Does HRT cause weight gain?

Did you gain weight on your HRT? I'm worried about this and have read reviews of many people that gained a lot of weight on it so I'm very scared yes I haven't eating disorder say that kind of thing scares me.

[MyStar86]

Oh my lovely I hope you are ok as I see you are asking this question again but please try to stay calm and as I said it never happened to me I lost weight so try not to focus on that and focus on the hrt helping you. Have you had any benefit from the hot flushes yet? So sorry you are so worried that makes me sad as I know it’s a horrible feeling worrying about side effects but you must try not to focus on it yes it’s easy for me to say but you need the hrt as the hot flushes are driving you mad. I’m always here if you need a chat, not long to go now till your review so hopefully they can help you.

Everyone is different but you are slight and I’m sure you do not gain weight easily others on here at at menopause age and could be bigger already so try not to think about what’s happened weight wise to others and just focus on you. You are not eating more and you will only gain weight from meds if they stimulate your appetite they don’t just chemically make you put on weight unless via water retention.

Big hugs xx

[Hidden in reply to MyStar86]

I hope you're doing okay too.Thanks for being there for me. No I've not had any relief from at all from the hot flashes and I've been on it Thursday will make 4 weeks so like 25 days now... I miserable absolutely miserable and I am not getting any relief and my sleep has not improved. I'm just so upset. I'm so disappointed because I really was hoping that this was going to work for me if I gave it a try and I go to the doctor in a week from today but she was going to just keep it at this dose and say give it more time and I'm just really discouraged because I'm having the discharge and the sore boobs but and I've not weighed myself because I'm too afraid to know if it's caused me any weight gain but I'm fearful of going any further if it's not going to help and I don't know that it's going to help and I feel like if it was going to help wouldn't it have helped by now? I don't know if I'm not absorbing it I don't know what's going on but I can only afford either this patch or the estrogen tablets as my insurance is not going to cover any other form so I'm pretty much stuck with either this one brand of patch which is a generic or the generic estrogen pills. I just wish I knew if it was going to work because if it's not I feel like just giving it up and trying some other supplement. at this point it's so bad that I'm not even wanting to leave my apartment to go to my parents house because over here I can have the air conditioning on in the winter mind you versus over there they've got heat on and I feel like I'm going to die. I'm just so miserable I can't stand it and I've got all these other pain issues and to make it worse I'm supposed to be getting a back brace for my back because my back is so hunched over because of all my spinal fractures and with the kyphosis and yet I don't think I can stand to wear it because you know those things make you hotter than ever and I already am hot enough just in a T-shirt and bra but yet if I don't get it then I'm probably looking at more and more pain and struggling to keep myself standing up and able to walk at all. the other reason I wish I knew if it was going to work or not is because since being on it I've been even more miserable because I've been restricting more because I'm so afraid of the fear of it making me gain weight that I've been not eating as much like for breakfast I think that's the only place I've restricted but I feel like if I were on nothing I would go ahead and give myself more leeway to eat but since I'm on a medicine that I know can potentially cause weight gain I have been even more restrictive which is making me even more miserable

[MyStar86 in reply to Hidden]

Are you not in the uk if you are having to use insurance to get your medical treatments? I’m so sorry it isn’t working but it could be that the body isn’t absorbing it. I did get the sore swollen boobs when I first started hrt but that does wear off after a few months. Hopefully when you speak to the specialist they will be able to change your hrt if it isn’t working the pill form might be better as it’s more of a guaranteed absorption the patches gels and sprays are more hit and miss.

I’m so sorry things are so bad I do feel your pain I am in agony myself just having bowel surgery and now looking like I have compression fractures in my spine as I had the xray today and that’s what they told me 😞. It’s so sad at our age I hate it so I am with you 100% and will always be here I just wish I could help you more.

Please don’t restrict I know you are not happy but it won’t help your body needs the nutrients for the menopause and for the osteoporosis. I’m not sure what you let yourself eat but you could look into oestrogen rich foods like oats and soya I’m not sure what else but have a Google that might give you an extra boost. I am very sad today as well it just feels like too much now I’ve had enough of pain and suffering but keep strong for your family. The doctors will find a hrt that works for you then you will finally get that relief 🙏🏻.

Big hugs xx

[Hidden in reply to MyStar86]

Thank you for your kindness and encouragement. It's just so hard to keep going when I don't feel like I'm getting any relief. No, I live in the USA. I can't help but still restrict a little-at least the only thing I've restricted is in the morning which I normally have a bowl of cereal and I've only been letting myself have like half a bowl because I'm just so worried that it's going to make me gain weight or that I already have gained weight and I've not checked it yet but I just hate that this is even going on that I even have to take anything that has a remote side effect of weight gain. Because when I read other people's stories about how it made them gain all this weight it just terrifies me. I end up restricting more when I go on any kind of a medicine that's going to cause any kind of weight gain or that has the potential to even things like supplements that have the potential to so at least when I was taking the black cohosh, the particular kind that I was taking it wasn't causing me to gain any weight so I felt a little bit more free to eat a little bit more but I already don't eat a lot and the reason that I fear weight gain so much is because since if I gain any weight I can't get it off now bc I can't exercise. I fear that I wouldn't be able to get it off because in years past if I gained anything I would just restrict and exercise for a few months and get it off but now I'm not able to do that so it's like waking scares me even more because I already don't eat a lot so it's hard to restrict any more than I already do and I can't exercise at all now so like I said I'm just terrified that it would be permanent and I wouldn't have even gotten any benefit of being able to get any sort of hot flash relief so it's like a lose-lose. So that's why I'm just hoping that that doesn't happen.

I just wish that it would hurry up and kick in if it's going to and if not then I wish she would just make a change and either increase my dosage to the 1 mg patch or switch me to the oral and see if I absorb that better. Like I said my only options that my insurance will cover is either just this generic Mylan Estradiol patch or the oral estrogen pills. Nothing else. I had heard that the patches are better to absorb because it's like more of a continuous thing but I'm thinking that it sounds like the estrogen pills would be a definite absorption if you are taking the pill even though I heard the levels aren't consistent but I'm feeling like maybe my body isn't absorbing the estrogen if I'm not getting the desired relief? I'm just not sure. These are all questions I'm going to ask my doctor on Monday but I'm very frustrated as she's telling me to again give it another month at the same dosage and I'm feeling like why because I don't see any relief at all.

I'm sorry to hear that you are going through a bowel surgery at our age. That sounds horrible. I'm so sorry. I have had four fractures myself three of them were the compression fractures T10 through T12 in my spine so I know exactly the terrible pain that you're feeling with that and I'm so sorry to hear about that as well. Are they going to give you any kind of brace for it? I know that with me they did and they put me on bed rest for 6 months because they had to get the fractures to heal. I was in bed basically 24 hours a day unless I was only getting up to go to the bathroom and I had to move back in with my parents and they had to like log roll me in and out of bed every day it was a miserable 6 months but after that it got better because I was able to progress into different stages of different braces and then I was able to be able to set up and not have to be in bed all day long but those first 6 months were very very painful when it was just first starting and you know not healed yet but it started to get better each month as it started to heal more and back then I was taking forteo which was a bone building medicine which was helping heal my bones.

I actually need that spinal fusion to fix my back but since I can't because of my low weight and because of my osteoporotic bones, they're trying to get a custom-made back brace for me as for many years I wore a brace and it did help a lot with the pain and helping to keep me up right. However,the last 3 years my doctor took it away thinking that I didn't need it but now that my curve has progressed they're realizing that it did more good having it on then off so now he's trying to get me another one.

Although I don't know how I'm going to stand to be able to wear it with being so hot already in just a t-shirt. I called today though to try to get an appointment to get into the people to make the brace but I don't know how they can make one that isn't going to make me hot because they all are made with like foam insulation. My back is in so much pain though that it's getting hard to even stand up straight enough or even be able to walk for more than a minute so that's why I'm giving in and going ahead and trying to get the brace but I don't know how I'm going to be able to stand to wear it. I really really need these hot flashes and feeling hot all the time to go away. I just hope something will work soon. I hope you feel better soon too. I hope you're right that something will work soon with the HRT. I know the stress is only making the hot flashes worse as my endocrinologist did tell me that last month but there's no way for me to get my anxiety down when I'm constantly worried about the weight gain and that would calm down if I weren't on the HRT but I need the HRT for the hot flashes so it's just like a never ending cycle and I'm too afraid to take medicine for anxiety other than the Ativan that I'm already on because antidepressants cause weight gain and I'm afraid of those so it's hard to not restrict and it's hard to not be anxious when all these things are going wrong.

Can you remind me again how is it that you knew that your body wasn't absorbing the estrogen patches? And then you switch to the spray right? I know that's not an option for me but I just was wondering if there was a way to tell if I was actually absorbing the patches or not? I mean like I said I'm getting the side effects as if my body is getting it but I'm not getting the relief so that's the important thing.

[BabblingBrooks in reply to Hidden]

Are Starpowa available in the US, they do a Menopause gummy which appears to be highly rated for night sweats ?

[MyStar86]

Have you had a blood test to check your hormone levels since being on the hrt? Maybe you could ask next week when you have your appointment? I knew I wasn’t absorbing it due to my symptoms not improving and my anxiety getting worse so I gave up on the patches and moved the the spray which made me happier but with those alone I still wasn’t sleeping and had this crawling skin feeling people told me to the sprays so I did but that didn’t help but when I added the progesterone in I finally felt better and things improved very quickly.

So sorry you are going through so much I can relate to a lot of it and it’s so hard to cope especially when your head is all over the place with hormones I had mine stable for ages post hysterectomy but since this surgery I’ve struggled a lot so I keep trying different things I’ve had to add an extra spray but still don’t feel right so it is confusing as too much oestrogen can have negative effects too which worries me as I’m not sleeping well at all which I hate the most.

Life does suck I have hope for you with your appointment next week I’ll get my pain relief and you will get some hormones help. Big hugs xx

[Hidden in reply to MyStar86]

Thank you so much. I hope I get better soon too and I hope you get better soon too.

[MyStar86 in reply to Hidden]

I’ll be thinking of you and I’ll always be here so don’t suffer alone or worry just message I can’t physically help but I can be here for you and I do understand xx

[MyStar86 in reply to Hidden]

why did you change your name to hidden?xx

[MyStar86 in reply to Hidden]

I hope yesterday went well I’m just worried about you so I hope you are ok xx

[MyStar86]

Hello, I hope you are doing ok I’ve been thinking about you and wanted to wish you good luck for tomorrow I hope it all goes well. I’m praying mine does too as I am in agony with my back it’s trapped some nerves so I can’t do anything sitting is killing me and so is laying down I’m so scared this is the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life I don’t know how I can cope I don’t even know how to get through the evening and I’m so scared 😭. Anyway enough of me I just wanted to wish you good luck and I’ll be thinking of you xx