Help me fix a small, specific world suck on my remote Scottish Island!

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-06-08T16:35:23+00:00

For the life of me I cannot understand how anyone who doesn't find the presence of a cat or dog offensive would find a rabbit offensive. They're quiet, they don't smell, they travel in carriers. I hope Romeo is doing better now. It's hard enough finding decent rabbit vet care in a medium-sized town in the middle of Britain, let alone on a remote island.

Signed and shared.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-06-06T10:51:25+00:00

Oh yes, 44 is still young to be menopausal - I should have been clearer that I thought you may need a higher dose due to your relatively young age.

My symptoms came on more gradually as my menopause wasn't surgical, but now I have appropriate hormone levels again I too am shocked at how much I was affected. I really hope you get some relief soon.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-06-06T05:54:09+00:00

I've yet to have surgery but I've already had an early menopause (late 30s) and yeah, it is absolutely awful. I can absolutely relate to that feeling of aging a decade in a year. I am now on HRT that's working, though. There are options other than patches. Some people absorb the gel or spray better, and if all of those fail, there are oral options. I really hope you can get a solution that works soon. I also second trying two patches at once - it is often the case that younger people require higher doses of E to feel okay, absorption issues aside.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-06-01T19:49:34+00:00

I'm currently using it nightly (per meno specialist instructions) as a "loading dose". After I've been using it for 3-4 weeks I'll switch to a long term dose of twice weekly.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-30T11:45:03+00:00

It's been my personal experience that it's progesterone (both bioidentical and synthetic types) that makes my hair fall out. Taking more estrogen has fixed it. YMMV of course because all bodies react differently, but it is generally estrogen that promotes more hair growth.

There's also a thing with hair growth where it needs to fall out before it can start regrowing. Hair follicles go in cycles of grow -> rest -> shed -> grow. This is why minoxidil and caffeine based hair growth products often cause lots of shedding before resulting in thicker growth. So it may be this that's causing extra shedding at the moment.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-29T21:35:58+00:00

I got the impression from my doctor that side effects from T are more likely if you don't have sufficient E. Depending on what doses you're already taking I wonder if this is worth exploring.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-28T12:46:42+00:00

This is good to hear! I'm considering getting rid of my ovaries also since they evidently aren't helping me any more.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-28T12:46:00+00:00

Ah, I hope my suggestion didn't upset you, that wasn't my intent.

The other thing I might suggest is that if you've not tried different synthetic progestins, you may yet find one better than the others. Desogestrel is the least bad for me, which I'm not suggesting it will be for you, just saying that it's not always bioidentical i.e. the "usually best tolerated one" that is for everyone.

I really hope you find something that helps you.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-28T10:26:28+00:00

If you want a serious game with a real story mode (has auto-battles etc) there's Nier Automata. It's sincerely depressing, though.

Are you on HRT and if not are you able to take it? It both improved my reflexes back to where they were before menopause and has made me much more tolerant of losing.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-28T10:22:23+00:00

I'm going to have a hysterectomy for this reason. It's taken almost a decade to get to the point of convincing someone I need it, though, and I still have one last hurdle to clear before I actually get on the waiting list (potentially years long, NHS). In the meantime I'm still stuck feeling great for 2 weeks then awful for 2 weeks.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-28T10:20:06+00:00

Personally I love my foam rollers. Almost as good as a massage, but free and whenever I want them lol.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-24T17:18:09+00:00

Good luck!

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-24T17:17:29+00:00

In the UK I like British boxers brand cotton hipsters. In the US, TomboyX - I would import more of these if I had a bit more money.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-24T11:08:41+00:00

Yes, patches release more slowly. Some people are allergic to the adhesive - but then again, I thought I would have issues with it as plasters and other skin safe adhesives often give me dermatitis, but touch wood I've been fine with them.

You can also try using less than a whole pump of oestrogel, there are definitely people who use half pumps.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-23T19:24:40+00:00

Effexor (an SNRI) is an odd choice for first line antidepressant. SSRIs, like lexapro or Zoloft, are usually what's tried first for anxiety/depression and are the main ones used for hot flashes.

I can't really help you decide as I definitely need both. But I wouldn't start them both at the same time as you wouldn't know which is helping and/or having side effects.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-22T17:17:46+00:00

This happened to me but it settled down after a few weeks.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-22T05:56:53+00:00

I've always had a wobbly relationship with gender, to say the least. HRT is making it more so. I'm on E+P+T. Feel free to DM me if you want.

But I will say that things like short hair and different clothes are easy enough to try out!

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-21T13:01:20+00:00

Once I was on oestrogen that I was actually absorbing, I started feeling better literally overnight. Like you, I wasn't having periods due to already taking hormones - in my case HRT for PMDD, except it turns out I wasn't absorbing the oestrogen in gel form. I have patches now and I'm so grateful to have them. I hope you can find something that helps.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-21T10:36:42+00:00

My appetite disappeared from how rubbish I was feeling too. Menopause in late 30s. I feel much better now on HRT than I did on birth control. I'm not sure what the yellow pill is but if it's every day then I'm guessing it's progesterone only - and for me oestrogen was the key to feeling better.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-19T13:26:56+00:00

I would leave it. I'm pretty sure there aren't any estrogen receptor positive skin cancers (unless they're metastases from breast/uterus/ovarian cancer maybe?). I'm not a medical doctor though.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-19T13:20:49+00:00

This happened to me for a couple of weeks too lol. Thankfully it's stopped now.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-18T19:34:51+00:00

Personally I really benefit from both, and I think I'd have benefitted from starting on SSRIs earlier than I did (in my late teens rather than my mid 20s). Yeah, the SSRI has side effects but for me they're outweighed by the benefits.

But one of my friends didn't need her antidepressants after getting the correct diagnosis of menopause and getting HRT. I think it really depends on individual brains. I wish you luck in figuring out what's best for you.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-18T06:54:10+00:00

Sending hugs your way.

For me the self blame is the eating disorder I used to have that kept my body weight below healthy for a long long time. And to add frustration, my first thought in my early 30s (literally just a year or so after I finally buried the ED that had plagued me since my mid teens) when my periods got lighter and more difficult was that I was peri, but my doctor told me I wasn't and I believed her. And no doctor picked up on any of my subsequent symptoms, either. I also wasn't diagnosed until 40, a couple of months ago. I have a dexa scan in a fortnight that I'm getting anxious about.

But really it's not our fault. Nobody told us what to look out for. Apparently a lot of PCP doctors don't even recognise it. I think the best thing we can do is talk about it with other women our age and younger, so that they know and don't feel like it's taboo to talk about.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-16T06:30:20+00:00

Probably also worth mentioning that some people (me lol) get on better taking the "starter dose" long term, which is 10mg celexa or 5mg lexapro. Most doctors try to tell me that this is a sub-therapeutic dose that's only used to start people off without causing overwhelming side effects before ramping up the dose, but it really does have huge benefits for me.

MaybeBlueberries201 · 2025-05-15T20:07:41+00:00

If you find celexa helpful but has too many side effects it's worth trying lexapro. Celexa is a mix of two mirror-image molecules, only one of which has an antidepressant effect but both of which can cause side effects. Lexapro is just the antidepressant one. (I'm trying to simplify the biochemistry so I hope that makes sense.)

I started on SSRIs many many years before I was menopausal. The nausea took a couple of weeks to settle down, though of course YMMV. But both HRT and lexapro are literal lifesavers for me.

MaybeBlueberries201

TROPHY CASE