HRT For Perimenopause?
Yip, I’m trying it.
I’m 43 and in perimenopause.
What is perimenopause exactly? Well, for those of you who don’t know, perimenopause is the name given to the period of time where our hormone production is slowly shutting down. It’s a time of hormonal fluctuations. It can be anywhere from 10 years to 2 years. It’s the period of time before menopause. Menopause is defined as not having had a menstruation for a year. Guys, these are just labels given to stages of our reproductive cycles. I’ve also heard (peri)menopause described as adolescence in reverse. Basically the opposite of what happens at adolescence. Our sex-hormone production shuts down instead of revs up. And so we go through all that turbulence but in reverse.
For those of you who are going through it, you know how it can suck. It’s horrid.
Anyway, I know I’m in perimenopause because a) my age, and b) I was getting night sweats and c) I went for tests which showed my progesterone was low.
Low progesterone is one of the things that happens during perimenopause.
The journey from perimenopause to menopause is one of the ovaries shutting down. Our sex hormones estrogen, testosterone and progesterone slowly decline.
I have had blood tests and those revealed that my testosterone and progesterone are both almost non-existent, and my estrogen is low-normal. So, yup, definitely in perimenopause.
Luckily, I was referred to a great local doctor (I live in South Africa) who is up to date with new research on hormones, specifically bio-identical hormones.
I first went to see him in June 2020 and he put me on bioidentical testosterone gel as well as a progesterone cream to use during the second half of my cycle.
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I am now adding in estrogel (bioidentical estradiol — which is the form of estrogen that drops during peri/menopause) because although I am producing estrogen, it’s low, and I asked the doctor if we couldn’t try putting me on estradiol to see if I’d feel better.
You see, lately I had been feeling really low. Low mood, low energy, aches and pains. A bit depressed. Irritable. Now, to add to my mix, I have a sluggish thyroid, so I am on thyroid medication as well. When I went back recently to my doctor, with my complaints, we tested sex hormones and thyroid, and we discovered my T4 (one thyroid hormone) was a bit low too.
So now, I have increased my one thyroid medication and I am on proper HRT: which is bio-identical gels of testosterone, estrogen and progesterone.
Guys, it’s working! I feel SO much better. I want to shout from the rooftops that hormones do make one feel more vital. Susan Somers had a point!
I have been on this new protocol for around 3 weeks now and I feel really good. True, I still feel 43 and not 20, but I feel good again, for my age.
I think the best thing is my mood. It has improved noticeably. I am more buoyant. More tolerant. More resilient. My will to face the day has returned. (And yes, that was gone. Most days all I wanted to do was just lie on the couch, of late.)
So of course, I made a video about this. And there is a part 2 coming.
If you’re struggling with perimenopausal/menopausal symptoms, please to take the time to watch. I share my journey honestly, and in as much clear detail as I can.
The “old” school thinking was that HRT was risky but there is new evidence (and quite a lot of it) showing it’s wide range of benefits for brain, heart and bone health, to mention just a few. Dr Louise Newson (she’s on YouTube and has a website) is a British doctor who specializes in this and her information and explanations are brilliant.
Ladies, there IS help available. You don’t have to suffer with all the yucky symptoms of peri/menopause. In fact, the new thinking is to go onto HRT earlier rather than later, like I am doing, to avoid those dips and declines in hormones, because those hormonal lows are actually not good for our health, according to what I read and research.
Please do let me know if you have any thoughts, questions or comments. I hope this helps just one other lady.
xxxx
