2022 - A year of HRT - Part 2: April to June

October is Menopause Month so here is part 2 of my year on HRT. If you've missed seeing Part 1 I'd recommend that you read it before continuing with this post. 

My birthday is the start of April, and this year I turned 53. I’ve tracked my monthly cycle since December 2011, so well over 10 years. I have used an app called WomanLogPro. Not only can you track your period but you can track all aspects of your monthly cycle. Looking back through not only the tracking of my periods but also the symptoms that I was experiencing, plus the knowledge that I have gained, I can see that as early as February 2012 I was having perimenopause symptoms. The issue that I faced, at that time, was that some of the symptoms I was experiencing I didn’t realise were perimenopausal as they just weren’t obvious!

Menopause is such a ‘hot’ topic that I discovered that the app now has a function to put it into menopause mode! Brilliant! I can still track everything that I did before; my symptoms, moods, weight, sex (!) and a whole host of other things.

To understand what your own body is doing you need to get to grips with it. I have mentioned before that I knew that the migraines that I was getting around the age of 43 to 47/48 were cyclical. This was because I was tracking them on this app. I could see that they appeared usually on Day 17. My average cycle at that age was about 26 days. I have recently learnt a bit more about this (read Part 3: July – September, where I’ll go into more detail).

I remember having a conversation with a colleague about hip and knee pain in my mid-40s, which I had; she also had them and had been advised by her doctor that the aches and pains she had were just down to getting older, something that I accepted too. This is correct but what I have come to realise is that these aches and pains become more as our oestrogen levels drop. Another of those ‘flags’ that I hadn’t realised were perimenopause related.

In April, I was muddling through. Coping with ‘spotting’ but also still with the knowledge that things weren’t right. Doing my own research, I realised that I was still missing a piece of the jigsaw. Another hormone, testosterone. Now, I should have known this! Ask anyone of my female friends who knew me in my early to mid-forties, and they would tell you that there were lots of aspects of my life where I thought, and maybe behaved (!) like a man! We go back to the things that we don’t talk about, or skirt around. One being libido. For some a lack of libido may not be a problem, but for me it was, and is! Again, there are several other things that I have since established but I’ll keep them in order, and you’ll read about them in a future post.

I knew that I needed to go back to my GP. I have found a young, female doctor in the practice that had gained some extra knowledge on perimenopause and menopause and was prepared to listen to me and offer HRT. I have therefore wanted to see her as much as possible. I called to make an appointment at the beginning of May and due to holiday and the accessibility of pre-bookable appointments I couldn’t get an appointment until 18 May, but I suppose that’s what you get when you are only prepared to see one doctor!

I knew that the chat with the doctor was not going to be an easy one; she asked how I was getting along with the HRT, which allowed me to broach the subject of testosterone. I cannot even describe her face; she was shocked that I was even asking this. Davina McCall’s second programme; Sex, Myths and the Menopause, had aired on 12 May. My lovely, young doctor went on to say something to the effect of ‘Davina has a lot to answer to’. Now, although I had told a couple of people about this second programme I had not, at that point, watched it myself and bear in mind that I had made the appointment at the beginning of May! I told the doctor this. She then said that testosterone is not licenced, for women, in the UK. Something that I also knew. As I said, I knew that the appointment was not going to be easy, but I had seen that some women were getting testosterone on the NHS. This was not going to be the case for me!

I had steeled myself for the fact that I was going to have to go down the private medicine route, but where do you start? As I have mentioned in Part 1, I am very aware of Dr Louise Newson but also aware that her private practice is in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. Due to the amount of media attention that she has gained her clinic is busy. The likelihood of getting an appointment with her is slim, and there is a waiting list to see any of the other specialists in the clinic. I know that the appointments are over the phone for those who are not close by. I wanted to physically see a specialist.

I asked my doctor for some advice on this, and she advised me to go to the British Menopause Society (BMS) website. I’d never heard of them but then it is aimed at healthcare professionals. The beauty of the sight, from a lay person’s point of view, is that it allows you to search for a BMS menopause specialist. As the site says ‘A BMS menopause specialist is a healthcare professional who holds a recognised menopause educational qualification’; all of which can be seen on their website.

My GP did suggest a menopause specialist who was based in the Norwich area. Having left the appointment, I went back to work and started searching on Google! I did find the Norwich based specialist but then used the BMS website and found a specialist literally 12 miles from home, EveryWoman Health in Huntingdon.

I went straight to the website, read everything about the specialist, Dr Glenys Quartey-Irwin (I'll call her Dr Glenys from now on, as it's just easier!) and established that the clinic had only been open since the beginning of the year. After a discussion with my husband, I decided to book an appointment. The first one available was 12 July, 8 weeks ahead. Dr Glenys only runs her clinic two days a week, so it was what it was. As part of the appointment process, I completed 2 online questionnaires; it was all really straightforward to do. There was obviously a cost to booking the appointment, but it was something that I was prepared to do. Her fees are readily available to see on her website. I am in a position where I can afford this route; others aren't so lucky and I know that part of the 'menopause movement' is trying to make HRT accessible for all. 

On Saturday 21 May I received an email from Dr Glenys asking me to complete a questionnaire. When I booked the appointment, I hadn’t used my middle name (which isn’t actually my middle name; that’s another story!) but when I completed the form I had. Once I’d told her that I had already completed one she told me that the system had seen that I was two different people. She sorted this and then came back to me and advised that as I was already on HRT that I should have some blood tests before my appointment. This would allow her to have all the information that she would need prior to us meeting.

I paid for the blood tests, then called the company who facilitated this on the Monday and booked the blood tests two weeks before my appointment, so the end of June. This was to make sure that the results would be with the doctor by the time of my appointment. All I had to do now was to wait for the blood test appointment and then the specialist appointment.

On Friday 24 June, we went to a performance of Romeo and Juliet at The George Hotel, in Huntingdon. We'd been invited by our accountants. What started off as a lovely evening with a buffet meal at their office and then a sedate walk down to the hotel to watch the play turned into a nightmare! What happened is the tale of a 'Hollywood' script and deserves to have a blog post on it's own, so I will give it one! 

A spa weekend away with my best friend, at Aqua Sana, was a fantastic way to get over the excitement of the previous evening, spend time with her; an early 40th birthday present, and just relax before another hectic week!

On Tuesday 28 June I had my blood tests, I could tell a tale here, but I’m not going to. Let’s just say that something that should have been so simple ended up being a farce! The following day I received an email from Dr Glenys with the results. Although there was a partial explanation, what I read concerned me. I was apprehensive that what I was reading meant that what I was feeling was going to be diminished by the blood test results. Obviously, I’m no doctor or a specialist, so I’d just have to wait until my appointment. Easier to say than do!

During April, May and June there were supply issues with the Sandrena gel, so much so that the 1mg was not available from my chemist for more than 4 weeks. By the end of June I was running out of gel with no sign of the Sandrena being available. This resulted in the pharmacy suggesting that they could change the prescription to a patch. If they did this then I would lose the Sandrena prescription, which I most definitely didn’t want to do! I made contact with the doctor’s surgery and asked for a phone call. Having explained the situation, my GP agreed to send through a prescription for the Evorel 75 patch. This was the correct patch/dose equivalent of my 1.5mg Sandrena. I was prescribed a month’s supply and we discussed that it would be there as backup if there were supply issues with the Sandrena again.

In 2022 - A Year of HRT - Part 3 I will talk more about this and obviously my specialist appointment! 

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!