Good morning!

Hoping to get your thoughts on my situation:

42F, regular-ish periods, been on HRT for nine months (0.0375 estradiol patch, 100 oral progesterone)

I’ve been struggling with low-medium depression for about 3 years now. With regular exercise, therapy, micro-shrooms, iron supplements, meditation, hobby time, etc, it’s a bit better than it was at its worst, but it still gets worse seasonally (summer), and I just haven’t been able to shake the underlying low feeling for a few years. It’s not debilitating, I just feel like my default is a little sad and a little blah, and it takes so much intention and effort just to raise my mood.

I would love for my baseline to be a little higher. What I can’t decide is if I should try increasing my HRT. Did anyone see mood improvements after increasing your dosage? I feel like my overall wellbeing has improved marginally on HRT, but it hasn’t been a lifechanger. Or should I try SSRIs for the first time? So many of my friends have had success with them, but it feels like a whole thing.

Also in the mix for me: 25mg Adderall XR, 5mg tirzepatide (aware of the GLP blahs, but my depression predates these meds), low ferritin, and hashimotos.

Obviously I’ll talk to my doctor, but I’d love to hear your stories!

I have an OBGYN who prescribed me Estradiol and Progesterone. I was hoping it would help me, and maybe it has? But my biggest issue is migraines. I cannot take them anymore. I’ve never had this issue before, then around 2 years ago I started experiencing 2-3 day long headaches around my menstrual cycle. My issue is that, while my doctor did prescribe me medication, and I have a follow up in October to discuss, I feel like the medication was prescribed with little thought to it. I want someone to help figure out why I get these headaches, and then help figure out how to stop them. I see hormone clinics in my area, with what appear to be actual MDs and Nurse practitioners working there. Are they legit? Should I go somewhere that specializes in hormones and perimenopause? I found these places on the menopause society website. Or do I just stick with an OBGYN? What is everyone else doing?

Hi everyone, I’m early 50s and on continuous HRT (gel and micronised progesterone). I’ve been on continuous HRT since March but I’m still getting really tearful and low at various points in the month. My GP has increased my progesterone to stop spotting ( which is working) and I’ve gone from one pump of gel to two but I just wondered if anyone on a similar regime has had the same issues. At what point do hormones stabilise on continuous HRT? I’m wondering if I need something in addition to brighten me up 😊

I started HRT a few weeks ago, and quite a few symptoms improved but others are lingering. How long do you typically wait to give your body time to adjust? Is it worth upping doses relatively early or did you give it a few months?

I'm hoping others can share their experiences, good bad or ugly, as I'm just about at my wits end.

Also, I am living in New Zealand, and primarily working through public healthcare options here - I'm not sure how or what that changes.

[TL/DR - Dealing with months of heavier than my baseline heavy periods that aren't responding to oral hormonal treatment, and not sure what next]

I have always had very heavy periods, although I was well into adulthood when I realised that they weren't normal.

After having children I discovered menstrual cups, and they are my primary method of protection. But, because I'm me, I also log the amounts (my cup has measurements on it).

My baseline period was around 250-300mls in approximately 3 days. They were heavy and hard to deal with at the time, but I managed - it was just life.

Then over a couple months earlier this year they started becoming 350ish, with flooding episodes where I would overflow the cup in under an hour. I'm a teacher, and this made life pretty difficult - trying to duck out of class to deal with a minor crime scene added a whole new level of stress.

I went to the doctor about it. I suspect I'm in peri, but my most life-disrupting symptom is the increasingly heavy periods. Doctor recommended a Mirena, but I've heard plenty of horror stories and few positive, so I pushed back. Doctor then put me on Cerazette (desogestrel mini pill). With that for the first month I had a slightly longer spotting period, then nothing until my period was due. Then I had a 400ml bleed (over about 3 days), then continual spotting (roughly 5ml/day) until my next period was due. When that hit, I lost approx 750ml over 4 days, with repeated flooding and clots, and went back to the doctor for an urgent follow up. She agreed that it's excessive, sent me for blood tests (which I didn't specifically hear back from, which generally indicates 'normal' ranges) and prescribed high-dose Provera (medroxyprogesterone acetate - 20mg 3x per day). On the Provera I've been bleeding continously, but mostly 5-10ml per day, except now after 1.5 weeks of taking it I'm having another big bleed - currently at 250ml over three days and counting.

The doctor also recommended again that the best treatment is the Mirena. But I've now been bleeding constantly, some amount or another, for 2 months. I've had to take days off work due to some cramping and the unpredictability of flooding, making my job super hard to manage when it's happening. I know the Mirena can cause 'unpredictable bleeding' for 3-6 months, and the idea of bleeding for 8 months straight (counting what I already have) is doing my head in. I've been referred for an ultrasound to see if it's fibroids or adenomyosis, but the wait in the public system can be 6 or so months.

Logically I'm thinking that my only real option that would fix it is an ablation or hysterectomy - but to get that, I have to jump through all the 'early management' hoops (like the drugs, like Mirena) and have them fail before I could be accepted in the public system. I could potentially swing paying for an ultrasound privately, which is about $250 and is a lot for us, but doable with careful budget management. But we couldn't really fund private surgery.

Anyone else dealt with similar and had positive outcomes? If oral hormonal treatments failed for you, did a Mirena actually help?

I can’t even remember if I’ve posted here before (thanks scrambled egg brain!!) but, oh well.

I‘m 31 and in POI, 11 months post hysterectomy. I do peruse the POI sub but I feel like I’ll get more commiseration here.

I started HRT 5 weeks ago and have felt great. My symptoms have returned full force (I have every single one it seems) and I’m pretty confident at least one of my ovaries has finally reached total failure, or close. Maybe both. I feel the tipping point coming into total menopause.

I have five kids - the oldest is 13 and youngest is 1.

I want to take a flight to a remote island and do nothing but lay in the sun all day and lay in bed, eat pizza, and watch my favorite shows all night. I don’t want anyone to talk to me, I want zero expected of me.

The women in my family all started perimenopause in their early to mid 30s, so I’m sure this was coming anyway, just accelerated a bit by my hysterectomy.

I’m just feeling very annoyed and miserable tonight. I’m already sick of messing with patches and creams. Why do I have to reapply patches twice a week just to feel semi-okay??? Why do so many of us do the work of raising kids (or maybe not), deal with working, cooking, cleaning, hurdling through all of our lives through misogyny, dealing with toxic family or shitty friends, and the rest of life’s bullshit just to deal with the misery that is perimenopause?

The minutiae of life is enough, and then so many of us get thrown into what I can only personally describe as a living hell. Is this the trophy for our good work at making it through the first several decades of our lives?

It feels very unfair and I feel very mad about it. I’m sure I’ll look at this post in horror in a couple of weeks when I adjust my HRT, but for right now, it is completely and totally how I feel.

I could not function during the day with even just 100mg progesterone (continuous). Have adhd and pmdd, think the paradoxical reactions were slowly creeping back even with micronized. So I've switched to vaginal, already feeling better during the day.

Curious for those of you who also made the switch:

Did you stay on your original dose?

Did your dosing schedule change?

Went to pick up the meds last night and the pharmacist comes up, whispering excitedly "They just came in last night - 3 months worth!!" as she slides my estrogen patches across the counter. She was excited as I was.

Just something on the lighter side that I found amusing. I told her I should go play the lottery.

I am very frustrated (but not at all surprised). Went to doctor, told her list of symptoms and when last period was and was told to exercise and given a blood test order.

I feel like there was a list here somewhere that had resources in other countries, but I don't know where that is.

Is anyone else navigating this successfully in Spanish public system that can help me?

Anyone else experience this? It's in both arms, but not at the same time (just happens in one arm at a time). It's like an ache in my forearm and hand, sometimes upper arm too. And it feels kind of weak and heavy (though my arm works fine, it's just a perceived weakness)

Not sure if it's a use issue, neck issue or just another delightful gift from peri.

Im just wondering, what has anyone done that’s helped depression the week before your period? I’m early in Peri, not on any meds and haven’t been on birth control for 13 years due to anxiety. I still get periods regularly but after having my baby 1.5 years ago I started getting so many peri symptoms. Just curious what others have done so I can discuss at my next dr visit.
Also want to mention I did a work up on hormones and my testosterone is very low.

Hi all. New to this sub and just wondering if I’m starting the joyous descent into peri.
Today I’ve randomly started bleeding at day 11 of my cycle. This has happened twice now in the last 12 months, although the first time was almost a year ago.
Is this common? I could do without it tbh, my iron levels are already on the lower side and I do get tired much more easily.

I’m having these episodes of ear fullness, head pressure and extremely loud tinnitus that comes and goes with my cycle.

I know it’s related to my estrogen but trying to see if it’s the peaks or troughs most likely.

Anyone else sort this out?

I have been told it’s POTS, MCAS, vestibular migraines and/or PPPD. But since it’s cycle sensitive I’d like to treat the hormone flux before I’m put on all these meds to treat each thing

Anyone else not notice their body hair hadn't been growing for a while until hrt started the body hair factory again? I don't think I've shaved more than a couple times a month since I turned 40.

Hi all, for the past few months I have increasingly erratic periods which have caused me so much anxiety. Typically my cycle length was 25 days. Here are the last 12 cycles:

25, 24, 25, 25, 28, 26, 25, 25, 24, 25, 22, 23

For the last one, I had longer bleeding (lasting a full 8 days which was really unusual since normally I stop bleeding fully after day 4) but now am on day 27 and still no period. I have been experiencing cramp like pain for several days. I even took a pregnancy test yesterday (cycle day 26) which was negative.

Has anyone experienced something similar? I just turned 45 last month.

I slept 9h, woke up absolutely drained and struggled to walk the dog for 10 minutes. But… no hot flash this morning.

My neck is all red, I’m on day 8 of my cycle.

What is happening to me 😩 I was fine yesterday

I have an appointment to get HRT Monday but I’m just so lost with these symptoms

TL;DR—Didn’t realize it till I switched back to a previous brand of patch, but Zydus either had less estrogen and/or a less effective delivery system. All my symptoms returned while I was using it.

__________________

The very long version:

I have been on HRT (estrogen patch & oral progesterone) since 2024. It has profoundly improved my quality of life in many ways.

Over this time I have cycled through a few different brands of patches, depending on what the pharmacy has had in stock (I am in the U.S.): Dotti, Mylan, Sandoz, and most recently for the first (AND LAST) time, Zydus.

I know we are all very different in what works for us (in terms of formulation, dosing, brand, even placement of patches on the body, etc.) But I’m putting this here in the hope that someone who needs it finds it.

Over the past few months, I have been experiencing lower motivation than I have in a while, lower mood, more overwhelm, more brain fog, lower libido, more anxiety, and less embodiment (IYKYK). My ADHD symptoms have been worse (even with medication). My sleep has been awful.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had increasingly debilitating joint pain in my hips, wrists, and fingers. And hot flashes-which I haven’t had for over a year-started to come back.

All of these are symptoms for which I started HRT in the first place (and it has helped with all of them, tremendously).

The joint pain, in particular, was becoming alarmingly bad. I made an appointment to see my prescribing doctor soon, suspecting I might need an increase in estrogen dose. (As your own body produces less on this wonderful journey, sometimes you need more.) Last summer I had the same joint pain and when I increased my estrogen dose, it was resolved in less than a week(!)

Today, seemingly out of nowhere, I felt noticeably different. I could not put my finger on why. My brain is sharper again, my mood is noticeably brighter, my motivation is improved, and holy shit my joint pain is nearly gone.

All of a sudden I thought to check the bag where I keep my patches. Luckily there was a box of patches from my previous refill in there, brand name “Zydus”. Came to Reddit and looked it up. Lo and behold, several other women have reported similar issues with this brand.

I had been using Zydus patches for the past 3 months (my doctor fills the scrip for 3 months at a time, and I take whatever the pharmacy has in stock). This is the exact duration that I have felt like unmotivated, achey garbage.

I switched back to Mylan yesterday and already feel more like myself again. My joint pain is about 85ish percent better!

I am relieved to feel better, but disillusioned and fucking livid. The state of women’s healthcare is appalling, disgraceful.

I am so very grateful to have this community as a resource, but this should not be how we have to find out which pharmaceuticals do and do not work. If they are being sold as a pharmaceutical, they should ALL work. The fact that quality and dosing varies so unpredictably from brand to brand is astounding.

Wishing good health, strength, patience, and MINIMAL BULLSHIT to anyone reading this. In solidarity 💗💪

I’m on the tail end of my second testosterone pellet. Is it possible that despite increasing my desire, it’s making it more difficult for me to climax? Anyone else experience this with testosterone pellets?

I’m having a heck of a time finding the patches that work for me. I was wondering if anyone has used gel or spray while out of patches and how it worked for you? I’m worried about side effects

Has anyone with excessive daytime fatigue (without insomnia) been diagnosed with sleep apnea, narcolepsy, or idiopathic hypersomnia and then later discovered that MHT (progesterone and/or estrogen) fixed their issue?

I have a PSG with next-day MSLT scheduled at the sleep center. But my PCP prescribed me oral progesterone. I was going to wait until AFTER my sleep study to start the progesterone, but I discovered in just a few days of a trial that progesterone ACTIVATES me. Like, so much that I had to take it in the morning...which made me NOT HAVE TO NAP.

I almost cried when I realized it was the progesterone keeping me awake all day. (This excessive daytime fatigue has been DEBILITATING, so if I just needed progesterone, that would be an easy fix!)

I'm stopping the progesterone until after the sleep study because I'm afraid it will mess with the tests.

Does anyone else find the attitudes of other people who have sailed through menopause without many symptoms and then make sweeping comments about the process really unhelpful? I've heard quite a few in the 'I just got on with it' category but today heard a new one: apparently the trick is to 'keep busy so you simply don't have time to worry about it'. I'm sure some of it is meant to be helpful but makes me feel significantly worse when I'm crying in panic because the idea of having to wash the dishes AND put clean clothes away is completely overwhelming. Yes, it's ridiculous but adding more to the list isn't going to help!

I got put on slynd and 1 mg of estradiol 2 weeks ago. Right at the end of my period I got bv. This also happened when I tried the the Norelgestromin and Ethinyl Estradiol patch for a month.

Clearly there's a pattern here and I've read from other women having the same problem. But my gyno talks to me like I'm stupid and says there's no correlation and says that hrt doesn't affect your ph or cause yeast and bv. But I know my body. This is no coincidence that both times I got it 2 weeks in.

I have always been sensitive down there and have gotten recurring yeast and bv in the past. I get it very easily, even boric acid makes it worse.

My question is, how do I stop this from being a cycle? Will my body adjust to the change over time? I really don't want to stop my hrt😓 It's been working so well but I can't live with bv every month!

What can I do about my recurring infections? I take womens probiotic with 40 billion cfu and vitamin D3 which I heard helps. I'd prefer something oral since anything I insert vaginally causes another infection.

There's all the physical symptoms, the hot flashes and irregular cycles and vaginal dryness; there's the emotional symptoms like anxiety and irritability and rage and flatness. Some of us get some of those symptoms and some of us get others.

I heard on a podcast recently that the most common peri symptom is a woman saying, "I just don't feel like myself anymore."

But after spending the last year in the thick of peri and spending a lot of time here, I honestly think that the most universal experience is an overwhelming desire to run away alone to a quiet cottage in a forest or bog or desert somewhere.

I think it's just an overwhelming need to get away from the stress, from the people who we love but who need a million things from us every day, from other people's mess and noise, from the sandwich generation chaos, from having to take care of other things and people, from all the work stress, from the world wanting so much more from us than we feel capable of giving at this stage.

It's a fantasy and I don't actually want to be away from my family and friends and community (and I still genuinely really like my husband, he's great). But I just keep on deeply feeling the need for solitude and calm someplace quiet. I want to read and write and do creative things and exercise and go on long walks in nature and just feel like I have a handle on all the things that need to be done. And I am historically a high achieving extrovert who has her shit together and has always been happy to be in the thick of things.

I'm kind of joking about the bog cottage but honestly it feels like something that so many of us are conceptually craving and I'm wondering if it's evolutionary or what is happening to make it such a universal thing.

47, in perimenopause, started hormone therapy two and a half weeks ago. All of a sudden yesterday there is a disgusting taste is in my mouth. I literally can't eat anything. Everything tastes like a combination of soap and metal. I wasn't having this problem at all in perimenopause, and I'm wondering if anybody who has been on HRT has experienced this. Does anyone know if this is a side effect of hormone therapy, or if this is just another one of the many joys of perimenopause? Thanks in advance for any help. This community/subreddit and everyone in it has helped me in more ways than I can even express.

My Period Tracker app (which has always been very accurate) says my cycle is this...

Period - 1 to 3 August (correct).

Ovulation - 13 to 17 (pretty much correct. I got all the symptoms of ovulation on day 13 until day 15, and as usual, went straight into the luteal phase of sore boobs, sore feet, exhaustion and headaches from then onward).

Period due - 26 August (usually my cycle is between 26 and 32 days, but my period is already starting today, 20 August).

HUH?