Looking guilty with hot sweats

I was just thinking of my mum, and how youthful and vital she was, and whether the sharp decline in her health was when she was taken off hrt..
Maybe I'm overthinking things, but it has never occurred to me before.

After a hysterectomy and forced menopause,I went onto HRT. Then there was a scary report about breast cancer and they took me off it. Menopausal symptoms came crashing down on me and eventually I was put back on a gel based Oestrogen . I was really happy and back to ‘normal ‘. That was until another health scare report and off I came again
No one tells you that coming off HRT can possibly take you back to square one.
I am now 72 (20 years later) and still suffer from hot flushes and night sweats, vaginal dryness and lack of libido. I absolutely refuse to go back on HRT and have just had to learn to live with it.
Sympathy for anyone going through this.

They always seem to come on when you're just about to make an important phone call or something, too.

I was lucky to have a relatively easy menopause - started at age 42 brought about by the stress of a divorce according to my GP. But I had a few hot flushes, mainly in bed at night. However, I had an awful experience when I had a bad hot flush while being observed teaching by an Ofsted inspector! It was in the days when they observed for a whole lesson and mine was going really well until the flush began! I had to stop what I was doing to grab a tissue to wipe down my dripping forehead and as I felt a bit faint, I sat down at my desk, not something a teacher should do during an inspection.

As I was beginning to panic about how I could continue, a lovely 12 year old girl asked me if I was alright, saying that I looked like her granny while she was " having a moment!" At that point I burst out laughing, thanked her for her concern and said that she was the first person who had compared me to a granny rather then a mum! I noticed that the inspector was trying not to laugh!

I just carried on with the lesson as I really had no choice but was expecting some negative feedback about the pace or amount of learning archived in the lesson. However, I was graded as outstanding by the inspector ( a man) who commented that I handled a " minor medical matter" very professionally without any noticeable impact on the lesson objectives. My headteacher thought it was very funny when I told her what had happened but went on to embarrass me in front of all the staff when she mentioned my lesson in a staff meeting!

Winniewit I empathise immensely. I too have terrible hot flushes. I have found by drinking fewer caffeinated drinks the flushes are much improved. I'm on the very early end of menopause, I started at 41/42 and I'm mid 40s now, period free for 3 years.
I'm unable to have HRT due to health issues and cancer in the family.
I tried Black Cohosh and a few other things but they are pricey and didn't seem to have made a difference.
I hope you find something that suits you ?

I should be passed the sweats ( 62 ) but I’ve been on tamoxifen for nearly 10 years and whilst the sweating has receded it’s not gone away completely. I finish tamoxifen in April and hoping my body becomes normal again !! My worst experience was in the queue at M&S when my nose dripped right on to my top lip !! I had no nasal hair so nothing to stop it running !! . Daughter was mortified

My flushes were terrible.
I stood up and left a complete wet patch in the shape of my 'underneath' on a bus seat.
That was a bad day..

I'm one of your permanently cyclical women. I'm 70 and well over the [horrible] menpause, but have hot flushes quite a lot - still! Not fair!!!

I used to drip all over the place, so embarrassing especially at work in the middle of a meeting. Sweat would drip down my ears and back, all over my face, my hair would be wet - absolutely dreadful and the panicky feeling that went with it was pretty debilitating too. Tried HRT but the medical opinion then was that 2 yrs max and that was that. What nobody told me was that symptoms could last so long. At 68 still have maybe 3-4 hot flushes a day but nowhere near as intense thank goodness.

I was chatting to a lady in her 80s about the menopause, and she was telling me that she still felt she got pmt.
Her granddaughter kept interrupting her and she really got angry with her, which I had never seen before.
"See what I mean?", she said.

One thing I have noticed and doc confirms, for some women there are always cyclical symptoms, in other words, you can by 90+ and still have some, albeit slight, menopausal symptoms.

Sailed through here but I still get the munchies!

My mother had a hot flush, decided she didn't like it and vowed to have no more. She had no more! I told myself that if positive thinking worked for my mother, it would work for me and it did! I had no menopausal symptoms other than suddenly developing regular periods like clockwork (previously unheard of for me) and a gradual cessation of same. That was fifteen years ago.

To all those women who have suffered, or are still suffering, I admit my story is rather tongue-in-cheek. My mother and I were just extremely lucky, as we're a few other posters on this thread.

I think I would have signed a disclaimer, my sweats were so bad.
I cried when the doctor told me I couldn't have HRT.

Now though, I wonder if it would have just 'put off' the menopause?
At least I went through mine, eventually!

i'm 71 now and have been on hrt since i was 47! i had a complete hysterectomy because i had ovarian cancer. i asked my gp if it was ok for me to keep taking hrt as i was concerned about breast cancer but i decided i'd stay on the hrt as i could check myself for breast cancer but not for osteoporosis (not without dexia scans). i intend staying on hrt for as long as i can as i feel it keeps me young! my skin is definately all the better for it!

BStS - I'm 72 and have been on HRT since I was about 46. I tried coming off it a couple of times but all the symptoms came back with a vengeance. One (male) doctor refused to prescribe it any more a couple of years ago. After a couple of months I was seeing the practice nurse about something unrelated and mentioned to her how awful I was feeling. She told me that she would sign a 'disclaimer' if hers was stopped, so that the doctor wouldn't have to be concerned about being sued and advised me to see the female doctor. When I did, her response was ' Oh - men! How do they think the Queen would manage the way she does without it! You can take it for the rest of your life as far as I'm concerned!' Oh, the relief!

For me it is the difference between leading a normal life feeling well, rather than a depressed, sweaty, tired and sleepless one. Quality of life is more important to me than worrying about possible side effects.

I am sorry for the poor sufferers on here. I never really had a menopause as my doctor put me on HRT because the older females in my family all had weak bones and kept breaking them. I have now been on HRT for about 18 years. About 3 years ag my son, who is a doctor, told me to stop taking it as he thought it was a breast cancer risk. But as you get older you can die of broken bones anyway. My own doctor keeps giving me HRT and I don't speak to him about it in case he stops prescribing it.

BStP:
I reduced my HRT to alternate days, but in 2015 one GP at our practice insisted I should stop completely after enjoying 15 years of being free of menopause symptoms. It was a disaster! The worst of it was a very dry vagina, which was horrid, especially as I’d recently remarried!
Eventually, I negotiated a compromise with a different GP (incidentally she’s married to the other one!!) whereby I take a low dose (0.3g) on alternate days and use a hormone cream internally twice a week. I'm 68 and I feel more like my old self in terms of libido, energy and my mental capacity.
I do hope you can find a sympathetic doctor to help you.

A friend takes sage....eliminated her 30 plus a day hot flushes....

I’m another lucky bod. No hot sweats for me. Sailed through it at 47y. I’m 64y now and cannot believe 20y have flown by.

I came off synthetic HRT 3 years ago but since I hit 60 in July my menopausal symptons are back with a vengeance, I am always tired, v irritable, sweat profusely at odd times and feel so low..has anybody gone back on HRT after a gap and if so did it make a difference? Thanks

I used to get hot flushes which I found embarrassing as it made me look (I felt) red as a beacon. Plus you only need one loud-mouth to say, "You've got a red face!" or "You're blushing!" to make you want to hide under a stone. Not sweating too much but uncomfortable all the same. Its only saving grace is that mostly it doesn't last. I'm 64 next week and it happens very rarely now. Men don't know they're born, do they?

Yesyesyesyes! It still happens to me regularly, usually public place. I'm 58 and five years into the meno. Hating my hair nowadays anywhere near my face, just makes everything worse. Big sympathy!

I'm told Sage helps, either as a tea or capsules.

I was lucky not to have hot flushes ( my doctor calls them power surges!) but I did suffer very badly with depression.

One thing I have noticed and doc confirms, for some women there are always cyclical symptoms, in other words, you can by 90+ and still have some, albeit slight, menopausal symptoms.
I still find my arthritis plays up a certain times of the month.

Jane and BlueBelle,,you are so lucky..Im 63 now and seem to have been going through it for about 5 years,
My daughters cant understand why you cant go into the menopause and it all be over and done with in 6 months...
I just think to myself...'you wait' lol

Jane10 me too never knew I d had a menopause, absolutely no symptoms whatsoever, never had a hot flush in my life sounds dead lucky