u/norton1982

Quick background, I’m 44 and was in perimenopause even before having a hysterectomy leaving my ovaries back in October. Started HRT about 6 weeks after my surgery as had a quick onset of symptoms. Doctor and I have been adjusting my dose ever since and have been having great difficulty in getting me feeling consistent due to my ovaries still producing some hormones. Normally I take 100mg of progesterone (helps with symptoms) and around 1.5 pumps of estrogen.

The big issue is that every 22 days (like clockwork) in what I’m guessing would be the time right before my cycle started (I used to have PPMD) I am having a huge problems with my HRT. During those few days certain symptoms become wildly extreme; my anxiety peaks to a level that is unmanageable, my emotions are out of control and the brain fog has me feeling unstable. It’s like my body and brain are glitchy for a few days. It’s unlike anything I have experienced before. My doctor suggested increasing my progesterone to 200 mg for a week around that time and it did help the symptoms a lot. However it throws my estrogen off where is seems my dose then is to low. so we increase the estrogen too which helped (including a boost of estrogen about 12 hours after) however the problem is switching the hormones causes a big problem in other symptoms for those days. The progesterone helps the anxiety but I sweat through my clothes several times a day for example. Or the anxiety is better but the increase in progesterone makes me so tired I have to sleep all day. We tried tapering up and down for that week (for example progesterone higher dose every two days instead of everyday leading up to it) but it hasn’t made the switch between the doses any easier. The estrogen especially feels difficult to manage when we raise the progesterone as it seems so low but raising it to match the progesterone brings an onset of new symptoms. I feel unstable switching doses but without it, that time when I would be low in my cycle is just two low and I can’t even function (I literally stay in bed for three days and just cry haha). I feel like I’m at my wits end here, anyone dealt with something similar? Thanks!

Even when I’m extremely tired, I keep waking up in the middle of the night. It’s not from night sweats or hot flashes and I take HRT already. I simply wake up and then can’t go back to sleep. My eyes are burning and I’m exhausted! I have followed all the good sleep hygiene tips like dark and cool room, no phone etc but nothing seems to help. Any suggestions on what has worked for you? Thanks!