HRT patch help

[Steadman80]

I’m on my mock cycle for a IVF donor egg transfer. I’ve started oestrogen patches but I seem to be getting shooting electric shock pains up the side of my head / neck. Has anybody experienced similar?

Many thanks xx

[Sez73]

Hi I got these pains when I was put on Gederal’ combined pill by my ‘helpful’ GP. Was sent for a brain MRI as they hadn’t a clue what was going on when I reported shooting electric shock type pain going from my neck, through my head and out through my eye socket. They looked completely bemused by my description & just kept repeating ‘I don’t understand what you mean by electric shock’. Pain stopped immediately and never came back as soon as I decided to stop the pill myself. Knew it was the hormones, found that out in seconds on Google but decided to watch the normal farce from the GP who couldn’t put two and two together. Doctors plus hormone knowledge equals next to nothing. Hope your pain subsides soon.

[Steadman80 in reply to Sez73]

Thank you for your reply, and thank god that someone gets me!! I was sent for an MRI too which was ok as the pains have been on and off since December, and have stopped when I’ve had a break from the meds. The GP has been trying to fob me off too. I’m glad that you know what I’m talking about but sorry that you had the symptoms too as mine are horrific.

If I stop the patch I can’t carry on with my cycle, I honestly do think it’s related to the medications. No-one is helping me and telling me if it’s safe to continue and I don’t know if I should just try and put up with the pain. I really don’t know what to do or where to turn and why it’s giving me nerve type pain

[Sez73 in reply to Steadman80]

oh it all makes me so mad that such nice people suffer so much, my heart goes out to you. I did donor egg treatment and couldn’t continue as my endometriosis and all it’s awful connected pain flared up so much, had a miscarriage and knew I had to put my future health and quality of life first above everything else so I know how tough this journey is whether there are added complications of other I’ll eases on top of infertility or not. The biggest thing often is feeling like no one ‘gets it’ and the feeling of such little support, knowledge or a go to help place where you get decent advice and not the garnish most GPs come up with.

Yes, you don’t have a lot of option to just stop the patch when it’s forming part of your ivf cycle for you. There are SO many gaps in knowledge re what these synthetic hormones do. I could not believe how my GP refused to accept the big coincidence between my nerve pain happening right at the time the combined pill was flaring everything up. The evidence could not have been clearer but there seems to be such a lack of examining evidence and fitting together the pieces which is a great concern.

Please never be put off by the uselessness of GPs-don’t let them belittle you in any way. You must stand your ground, they are no better than you.

It’s telling that you mention the pains stopped when you were off the meds yet here taking that patch and boom - you have that awful head nerve pain which I know it utterly debilitating. And frightening when it’s your head. I got it on holiday and worried even about flying home, it kept me awake all night. I have suffered horrendous nerve pain and it always correlated with when my endo and adenomyosis is flared up so that must be linked surely!

I never got any decent explanation re the nerve pain, even from consultants. A couple of better ones I saw said referred pain/nerve damage from surgery etc can all not help but quite frankly I just think it’s because they don’t actually know themselves.

As I have found having done 9 cycles of failed IVF, these clinics ultimately just want you to get pregnant and make their success rates look good. When you have added complications you very quickly feel like you’re in the too hard basket. I could not get through to my fertility clinic the need for me to get my health right as priority, they were intent on throwing whatever was necessary with no real duty of care and that terrifies me. They seemed to have very little knowledge on the wider implications of additional hormone treatment. I badly reacted to so many different types of progesterone yet there seemed no real response from them. I’m not an expert but I’ve been on this hell hole journey since I was 30 & am now 50 so I have life experience if nothing else. I really feel for you and know how desperate it can feel when all you want is answers. Really hope things calm down for you and I hope just by chatting to someone who gets it helps in some small way. You take care x

[Positive20]

I don’t know if this is useful or not…. I was put on the patches and experienced horrendous fluid retention and stomach pains I was so swollen. I had been on HRT tablets prior to this and knew that the fluid retention was much milder. For the rest of my treatment going forward I was always just put on the tablets instead and they were good for me. Maybe you could ask to do the same?