Are you considering taking HRT
I slept through the night last night for the first time for ages. My sleep has been improving gradually but this is the first full, didn't leave my bed, night. And it was wonderful. The feeling of achievement, pleasure and sense of rest this morning is incredible.
This is noteworthy because, over the past five years or so my sleep has been very disturbed with long periods of wakefulness and difficulty going to sleep in the first place so much so that I've been waking up tired and grumpy, sometimes wondering what it's all for. And I started using HRT three weeks ago today and the change in how I feel is nothing short of remarkable.
I waited a long time, struggling through treacle, before allowing that I actually might need some help. My mother got breast cancer whilst using HRT and died five years later. I'm overweight and I'm Ashkenazi Jewish (which increases my breast cancer risk by 10%) so I had always said I wouldn't use it.
But that was until the symptoms got so bad that my life was really being marred by them. Extreme tiredness, sore and dry eyes, poor sleep, brain fog, increased asthma. The list goes on. And of course my mood wasn't made any better by any of that!
At first I thought I needed to work harder in therapy - try to understand myself and my needs better, rest more, listen to my body more, work with the trauma I know I carry. And I did and I still had my symptoms and for the last six months they'd been getting worse.
Sex, Myths and the Menopause, Channel 4
Then menopause hit the headlines as Davina McCall's programme on Channel 4, Sex, Myths and the Menopause was released - it's still available to watch - in which she busted the myths about HRT and explored how, now discredited, research in the 1990s (I think) was responsible for women being taken off their HRT and GPs no longer offering it. It's actually scandalous - but that's another thing.
The emotions I felt watching that programme, realising how much my experience was being echoed by other women and recognising too that my extreme unwellness five years ago probably had it's stem in hormone reduction, were multiple as you can imagine. Now, armed with evidence that there was more to it than just 'HRT causes breast cancer', I resolved to find out more.
I went online to book an appointment to see my GP - I have a wonderful one who had eventually referred me to the specialist who helped me begin to recover five years ago. She works one morning a week. The notice on the website said that no appointments were available online.
Pay if you can and find you need to…
I made a decision. Knowing that I couldn't control which GP I saw if I wanted to do this in a timely way and that the GP I saw might not be up to speed on HRT and menopause, I decide to go to a specialist clinic - in fact the one set up by Dr Louise Newsom who is interviewed in the programme. She's @menopause_dr on Instagram. I also started using her app, Balance, to track my symptoms.
The waiting list to make an appointment was 8 weeks - understandably after all that exposure. I waited and in due course I got an appointment quite quickly. And saw a wonderful woman doctor who explored my concerns, offered her guidance, explained the ways in which HRT supports our health (preventing osteoporosis, strokes and more) and I went for it.
The link to pay for my prescription arrived the same day and I paid (for the first three months only - to give things time to settle - once we know the correct dose for me it's available on the NHS). And my little box of tricks arrived the next day. Amazing service. I started using it the day after I saw the dr. I have a tiny clear oestrogen patch I change twice a week and a progesterone tablet I take half an hour before bed on an empty stomach. There are lots of other ways of administering it.
The cost was £275 for the appointment and around £125 for the prescription. I know that many people can't afford to make this choice and that I'm very privileged to be able to, and for me it was a really worthwhile investment - I felt confident of the guidance I was receiving, it was accessible and I had time to ask everything I needed to. I've got a shorter, less expensive, follow up appointment booked for two months time if I feel I want it.
Three weeks later…
And three weeks later my exhaustion has lifted, I go to sleep more easily, my eyes are less dry and I'm experiencing much less brain fog. I'm perkier than I've been for years too so, in fact, I feel like a new woman.
Six weeks later…
Things have evened out a bit. I’m still getting tired, have had two periods (where before I’d stopped) and recognise it’s not a cure-all. Having said that, I’m a whole lot more energetic, generally happier, and more productive than I was before I started and am looking forward to my follow up meeting where I’ll ask for a slightly higher dose, I think.
What’s your experience? Please share…