LOL! Same here.

And for me, estrogen keeps my weight down (and gives me a wee bit of a waist). One size definitely does not fit all.

I am currently reading a book called Hot Flashes, Hormones and Your Health by JoAnn Manson. http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Flashes-H...and+your+health She is an MD, teaches at Harvard, and is one of the authors of the WHI study which published its findings re:HRT in 2002 (and essentially pulled most of us off of HRT). It's a really balanced approach looking at the different age groups in the study and showing what the real risks are for each potential problem with and without hormone replacement, and with and without progestogens (stroke, venous thrombosis, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, osteoporosis, etc.) She has a series of quizzes you can take to assess your risk in each area. She also discusses the pros and cons of bioidentical vs other estrogens, and different forms of delivery (patch, oral, intra-vaginal).

I highly recommend it to anyone trying to make up their mind whether to supplement with hormones as they go through menopause.

I binned my Climara Patches but I may start back on them. I have been off them for two weeks, and am feeling ragged, sweating and not sleeping as soundly.

[QUOTE=ojoj]I took HRT for a week, put on 5lbs and binned them. The way I see it, our bodies are going thru a change for a reason and so be it! Mind you, hot flashes and mood swings werent welcomed in my family lol!!! But hey, worse things happen/QUOTE]
Have to admit that I'm with Jo. I've decided to just gut it out because from what I hear weaning off of HRT is no picnic either and I figure this is the natural course of events.

I understand about the hot flashes, night sweats, etc. though. Makes one desperate enough to try about anything. I wake up sweating and cranky about every hour most every night and can't really "snuggle" without being miserable. Not so beneficial for our relationship! I don't blame you for trying to help that out.

I've been on HRT for 7 years and have lost weight. You will usually gain some water weight at first as it plumps up tissues. I lost 60 lbs, but then my new dr decided I should try to lower the HRT, I did and immediately started putting the weight back on and now have to lose half of it again.

The clotting factors only increase with oral estrogens and they believe that's due to the first pass issue with the liver and the higher levels in the bloodstream shown in oral use. Also, after the first year of use the incidences decreased. When you think about it logically, if high estrogen alone causes blood clotting issues all of us would have been goners with our first ovulation. There has to be other factors that they haven't figured out yet.

For me, it's quality of life issue.

If you are in lowcarb, high fat and eating suficient protein, probabily you don't need to worry about calcium. You should have more than enough. Forget what television and government says about milk as a source of calcium. It is not the best source and it is not necessary (even thou it might not be bad to have some fermented form of milk). On the other hand, vitamin D is crucial. And the best source is the sun (but then you must forget all propaganda about sun screens...)

HRT removes calcium? I'd say that's a bogus claim. It is not unusual for women to lose bone mass at menopause - at the time that natural hormones decline. One of the arguments in favor of HRT is that it maintains bone mass and strength.

estrogen keeps bones from breaking down...that's osteoclasts actions. I've read time and again about women being on ERT and still getting bone health issues.

The WHI study scared everyone. Its impossible to find the bone studies they originally did with the larger doses of estrogen (at the time premarin). I remember seeing the PI for premarin years ago, and it showed this quitely clearly. If you take a large enough dose of estrogen, you can not only stop the bone loss, but in many instances reverse it.

however, you might be able to take less estrogen if you add some progesterone. progesterone actually stimulates osteoblasts...thats the bone building part. And there are some very small studies out there that showed this may be a big reason why women, and eventually men end up with osteoporosis. Because drs are replacing estrogen and replacing testosterone, but not progesterone many times.

Back to the original subject, again I see that higher estrogen helps me lose weight, not gain it.

I had really bad hotflashes and night sweats back when I was going thru the change. They put me on HRT for 10 years then decided to take me off. I was not a happy camper, I still seat easily even though I'm 62. But it isn't to the extent that I had before. I wasn't LCing back then, but I have heard nothing but positive results. If I had to do it over again I would follow LC