Went off HRT Cold turkey and going nuts! help!

saltycandy13
saltycandy13 Member Posts: 167 Member
in Uterine/Endometrial Cancer #1

Seeing I have atypical/complex endometrial hyperplasia and have pre-cancer as the gyno explained, I ditched my HRT Vivelle transdermal patch.  Took it off almost 2 weeks ago and night sweats, changing nightgown at least 3 times a night, sometimes 5 times, and went to gym today and actually blew up on the treadmill.  I am so HOT.  I get nauseated, I get dizzy, I am burning up.  Any advice?

The doctor said I could wear the patch up until my surgery but what's the sense?  I'm gonna have to stop it after the surgery.  She said maybe I could use a lose dose of estrogen after the hysterectomy but I have a feeling that that HRT got me in this mess in the first place although she disagrees.  I want to stop the estrogen completely because I think I might do more damage.

 

Any advise is more than welcomed because today is so bad, I am ready to just take the bridge.  It's 10 degrees here in upstate NY and I'm sweating like it's 90 degrees.

 

Karen

Comments

  • pinky104
    pinky104 Member Posts: 574 Member
    #2
    Hot Flashes

    I had hot flashes both times I had cancer.  They started two or three years before I was first diagnosed with stage IVb UPSC.  That was about 8 or 9 years after I hit menopause.  My OB/GYN prescribed an estrogen cream shortly before I started bleeding (about 2 weeks before) as I had a cystocele and had to use a pessary to keep my bladder in place. The pessary was irritating my vagina.  If it hadn't been for that bleeding, I wouldn't have had a clue that anything was seriously wrong with me.  The doctor told me that the estrogen was too low a dose to be causing the bleeding, but it certainly was awfully coincidental that the bleeding started when it did. The hot flashes started again for a short time when I had a reoccurrence, but I wasn't using the pessary or the estrogen cream at that point. If I were you, I'd avoid the HRT.  You may not even need it at all after your surgery, and it does seem like it might be a major risk factor in developing cancer.  I haven't needed the pessary or the estrogen cream any more, and the hot flashes are completely gone. 

  • pinky104
    pinky104 Member Posts: 574 Member
    #3
    Weather

    I forgot to mention that I am also in upstate NY (the eastern part of the state).  I spent 4-3/4 hours this afternoon shoveling our two porch roofs which run the length of the main part of the log home where we live. My sweat pants froze onto the corduroy jeans I was wearing underneath them.  It took me all evening to get warm.  We got a gas delivery of 172 gallons tonight and our tank holds 180.  I'm sure glad that truck driver showed up at about 5:30 pm in the dark, or we'd be frozen overnight.  I'd almost welcome some hot flashes tonight!

  • saltycandy13
    saltycandy13 Member Posts: 167 Member
    edited December 2017 #4
    thanks Pinky

    I agree.  I stopped the estrogen cold turkey and wow, it's not good, but maybe just maybe that is what is causing all this stuff to begin with.  I have been on it for years!  Always had a thickening of the endometrium and then she gave me progesterone which cause more hot flashes but I had to take it to bleed out the lining.  This is has got to stop. 

    She told me it wasn't my fault for taking it but life has been very unbearable without it.  I'm one of those rare women that suffers with life altering hot flashes.

    Used to have my insurance cover Cleveland Clinic visits and they told me at aged 60, all estrogen should be stopped.  I am 59

  • TeddyandBears_Mom
    TeddyandBears_Mom Member Posts: 1,814 Member
    #5
    Salty, I have been dealing

    Salty, I have been dealing with hot flashes and night sweats for 15 years. I was hoping they would go away after my hysterectomy but nope. There are hand fans all over my house. I sleep with both a ceiling fan and a table fan pointed right at my head. Some of mine are extreme with getting dizzy like you described. Mostly that happens if I am doing something active. I have to stop and wait for it to pass. I was on HRT for a couple of years and it caused other issues - high triglyceride levels which required other meds and I also got a horrible infection which caused vaginal damage. So off the HRT for me back in 2012.  I tried the cream which caused me heavy bleeding. My GYN said that should not happen and sent me for additional tests - resulting in a D&C and cancer diagnosis. I have learned to live with my hot flashes and hope someday to be over them. I'm 60.  I agree with Pink about avoiding HRTs....

    Good luck and hang in there. 

    Love and Hugs,

    Cindi

  • saltycandy13
    saltycandy13 Member Posts: 167 Member
    #6
    thanks Cindi

    Yes I had another night from Hell.  Changed the nightgown again.  Feel horrible this morning, like a wet dish rag  but the box is in the bathroom and I am not even tempted to slap on a  patch.  Sometimes I think if it wasn't for the hot flashes, I wouldn't be looking at hysterectomy and pre cancerous cells in the uterus.  But maybe it would have happened anyway?  I don't understand this.  

    Doctor kept telling me it wasn't going to happen to me.  I didn't fit the criteria.  I am starting to think she's full of ....you know?

  • TeddyandBears_Mom
    TeddyandBears_Mom Member Posts: 1,814 Member
    edited December 2017 #7
    I think they need to change

    I think they need to change the criteria! There are many of us on this board that don't fit it. And, I have 2 cousins and a sister that didn't fit it either. 

    Give your body time to adjust. My surgeon told me that hot flashes are caused because our bodies are trying to find the estrogen. And at some point it will stop searching. Well, I hope he is right but I must be the most stubborn person on earth because I'm still searching!!!  lol

  • NoTimeForCancer
    NoTimeForCancer Member Posts: 3,515 Member
    edited December 2017 #8
    pinky104 said:

    Hot Flashes

    I had hot flashes both times I had cancer.  They started two or three years before I was first diagnosed with stage IVb UPSC.  That was about 8 or 9 years after I hit menopause.  My OB/GYN prescribed an estrogen cream shortly before I started bleeding (about 2 weeks before) as I had a cystocele and had to use a pessary to keep my bladder in place. The pessary was irritating my vagina.  If it hadn't been for that bleeding, I wouldn't have had a clue that anything was seriously wrong with me.  The doctor told me that the estrogen was too low a dose to be causing the bleeding, but it certainly was awfully coincidental that the bleeding started when it did. The hot flashes started again for a short time when I had a reoccurrence, but I wasn't using the pessary or the estrogen cream at that point. If I were you, I'd avoid the HRT.  You may not even need it at all after your surgery, and it does seem like it might be a major risk factor in developing cancer.  I haven't needed the pessary or the estrogen cream any more, and the hot flashes are completely gone. 

    pinky, to add to your comment

    pinky, to add to your comment, I was told I would NOT be able to use any estrogen based pill/lotion/patch as estrogen feeds this particular cancer.  

    I hope Salty can find something more natural to help with the hot flashes.  

  • Soup52
    Soup52 Member Posts: 908 Member
    #9
    I had night sweats probably

    I had night sweats probably for a few weeks before the bleeding that sent me to the gyno doctor. I suppose I should have known that my sudden night sweats meant something was wrong, but I didn’t. I had been through menaupause for quite a few years. Anyway after hysterectomy the night sweats were gone.

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