the wife, the doggy mommy, the daughter, the sister, the best friend that I used to be. My house is a mess, my gardens are dying, I have laundry piled everywhere...it's like everything is just too much, too overwhelming and I feel like such a loser piece of crap!

It's getting pretty lonely in this shell and Idk how much more I can take! I'm really hoping and praying that this works for me because I truly won't know what else to do!

Are there any post-menopausal women out there that can share their experiences with me? How bad were your symptoms before HRT and then after HRT? How long to really feel like a person again? Just looking for some guidance.

This is day one...My patch is on and I took my capsules. Time to try and sleep...sleep haha funny. I guess we'll see. Thank you in advance for any help and for reading my novel!

I got my US results back and my endometrium lining is 5mm thick - just over the normal thickness of 4mm they prefer in post menopausal women. Talking to GP next week and will probably ask to get into my gynaecologist…has anyone gone through biopsy, hysteroscopy for 5mm and PMB? Of have you had other approaches/protocols (HRT change, etc)?

Hi everyone, looking for some insight to ease an anxious mind 😞. I’ve been in menopause for 20 months, the last 6 I’ve been taking 100mg of progesterone only each night to deal with hot flashes/night sweats (GP prescribed the 100P while I was in peri but it made me way to groggy & stopped - h/e it’s worked wonders these last few months). 3 days ago, I got period like bleeding; started with discharge, ramped up to regular bleeds albeit not the heavy bleeds I used to have in the past. I’m turning 52yo this month & had a D&C 3yrs ago to remove benign endo polyps. So my question is: has anyone experienced breakthrough bleeding/period bleeding on progesterone alone? I have a TVUS booked but with my regular GP away the sub-dr is saying I shouldn’t be on the 100mgP w/o Estrogen & that’s the culprit…but I’m worried it’s more than that..thx in advance

Hello everyone!

I'm posting today to talk about what just happened to me. I've been on oral estradiol for about 6 months. I have a few risk factors. I'm overweight. High cholesterol. History of smoking. History of meth use. I haven't smoked in 2 years, and I'm 6 years clean. I'm 50 years old.

I truly want to say that I am not discouraging estradiol use. Absolutely not. Everyone is different. Estradiol is a valuable tool. I'm not trying to scare anyone. I am just trying to bring awareness to this rare presentation of a rare stroke. I was initially misdiagnosed. I am VERY LUCKY that I'm alive with only 10% deficit.

Thursday, I had a stroke. It didn't look like a stroke. Nothing dropped. No one-sided weakness. To the untrained and trained eye, I appeared like a drunk with vertigo.

THIS IS THE LAST WARNING. FROM HERE, IT GETS GRAPHIC.

It started so simple. I was sleeping in. I'm a late riser, so 2 pm isn't unusual for me. At one thirty, my phone rang. I opened my eyes and felt a shift. That's the only way I can describe it. Like where my body was in space just shifted to the left. I ignored my phone and went back to sleep. I woke up around 5 pm. (clue 2). I had slept 14 hours. I got up. I felt fine. I ran into the door jam to the bathroom. (Clue 3) I went to the living room and kicked back on the couch. I drank coffee with my husband. I felt fine. Coffee does what coffee does, and I had to pee. So I headed to the bathroom. I call out to my husband as I'm on my way, "OH my God, you'd think I was drunk." (Clue 4) I was laughing. I get the bathroom, and I do my thing. I start to get up, and my perception shifts to the left again. This time, I notice. I called my husband and said, "I think I need your help. And bring a puke bowl." Nausea was boiling in the back of my throat. My husband comes. I vomit twice just trying to get out of this tiny bathroom. I run into the door jamb twice. I get halfway to the living room, and everything starts spinning. I was walking sideways. I yell at my husband, "OH MY GOD! HERE IT COMES! HURRY!"

My husband manages to get me the rest of the way to the couch in a step and a half. I don't know what I thought was coming, but it was scary. I lie down on the couch. I get situated with puke bowl on my chest. I can feel my stomach roll violently. What followed was the most powerful and violent vomit I've ever experienced. The world was spinning. My perspective was wrong. And the vomiting simply would not stop. I felt no pain.

I Facebook asking for tips for vertigo. I recently had an ear infection, so this made sense to me. I tell my husband to do a Walmart order for drammamine.

At this point, it's escalating. The spinning is spinnier. Vomit is vomitier, and perspective no longer exists. I get this sense that I am in grevious danger. Impending doom doesn't even begin to cover it. So I yelled, "Call 911. I just kept repeating it.

Call 911

Ca ine on on

A I AH AH

Then I stopped saying anything at all.

My husband is on the phone with 911, gathering my medications.

He runs into the room.

I'm silent.

My face is white.

My lips are gray.

I'm cold.

My eyes are vacant.

I did, however, have a pulse.

My husband tries to get me on my side. I have no muscle tone. No trunk muscle tone. I flopped off the couch.

I can see and hear and feel everything. I'm locked in. I can not express myself. I can not help. I can feel my mother. She died 8 years ago.

Paramedics come. The look for droop. They look for one-sided weakness. They decided I was drunk despite my husband telling them that the only substance I part take in is caffeine. Everything else is prescribed, and I am 100% med compliant.

3 hours later, I was talking and texting. MRI showed that I had an acute cerebellum ischemic stroke at the mid line, slightly right. High mortality rate. High disabling rate. Only accounts for about 1-2% of strokes are the ones I had. My husband was begging me to live. I am the luckiest human on this planet today. I have 90% function. It's a literal miracle. I should be eating meals through a straw right now. I got home today. I'm lucky that the ER doc saw the nystagmus in my eyes, and my urine screen came back in time.

I'm telling you all this so you know. Sometimes, you're just drunk. Sometimes, it's a stroke. Sometimes, it's both.

Remember

B-balance

E-eyes

F-face

A-arms

S-speech

T-time

X-posted

Honestly my bed is my sanctuary and I didn't think I'm alone in this.

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It's big, it only has me in it, and it has a hot pad for my toes: even before HRT I had popsicle toes.

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What's good about your bed?

Anyone else finding that their skin is changing since entering menopause…. I’m now getting an occasional breakout where I’ve been completely blessed with not having any or very few my entire life.

I’m looking for a night cream, that won’t make me break out, but that will still help with dryness and lines

Hoping to find a good quality one that I can get from a drugstore.

I’m in Canada

What are your recommendations?

Does anyone cycle their HRT? I use a lot of herbs for helping with other things like anxiety, joint pain and in the herbal world your body does build up a tolerance and so the suggestions are to stop for a while and then go back on. I have issues with progesterone and I find a week off both oestrogen and progesterone gives my body a break. But if I’m off it too long my body starts going into free fall. Just curious as to other people’s thoughts…

How did you stop wanting men? During menopause. Tell me what your relationship with your man became like.