HRT for the over-60s

How the hell did that post get on here!!!????? Ignore folks

It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to know there are still those that care in power. Getting fewer I know.

Has anyone suffered excessive hot flushes for many years?
I have had this for nearly 20 years, I used to live in the USA and the Docs there kept it under control, however since returning to the UK, I have just had to put up with it.
Can anyone offer any advice?

the gynaecologist I see says he is happy for me to stay on HRT for life ,if I want to,I had horrific symptoms ,night sweats which meant changing sheets during the night MOST nights and seperate beds from my husband,and other symptoms that could easily have ended my marriage .Bleeding that lasted for weeks on end and stopped me living a normal life ,I wouldn't go out because of it and developed what the gynacologist calls "mild agrophobia" so I'm staying on my HRT ,come hell or high water.I'm 62,my sister who is 67 came off and is now back on for the same reasons .There is no female cancers in our family and we are told risks are low and life is certainly much better on it

My menopause started at 51 years and I took HRT for the following 5 years and the 6th year was spent at reducing the dose and then to completely stop. This was at the doctor's insistence not mine, as the low dosage was just enough to keep symptoms at an acceptable level. For the last ten years I have put up with very bad hot flushes (especially at night) and in the last few years vaginal atrophy, so sex life is rubbish due to excruciating pain. I had vaginal pessaries prescribed but have to say that they were not as effective as needed and so I believe that I need to go back on HRT - albeit maybe a low dose. Have read up on Tibolone which may be an alternative. Have an appointment with my female doctor next week but am not hopeful of a favourable outcome. When will the medical profession understand that for some of us the menopause can last for well over 15 years! Any advice would be gratefully received.

I was on HRT for several years for severe hot flushes but stopped after much nagging by my GP - all the GPs in the practice seem to be anti HRT and one even refuses to prescribe it ever for anyone. Luckily I didn't have too many symptoms when I stopped. Interestingly, when I saw a Urogynaecologist last year, aged 63, she asked if I was on HRT and recommended it. So, whilst GPs don't like it, specialists do. I now use Ovestan, oestregen cream, otherwise I am incontinent.

whoops should have typed intermittent not intermittant

I am 62 and on my second week of Everel Conti patches, I had a late menopause still had intermittant periods until age 57. I have been feeling so much worse in the past year, my thyroxine dose was upped by 25mcg that made little difference. I didn't want to take hrt it's been a last resort really. I met a lady whilst away recently, she looked marvellous aged 78, quite athletic, went to the gym regularly, told me she had been on hrt for 20 years and and intends taking it for the rest of her days. Too soon for me to assess the benefits, I do think my night time heat has subsided a little. I'll probably come back to this thead when I have been on it longer.

I have been on HRT Climaval 1mg for 15 yrs and it has just been discontinued it really agreed with me it I am now at a loss to choose another one that will be as good . Any names or ideas of what to take I would be most grateful . My GP will prescribe what I want .

Teeny, I had exactly the same symptoms after stopping my HRT at my old (!) doctor's insistence. I developed terrible aches and pains. I do a lot of walking and could barely get over a stile. I also developed terrible pain in my hands just like you. I also tried a gradual reduction but to no avail. I have moved and my new doctor has a different approach. He considers that so long as I am aware of the risks, which he explains every time I have a check up, and I am well, my weight and blood pressure are within healthy levels, then he is happy to keep prescribing it for me. Thank heavens, I feel so much better, so much like the "real" me, not a miserable, creaky shadow of myself. i do hope things get better for you soon.

And yes, Madukes, if men had these symptoms I am sure they'd be putting HRT in the drinking water!

Hi. I was on HRT for 5 years and have recently come off it over a period of 7 months, dropping one tablet every four weeks. To be perfectly honest I think the slower you come off it the better. I thought I was doing fine with just the very occasional flush. Never did I expect to get symptoms which I didn't have before going on it! I now have very bad pains in my hands. My thumbs are particularly bad but also all my knuckles. I wake up in the morning and both hands are really stiff. This is beginning to impact on my daily life. I had several blood tests done which all came back normal and the GP calmly told me it was due to the reduction in oestrogen having come off HRT. I wish I had read more on the after effects as I might not have been so willing to come off it! Hope this helps.

I'm 63 and was put on HRT by my GP eight years ago when I became very emotional and had all the symptoms of menopause whilst trying to mediate my financial future with my ex husband and solicitors. I was reluctant to go on to it but have been very healthy and happy whilst on it. I have an identical twin sister who didn't go on HRT and her life has been a misery with all the symptoms both physical and emotional associated with the menopause. My GP now wants me to stop taking HRT which I really don't want to do.
I am extremely happy and well and having researched the pros and cons widely I would be more than happy to sign a disclaimer confirming I would not sue the NHS should I develop some condition associated with long term use of HRT.
Too many women have horror stories of their experience when they do come off HRT, not just menopausal symptoms but often massive downward spiral of their general health. I think that has to be weighed very seriously with the option of continuing for life if that is your choice.
Why shouldn't we as women be able to make an informed choice about our bodies? Could it be that the rush to continue on HRT would cost the NHS more than it would be willing to pay? And if it were men suffering these same symptoms would it be readily available indefinitely?
Theresa Gormley, Sandra Howard, Joan Collins etc etc the list goes on of women who have decided to remain on HRT for life. These women are in a privileged position and can therefore afford private prescriptions but what of the rest of the female population who my want to do the same but don't have access to the same private medicine?

If they get hot flushes, there is plenty of cold water to cool them down!

Killer whales and pilot whales experience a menopause.

I guess the problem is that prehistoric woman would probably die long before she got to menopause - after all, if you weren't producing offspring you weren't much use . As humankind is now living "past our sell by date" we have all these attendant problems. do animals experience a menopause? I somehow doubt it.

This is a very interesting thread. I also had a hysterectomy in my 40's and almost immediately had dreadful hot flushes. I was put on a high dose of Evorel and it was wonderful - just like being a man. No mood swings and feeling the same all the time.

Over the years I was gradually reduced to half the lowest dose. I was advised to give it up when I was 65 but was in a bad way without it so managed to get the low dose prescribed again. I stopped it again last May at the age of 68 and am unable to sleep for hot flushes. The doctor asked me to try Clonidine Hydrochoride instead. I think it dilates the blood vessels and is beneficial if you have high blood pressure. The difference is that I suddenly wake up in the night and I don't know why. Then about 15 seconds later the heat starts. I think I may be having fewer hot flushes but would like to be on a low dose of Evorel again.

I have tried sage, linseed etc. Doctors seem to have very different opinions. I prefer a female doctor but when I was 65 and asking to go back on to HRT, the young male doctor was very understanding and prescribed it again.

But some people 'naturally' have a very marked drop in hormone levels leading to very distressing symptoms which can go on for years.
I agree that mild symptoms could be considered a normal part of the ageing process.
So could osteo-arthritis, and the NHS treats that.
But whether you think something is 'normal' or 'pathological' shouldn't be the basis of deciding to treat - it should be the severity of symptoms..

You have obviously got something wrong with your thyroid gland. This, supposedly, needs rectifying. Being without oestrogen after menopause is natural. Ie not an illness. It' s different.

jingl why is HRT any different from any other hormone replacement?
I'm deficient in thyroxine, and have been since my mid-fifties.
The NHS has provided me with thyroxine supplements - why is being deficient in oestrogen any different?
I didn't even have any marked symptoms, unlike most people who are in HRT. If someone's quality of life is compromised, and there is a remedy, isn't that what the NHS is for?

!!!

(Don't try this at home, folks! )

Perhaps we should all emulate Mrs Thatcher and have an electric current in our baths?

I don't feel anything like as good as I did pre-menopause, and I've never been on, or come off of, HRT. I don't think we should treat it as a fount of eternal youth. Quite apart from anything else, why should the NHS fork out for it?

It is all rather a fraught subject.

I went on to the tiniest dose of evorel patch a few years after a hysterectomy at age 42 - the one-hormone patch that is suitable for use on post-hysterectomised women is safer than the combined. I did so because I felt non-specifically grim, with giddiness being a particular problem. Whilst on this I felt absolutely fine and it gave me many years of excellent quality of life.

I went off it gradually on the advice (nay, exhortation) of a new GP who was horrified to find me still on it in my late 50s. Life has not been the same since and I have often wished that I could go back on it in order to enjoy my former quality of life again.

However, having just had an attack of atrial fibrillation and possible pulmonary embolism scare which carry serious risks of stroke, I am glad that I did not go back on it.

The advice on HRT really does seem totally random and wholly dependent on the opinions of your particular GP - this is not a very satisfactory state of affairs. There truly is nothing worse than conflicting medical advice which makes it difficult to know how to make a reasoned decision.

I wonder if it's possible to confuse long-lasting effects of the menopause with natural, and perhaps inevitable, symptoms of ageing?