Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain to me - does HRT just delay in the inevitable? You can't stay on it forever, so what happens, when you go off it, say at age 70? Is it a steep drop-off in wellbeing at that point?

Why couldn't you stay on it forever? If your body stopped producing another hormone, such as insulin, you would replace it and continue to do so for the rest of your life.

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain to me - does HRT just delay in the inevitable? You can't stay on it forever, so what happens, when you go off it, say at age 70? Is it a steep drop-off in wellbeing at that point?

If you choose, you can stay on it forever. My mom did. She told her doc if he didn’t prescribe it she would just buy it from India. He figured it was better regulated here. She was miserable without it, awful hot flashes and depression.

I can’t take HRT because I had breast cancer, but there is a slightly increased risk for the kind I had, lobular. I had no history or significant risk factors beyond dense breasts, so my doc probably would’ve approved me for HRT before I was diagnosed. It’s a tricky thing. But quality of life is very important, and what PPs describe, in terms of peri symptoms, sounds unsustainable.