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Advice on using HRT please: What are the pros & cons?

Posted by love4life @love4life, Feb 20, 2019

Dear friends,

please kindly help me make an informed decision regarding HRT (Hormone replacement therapy for menopause). I am not sure whether I should use it. I am 45 years old, and I lost menstrual cycles. I have no gynaecological problems and no menopausal symptoms. Actually, I feel great.
Three years ago, I had total thyroidectomy due to papillary thyroid cancer. I also did RAI therapy. Thanks God, I am completely healed (as this type of cancer is curable due to developments in medicine).
I suspect that I lost cycle a bit earlier due to all these problems with thyroid, as I noticed changes in cycle after RAI therapy.

Anyway, I have to make a decision now on whether to use HRT, not due to menopausal symptoms (I do not have them), but in order to preserve my health for the future. I read the Mayo clinic guideliness, but as it happened in 45 for me (last period when I was 44), I am not sure in which age group I belong. Am I prematurely in menopause or not? If "normal" is between 45-55, what is 44? Should I use it until "normal" age for menopause, which is 51, or everything between 45-55 is normal....meaning....I am almost normal:))) LOL.

I found conflicting research and opinions regarding HRT, especially regarding the risk for breast cancer. For instance, on one site I found information that HRT "increases breast cancer risk by about 75%", while everywhere else it says that there is a risk, but it is small. As I am healed from thyroid cancer, I wish to care about my health and not increase the risk for other cancers.

In particular, I would like to understand whether it is possible to care for my health with other medicine or supplements (like vitamin D, calcium, omega 3-6-9 etc.), instead of HRT?

I would like to understand whether I will miss something important for my health if I avoid taking HRT now.

Sorry for such a long post, but I needed to explain in order to present a clear picture. Thank you so much for your advice.

I wish you all great health and happiness!

🙂

P.S. I included links to sources I mentioned in the post, but had to delete them, as the message could not be posted with links.

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vic83 | @vic83 | Nov 29, 2023

I would only do HRT under doctor's control ... in 1994 before my periods even stopped, the Gyn gave me a prescription and told me to start when my periods stopped. I had no problems. So I did and after a year a new gyn found a large growth. I had to do an unltrasound, MRI and finally laporsocopic surgery to confirm it was a fibroid. At the time I had to change doctors and within the 6 year had gone from 6cm to10cm. One doc wanted to do surgery but I said no and I quit the HRT. Within 3 months the thing shrank back to 6cm on the ultrasound. I don't know what kind of HRT I was on at the time...but that is proof that it caused fibroid growth. I still have the fibroid it has not shrunk much more and it obscures the ultrasound.

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bunnybear | @bunnybear | Nov 29, 2023

HRT does wonders for the skin, prevents sagging and just makes you look younger and feel better. I stopped it once and felt like I aged 20 years. I started estradiol after complete hysterectomy at 60 and am now 83. I have no family history of breast cancer but do have strong family history of strokes and cardiovascular problems. I keep my blood pressure under control. The only negative I have is vaginal discharge, just fluid and no itching or blood, and that has gone on for a long time. I will talk to my gyn in my January appt about this.

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mdw100 | @mdw100 | Nov 29, 2023

I had to jump on this conversation also. I started on perimenopause too early with lots of hot flashes and was prescribed Premarin which I took for two years. It just so happens that I did a lot of reading because I wasn’t doing well and my thyroid had gone haywire. So I started on Bio identical hormone replacement therapy and that saved my life. I’m 69 yo, healthy, people say I’m on my forties; athletic, play pickleball and high energy with great sex life. That’s what BIHRT will do to you and it’s so much healthier than synthetic hormone. I do all three hormones but have a hormone panel testing done always to see what my body needs. Do your reading. It helps your heart, skin, bones and quality of life and much more.

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mdw100 | @mdw100 | Nov 29, 2023
In reply to @lindes "I am almost 80 years old, and I am a medical researcher (PhD) and an intersex..." + (show)
@lindes

I am almost 80 years old, and I am a medical researcher (PhD) and an intersex woman, and still teach a wee bit at a large med school.
Being intersex means for me, my body never made adequate amounts of any sex hormone, and because of this, I take HRT for decades now. These days, all prescribed hormones are bioidentical, and I am still of the opinion that many family doctors have little knowledge about hormones. Men and women have the same hormone receptors, they just need to be stimulated to react to estrogen or testosterone. One does not need any specific medications to remove the metabolized hormones from the body, we have the liver doing this for us.
We all need a certain amount of hormones, including testosterone, to live well and have energy to do our day to day work. The best medical professional who can decide which amounts of hormones would be good for you are endocrinologists. No other medical professional, including myself, has as much knowledge about hormones and our endocrine system as the endocrinologists have. All they other medical professionals can give themselves any fancy name their education in med school was not really geared to the hormone needs of humans.
For me. HRT is a life saver, without it, I would be gone many years ago already! An endocrinologist can analyze your bodies needs and prescribe the right amount and composition of HRT to prevent any DVT or cancer.
Linde

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Totally agree!! I have done a lot of research on this issue also and have been on BIHRT for over 15 years and love what it does for me!! My body also never made enough hormones since at an early age I had my tubes tied which led to cysts in my ovaries and a lot of complication from there on. I which I had the knowledge then that I have now because I’m living the best life ever now and lost many precious years because of the lack of the right amount of hormones.

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