2022 - A Year of HRT - Part 1: January to March

This post was going to be a long read! So much so that in July, I decided that as I’d been writing and amending it so many times since I posted my last blog in December 2021, A moment in time, that I needed to break it down into smaller chunks. This is the first of what will be four parts where I will catalogue my journey with HRT through 2022.

2022 – A year of HRT – Part 1: January to March

On Wednesday 12 January, I saw some highlights of Dr Louise Newson and Lisa Snowden's interview on This Morning and then watched the 16-minute interview the following morning. There were some really good points raised about the menopause, perimenopause, and HRT.

It got me thinking. Lisa Snowden stated that she started having symptoms at the age of 42 and she had no knowledge of menopause or perimenopause.

I was completely different. In my late 20's and early 30's I was a stay-at-home mum. Anyone who knew me then would laugh at the 'timetable' that was my life. One thing that I did do, at a certain point, was exercise on a rebounder for an hour a day. Not anything like the Bounce™ classes that I have been to in the last couple of years, just gentle rebounding and I generally used that time to watch Oprah! 

Oprah is 68 years old, so back when I was watching her in the early 2000's she would have been in her mid-40's so perimenopause and menopause would have been on her radar. I remember watching a programme where I was first introduced to the term perimenopause. Unlike Lisa Snowden who had no knowledge of this or really of the menopause, I was fully aware that I could be perimenopausal for possibly a decade before I then became menopausal. I even bought a book that Oprah suggested should be read. The idea was good, but the book remains unread, even to this day! In the following 20+ years I have bought several books on menopause always with the intention of reading them but guess what (?!) they have remained unread! I will come back to this in Part 3!

The difference that I faced was a general belief that I couldn’t ask for HRT and that if I did, I would be sent packing. Also, it took me a number of years to realise that some of the ‘flags’ were perimenopause symptoms. I am not someone who goes to see a doctor regularly. Over the past nine months I have seen healthcare professionals more than I have in the previous 5 years!

So, let’s get back to HRT; as I stated in A moment in time I started HRT on 12 November 2021. My NHS GP advised that the Gold standard in HRT was an oestrogen gel (Sandrena) and as I still have my uterus I would need progesterone too and that this should be supplied through the Mirena coil. I’d not heard anything from my practice two weeks after my physical appointment. I called and established that there was a waiting list of around three months to have the coil fitted! Having made the decision to start HRT, I wasn’t satisfied with waiting that long. After a phone consultation with the GP, she prescribed the progesterone in tablet form (100mg of Utrogestan) and 1mg of Sandrena. As I have previously said, within five days I noticed an almost immediate difference; muscle aches and pains disappeared, my mood was better and my attitude towards certain things was improved.

The Sandrena gel comes in a little silver sachet. I was squeezing this into my hand then putting it onto my outer thigh, alternating each night onto a different leg (if I could remember which leg I’d done the night before!). You should not rub the gel in as you do a moisturiser so as soon as I’d put it on, I was then washing my hands, so as not to transfer it onto anything or my husband! I saw a post on Instagram where someone suggested using a spatula. I found some fantastic small spatulas on Amazon. So, squeeze the sachet onto the spatula and then apply to my thigh. Easy, clean and trouble free! Although it would take about 30 minutes for the gel to ‘dry’.

When I started taking the progesterone tablet and applying the gel, I was two weeks off not having a ‘bleed’ for a year. The GP and I agreed that I should be on ‘continuous HRT’ as I was so close to the ‘magic’ year. At no point did I have any breakthrough bleeding, which I had been advised might happen, and the only adverse reaction was that I noticed that about 30 minutes after taking the Utrogestan, I got stomach cramps; nothing too severe, just like a mild period pain. Also, not a huge issue as I had been advised to take the pill and apply the gel at night-time, so I was falling asleep fairly quickly after taking it.

Some of the issues that surround perimenopause and menopause are about sharing experience and details. I am using this blog to share details, some of which might not make for pleasant reading; it’s my experience but does need to be shared.

On 24 January I had the Mirena coil fitted and stopped taking the Utrogestan. I expected to have some bleeding, due to how it is fitted. I’ve heard lots of negative comments about having a coil fitted. I can’t say that it was a pleasant experience, but it could have been worse! I do think that if I was a younger woman and had not had children this would have been completely different. When you have children you just tend to take ‘painful’ things in your stride. I had niggle bleeding for the first week and then a ‘proper’ bleed for at least 4 weeks. Bear in mind that I hadn’t had a bleed for 14 months to this point, so this was a little bit of a shock. I continued to bleed for approximately 16 weeks; not enough to worry about but enough that I did have to use a panty liner every day. I had a couple of chats with the GP and was told that it could take around six months for my hormones to settle down. I was reaching a point where I was going to ask to have the coil removed when it did settle down.

The breakthrough bleeding that I’d been warned about when starting HRT hadn’t materialised but change to the coil and naively, I’d expected that to still be the case; how wrong was I!

Four weeks after having the coil fitted, I had an appointment, with a nurse, to check its status. There were a couple of questions that I had which required a GP’s input. I had a telephone call and discussed that some of my symptoms had re-appeared; I was grumpier than I had been, to name just one. The GP increased my dose of Sandrena to 1.5mg.

As I’m over 50 I now have 3-yearly breast screening. This took place at the end of March and no issues were raised at this screening.

I follow several menopause specialists on Instagram as well as being part of forums/pages on Facebook. All of these I find really useful. You get an understanding that you are not the only one going through what you are plus hints and tips. Dr Louise Newson, @menopause_doctor, and the Balance app that she set up are amazing tools. I would advise everyone to download it. You can track your symptoms, and the articles on the app/website www.balance-menopause.com are invaluable plus the YouTube channel, balance Menopause. I also follow Dr Naomi Potter, @drmenopausecare, and also find everything that she has to say really informative. Dr Potter does a mid-week live Instagram with Lisa Snowden and they have recently created a YouTube channel called Menopause Madness. Davina McCall's new book, Menopausing, has also been written with Dr Naomi Potter.

As I approached the end of March, having been on HRT for just over four months, I still didn’t feel quite right. I knew that it wouldn’t be a magic fix and I also think that the daily bleed, though only slight, was getting me down. One of the biggest problems that we as women have is that we really don’t talk about this kind of thing. We start our monthly cycle and it’s something that we accept/put up with, along with all the pains and issues that go with them. I am of a generation where it just wasn’t really talked about. One thing that is happening is that prominent women, Davina McCall, Lisa Snowden, to name just two, are bringing perimenopause and menopause into the open. To be discussed. As the mother of boys, I didn’t have to have the ‘period’ conversation, but I have been very vocal about perimenopause with them. Mainly because at some point they may have a woman in their life who would go through it! I wanted them to have some understanding and to be supportive of their partner when that time comes.

If you want to continue reading how my year has gone, please read Part 2: April to June, Part 3: July to September and finally Part 4: October to December. Depending on when you are reading this they may or may not have been posted!

A moment in time

In the blink of an eye 10 years have gone by. On this day, 10 years ago, I reached my WW Goal weight. I'd been on a mission, I had a wedding that I was going to and it took me 5 months to reach my goal. 

We all know what a strange year 2020 was for the whole world and and as we head towards the end of 2021 we are still not out of the woods with COVID-19. 

On 1st January 2020 I was in a great place; my first granchild was just over two weeks old, our business was moving in a direction that we wanted it to and I had decided that I needed to take control of my eating. We were away on holiday so, new year's resolutions aside, I knew that I would not be making any real changes until we got home. 

I stood on the scales on 4th January 2020 and I was 4 stone (56 pounds) over my WW goal weight. A weight that I had not seen in over 20 years and way above where I'd started on that journey 8/9 years previously. As I have said in previous posts I am unsure whether, as I have got older, this goal weight is realistic, but that is something that did not need thinking about at this time! What needed to be thought about was that control was gone and I needed to gain some back!

I always do better staying in control when I have a target. At the start of 2020 this was a 50th Wedding Anniversary party in mid March; this was cancelled with the imminent threat that COVID-19 presented. As we went into the first UK Lockdown on 23 March I had managed to lose 14 pounds; not bad for 11 weeks, a steady one pound a week loss.

I have read many varied accounts about people taking control of their lives and those who lost all control during the various lockdowns that we had. I very firmly fall into the latter camp! Running your own business, not being able to operate that business and wondering if it will still be viable were all things that put an end to any of the good 'gains' that I had made. Coupled with not being able to see family and friends, being able to touch and hug, all added to firmly losing control; not just of food but of many things.

I started, again, in January 2021 determined that as I approached the age of 52 I would take back control. I did make it to my birthday (2 April) but I was hit with an unexpected wall in mid April. My focus was needed elsewhere. As many who struggle with weight loss would attest to you have to be selfish and it is very easy to put everyone before you. Once a mother, always a mother and when your child needs you, even as an adult, you do everything you can to help.

In mid October, I watched Davina McCall: Sex, Myths and Menopause. I had recorded it when it first aired on Channel 4 on 12 May but had wanted to watch it with my husband and had not been in a place where I could.  For the last 6+ years I have been talking about perimenopause to anyone and everyone who would and wouldn't listen! 

I have previously blogged about the many symptoms of perimenopause and menopause in my blog Trust me! When I wrote that blog in August 2015 I had 18 of the 40 that are on this list. To date, I can say that I have now experienced at least 23. I went to see a GP in April 2015 as my headaches/migraines were so bad. I can't remember when I first went to the GP to talk about my perimenopause symptoms but I cannot believe that in that appointment that I didn't discuss the fact that I knew that they were cyclical and therefore hormone related. At a subsequent appointment with a medical professional I was prescribed anti-depressants. No talk of HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy)! I took these on and off for about 18 months but something didn't feel right. They were masking other issues! I no longer have migraines but other symptoms have taken over! 

October is Menopause month in the UK and Davina McCall, via Instagram, was posting daily symptoms related to menopause and perimenopause. Several posts hit home and one on weight gain grabbed my attention. Davina said, 'I often get asked if hrt makes u lose weight. It doesn't. But, it might give you the energy to want to do something about it.' Another on Electric Shock Syndrome (ESS) made me make a call to my GP. I was experiencing something like this which in the back of my mind was perimenopausal but reading this post confirmed it. My last period was 28th November 2020, so I was on the cusp of that magic year being period free. 

This last year has seen a huge campaign in the UK to dispel some myths around HRT and the get women the support they need whilst going through the menopause.

After a tearful telephone appointment with a female GP she agreed to send me links to some HRT information and an appointment was booked for a week later. At the same time I weighed up my options regarding weight loss. As I have blogged before, I have been following a variant of the WeightWatchers (now WW) since my early 20s. I am aware that many people now follow the Slimming World plan but I CANNOT eat food that makes a 'treat' a 'syn'. I know that it's psychological but I want to be able to eat whatever I want without ever feeling guilty about it.

On Monday 8th November I weighed myself, it had been a while; then I opened the WW app. (The app has never been off my phone in the 7 years since I downloaded it!) Oh no! it's that time of year when WW 'mess' with everything that you know! I do say that with a hint of sarcasm; the WW plan is usually modified every 2 years due to advances in science. I took the quiz and read everything about 'PersonalPoints'. 

Initial thoughts  . . . I can't do this! I looked at this new way for 5 days. Every time I took the questionnaire it changed my daily allowance! If I'm honest I couldn't see that it would work but I needed to do something. What I would say is that having read all the information provided by WW, 'PersonalPoints' is, in my mind, all about planning. Something that I have always advocated and even blogged about before.

I started on HRT on Friday 12th November. I sat and planned all my meals (and snacks) for the following week. Stood on the scales on Saturday 13th November; nearly back to the weight of 4th January 2020, but not quite! 

So, here we are on the 4th December 2021, 10 years after I reached my WW Goal weight! I am 3 weeks into HRT and restarting WW on my own PersonalPoints. I can already tell the difference that HRT has made; little gains like being able to walk down the stairs in the morning without painful ankles. This might actually lead to being able to go for long walks again (fingers crossed!). Something that I used to enjoy but have fallen out of love with. I have dropped 7 pounds. I have gone swimming weekly; little steps! I feel motivated. I have more energy and after speaking to the doctor yesterday I hope that things will only get better; she has suggested that it might take 6/8 weeks for the HRT to really take effect.

HRT may not be for everyone but if you have just a few of the symptoms listed above speak to your doctor. I wish that I had been more forceful 6 years ago.

As I said at the start of this post, I do better when I have something to aim towards. That's a foreign holiday (what's one of those?!) in November 2022. A year to lose and maintain some weight. A year of HRT and let's hope some motivation to start exercising again! 

Here's to my 50's!

Start as you mean to go on

As I write this it's the ninth day of the year. How is it going for you? Did you make new year's resolutions and if you did how are they doing?

I didn't make any resolutions, as such, but you will have seen that I blogged about saving and also having a jar of happy thoughts. At the end of the first proper week I can confirm that there is £1 in the money jar and four notes in my thoughts jar. I best keep this going for at least the month of January!

I got back on the scales this week, the first time in three weeks. I had gained a pound over the Christmas and New Year period which was fine by me. The decision to re-join weightwatchers before Christmas was a 'smart' one as I know that the pound gain would have been significantly more had I not!

So how are SmartPoints going?? Well I started off really well. I even managed to get through Christmas Day tracking and sticking to my daily allowance. I went for a 9.5 mile walk on Christmas morning which was great. The problem started when I opened my Christmas presents and discovered that I had been given four Terry's Chocolate Orange's! Once I had established that they were 48sp each there was no way that they were going to be tracked. The combination of that and having teenagers and twenty somethings in your house over the holiday period meant that I could easily be lead astray. #dominos 

I didn't actually start properly tracking until Monday so I think a one pound gain is not bad.

So what else have I done this week? I am not sure if I have mentioned but I live approximately one mile from where I work and had got back into the habit of driving to work. Not a good one! The new year meant being back at work and the decision to walk to work again, rain or shine. Thursday I could very easily have just gotten in the car but I didn't! I have walked to work four out of five times this week and the fifth time I had to take my car as I had to drive to an appointment.

I set myself a target of 12,000 steps a day and I have succeeded in doing that every day this week. As a Fitbit user I was asked to join two Workweek Hustle's; this is were you challenge other Fitbit users to hopefully help push you to do a little bit more. One of the challenges I know the person who invited me to join; I came second out of nine people taking part. In the second one I don't actually personally know anyone in the challenge; they are all just first names to me. I came first out of eight people in this challenge.

The Workweek Hustle is exactly what it says on the tin; the working week (Monday to Friday). I walked a total of 63,164 steps during this period. Not bad for someone who sits at a desk for a fair amount of the day!

The final thing that I did this week was to invest in the latest Davina fitness DVD; 5 Week Fit. I sat on Friday night and watched it through with my best friend! I need to be told what to do and what I like about this latest Davina exercise DVD is that it is a 5 week plan; structured with what to do and when. I will be starting this next week as it will be a great introduction before I start my Moonwalk training in earnest in approximately six weeks time. The only problem with Davina is that I have many of her mannerisms and I can see myself doing things that she does!

I am getting to grips better with SmartPoints, making better choices. I mentioned that my Saturday night pizza was now off the menu as it was a ridiculous amount of SmartPoints. I somehow worked it out wrong and I am pleased to announce to those that know what I have that it is only 20sp! I am really happy about this!

So week two starts tomorrow with an eight mile walk. Start as you mean to go on!