Menopause and hormone replacement. sm

I am 3 years from my last period and have refrained from taking hormones because of a family history of breast and uterine cancer in my mother.  I have not felt well for some time and have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia.  My GYN thinks that bio-identical hormones would make me feel more myself but I have been reluctant to take them.  For those of you taking hormones..do they make you feel a lot better?  Thanks for any advice.

• Menopause and hormone replacement. sm - help
  • 49 and on Vivelle. dot - FT MT
  • Did you have saliva test for hormones? ..see message - anon
  • Climara low dose patch - 48 and hormonally challenged
  • hormone replacement therapy - Kathie
    • I agree with you...... - Rita
      • Best care of their horses? - Romey
        • thank you for expressing that...sm - none
          • Thank you so much - Romey
    • Well, I had a different experience from --sm - none
      • I'm tending to agree with "different experience" (sm) - not menopausal yet but . . .
        • I have had symptoms for over 30 years! - At Home MT
          • HRT - Paula
      • Premarin Mares - romey

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but it might be something to consider.  I went through menopause relatively early, and I had horrible hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, etc.  I remember once I received an email from my boss asking me to spend the day working on my secondary account, and I sat here crying, knowing that what she really meant was that I wasn't good enough to work on my primary account.  Looking back, it is funny, but it was not so funny then.  I felt like I was going crazy.   

I finally broke down and saw an OB/GYN.  She is an advocate of natural hormone replacement, but gave me a book to read about it and in the meantime gave me estrogen patches and progesterone pills, and it was a godsend.  I got through the tough times, and now I take nothing.

It sounds like you have a lot going on, and if you could get rid of the menopausal symptoms, maybe you could see things a bit more clearly and address those issues as well.  It is tough to uproot your life and move away from friends and family.  My heart goes out to you.

Good luck to you.  It will get better. 

Check out this site for natural hormone replacement.  www.womensinternational.com (There isn't anything international about this pharmacy - in Arizona).  Anyway, you can learn about natural hormones here, get referrals and books and just some really good information. 

p.s.  I get my hormones through a naturopathic doc (ND), but some holistic docs (MD) give them out too.    

I got married last December and moved from the south to California with husband, stayed for 5 months and moved to Oklahoma where he will be pastoring a church.  All my family is back south.  My doctor told me I was menopausal back in January of this year, but still having periods off and on and now spotting.  I am so super sensitive, mood swings, crying spells, feeling neglected, easily offended, missing the closeness of my family back home, my kids and grandkids.  I love my husband and he is good to me, although does get on my nerves a lot lately and we have had some major clashes, and I'm feeling like the "honey" is gone out of the moonr.  I have been contemplating just leaving him and going back to my home in the south.  But for fear of humiliation, shame and embarrassment of what the hometown folks and church folks will say, not to mention "I don't believe in divorce."  One part of me is saying "this will pass as it is just the menopause I am going throug, but other side is saying "I'd be better off by myself.'  Anyone have gone through natural menopause and went through changes such as mine, or is this a natural occurrence for someone going through such life-changing events within the past 9 months, marriage, moved 2 different times to differing parts of the US, plus married to a minister, plus going through menopause.   

I am getting lots and lots of hot flashes, uggggh 

but along with this I am very thirsty during the hot flash.  Anyone else going through this and have this symptom?

I just turned 45 and have ZERO symptoms of menopause as far as I can tell.  No hot flashes, no heavy/irregular periods, no unpredictable cycles, normal length etc.  BUT... I have noticed in the last 5 yrs or so that I get some intense PMS symptoms in the 2 weeks before my period.  My breasts get REALLY sore and my "mean quotient" goes WAY up.  It's as if I've filed my tongue.  I don't know how much of the mean I really let out, but I sure feel it inside.  I feel all tied up in knots, crabby, trivial things bugging me way more than they should, etc.  I've got a teenager and 2 preteens, so that doesn't help either as my life is obviously less than "tranquil" most of the time.  I mean, I'm not sitting around evenings relaxing and cross stitching in front of a good TV show like a mom whose done raising kids, I'm doing "mom" stuff still at 45. 

So, I decided to make an appointment with the GYN and talk about what could help me.  I've already cut out the caffeine and tried some of the natural remedies, but nothing helps.  I just KNOW she'll want to put me on The Pill, but do I really want to take that at my age when I don't need to (tubes tied), risk getting fat and having migraines come back?  I don't think so.  What about anti-depressants?  Is that something like to be recommended to me.  I'm not depressed, I'm happy as a clam as long as I'm not premenstrual.  What should I ask for, or expect?

Since I pick up and deliver I need to find replacements locally and my accounts do not realy like to go with anyone else.  If it is less than 3 days they ask that they hold it until I come back, when that is 4 docs it gets a little rushed when I return.  Finally took 3 work days off this summer with a weekend and they said that they would rather wait a day or two for the dictation than get someone else they did not know.   But I do have some back up if it is a week or so but that hasn't been in the past five years.   If I get sick, again they are very considerate and wait for the work.  Have had these 4 accounts for 5 to 15 years so we have a history and they are happy with my work.   So usually if you have been doing their dictation for a while they will work with you for a few days or illness.  I mean, they take vacations and time off and we don't get paid.   Like I have said many times, my accounts are really pretty good to me and but I provide a very good service and some extras and so we treat each other pretty equal.

Patti