march 6, 2006 i begain HRT. i had a hysterectomy 9 years ago but left my ovaries. until november i was a power house, now i cry all the time and am disfunctional a lot of the time. i have anxiety and the depression that goes with it. i am on .25 mg of xanax 3 x daily .05 mg lexapro (just started this 1 1/2 weeks ago) and have the .075 estradiol patch, take 200 mg prometrium at bedtime along with 12.5 mg ambien cr to sleep. and take 15 mg dhea when i get up. how do i know that these are working - i'm feeling little relief. i freeze all day and sweat all night. how long does it take to get these hormones under control and i get my life back?? today i am starting coq10 enzyme and the b vitamins in hope that they will give me some energy. yesterday i went to the pharmacy and got some female herbal nutrients, they said they would be ok to take with all the other meds but i am a little worried. can anyone help??? any advise??

Hi Menodistressed

Can't comment on the prescriped meds , cos I haven't tried any but I take q10 and b6 also evening primrose oil and omega 3 and I do feel better , as with most tabs it takes about three months to get into your system. I am not feeling perfect , I still have terrible anxiety and can't wait to get through it all but I think these do help, I certainly do not feel as exhausted as I did at the beginning which is something !!

It will get better . Just hang in there

Hi Menodistressed

So sorry you are having such a hard time

It is difficult to be patient when you feel so rotten isn't it? Time just drags - minutes seem like hours when you are anxious and depressed. I hated all the clock watching but I couldnt take my eyes away from it.

I tried HRT for a month or so but was too impatient to give it a fair crack - I have heard 3 months and my Dr said it may take time to find the right type of hormone for me. At the moment I am on diet and exrecise - and I take Zopiclone to sleep. I admit I am not a good tablet taker - I angst about side effects and panic even more - derrrrrrr......

I was full of beans till May last year - then zap - me batteries went flat. I take Evening Primrose and a vitamin tablet, also Calcium every other day. I have read a lot re diet and made sure I have a varied healthy diet - I must be honest - this last week hasnt felt like anything is working BUT I have coped much better and not let it drag me right down to where I was a few months ago.

Must go a min - there is a blasted scratching (hopefully a mouse.....sounds big?) in the roof and I am going to send my hubby up into the loft to find out who it is - he is braver than me!!!

Anyways - you need to give it time - try something you trust and stick with it for a while - PS gave me tons of info to enable me to make decisions about the way I want to handle peri

Must go and sort this mouse...............

Mele

it has only been 5 1/2 weeks since i started on hormones. i talked to a friend of a friend of mine today that also had a horrible time (adrenal fatigue) which is what i have. she said also to not give up and this doctor in oklahoma city that i see only does menopause (poor guy). people from all over the us come to see him so i know he knows what he is doing. he sees me every 2 weeks to check on me, they have increased my hormones twice but once we had to back them back down because it was just to much for me - i am very drug sensitive (i couldn't take pc pills) had to take fertility pills to get pregnant so i've always been on this wild ride of hormones but they have never affected me this way. my kids long for the day when they used to say watch out mom's in her moody rush!!! now they just want me to function. i know it will get better, i just want it now - and it doesn't work like that. if ps wasn't around i'd go nuts not having someone to talk to. all my friends are going thru menopause but only one has any symptoms close to mine. i decided how bad your menopause is - is based on how many kids you have -i have 4 that makes mine 4 times harder than anyone elses - i have a friend that has 7 and she is the only one that comes close to my menopause and we talk often. thanks for your support

Meno,

It is really hard to be patient while going through HELL, isn't it?

I suffered with very bad depression a couple years ago, and getting through the days was torture, truly.

It took almost 3 months to begin to see a difference with the anti-depressant (Lexapro, 10mgs). While waiting, I took Ativan (similar to Xanax) as needed, which was a couple of times a day back then. I was spending most of my time in bed (unable to get up), but at 3 months, could go downstairs for an hour or two at a time. However, by 4 months, the improvement sped up, and I was able to get out of the house and drive, etc.

Don't give up hope! Some of us take a little longer to react to the medications. So long as you are not having any terrible side-effects, I'd keep waiting and hoping...

JJ

JJ-

Do you still take Lexpro? I haven't tried ADs yet but I might. I am feeling awfully low and starting this all over again after such a long break is difficult.

If you aren't taking Lexpro any longer, was it hard to come off?

I am glad you are feeling so much better. I was starting on the boards in 03 and read your posts. Are you in meno now? I can wait till I am. I think I will throw a parry.

Three years of this crap seems like forever. My Mom didn't stop her cycle until she was in her 50's. I hope it doesn't take that long for me.

I have been having 2 cycles a month for the past 3 or four months. One was bad enough.

Again, I am glad you are doing well.

Sandy

Hi Sandy,

I got off the Lexapro during my blissful 3 months last autumn, but had to get back on to the old dosage just before Christmas. Disappointing!

It was not hard at all to come off the Lexapro. I'm on a low dose anyway (10 mgs.) so I took 5 mgs. for about 2 weeks, and was feeling good enough that I occasionally "forgot" these. I can't say I felt a single symptom of withdrawal. I'm lucky to have tolerated the med well, to be helped by it, and to have been able to discontinue it without problems.

Now, I'm staying on until I am officially POST (next October). Oh, yeah - I went ELEVEN MONTHS without a period last year! Then had one in October, while I was actually planning my menopause party!!! Sooo disappointing, as I found the longer I went without a period, the better I felt.

Lexapro doesn't take everything away, but it gets me going each morning, and that's important! I still have cry "jags," or cry urge without tears at times, but not the despondent, scary blues, if that makes sense. And mostly I simply feel quietly lifted.

It's the only med I'm on, as I don't like meds, either!

Good luck to you, Sandy. Hope you get balanced quickly. My last "dip" was nowhere as severe as the first, and I'll pray that's true for you, too.

(((HUGS)))

JJ

JJ-

I am glad you are doing so well. Yes it is disappointing to go 11 months only to have the period return. It is good that your last dip wasn't as bad as the first. I guess mine isn't as bad, it just feels that way because I am so disappointed to have to experience this again. I haven't even missed one period yet. I am so glad you are so close to post.

I wish I was.

I still manage to work and do things around the house I just don't enloy any of it when I feel this way. I keep pushing myself or I would lay in bed all day long.

I can't wait until the change is over.

Sandy

i had been doing so good, he dr had put me on lexapro, it had started to work, however, i am still taking my xanax, i don't go anywhere without it. then last wednesday night the roller coaster took off again with me on it, the hot flashes, cold flashes, the sleeplessness started again. even with the ambien cr i'm only making it until 4:00 in the morning. i want my 10:00 to 8:00 or 9:00 back. i need my sleep or i can't function. i'm back to having to force myself to do things and having my pity parties, but it seems like once i have a drink of dr. pepper my day lightens up. the estrogen patch is not working on me - it keeps coming off so on tuesday i'm asking the dr. for something else. it's just not fair that i didn't see any of this coming, but in hindsight i can look back and all the pieces fit. i keep telling myself i must have really done something bad to be punished with this hell called menopause. i'm just glad i'm not alone in going thru this - if it weren't for power-surge and my friends who are also going thru menopause i don't think i could make it some days. 3 of my 4 kids are coming home for the summer from college - that is in 2 weeks - i must be better by then. i hate it when they see me like this, my work is suffering, my house is suffering, my husband is suffering because i don't want to go anywhere or do anything. if got some herb capsules that have licorice, dong quai, wild yam, black cohash etc in them but i'm afraid to take them with all the other crap i take so i'm waiting until tuesday to talk to the dr about them - the way is see it - it can't hurt since nothing else is working.

Hi Menodsitressed

The sleep thing is a real bummer isnt it - you just cant get the REST - I would love to look forward to going to bed and just sleeping for hours - but no - I have sleep starts and jerks and surges and then give up and take a sleeping tablet just for some peace and quiet - they dont always work but hey - short of having a general anaesthetic I dont know what would with me!! I have had to settle for 4 - 5 hours a good night for the last year now - most of the time it is a lot less than that - and I am still hanging on to sanity by a thread. Even my nightly sleeping tablets dont knock me out longer than 5 hours ever - blimey I do a jig if I get 5 hours in a row!!! I read in the paper the other week that women do get less sleep as they get older and they find it harder to get to sleep (men find it easier and get longer apparently - grrrrrrrrr)

Like you I also had a fairly decent pacth for a few weeks them WHAM - sysmtpoms back to yukky level and felt anxious and weak again - hadnt changed anything in diet or exercise - can only assume hormoones doing their own thing and dragging poor old me along with them.....

I too had problems with the oestrogen patches - they kept falling off - I used a whole packet in a week!!! MInd you I only took HRT for about 3 months and couldnt stand it so stopped it.

I am going with the good diet, exercsie, relaxation, yoga, meditation and herbs (under qualified medical herbalist approach - I have been doing it religiously for 2 months now - and although my symptoms are still there - I am better able to cope with them.

You havent done anything to deserve this - you must believe in yourself and your inner strength to get through this. Your family love you - try and talk to them about how you feel, explain what you are going through. It is a rough journey for some of us but at least we have company along the way.......the worst is not knowing how long the journey is going to take or what we will be like at the end - but we can make the best of it while we are on the road - learn about ourselves, build up our courage and inner strength & make new friends - perhaps even with ourselves! Look after yourself and be your own best friend - treat yourself the way you would like to be treated

Love and hugs from a fellow traveller

Mele