I am 42 years old.  I started noticable menopoause symptoms in late March, Hot Flashes, mood swings and weight gain.  I missed two periods and saw my Doctor.  She suggested Prempro and I've been taking it daily for nearly three weeks.

Since then I have gained between 8 and on some days as much as 15 pounds.  I am retaining fluid, my joints ache, my feet hurt and now after working my part time job as a server in a restaurant this weekend I have red spots on my lower leg several inches above my ankles.  I wore support knee highs Saturday for my Saturday shift after these appeared during my Friday night shift.  They feel itchy but are tender to the touch.Does anyone know what they are and how to prevent them?

Assuming these are from the fluid retention I am  seriously thinking of telling my GYN that there is no way I am going to coninue this medication, unless I can find someway to combat these side effects.  At the least I'll discontinue it until the summer is over.  There is no way I can go through a Washington DC summer wearing clothes that do not fit and wearing pants because my legs are so puffy I am embarrassed to have them be seen.

I am taking extra B6 300mg per day and taking an over the counter diuretic (pamabrom) and I drink about 80 to 100 ounces of water a day.  What else can I do short of quiting the Prempro.

Thanks

I would stop taking the Prempro -- bottom line. You're having all the symptoms anyway that it's supposed to be helping to eliminate, plus I don't like the sound of the red spots on your legs. With all that swelling and weight gain, I would stop using it. Prempro is made of Premain (made from horse urine, which they pass off as natural -- natural for horses, not women) and Provera, a synethic progestin which can give all the symptoms you're complaining of including elevating your blood pressure which you may be dealing with what with all that swelling.

There are many options to using Prempro. You can try naturally compounded, bio-identical, plant derived hormones if you feel you want to, must, need to take hormone therapy. You can try it in very small doses - such as bi-est, estriol and estradiol and a small dose of natural micronized progesterone. They tell us today that we can use 1/2 the amount of the traditionally prescribed dose of hormones and get the same benefits. Take this information to your doctor (I'll have to find the article) and tell her you would like to try low-dose naturally compounded hormones. If any doctor can prescribe synthetic hormones, they can prescribe natural hormones as well and there's no reason why they shouldn't.

Finally, you may not be able to take  hormones. Not everyone can, but I would certainly try the more natural way first in low doses and if that doesn't do enough for your symptoms, it can always be increased.

Then, there's always other ways you can go. Check out the recommendations page of this Web site for more info. You might want to E.mail Pete Hueseman -- pharmaceutical consultant for Power Surge for six years. Pete deals only with naturally compounded hormones. He could certainly advise you which way to go for your specific needs.

Good luck. Wish I'd seen your message earlier.