Menopause/Hormonal Support

[[kr...]]

advice?...im 3yrs off klon. still on 15mg remeron for sleep but i have menopause sx crippling. anxiety etc..dr sais hormones all extremely low. im 53. is it safe after 3yrs to try bhrt? i hear you can do it rest of your life. and that progesterone needs breaks...concerned bout the way prog has a pathway to gaba like klon did. i cantfunction. ps i have bad problem w obsessing too which isnt helping. im afraid of anything anymore even my own thoughts at times. feels like i can only glimps back at the me i used to know. i dont know how much is also me questioning my LT relationship and other life stuff but the oxymoron here is that the hormones can contribute to catastrophizing , being depressed, etc

also have a fibriod my dr is not worried bout last yr and now dicovered benign endo polyp a gyno here in FL did biopsy..no imaging...if it makes a difference

[[Gr...]]

does anyone know the effects of the AZOLE class of antifungal and antibacterials on our hormones and also on us during benzo use?

 

i took clotrimazole cream 2% for 7 days intravaginally for a yeast infection which turned out not to be yeast and made me feel sicker,

then the dr gave me metronidazole "Flagyl" thinking it was a Bacterial Vagnosis...it was not, test came back negative and it made me feel worse.

i even told the dr i wasn't comfortable using more azoles since the first one but that's what i got anways.

then she calls me to say the test was negative for BV and she assumed it was yeast again, and called in Fluconazole "Diflucan" to which i again protested but that's what i got and took it anyways.

it didn't work, made me feel worse.

 

my symptoms since the beginning of this infection have been as if i were tapering my clonazepam but i haven't changed it at all! crazy sweating under pits and in groin area when strong emotions, also irritable, headaches, stomach aches and back/kidney belt area aches and nausea. insomnia, nightmares. crying spells.

 

and the damn infection down there that is unresponsive to antifungals and antibacterials/antibiotics so far...i suspect it is cytolytic vaginosis, the overgrowt of a good bacteria bacillus which maybe was made worse by using plain yogurt and probiotics when they said it was probably a yeast infection.

 

i go in for a wet mount/wet smear on weds to see what the hell is really going on down there. the baking soda douchesand suppositories help the itching go away. but it comes back

 

yes these antifungals made me SO SICK. And each time I took one, it would make me even sicker, faster. 

[[no...]]

does anyone know the effects of the AZOLE class of antifungal and antibacterials on our hormones and also on us during benzo use?

 

i took clotrimazole cream 2% for 7 days intravaginally for a yeast infection which turned out not to be yeast and made me feel sicker,

then the dr gave me metronidazole "Flagyl" thinking it was a Bacterial Vagnosis...it was not, test came back negative and it made me feel worse.

i even told the dr i wasn't comfortable using more azoles since the first one but that's what i got anways.

then she calls me to say the test was negative for BV and she assumed it was yeast again, and called in Fluconazole "Diflucan" to which i again protested but that's what i got and took it anyways.

it didn't work, made me feel worse.

 

my symptoms since the beginning of this infection have been as if i were tapering my clonazepam but i haven't changed it at all! crazy sweating under pits and in groin area when strong emotions, also irritable, headaches, stomach aches and back/kidney belt area aches and nausea. insomnia, nightmares. crying spells.

 

and the damn infection down there that is unresponsive to antifungals and antibacterials/antibiotics so far...i suspect it is cytolytic vaginosis, the overgrowt of a good bacteria bacillus which maybe was made worse by using plain yogurt and probiotics when they said it was probably a yeast infection.

 

i go in for a wet mount/wet smear on weds to see what the hell is really going on down there. the baking soda douchesand suppositories help the itching go away. but it comes back

 

yes these antifungals made me SO SICK. And each time I took one, it would make me even sicker, faster.

you too huh?!! 

well from now on i am never taking antifungals again...nor antibiotics unless it's life threatening. my go around is taking 180 mg of Allicin Max garlicin concentrate capsule 2-3x a day and eating tons of minced garlic and also onions and peppers and basically low-carb diet, no more dairy or lactose and fructose and all those "ose" ending sugars that just convert into glucose in my blood and feed all fungal/yeast/molds in my body.

 

also i just found out, well i learned it a couple years ago while doing keto but i forgot about it, that seroquel  and its metabolites are stored in lipids/fat cells in my body, and are also released back into my bloodstream when i exercise and burn the fat cells/burst the fat cells walls...so yay and nay, but i'll take the benefits of exercise and low carb eating over the negatives of the re-releasing of the metabolites since it's a temporary situation. now i understand why sometimes we feel worse in WD when exercising... but according to what i learned, after the drug and the metabolites from it are gone from the body, when i finish the seroquel taper, it takes around 6month to a year or longer to quit having the nasty effects. so i'm ready.

 

on a side note...my itchy down there situation is almost completely resolved now...the answer  or cure it seems was to quit using anything but my hands to gently wash the inner/outer labia and to use very gentle baby shampoo with no extra chemicals AND to not douche at all...it turns out we have some kind of weird bacteria in our shower where my douche equipment hangs and also my bath gloves and soaps i was using to clean with....it is commonly called "pink mold" but is actually a bacteria found in hospitals and nursing homes etc and even found inside supposedly sterile iv fluids bags! it is found inside the soap dispensers and growing on soaps and fatty oils or where people bathe and wash with soaps...sinks and faucets and especially on nurses with false nails,no matter how short. there's documents by the NIH https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3592283/  and other documenting the chronic antibiotic resistant strain of this bacteria in hospitals worldwide. it is opportunistic and tends to favor catheters, causing UTI's most commonly and also upper respiratory and infections at the point where IV's are inserted. 

 

so this "pink mold" i had cleaned best i could in our shower where there is a leak behind the faucet about a 2-3 weeks before i got the mystery infection down there. didn't think about it untilafter all the labwork came back negative. after i found what the stuff was by googling,  it all made sense. forst of all i used bath gloves wich i left hanging to dry after each shower inside the shower door. i left all of our soaps and washes and shampoo bottles in there too. and the douche bag and tubing hung in there from the shower pipe so water constantly trickled down into it and through the tubing. we had the "pink mold" bacteria on everything in there and never knew. so ev erytime i'd douche, i would be reintroducing that bacteria straight to my most vulnerable areas. everytime i used my bath gloves i was essentially scrubbing away any protective body oils that made it easier for the bacteria to enter my skin there, hence the horrible itching but no yeasty discharge and negative labwork. they weren't looking for that pink mold bacteria ..here lemme look it up... Serratia marcescens ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serratia_marcescens

 

On 26 and 27 September 1950, the U.S. Navy conducted a secret experiment named "Operation Sea-Spray" in which balloons filled with S. marcescens were released and burst over urban areas of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Although the Navy later claimed the bacteria were harmless, beginning on September 29, 11 patients at a local hospital developed very rare, serious urinary tract infections. One of the afflicted patients, Edward J. Nevin, died. [27] Cases of pneumonia in San Francisco also increased after S. marcescens was released.[28][29]

 

Possible role in medieval miracles

 

"Bloody bread": S. marcescens growing on bread

Because of its red pigmentation, caused by expression of the pigment prodigiosin,[22] and its ability to grow on bread, S. marcescens has been evoked as a naturalistic explanation of medieval accounts of the "miraculous" appearance of blood on the Corporal of Bolsena.[22] This followed celebration of a mass at Bolsena in 1263, led by a Bohemian priest who had doubts concerning transubstantiation, or the turning of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ during the mass. During the mass, the Eucharist appeared to bleed and each time the priest wiped away the blood, more would appear.[22] This event is celebrated in a fresco in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City, painted by Raphael.[23]

 

Pathogenicity

 

The antibiogram of S. marcescens on Mueller-Hinton agar

In humans, S. marcescens can cause an opportunistic infection in several sites,[14] including the urinary tract, respiratory tract, wounds,[7] and the eye, where it may cause conjunctivitis, keratitis, endophthalmitis, and tear duct infections.[15] It is also a rare cause of endocarditis and osteomyelitis (particularly in people who use intravenous drugs recreationally), pneumonia, and meningitis.[6][7] Most S. marcescens strains are resistant to several antibiotics because of the presence of R-factors, which are a type of plasmid that carry one or more genes that encode resistance; all are considered intrinsically resistant to ampicillin, macrolides, and first-generation cephalosporins (such as cephalexin).[6]

 

i have had so many UTI's in the past few years (using the same douche equipment also) and cephalexin cephalosporins and amoxicillin and others did not stop them. now i know why!  and the cytolytic vaginosis, with the weird symptom of shedding pieces of vaginal skin lining, fits this so perfectly...the lysis of cells of my vaginal lining isbasically the bursting of the cell walls due to the intake of too much "ose" fructose lactose sucrose etc basically all carbs breaking down into glucose in my blood, giving rise to the CV not Bacterial Vaginosis, and the recurrent UTI's. so it all boils down to me eating too many carbs in breads pastas flours and starchy veggies like potatoes and of course blatant sugars like sweets and fruit juices and even too many fruits and everything in my diet i love the taste of  haha..plus the added insult to injury of the re-exposure t o the pink mold bacteria in my shower and douche equipment everytime i bathed and it equals the mystery infection i had until i went low carb and quit douching and using soap down there. going low carb (under 100 and preferably under 50carbs a day) starves the cells of glucose and forces the body to burn fat as energy, helping release toxins and also removing the storage souce for those metabolites so they just get flushed out with the urine instead of staying stuck in us. it's tricky because i don't eat meat except for fish, but it's doable if i just stick to the plan and quit giving in to my sweet tooth.

 

this has been frustrating, but at least now i know the cause, the name of the condition, the actual bacteria involved and how to prevent it.

not one single doctor helped me.

 

all praise to Google! haha

i am my own doctor now.

 

well i knew i shouldn't be eating all that crap and that i was ignoring the advice of letting my vagina cleanse itself naturally.  but you know, i was raised to think my vagina was dirty and should have no smell at all, so i over washed and became very self conscious about it to the point of scrubbing it like it was a dirty pan in the sink! i was kind of abusing myself without really realizing it.

 

i also blame all the social conditioning we get as little girls on up thru post menopause from advertising selling products to mask our natural smell and appearance. products to deodorize and scent us as if we should smell like the hotels on the beach or a linen closet or fabric softener or a field of wildflowers! products to remove all our protective hair to make us look like prepubescent girls or porn stars to please the men in our lives. products to make us smell "fresh"...when was the last time you smelled a jar of pickles and thought it smelled "fresh"? sour yes, not "fresh" like a clean vagina! lol vinegar is not "fresh" smelling

 

we got a lotta reconditioning to do so our little girls don't grow up repeating the same mistakes we made. hell in the 1940'3 and 1950's women used LYSOL to douche with!!!

 

 

sorry for the rant...just happy to have solved the mystery, no thanks to any doctors who happily took my copays and gave  me no answers in exchange.

 

gonna repost part of this as a separate topic for those who may have the same problem but wouldn't see this otherwise.

[[Mi...]]

I know some of you are opposed to dairy, but when I lived in San Francisco 50 years ago and had a yeast infection, a doctor told me to eat yogurt. He was right. It cleared up my yeast infection and forever afterward I ate yogurt whenever I had any kind of fungal infection. I hate the stuff, but just a carton or two would clear up the fungus, changing the acidic balance in the blood.

MirandaJane

[[Fa...]]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this.  I don't want it to get lost in a thread not many will read or see as a "new" post.

But here it is:

 

How do I know if what I"m going through is still Benzo withdrawal or if I got through the Benzo W/D (so many symptoms are better or gone) and I'm not in Menopause?

 

I'm 53.  All the horrible "the world is a dark creepy place" are gone.  I didn't really have many physical symptoms.  I still have anxiety, intolerance to stress, my sleep is getting better but still some rough nights.... basically all my symptoms could be Benzo OR Menopause - depending on which "support group" I'm on that day.

 

I got blood work done today so I guess that will give me some answers.

 

But I'm hoping anybody who went through withdrawal but then was left with these other symptoms - did anybody realize they basically went from one frying pan (benzo W/D) into another (Menopause)??

 

I don't want to keep moving forward just assuming I'm still in Benzo W/D if it could be menopause.

 

Thanks for any help/advice.

[[no...]]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this.  I don't want it to get lost in a thread not many will read or see as a "new" post.

But here it is:

 

How do I know if what I"m going through is still Benzo withdrawal or if I got through the Benzo W/D (so many symptoms are better or gone) and I'm not in Menopause?

 

I'm 53.  All the horrible "the world is a dark creepy place" are gone.  I didn't really have many physical symptoms.  I still have anxiety, intolerance to stress, my sleep is getting better but still some rough nights.... basically all my symptoms could be Benzo OR Menopause - depending on which "support group" I'm on that day.

 

I got blood work done today so I guess that will give me some answers.

 

 

But I'm hoping anybody who went through withdrawal but then was left with these other symptoms - did anybody realize they basically went from one frying pan (benzo W/D) into another (Menopause)??

 

I don't want to keep moving forward just assuming I'm still in Benzo W/D if it could be menopause.

 

Thanks for any help/advice.

 

i'm 46 and post surgical post menopausal. on hrt. i take 300mg progesterone at night and it zonks me out, keeps my bones strong and healthy sex drive. i take estradiol transdermal patch every 3 days and am not aging so fast visibly as i was when i tapered olff the patch for abt 6 months. no more dry skin wrinkles and hot flashes.

 

except for once in awhile...when i first reduce a dose of a med, if i went a little too fast or other things environmentally and socially impacted my taper..then sometimes the typical sx's of hot flashes, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue hit me but they're gone in a week or two.

 

since i switched to liquid medicine, the sx's are way smoother and less troublesome.

 

you very may well be having both WD sx's AND menopause sx's at the same time. or maybe just one. your bloodwork will help. but regardless of the cause, you can treat the sx's the same way.

 

get a fan or AC to blow on you at night or one of those cooling pads to slip under you and change your diet so you don't get the sugar/caffeine/msg/artificial sweeeteners/gmo/pesticides/growth hormones/antibiotic laden foods that will for sure trigger sx's in wd or out of wd. dairy is a huge trigger.  lotta lactose and hormones in dairy. alcohol is a trigger too.

 

keep a sleep hygeine log, set an alarm and go to bed then. even if you dont sleep. then when the alarm goes off again, get up. eventually you'll begin to sleep regular.

 

don't watch tv or computer for 2 hours before bedtime so the blue light and pulsed light won't keep you from being able to fall asleep.  go outside each morning to let sun rays into your eyes and trigger the pineal gland to secrete melatonin so you'll have a better circadian rhythm. drink distilled water, no flouride water, no flouride toothpaste or mouthwash. have mercury fillings removed. detox if able. eat vegetables and poop at least 1-2 times daily. if you're not pooping that much, then eat more fiber until you do. broccoli does it for me. if you don't poop 1-2 times a day, your intestines are full of putrefying shit that will be reabsorbed and toxify you. that will make tons of sx's. if only people knew how important it is to keep the pipes clean...

 

anyways that's a good start.

 

wish i could go to a gym too! i have a broken bicycle that is waiting for repairs so i can fly like the wind! until then i'll keep mowing the lawns and eating clean.

[[kr...]]

hi Fakeit...im 53 in same boat!!  quit klon 3yrs ago.  wish someone would reply.

i had bloodwork and just told my hormones were very low suggesting ovarian failure and that maybe it took a sharp decline vs gradual over yrs but i dont think so. This Dr of oriental med is prescribing progonB-L4zx...for natural progesterone and HPA adapt which is basically some adaptogenic herbs. im afraid of amything messing w same gaba receptor area ie cross tolerant .

anyone familiar w this?? iv had so much stress that i feel acute but what to do??

[[Vi...]]

I was very very sick on remeron. I had to be completely med free to start healing.

It can work for some people but for me it made it worst.

 

[[kr...]]

Sorry vicar. I think it helped me. I had no side effects

[[Vi...]]

I have a question for all of you who came off hormones.

How long you were sick and what kind of symptoms you had after coming off hormones?

Thank you all the reply

Hugs

Vica

[[Mi...]]

18 months after jumping benzos, I started withdrawing from progesterone. I got halfway through my starting dose after six months, when I started having gasping breaths all night. Other symptoms included all the benzo withdrawal sx. I've been holding 80 days  to get my breath under control and deal with other issues (husband illness, my root canal) and now I'm starting to taper again. I'm hoping it will not take more than six more months, but I don't know. Wish I'd never started the progesterone.

MirandaJane

[[Le...]]

I’m am 9 years off klonopin and 8 years of feeling fully recovered.  I’m 51 and my period is still regular.  I’m sure I’m in perimenopause because of my age.  Three months ago I was sick with the flu, had a high fever and my period.  I had a panic attack and it started an episode of symptoms that are just like the ones I suffered in withdrawal.  It started with adrenaline rushes and panic but now it’s more severe anxiety, eating and sleeping issues, bouts of depression, agitated  Central nervous system, sensory sensitivity, ringing in my ears, hair loss and restlessness.  I’m only taking Buspar (which is not working) no HRT.  Everyday has been a struggle.  Im in therapy but I’m trying to figure out why these symptoms. I know the hormones have to be playing a role but I think it might be more than perimenopause.  Has anyone had symptoms like those in withdrawal during perimenopause?

[[Ta...]]

Hi everyone,

 

I am 46 and benzo-free for 2 years. I have been in menopause (post-menopausal) for 3 years. I tried progesterone while I was in acute withdrawal and it made me have suicidal ideation so I stopped immediately. And the suicidal ideation went away, thank god.

 

Now that I am 2 years out, I talked to my gyno about vaginal dryness and how its negatively affecting my sex life and she started me on estradiol inserts.

 

Its been two weeks and I have noticed an uptick in anxiety, hot flashes and cog-fog. I cannot bear more cog-fog as its my worst symptom, but I am not sure if it is related to estradiol.

 

Does anyone have similar problems with estradiol? Has anyone used it for a significant length of time and give me advice? Am I playing with fire?

 

Thank you ladies so much!

[[no...]]

Hi everyone,

 

I am 46 and benzo-free for 2 years. I have been in menopause (post-menopausal) for 3 years. I tried progesterone while I was in acute withdrawal and it made me have suicidal ideation so I stopped immediately. And the suicidal ideation went away, thank god.

 

Now that I am 2 years out, I talked to my gyno about vaginal dryness and how its negatively affecting my sex life and she started me on estradiol inserts.

 

Its been two weeks and I have noticed an uptick in anxiety, hot flashes and cog-fog. I cannot bear more cog-fog as its my worst symptom, but I am not sure if it is related to estradiol.

 

Does anyone have similar problems with estradiol? Has anyone used it for a significant length of time and give me advice? Am I playing with fire?

 

Thank you ladies so much!

 

hey TaterTot

 

same age here, but not off benzos yet. am tapering from antipsychotic that also made me have SI but never correlated it to benzo...pretty sure it was the antipsychotic wd causing the Si, which disappeared for me also after stabilization. however, i keep in mind the prog and estradiol since i take both post surgical menopause due to a total hyst some 10 years ago or more. i have extreme dryness of all body tissues when off of estradiol, so i take a patch 2x a week and that keeps my fluids up plus keeps hot flashes at bay. the progesterone helps sleep and sex drive stay normal levels. the prog is the question since it's a GABA chemical and why it helps with sleep so much. but if i had not had my hyst, i would have progesterone and estradiol both naturally, so i feel the hrt is needed for at least as long as i would have it had i not had to have the hyst. basically, replacing the normal levels of the 2 hormones. but i don't know if your situation and mine share anything else in common, since you're 2 years post benzo (congrats!) and seem to have gone into SI while in acute wd (there's nothing cute about wd!) and i went into SI while in wd from antipsychotic. maybe there's a correlation after all? it's hard to tell, but anecdotal reports here and on other boards about wd from antipsychotics seem to say the brain has the same sxs in wd from both drug classes.

[[Ta...]]

Hi nomore!

Thank you replying and sharing your experience. No kidding, nothing cute about withdrawal with any of these strong meds...SI is not for the faint of heart.  I'm just so glad we made it through it!

 

Sorry about your hysterectomy, that really messes with hormones and heads, no? I had an ovary removed at 18 because I developed a tumor (non-malignant) and I was placed on BC pills which I was on for all my reproductive years. I was scared to go off for fear of developing more cysts or another  tumor. Therefore, I never had kids. Kind of sad.

 

I didn't know that about progesterone acting on GABA. I just know that it had a powerful negative effect on me during my hyper-sensitive phase of acute. I am too scared to try it now. I was thinking I may still be too sensitive to be estradiol, too, but I am just so fed up with feeling like a shriveled up old prune I am willing to give it a shot. I feel a bit better today, but tonight i will use the estradiol insert again and see how I feel tomorrow.

If tomorrow I am feeling like hell again, I guess I will have to stop and enjoy my shriveled up old prune status. Boo-hoo.

 

 

[[...]]

I had a total hysterectomy which was not necessary back in the 90's. It was a cancer scare as I had a mass on my left ovary. Just a cyst. It happened so fast. I was only 43. Anyway, I was not managed well hormonally and had atrophy etc. After Dr finally examined me, he put me on the patch. I had a horrible reaction and ended up in the hospital. Hence the Klonopin.

Fast forward 15 years and I was working with my Gyn on tweaking my hormones. I take bio-identical compounded Estradiol and a very small amount of Testosterone for muscle mass. At one point he suggested trying Progesterone just to see how I would like it. At first it was alright, been then my Estradiol was falling, as the P opposes the E. I was taking 200mg sublingual which some of which went into the gut. The metabolite of oral Progesterone is Allopregnanalone. That is equivalent to Benzos. It caused me to be confused, very lethargic, memory loss etc. It lowered my E to 10 which is almost nothing. I felt like I was dying. I upped the E and started tapering down on the P. I had w/d symptoms. It took about 5 months to get off of it. It was not for me, but again I did not need it anyway. The metabolite really acts on GABA receptors.  Estriol is a great form for vaginal atrophy. It is the weakest of the 3 estrogens and is great for those tissues. It does not cause any side effects. It does have to be compounded though.

[[Vi...]]

I was on projesterone cream about 1 year after coming off benzo. Had so severe anxiety my hormones specialist told me it will help with my anxiety... never did actually made it worst.

Then he told me to go estrogen with projesterone same time and panick attack was coming much more often. I stoped estrogen after 4 days using it.

 

Coming off projesterone was harder then benzo for me and I still suffering greatly. I’m only 7 months off projesterone cream.

I would never go on any hormones again.

I know is helping for some women but it made my benzo hell even worse.

 

[[Ta...]]

Ladies, thank you so so much for sharing your stories. I found such valuable info in your experiences. Dana, I’m sorry to hear of your total hysterectomy when you only had a cyst. I’m surprised I walked away from my situation without one seeing as how doctors have been so hysterectomy-removal happy the last two decades.

 

It seems very hard to find a decent endocrinologist to help us with our hormone imbalances and it’s dangerous for us to be guinea pigs again. After so many years of being a guinea pig for psyche meds and finally getting free of them, I surely don’t want to be a guinea pig for hormones. But I don’t want vaginal atrophy so I’m relieved to hear estradiol should be okay.

But I would never take progesterone ever again.

 

Wonderful information. Wishing you all the best.

 

[[no...]]

my total hyst was due to so many miscarriages due to the endometriosis which was found on my ovaries tubes uterus and throughout the visible abdominal cavirt with many adhesions conecting everything together. my fallopian tubes were clubbed instead of having separate fingerlike ends as normal...they were swollen shut and fused. the last miscarriage was at 4 months. we had named her and i was painting her crib when io lost her. they had told us i would never conceive or carry a child because of the widespread endo. i was on zoloft when i found out i was pregnat and stopped ct due to dr's saying it would deform the child. i didn't know about wd. i lost her 4 months later and suffered bad post partum depression and went into a local nuthouse. they doped me and continued doing me for 20 years. i was relieved with my hyst knowing i'd never suffer that kind of loss again, but it has thrown my body out of balance. taking hrt has helped me regain some, but not all of that balance. at some point i will need to come off both hormones and i will tackle it then, for now i'm stable and need to remain stable to come off the seroquel and clonazepam and eventually gabapentin. it's like triage. deal with the worst offenders first, then move onto secondary issures. so for now i will keep my hrt. there's time for those tapers later.psych meds first.

[[Ta...]]

I am very sorry for the loss of your baby and your struggles. What a tough time that must have been for you. I agree, it is best to stay stable and tackle each issue as you are able.

 

I used the estradiol last night and have found that my cog-fog got a bit worse today. I think my system is simply too sensitive to take anything. Geez.

[[De...]]

My gynecologist gave me a prescription for a hormone replacement vaginsl cream to be used only twice a week for one month and then one a week. These are bio identical hormones. Has anyone had any experience with these. I’m 69 years old and I jumped four months ago.

Thanks!

[[...]]

I have been on them for years and they work great! You don't have to worry about that affecting Benzo withdrawal!

[[De...]]

Dana,

Thanks for your response.

🌸

[[...]]

  I am in a really bad place right now. Had a setback in February after almost being healed. Not sure why.

  When I first went into withdrawal 7 1/2 years ago I started severe hot flashes.  Shortly after I-cold turkey benzo’s, then my periods stopped. of course menopause because my age was 52

  So after about 6 months I started to see some improvement with my sx’s except nasty anxiety sick stomach hot flashes.

Still bad but other sx’s improvement . This lasted for a few years with small improvements until I was almost healed the last few years.

  Now huge setback my question is could my hormones be making me feel this way ? How do you know when menopause is over ?  I am sicker now than before with nerve pain, insomnia, nausea and severe stomach pain. Had CT scan, ultra sound, stomach scope and a lot of bloodwork.  Everything is fine. Don’t know if they checked hormones or how they even do that.

Any Advice

[[...]]

Hi Moe!

I believe the fluctuation in hormones, mainly Estradiol, can cause symptoms during and after taper.

I went through a surgical menopause which was not needed and that is how I ended up on Klonopin.

I take bio identical compounded hrt. I take Estradiol and a small amount of Testosterone. 

When the Estradiol drops, it can feel like withdrawal! At one point,back in 2013 my Estradiol went down to 10. I felt like I was dying. I was not tapering at the time. I had anxiety, hair loss, weakness, insomnia, nausea etc. The klonopin didn't even help me. I called my Dr and got my labs done. Sure enough, it was the E. My Dr bumped me up on the E and I started feeling good again. I do sublingual drops. Estradiol is important for the brain, bones etc.

So yes, this could all be due to your drop in hormones! You can get an Estradiol level and Progesterone level drawn to see where you are at. Hystersisters is an excellent site for menopause issues. Many women complain of symptoms so very similar to Benzo withdrawal.

I am getting my hormones drawn today. I am trying to stabilize because I cut .5mg of K in June by accident. Got the math wrong and Builder straightened it out. Great guy. My sublingual drops are great and I take them twice a day, but they peak pretty quick and then drop after about 6 hours. I can't do any other form. Creams don't work. The Patch is what led me to end up in the hospital 8 months after my Hysterectomy. I was so sick. I was put on Klonopin. Long story. Idiot Dr.

If you can get your levels drawn, that would be great and you would know. Low E can make you feel bad. It is bad enough to experience withdrawal, without having to deal with the hormone issue.

I am so glad you are Benzo free! This too, will pass!