What does your gyno say about HRT as a preventative for heart health?

[Anonymous]

Just curious as to various opinions and points of view.

I'm 56 and menopausal for about a year. No serious menopause effects other than insomnia, noticeable fatigue and, my DH would say, the occasional craziness. I have thus far managed to avoid hot flashes and night sweats, although I know that could still happen.

I'm not a high risk for breast cancer; more so for heart disease as it runs in the family. My mother did HRT for almost fifteen years, starting at about my age. I distinctly remember her proclaiming it "the fountain of youth." I plan to discuss this with my doctor at next physical but interested in differing viewpoints as I understand there is no real consensus on this.

[Anonymous]

Talk to your gunk. HRT does nothing to prevent heart disease and they stopped prescribing it for a preventative tool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Talk to your gunk. HRT does nothing to prevent heart disease and they stopped prescribing it for a preventative tool.

Not true. Things have evolved and even some of those medicine info packs don’t tell you all the benefits as they haven’t redone the big studies (after the seriously flawed one where the woman started taking hrt 10 years into menopause instead of starting immediately). There are many benefits. Go to a gyno that is well versed in hrt.

[Anonymous]

I did not do HRT because I knew lots of women with breast cancer and NOT A SINGLE ONE with heart disease.

I do not trust those "studies." Good god, do your research. Go read the actual studies, and make sure they are not funded by the people who make the drugs!! Most of them are, you'll find.

Good luck, OP!

[Anonymous]

After age 74, heart & stroke death rates exceed the total of all cancer deaths combined. It's a disease of aging so the OP has a valid concern. Most women are obsessed with breast cancer to the exclusion of all else. Osteoporosis and frailty will destroy your life as well but nobody talks about those either. You have to decide for yourself. Do you want to feel better and risk a possible cancer or do you want to spend a decade in assisted living and long-term-care. I choose quality vs quantity but that is just me. I have gerontophobia and don't wish to live to old-old age. I live in a medical aid in dying area and a cancer death to me is preferable than living to get Alzheimer's.

[Anonymous]

Age 52, went into surgical menopause at 48. No HRT because of previous issues with endometriosis. Have never had any problems without it, and GYN has never brought it up again.

[Anonymous]

I'm 44 and, really, should get a hysterectomy for various reasons. The one reason I haven't chosen to do so yet (against my GYN's gentle recs) is because they won't let me do HRT afterwards.

OP, my mom also received HRT for over 15 years. She did well on it (even though her mother had breast cancer!) with no signs of cancer or any other disease. She loved it and can't understand why they won't give it to me.

I haven't heard of anyone getting it for awhile, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did not do HRT because I knew lots of women with breast cancer and NOT A SINGLE ONE with heart disease.

I do not trust those "studies." Good god, do your research. Go read the actual studies, and make sure they are not funded by the people who make the drugs!! Most of them are, you'll find.

Good luck, OP!

Okay, listen, NP here, I don't think HRT is good, but just because you anecdotally know "lots of women with breast cancer and NOT A SINGLE ONE with heart disease" doesn't change the fact that far more women die of heart disease than breast cancer. You obviously don't know how to identify and/or read "the actual studies."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 44 and, really, should get a hysterectomy for various reasons. The one reason I haven't chosen to do so yet (against my GYN's gentle recs) is because they won't let me do HRT afterwards.

OP, my mom also received HRT for over 15 years. She did well on it (even though her mother had breast cancer!) with no signs of cancer or any other disease. She loved it and can't understand why they won't give it to me.

I haven't heard of anyone getting it for awhile, unfortunately.

Again, anecdotal. Your doctors aren't always right, but in general they do know more than you do about this stuff.

[Anonymous]

HRT not advisable. Understanding that we are aging, and we lose estrogen is a part of the game. Plastic surgery doesn't make us younger, and HRT also does not...it may delay the symptoms of it, but we will still be old ladies eventually.

[Anonymous]

My mother got breast cancer from it then died in her early 70’s from heart failure. We think the heart problems came from the radiation and chemo, recent studies like the two for her age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did not do HRT because I knew lots of women with breast cancer and NOT A SINGLE ONE with heart disease.

I do not trust those "studies." Good god, do your research. Go read the actual studies, and make sure they are not funded by the people who make the drugs!! Most of them are, you'll find.

Good luck, OP!

Okay, listen, NP here, I don't think HRT is good, but just because you anecdotally know "lots of women with breast cancer and NOT A SINGLE ONE with heart disease" doesn't change the fact that far more women die of heart disease than breast cancer. You obviously don't know how to identify and/or read "the actual studies."

Without hrt I can’t do things like sleep, think, pee or walk without pain and I feel like jumping off a bridge. On hrt I feel just like ‘me’. I can still exercise, I’m happy and I can sleep, behave reasonably around others and do my job. For me hrt is great. I have no side effects 4 years in. I started soon after meno.

[Anonymous]

Is anyone using bio-identical pellets in place of traditional HRT?

[Anonymous]

Do the difficult symptoms recede once you are post-menopausal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone using bio-identical pellets in place of traditional HRT?

It is still HRT. It isn't an alternative, just a different method.