[Fwd: tingles, smells, and menopauses]

[Guest guest]

----------------------- tingles, smells, and menopauses

From: angels@...

Date: Thu, May 26, 2005 9:30 am

To: rhythmicliving@...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Group,

I haven't checked in for awhile about my HRT adventures; would like to

respond to a couple of your posts.

I was thinking about how to describe that weird tingling sensation and

what came to me was it feels like an electric current, not particularly

pleasant, coursing through my whole body. Feels like some sort of subtle

anxiety with it. I'm down to 3 lines bid of P on day 26. Got a scant

" period " yesterday. Next cycle I plan to go down to 1/2 E and about 1/4 P.

I want to go down slow and then find a practitioner who really knows

her/his business and stop all this crap shooting in the twilight zone if

possible.

I have had this month that funny underarm smell, strong, with alot of

sweating there. I noticed the past few days since tapering down P that my

normal underarm smell, not at all offensive, is back.

My experience on the high WP doses of E during follicular is that on many

days I feel wonderful, normal, better than normal, the way a vibrant alive

person should feel. One of the markers of the menopause for me is the

undependability and fluctuation without notice of my moods. From peace

and almost euphoria to dull dead depression the next day. It's horrible

to feel so alive them plummet down. I just want some stability of mind.

It's as though the feeling of happiness and normalcy is real but the dark

side of mind is an imposter!! It seems at some point during the luteal the

vitality and optimism starts to fade out. God, I hate not feeling engaged

and enthusiastic about participating in life. My body in general feels

weak with a strange disequilibrium that makes me feel sometimes that I

could tip over. Has felt this way on and off for about a year. Maybe the

salive tests will reveal some adrenal or thyroid involvement. I also

didn't feel particularly great on the troches I was using for years, about

1.5mg of biest bid (only 20% of that estradiol) and 100-150mg. P bid.

Interestingly, in looking at Somer's book, The Sexy Years, she apparently

feels wonderful with much lower doses of E than we've used on WP, altho

there are rumors she is on WP. Does anybody know if she is? The doctors

she interviews all go for much more conservative HRT than WP.

Also I talked to the MD's nurse (office that prescribed MS for me)

yesterday and asked her how many people they have on WP in their practice

and if any of them were having problems with it. She said they had about

100 women and about 50% of them were experiencing " problems, but nothing

big. " I will ask the doc in detail about this when and if I see her

again.

When I saw Susie lecture here in Santa Fe I knew she hadn't done any

formal studies or follow ups but did ask her what kind of return info was

coming in about problems with WP. She said only one woman had a

recurrence of cancer. I sensed (and that is only intuition) the answer

minimized and she seemed not to want to spend time on the subject.

Science has always been scewed and dangerous when there is personal

attachment to outcomes as history has shown over and over. This is not to

implicate Susie in this context. It is just a feeling..................

Love and gratitude to you all for sharing yourselves.

Danna