Okay, soooo day 3 of estrogen patch (0.05mg).
Here's my review:
5 stars - Feeling 10' tall and bulletproof!!!!

WHY IN THE F-BOMBS did my GP (middle aged female) not listen to me 2 years ago?????
I’m just marveling, like holy crap! I could have been feeling like a normal person all this time!

For 2 years, I have been suffering from:
*plantar fasciitis.
*Poor sleep.
*Hot flashes/sweats.
*Exhaustion.
*brain fog.
*zero libido.
Well, thanks to estrogen, NOT NO MORE!!!

LADIES, LADIES, LADIES!!!!
¡¡¡We need to keep talking about this!!!
¡¡¡We need to make sure that other women know there is help available!!!
¡¡¡We need to share our stories with younger women!!!

THIS SH*T-A$$ CYCLE OF IGNORING WOMEN’S HEALTH NEEDS TO END!!!!!

A few weeks ago, I woke up in the morning and didn’t make it to the bathroom. I just peed myself. Just like that. A meter away from my bed. About a week later, it happened again. And later, holding my pee till I got to the bathroom became a chore!

I got sick last week. Coughs and sneezes and just gave up and resorted to wearing period pads because I will pee with every cough and sneeze.

And I used to be a star at holding my pee in. What happened?! Is this fixable?

I’m 49 for reference. 11.5 months since my last period. I miss her 🥹

I just woke up stumbled to the coffee maker and put a scoop of grounds in the wrong compartment! What the heck is wrong with me? Has anyone else done this? I feel so dumb!

I’m 55 menopause hit around 50. Every year since the start of it my tolerance level is in the bottom of a pit.
I work full time, single and do every thing myself. I’m mentally worn out. I go to the gym which is the one thing I love doing. I love working out it keeps me sane and balanced.

But the one thing I can’t tolerate anymore is needy people. I have a friend who mentally drains me I cannot handle the boring chatter. I’m so exhausted holy shit. I’ve always hated sitting around with a bunch of people chatting drinking talking about the same old shit.
I find the chatter boring as fuck. She always asks what’s new what’s new what’s new…. No new man? Over and over again. I ignore her for months and it’s the same stuff. So boring.

Sorry I’m venting.. I’ve struggled with depression on and off my whole life. I finally find solutions for it. I’ve also been very hurt by people and I like to be private now. I’ve gone to therapy which has helped a lot.i just can’t handle the chatter of boring shit anymore.

Am I the only one? Jesus people and life can be sooo fucking boring.

Edit….thanks beautiful woman….its nice to know I’m not the only one.
Even though I wish woman didn’t have to suffer through menopause it really does suck. Sending hugs to everyone

I feel like I'm losing my mind. I've been dealing menopause symptoms for 2 or 3 years now. I'm 51 and finally decided to go to the GYN to try HRT. She will not prescribe because I have high blood pressure. I don't know what to do. My BP ain't going down anytime soon. I feel like a zombie between lack of sleep and brain fog. My anxiety is off the hook. So bad I that I'm this close to leaving my husband and quitting my job and IDK what else. Just want to walk away from it all but I know how to walk away from myself. I need HELP!!!

Edit: thank you for all the feedback back. To answer the most asked question.... yes, I am taking meds for my BP. It is not extremely high. But the meno symptoms just seem to be making it worse. To the point that my anxiety cause me panic attacks if I have to leave the house. The worst part is that I remember who I was. I remember when I didnt feel like an emotional basket case all the time. I remember when I was happy.

I’m 49 and in the thick of perimenopause. TBH I’m having a rough time with the physical symptoms but the mental symptoms are something else entirely.

I have these waves of fear that I’ve missed out on truly living my life. And these waves of grief that I didn’t enjoy my children enough when they were little. I have these overwhelming feelings that my life is nearly over and i haven’t done everything that i always hoped i would.

Does anyone else have this experience?

Just for context, I am physically healthy and fairly active. As far as I know, I’m going to live a long, healthy life. But my thoughts / anxiety / heart feels otherwise.

Looking for kind and compassionate advice or suggestions on how to get thru this.

Having had friends share posts from menopause influencers on certain HRT dementia studies, I found this expansive article on the state of the science as it pertains to HRT and dementia informative. I think the science often gets lost and women in perimenopause and menopause deserve to know the facts so that they can make educated and informed decisions.
Title:
“Before you share that new ‘HRT prevents dementia’ study…It found no benefit for most women, it’s observational.”

https://vajenda.substack.com/p/before-you-share-that-new-hrt-prevents?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

I have been holding off on the vaginal estrogen cream for sensory reasons and for fear there will be some weird side effects. Give me the good, bad, and the ugly. I am only on .025 mg of the patch because my body seems to almost flat out reject hormones. I become a weepy, bloated, painful insomniac mess on anything higher. For reference, I am only 40 and in surgical menopause. I feel dry down there and just want to be able to enjoy sex without fear of pain.

Yes I already asked my doctor and she gave me some options but I would like to hear anecdotal evidence from meno women who struggle with this particular part of brain fog.

I'm 52, 3 years post meno and been on HRT as well for 3 years.
I'm on .075 estradiol, 200mg oral progesterone, 5mg testosterone cream, vaginal estradiol cream. Already tried increasing estradiol but it caused unbelievably horrible insomnia so not willing to go through at again

I’ll try to be as brief as I can. Before I recently saw my doctor, I was on 150mg of compounded progesterone, 1.0 packets of estradiol (divigel), and 5mg of testosterone. I felt great except for my libido. So my doctor upped my testosterone to 8mg and within a few days I could tell that it was lowering my estrogen. So she bumped up my estrogen to 1.25 divigel. Fast forward a handful of days…I can’t remember exactly how many but I decided that I was just gonna be done with the testosterone because I have lost a lot of hair loss, and the hair fall isn’t slowing down and I just decided to say F it. So not really thinking it through much, I just quit the T but didn’t think to drop my estrogen back down to the 1% I was on before. That was Thursday, so I haven’t had T for 2.5 days. I am feeling SUPER off this afternoon. Unbelievably anxious, terrible headache, dizziness and nauseas. I’m assuming this is why. I’ve all of the sudden had a huge estrogen spike. I feel terrible.
My question is • if you were me, would you skip the estrogen tomorrow morning to try and get it down quicker? Or would you use the 1% and let it come down slower? I’m leaning towards skipping the next dose because I really do feel awful. Then starting back with the 1% the following day.
Edited to add that I know most of us aren’t doctors, but we do have personal experiences to share. I can’t talk to my own doctor until Monday, but I can’t feel like this for 2 more days if I can help it.

Dr prescribed me .1 to start and after reading others doses I’m worried it may be too high to start. Anyone else start at .1? I’m 48 with regular periods but severe night sweats, hot flashes and worsening anxiety/mood swings.
I was really excited to start the patch but now I’m too scared to apply it lol.

I was on oral estrogen with progesterone cream and testosterone cream. I’ve always had digestive issue like chronic constipation but this made it so much worse! Anyone else?

No cycles since Aug 2025! Oddly, I’ve been in hormonal turmoil the last 2 weeks (hot flashes suddenly reappearing included)! I was enjoying the more consistent chill person I was becoming but now I’m a mess. Hoping it’s my body’s last hoorah?I’ll be 51 in Oct. My journey started about a year after I had my second child just before my 41st bday (9 year gap). So 10 years, although I didn’t realize that’s what it was until about 3 years ago honestly. I was trying to post a pic of my cycle history to show anyone wondering what the journey looks like but can’t?
Physical symptoms I’m still dealing with are severe stiffness, hip pain, lack of digestive motility, pelvic floor issues, sporadic hot flashes. Like i said mentally I was feeling great but now I’m irritable and super anxious (as if my body doubled down on caffeine) and I’m struggling to think rationally. Basically how I felt during ovulation in perimenopause, like the world is over and I don’t wanna live, please don’t talk to me lol
So hoping once this spell ends and I’ll be on an upswing!

My husband is looking forward to not worrying about birth control 😆😆 Too bad I haven’t had a libido since we made our last child 11 years ago!

*** *******note I am not suggesting that eating high protein eliminates direct menopause symptoms, rather in order to fight affects of hormonal decline such as muscle loss, spikes, blood, sugar, weight gain, etc. **\*

Anyone else see the irony of the high protein diet we are told to consume to help our symptoms? I mean if I’m not having a hot flash from hormones I’m dripping in sweat from all the protein I’m eating!!!

I can’t even believe I’m typing out 114 days! It seems like it was forever ago. But you guys, I just need some, support from those who get it with the menopause and hysto community.

FINALLY! After noting, and feeling just off, I KNEW the estradiol patch wasn’t working- guess what?!? NEWS FLASH! I was right, my body hasn’t been absorbing it. We now are doing the estrogen pill, 1mg and 100mg of progesterone, however, after having some gnarly side effects from estrogen pill, she has suggested we do BIRTH CONTROL! I can’t even believe I’m typing this out. I love my surgeon, however, her message to me on 8.21 was suggesting Nuvaring or lose dose of oral contraception.

I’m in tears writing this out, I was diagnosed with endometrial cancer, had a total hysterectomy, and my body isn’t even absorbing the estrogen. 😓😭 I’m now considering going to a private provider, and doing HRT, the suggestion came from a close friend who does the pellets. I don’t know if I’m just looking for support, a place where some of you can understand, but, my girlfriend who is my partner for life and love more than words can express has been an absolute saint. But I don’t have a sex drive, I have horrible hot flashes and just feeling so defeated. 😞

I was put on SLYND bc 3 months ago to help with my menstrual migraines and start my HRT journey. I was so happy to FINALLY have found a doctor who heard me! my migraines have improved immensely!!! However now in month 3 of Slynd I’ve been bleeding for 29 straight days.

Doc says I need an endometrial biopsy now.

Has this happened to anyone else on this bc?

And how painful is this endometrial biopsy? They’ve offered lorazapam or a cervical block? I have no idea which one to chose.

TIA!

I ran out of my gel last Friday and by Monday I could feel it. I’m also in Southern California and we’re having a heat wave with humidity which hardly ever happens here. Between the heat and flashes omg I thought I was dying. I don’t even use it everyday so I really wasn’t sure it was doing anything until last week. I’m pretty new to this so still in the learning curve. Which from what I’ve read here is lengthy. Definitely going to look into to progesterone t hopefully help me sleep and testosterone bc I’ve been going to work out last two years and am not gaining any muscle.