My story so far

Hi, I am new to this group & currently 51. I believe I was in perimenopause since about 2008 & now I have been in menopause since February 2015. My story is that I have had issues with generalized anxiety disorder since 1994. I was on & off Zoloft & Paxil for many of those years. Most recently I was taking Paxil from about 2002 until 2015. I had an ablation in 2012 after I got to the point where the heavy irregular bleeding was just more than I could take & since then no more periods. I had about 3 years after that where everything was great with maybe an occasional hot flash some days.

Then I decided that I wanted to stop Paxil partly because I did not think it was effective anymore & partly because my OB-Gyn did not want to keep prescribing it for me. She wanted me to see a psychologist to evaluate other meds but she would not give me a referral & the clinic where I currently see her was not taking any new mental health patients at that time (probably still isn't). So I made the choice to stop Paxil & used vitamins & natural supplements to help with the withdrawal symptoms. That was successful & failry painless. Unfortunately, it brought on full blown menopause for me including night sweats, insomnia, weepiness, mood swings, foggy thinking, low sex drive, body aches, depression, memory loss, oversensitivity, & just generally feeling like I could not function in my daily life & job.

I did not want to go on HRT for menopause because of cancer links. I somehow survived the spring & summer of 2015 by taking supplements like Omega-3, L-Theanine, B's, C's, D's, Zinc, GABA, Estropause (Black Cohosh), etc...these did some good for the anxiety part but not so much for the menopause symptoms. I then tried Promensil (red clover) since the Estropause did not seem to be helping. It was not bad but still not the relief I had hoped for so I tried Femerone 17 (wild yam) & it still was not the natural cure I hoped for.

So I finally went back to my OB-Gyn & started 25 mg/day of Progesterone pill about a year ago. It did help some but not enough so we gradually increased the dosage (now at 100 mg/day) & we added 1 mg Estrogen pill (now at 1 1/2 mg). I sometimes take 2 mg of Estrogen lately & I have almost no night sweats when I do but I still wake up after about 2 hours of sleep & remain restless sleeping off & on for the rest of the night. I try to go to bed about 10 pm & usually give up on the idea of sleep by 5 am. She also gave me a low dose prescription for Celexa this summer which I tried for a few weeks along with but it seemed to make things worse. I also have been trying every possible natural sleep aid I can find but have not located 1 yet that lets me sleep through the night.

My concerns are if the hormones are really as bad as they say with causing cancer & how long I should stay on them. For supplements, I still regularly take L-Theanine, Omega-3, & Gingko Biloba mostly for the anxiety & since they don't seem to be helping all that much whether I should go back to trying something natural for menopause. Maybe there is something I haven't tried yet that will do the trick & let me sleep through the night. Of course, it seems to me that doctors want to steer you away from natural remedies.

I have had blood tests for thyroid & red count & been told everything is normal. My OB-Gyn did tell me I should go to another general practice or family doctor to see if there is anything else causing this but again, did not give me a specific referral so I have no idea where to start or what to get tested for.

I keep hoping this will not last much longer. Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated!