Menopausal, perimenopausal, not sure, come join me!

[sally maclennane]

I had a few weeks of no bleeding/very light bleeding, and then it started up again This was around 2 weeks ago, and although it's not as bad as it was Dec/Jan, it's still proper bleeding. I had a telephone appointment with a GP last week, as my blood tests (which i asked for as I thought I might be anaemic) showed that I'm low on folic acid

She said that the gynaecologist I saw a few weeks ago had written to recommend that I switch to 2 progesterone tablets each day for 2 weeks, rather than 1 every day for the whole month. The GP said that might stop the bleeding, I'm only on day 4 of those so I guess I have to give it longer. She said the gynaecologist had also put me on a waiting list for the hysteroscopy but couldn't say when it would be

It's coming up to 4 months of this now, and it's just dragging me down. I'm honestly tempted to sack off the HRT altogether but I'll give it another few months.

[H1ppychick]

At my hospital appointment today I was told to go to two tablets also. On my ultrasound he noted that my endometrium was thicker than ideal and this should suppress it better. I also need to go back for a hysteroscopy and a more detailed scan. Not looking forward to that as the endometrial biopsy he did wasn’t fun at all. He suggested having a Mirena fitted at the same time as the follow up.

The staff were all lovely though.

[sally maclennane]

Arghhh sympathy, Hippy, I had that done last year, and it was very unpleasant. That's the one that turned out to have been useless as they didn't get a big enough sample to test but never bothered to tell me. Will you get the mirena fitted at the same time?

[H1ppychick]

I am just back from my hysteroscopy and honestly the people who looked after me were just lovely. It wasn’t fun but it was quick and I had the Mirena fitted at the same time. The female consultant I saw today unsurprisingly was much better than the bloke I initially saw.

Nothing concerning from the ultrasounds, earlier biopsy or the hysteroscopy, thank goodness.

[Luna]

Glad it went off ok Hippy.

[Dutchie]

Glad you can put that behind you now. It is horrid, having doctors furtle around in there. Great that there is nothing concerning.

[sally maclennane]

Thats good that it all went well.

I have a date for my hysteroscopy, 10th April - having it done under GA.

[Luna]

Through some rabbit hole menopause research I ended up subscribing to this website awhile ago.

https://womenwise.health

And they do regular zoom chats with q&a. Tonight’s was so good. It’s free to hop on and Sarah covered a lot of really interesting stuff. I highly recommend checking it out if only to get the email with the meetings links. She talked about gaba and L Theanine helping low mood and anxiety etc. You can pay for tests that the gp won’t do but because she helps so much with symptoms in her chats you don’t have to go down that route.

[Lily]

I feel a bit of a fraud just jumping into this thread, but my sister in law sent me this and I wondered if it might be of use.

https://consumerretentionmarketing.news ... 6&action=y

[sally maclennane]

I've done 2 weeks on Utrogestan, 2 weeks off it, and I'm still bleeding

I have the day surgery in 2 weeks time so who knows if I'll still have it by then. I'm not sure how successful they'll be in getting a sample to biopsy if I'm bleeding.

I also made an arse of my prescription by ordering Utrogestsn only, thinking that I had enough Oestrogel to last me. Last night, I realised that I was running low on that and that my GPs would be shut for the long weekend after today I phoned this morning and left a pleading message (you request a prescription by leaving a message) When I went in tonight, they hadn't processed it, but after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, the pharmacy agreed to give it to me. Thankfully the pharmacy assistant was a middle aged woman who could see I was on the edge at the prospect of no HRT

[H1ppychick]

Sorry it’s still such a crappy process for you, Sally. I think my own investigations and so on were so speedy and efficient because I’m post menopausal and the GP put the initial consultant referral on the 4-week pathway.

By the way, now I’ve got the coil, could anyone make use of several boxes of Utrogestan, now surplus to my requirements? If so, please PM me your details and I’ll see if I can post it out.

[sally maclennane]

Sorry it’s still such a crappy process for you, Sally. I think my own investigations and so on were so speedy and efficient because I’m post menopausal and the GP put the initial consultant referral on the 4-week pathway.

In fairness, I was seen quite quickly, I saw the GP at the end of January, and had a gynaecology appointment a week later. The consultant would have taken the biopsy then if I hadn't been upset at the prospect of it. I'd had it done at a previous gynaecology appointment six months before, but they didn't warn me that they'd do it, and then it turned out that they hadn't taken a big enough sample to test it So the second consultant offered to do it under GA which has taken longer to arrange. She did an internal scan at the initial appointment and said the lining of my womb looked OK but she wants to do the biopsy to double check.

I'm fairly sure that the bleeding is due to the HRT. I'm obviously glad that they're investigating everything and hopefully they can rule out anything serious. If that's the case though, I think I might have to just quit the HRT as I'm not living with constant bleeding.

[Red]

Sorry you're still going through this, Sal. You must be absolutely sick to the back teeth.

My weird/annoying side affects are rubbish sleep and appetite issues. I just cannot stay asleep for the whole night and I'm having trouble dropping off, even on the progesterone weeks which is rubbish as I was a good sleeper before HRT. And food wise, I think its at certain times of the month but I'm finding some foods disgusting, almost repellent and I can't bring myself to eat food I know I like. Its very odd.
I love sleep and food so not loving these side effects.

[Luna]

My appetite has gone haywire and my sleep is not good. Cortisol plays a big part in sleep quality so if your melatonin and cortisol is dysregulated it will have a knock on effect. Also not eating much will also affect sugar levels which can wake you. I’m finding all this out from the women wise on a Tuesday night. Honestly it’s brilliant information and I’m seriously considering getting their help via blood tests and nutrition because I’m pretty miserable at the moment.

[Red]

DP

[Red]

Sorry you have sleep issues too, Luna.
But that is really interesting on the appetite and blood sugar thing. Sometimes I am waking up in the night absolutely starving which I try and ignore, but then I go though the temperature issues of boiling out of my skin under the covers but even one arm out of the covers makes me freezing cold, so of course I don't really sleep well. I had read that low blood sugar levels can cause the temperature issues but I hadn't really made the connection to appetite.
Perhaps I need to eat something before bed?

Did you get any recommendations to help you, Luna?

[Luna]

Nothing personal to me but Sarah (women wise nutritionist)has said we need to eat more protein in general and probably not do intermittent fasting.

[Luna]

I’m currently having the world’s most painful text conversations with my gp practice. Just ring me you avoidant arses.

[Kleio]

How are things now Sal and Luna?

I'm 3 days late today and crossing my fingers they've fucked off the for the foreseeable. They've been incredibly heavy and long over the last year (26 day cycle and 10 of those bleeding) so I'd enjoy seeing the back of them. I'm guessing what is actually going to happen is that it'll happen midweek and be even heavier than usual. Last month I considered using some form of adult nappy as I was so heavy. It was awful.

I've noticed my GP surgery has a menopause group I can refer to but helpfully, they're during the day so I'm going to have to try and work around that.

[sally maclennane]

I hate to say it Kleio, they'll probably just become more erratic, rather than stopping altogether.

I had my hysteroscopy yesterday, it was fine and I'm glad that I had it done under GA, even though it was a long day. I had to be there for 8am, and its a 45 minute drive away. I was taken to theater around 11 and woke up about 2.30pm. They gave me some fabulous tea and toast (I was starving) and after some checks, they said I could go about 4.30pm.

The consultant spoke to me when I was in recovery but I only vaguely remember it She said I have to have an MRI which is something to do with the position of a fibroid I have. I asked the nurse about it later when I was more alert but she didn't know much more.

The consultant did say (this was before the procedure) she'd recommend I take 200 Utrogestan to see if that helps with the bleeding. I've been on sequential Utrogestan for the last 2 months so I need to start tracking my bleeding again, to see what the pattern is.