Perimenopausal. Aged 43 - started HRT and continued with contraceptive pill
Looking back, my perimenopausal symptoms started in my late 30's initially with bad headaches, insomnia and a lack of focus (My period were light but normal) I thought they were tension headaches but they slowly got worse, lasting days. I spend quite a lot of money on osteopaths! I hadn't considered perimenopause - I just thought I was stressed all of the time! When I was 41 the doctor changed my contraceptive pill from combined to POP (no periods as I took it continuously) and after a few months I then got night sweats and hot flashes. A combination of these, sleep deprivation and the headaches meant I was wandering around like a zombie. I also got quite anxious about getting a headache as they really affected my days/life and enjoyment of life in general. My doctor was very helpful and did put me on HRT. I intially felt better but then worse as the dose was too low. I consulted Lexie who has been brilliant throughout as she is easy to talk to, very knowledgeable and listens whilst asking sensitive questions which might be initially embarrassing to discuss or bring up in conversation.
It has taken us just over a year to get my HRT 'right' with various tweaks along the way and more recently we added in testosterone. It is worth being patient. I feel like my old self again now, rarely have a headache, lots more energy/positivity and my sleep is amazing!
It has taken us just over a year to get my HRT 'right' with various tweaks along the way and more recently we added in testosterone. It is worth being patient. I feel like my old self again now, rarely have a headache, lots more energy/positivity and my sleep is amazing!
Post menopausal - started HRT at 62
It's now just over 5 months since I met you and started on my course of HRT. In those five months I’ve begun to experience a change which I can really only describe as ‘life regaining'. As a result of HRT I’m beginning to feel physically, mentally and emotionally re energised…I feel I’m back in the game!
At 62 years of age after what felt like a fairly rapid decline into a older woman’s / increasingly creaking body I feel through amazing HRT that i am re emerging as myself to continue a useful and fulfilling life. I feel I’ve regained 10 years of my mobile, vigorous and active mind and self.
Numerous visits over the past 10-15 years to GPS practice nurses and a private therapist ( all wonderful, helpful and expert in their own field) with various ailments all minor but debilitating in an incremental way: anxiety, depression, painful knees and joints, memory and word finding worries, anger, frustration, loss of confidence, interrupted sleep ( I was always an excellent sleeper) all amounted to a huge bagful of meds and hotch potch of treatments and a feeling that this was just ‘it’ now I was older…..that not only was mine an inevitable decline but somehow since I had not handled any of it that well that I had probably brought much of it on myself!
I met you after a recommendation from a close friend who knew that I (as well my husband) was really struggling with my creaking body and deteriorating spirits and mood swings. At last, on meeting you, I felt not only listened to but understood. You recognised the ailments I described, you suggested that the ‘dots joined’ and that lack of oestrogen was a possible underlying factor.
Blood tests indicated that oestrogen had been leaching/ leached from my body for years and with virtually no trace of testosterone in my system my bones, joints, muscles, skin, eyelids, bladder control, cheerful outlook and libido were fairly compromised. I felt I had been functioning but only as a shadow of my former womanly self. Probably over dramatic BUT I felt I was really only a husk!
It was totally uplifting and energising to realise that not only was help possible but that at last I was getting help that fitted my needs. I also remember the thrill after probably only a couple of weeks of taking Utrogestan and applying Sandrena gel, of experiencing very mild but familiar ‘ twinges/period pains’ in my lower abdomen. These were physical sensations I had never thought to experience again and the physical memory took me back instantly to that wonderfully positive state of youth and vigour. It was extraordinary…i felt fleetingly as if i was back in the body and mind (with all those youthful assumptions of hope and future) of my younger self!
Since beginning the treatment I’ve found strength and stamina returning to my joints and I am beginning to look forward to and to stride out on walks again, I now generally get to the loo in time, night sweats are the exception, my sleep is resettling, my mood is lifting and I feel hopeful and energised again. This investment in myself (HRT is not inexpensive and I am fortunate to have been able to even contemplate taking this course) has spurred me on and I feel motivated, determined and hopeful in a way I have not for a long time.
Thanks to HRT and to you and to my recommending friend and to the great swell of the menopause awareness / action movement that's growing out there and which is available to tap into ( I avidly follow Dr Louise Newsom, Naomi Potter, Davina McCall to name a few ‘Menopause Warriors’) I tell everyone I know about my own transformative experience and the game-changing HRT research evidence that’s now out there and showing the way. I feel i've been given a reprieve/ been pulled off the proverbial scrap heap and regained some of the ‘self’ I lost in the last few years.
Thank you so much Lexie and HRT
Good luck with your continuing and life-changing work.
Vive la Revolution!
At 62 years of age after what felt like a fairly rapid decline into a older woman’s / increasingly creaking body I feel through amazing HRT that i am re emerging as myself to continue a useful and fulfilling life. I feel I’ve regained 10 years of my mobile, vigorous and active mind and self.
Numerous visits over the past 10-15 years to GPS practice nurses and a private therapist ( all wonderful, helpful and expert in their own field) with various ailments all minor but debilitating in an incremental way: anxiety, depression, painful knees and joints, memory and word finding worries, anger, frustration, loss of confidence, interrupted sleep ( I was always an excellent sleeper) all amounted to a huge bagful of meds and hotch potch of treatments and a feeling that this was just ‘it’ now I was older…..that not only was mine an inevitable decline but somehow since I had not handled any of it that well that I had probably brought much of it on myself!
I met you after a recommendation from a close friend who knew that I (as well my husband) was really struggling with my creaking body and deteriorating spirits and mood swings. At last, on meeting you, I felt not only listened to but understood. You recognised the ailments I described, you suggested that the ‘dots joined’ and that lack of oestrogen was a possible underlying factor.
Blood tests indicated that oestrogen had been leaching/ leached from my body for years and with virtually no trace of testosterone in my system my bones, joints, muscles, skin, eyelids, bladder control, cheerful outlook and libido were fairly compromised. I felt I had been functioning but only as a shadow of my former womanly self. Probably over dramatic BUT I felt I was really only a husk!
It was totally uplifting and energising to realise that not only was help possible but that at last I was getting help that fitted my needs. I also remember the thrill after probably only a couple of weeks of taking Utrogestan and applying Sandrena gel, of experiencing very mild but familiar ‘ twinges/period pains’ in my lower abdomen. These were physical sensations I had never thought to experience again and the physical memory took me back instantly to that wonderfully positive state of youth and vigour. It was extraordinary…i felt fleetingly as if i was back in the body and mind (with all those youthful assumptions of hope and future) of my younger self!
Since beginning the treatment I’ve found strength and stamina returning to my joints and I am beginning to look forward to and to stride out on walks again, I now generally get to the loo in time, night sweats are the exception, my sleep is resettling, my mood is lifting and I feel hopeful and energised again. This investment in myself (HRT is not inexpensive and I am fortunate to have been able to even contemplate taking this course) has spurred me on and I feel motivated, determined and hopeful in a way I have not for a long time.
Thanks to HRT and to you and to my recommending friend and to the great swell of the menopause awareness / action movement that's growing out there and which is available to tap into ( I avidly follow Dr Louise Newsom, Naomi Potter, Davina McCall to name a few ‘Menopause Warriors’) I tell everyone I know about my own transformative experience and the game-changing HRT research evidence that’s now out there and showing the way. I feel i've been given a reprieve/ been pulled off the proverbial scrap heap and regained some of the ‘self’ I lost in the last few years.
Thank you so much Lexie and HRT
Good luck with your continuing and life-changing work.
Vive la Revolution!
As you would expect, Lexie is incredibly knowledgeable about menopause, hormones and HRT but she explains everything in a way you can understand so I finally understand the importance of oestrogen. She's wonderfully relaxed so I felt very comfortable and at ease talking about very personal topics.
Thoughts from a new patient.
Like a lot of my friends, I fell for the not-so-small white lie that the menopause was a natural thing and should, therefore, be endured without intervention. That was six years ago. I had my last period at aged 50 after being in a very obvious almost unendurable state of perimenopause for about seven years before that. I had become used to putting up with heavy periods and mood swings and a loss of libido. We’re so well trained to put up with pain and discomfort, most of us have three decades to forget what it feels like to just feel well. From 11-55, female health is dictated by hormones. Remember the 28-day roller coaster of a week of PMT, followed by a week of cramps, bloating, clots, tummy troubles, loss of sleep, rubbish pimples and rashes then another week of tiredness before it all started over? And then we edge towards the famous ‘change of life’ and things improve in some ways and get substantially worse in others.
Forget for a second the surface horrors of encroaching wrinkles, the greying and drying hair, the disappearing lips, the itchy lizard legs and the fact that suddenly your feet, once pink and perky like so many other parts of you, become sites for thickening nails and skin. Now move on to what’s happening inside. Your whole body is running on empty. The tank is dry and the dryness on every level, mental, emotional and physical, is spreading no matter how hard you fight it. Your dreams are of cream cakes, long hours on the sofa and glasses of wine. You see your belly expanding and maybe for the first blissful time ever, you don’t care. Or maybe you really do still care and end up punishing yourself with stressful exercise regimes and disastrous diets. In one way, the best first step is to let the person that you were, go. Embrace instead the person you want to be now, the older, more gracious, more grateful woman who is willing to find out what can be done for this change of health.
And that’s the point that I’ve reached. I’m tired of battling poor body image, poor performance and poverty-stricken happiness. This is the part of the menopause that is not natural, that cannot be taken on the hairy chin. For now, for as many years as I can, I want to feel well. To feel enthusiastic. To feel that every day is a gift and that I can use that day for better things than moping about wondering if I can take another painkiller for a headache or for a joint ache. Wondering if I should up that supplement or take more supplements or take out a second mortgage for face cream or if I should concentrate all my precious, hard-earned free time on Googling the side-effects of painkillers and supplements, the pluses and minuses of celebrity-endorsed eye serums. Note, there are never any minuses when the price tag is over £50. Now I realise that I’m just throwing money and effort at things that cannot be fixed at a surface level and that’s why I decided to try HRT at this stage in the game. I want and need something deeper, more meaningful in terms of my female health and my future. I’m going to invest in that health, so that I can get back to ENJOYING the life I have left.
Like a lot of my friends, I fell for the not-so-small white lie that the menopause was a natural thing and should, therefore, be endured without intervention. That was six years ago. I had my last period at aged 50 after being in a very obvious almost unendurable state of perimenopause for about seven years before that. I had become used to putting up with heavy periods and mood swings and a loss of libido. We’re so well trained to put up with pain and discomfort, most of us have three decades to forget what it feels like to just feel well. From 11-55, female health is dictated by hormones. Remember the 28-day roller coaster of a week of PMT, followed by a week of cramps, bloating, clots, tummy troubles, loss of sleep, rubbish pimples and rashes then another week of tiredness before it all started over? And then we edge towards the famous ‘change of life’ and things improve in some ways and get substantially worse in others.
Forget for a second the surface horrors of encroaching wrinkles, the greying and drying hair, the disappearing lips, the itchy lizard legs and the fact that suddenly your feet, once pink and perky like so many other parts of you, become sites for thickening nails and skin. Now move on to what’s happening inside. Your whole body is running on empty. The tank is dry and the dryness on every level, mental, emotional and physical, is spreading no matter how hard you fight it. Your dreams are of cream cakes, long hours on the sofa and glasses of wine. You see your belly expanding and maybe for the first blissful time ever, you don’t care. Or maybe you really do still care and end up punishing yourself with stressful exercise regimes and disastrous diets. In one way, the best first step is to let the person that you were, go. Embrace instead the person you want to be now, the older, more gracious, more grateful woman who is willing to find out what can be done for this change of health.
And that’s the point that I’ve reached. I’m tired of battling poor body image, poor performance and poverty-stricken happiness. This is the part of the menopause that is not natural, that cannot be taken on the hairy chin. For now, for as many years as I can, I want to feel well. To feel enthusiastic. To feel that every day is a gift and that I can use that day for better things than moping about wondering if I can take another painkiller for a headache or for a joint ache. Wondering if I should up that supplement or take more supplements or take out a second mortgage for face cream or if I should concentrate all my precious, hard-earned free time on Googling the side-effects of painkillers and supplements, the pluses and minuses of celebrity-endorsed eye serums. Note, there are never any minuses when the price tag is over £50. Now I realise that I’m just throwing money and effort at things that cannot be fixed at a surface level and that’s why I decided to try HRT at this stage in the game. I want and need something deeper, more meaningful in terms of my female health and my future. I’m going to invest in that health, so that I can get back to ENJOYING the life I have left.