From my experience, I found that Vivelle Dot (in the beginning) was nothing short of minor miracle, then the hot flashes came back horribly. I called the doctor and she raised the dosage. Maybe you might need a higher dose? or maybe you were just having a few good days and you would have felt that good even if you weren't on HRT? I always wonder about that. Just my opinion from what I've gone through on this road to Hell!

Jewels - I also had a hysterectomy 7 years ago and quickly spiraled into pure hell. I became suicidally depressed, anxious, couldn't sleep (woke up "on fire"), horrible memory loss, couldn't concentrate at all, very irritable, rapid aging, etc.

The highest dose Vivelle Dot patch was a dismal failure. But my doctor told me my blood work showed a therapeutic level of estradiol so I continued in this hell for much too long. I now take an estradiol tablet (generic Estrace) but dissolve it between my cheek and gum. It works well for me.

HRT can be tricky because it's so individual. And then like you experienced, something that's been working can stop working and you're back to square one.

Hell is a very good word to describe these intense menopause symptoms....I really have thought my sanity was going and went through some very dark times as well.....The doctor has put me on Estrace, 2mg a day and there was a drastic change for the better but now feel I am slipping again....the worse part is because I am so young my doctor told me I could go through this for the next ten years.....very disheartening news....although I am grateful to have had the surgery done as I was living in constant pain, I now have to find a way to manage these other issues.....you mentioned anxiety....I forgot to put that on my list....that list seems to get longer and longer as I go along......

By the way...thanks for the comments ladies....nice to know one is not alone in this journey....

You could try taking your Estrace the way I do and see if that makes a difference. But you won't need as high of a dose if you take it that way since it doesn't have the first pass through the liver. There are lots of estrogen options out there so don't settle for feeling crappy.

Finding our hormone balance seems to be a tricky task as they fluctuate so much in this stage and especially after a hystorectomy and our own bodies are clever enough to react to the changes when we take other replacement meds. Have you tried any other natural remedy in addition?