I think it's really unfortunate that your docror did not discuss the addictive nature of these drugs with you before you were given a prescription for them. Whenever a doctor hands a patient a prescription the patient should ask the doctor two standard questions - what will happen if I don't take the drug(s) and what will happen if/when I stop taking the drug(s).

While doctors apparently believe that the process of menopause and the progress to post menopausal status continues in the presence of exogenous hormones, experience suggests that that isn't the case for most women. These women have rebound symptoms after they stop their drugs and learn to their sorrow that the risks they took in taking the drugs were for nothing since all they've done is delay the problems.

You may be willing to risk your future health by taking hormones beyond the 5 years period now deemed to be relatively safe, but your doctor may not be willing to risk *her* career and livelihood by prescribing them beyond that period. Now that the evidence regarding carcinogenicity is pretty much ironclad she could well be risking her own licence to practice her profession by continuing to write prescriptions for the drugs for you.

Leigh sweetie, the word is spelled DOCTOR. Perhaps you were in so much of a hurry to bash hormones and the medical profession that you forgot to do a spell check.

Hi Lou,

I hope that as you read this, you body is finding its state of balance. Just curious as to why you stopped femHRT, esp. when you were doing so well on the EOD regimen. Am guessing your body was "speaking " to you, and you listened! I believe that you will find your balance again, give it time, give it healthy things....food, water, exercise. And if the symptoms become too untoward, you can always start supplementation again. I know that the product also is dispensed in a 1/2 dose pill....may be only available in Canada, though. If not, perhaps you could do the 1/2 dose EOD. At any rate, I'm sending you healing thoughts and keeping you in the light.

Best always, Deborah

Hi Deborah
Thanks for the reply. Yes I was doing fine on FemHRT every other day, but my doctor and I talked and we both thought maybe it is time to discontinue HRT, since I had been on some form of it for 5 1/2 years. With all the controversy about staying on HRT for too long, I figured I try it. I did, however began taking Fosamax, once a week for bone loss and was wondering if that is making me feel a little out of sorts I am also taking Remefemin which is Black Cohosh and was wondering if that could be giving me my headaches, and by the way, my blood pressure has gone up also since I stopped FemHRT and started taking Fosamax and Remefemin?????? Coincidence? I have asked others on this site if anyone else has taken Fosmax, but no reply, so I guess, no one else is on this drug.

If I still feel this way in a month, I will re-consider going back on FemHRT, but maybe only every three days or maybe even once a week. Do they really have a lower dose of FemHRT in Canada? You can't cut the pill in half, so how many mgs is the smaller dose. Deborah again thanks so much for caring. Happy Thanksgiving Lou Lou

Hi Lou,
Yes, the Canadian dosage is exactly 1/2 of the U.S. femHRT pill...interesting, no?

I took Black Cohosh (isn't that what's in remifem...) years ago for delayed period/irregularity, and always got an estrogen-type headache from it. They ("they" being the health food industry) used to say when the headache began, your body had absorbed enough to bring onyour period; the headache was a sign your hormone levels had changed enough to bleed....

Sounds to me like your system is pretty clean and maybe a little sensitive to these different supplements.

It's a lot of maintenance, isn't it? As my sister alwyas tells me,it's a question of balance: to stay balanced, the tightrope walker must make constant, minute adjustments. Here's hoping the adjustments are swift and easily made for you.

Best Holiday Wishes for a Healthy and Happy Thanksgiving.

Deborah

Hi Deborah
I guess the people in Canada know so much more then the US.
Half dose of FemHRT most likely will give the dam benefits, as did the full amount. Why we don't dispense it that way, I will never know. Thanks for that info.

Yes Remefemin is Black Cohosh, and yes I bet that's what's giving me this dull headache. I will try stopping it to see if it goes away. You are very knowledgeable and I appreciate your input.

It is so much fun getting older...isn't it! LOL

Lou

Hi Lou,
I'm new here and just saw this post of your's. I was wondering how you are doing. I also had a major problem coming off of HRT. I was put on alot of Premarin/Provera about 2 or 3 years ago for bleeding. When I tried to wean off it, I got major headaches. AT that time, I didn't realize you can get habituated to it, and went right back up on it. I've tried over 1-2 years to come off. First I came off .6 premarin over a 4 month period. 2 and 1/2 months ago, I quit wearing my Combi-patch. I was okay for 2 weeks, then began this downward horrible spiral. I have Fibromyalgia, and so I don't know what to blame on what.....but I do know that life has been horrible.......sinus/head pressure, endless headaches/constant G/I problems, panic, brain fog, etc. I thought that giving it over 2 months was long enough.....and went back on my combi-patch. It's been over week and I continue to feel horrible. I sort of did exactly what you did........I decided that I would be better off without the HRT, and wanted to give it a good try. I regret that move now......and I'm not sure I can get back any feelings of well-being. I'm also convinced that there is a subset of women who have major problems without estrogen (and I'm talking real, physiological problems and not imagined problems). Bummer. I sure wished I wasn't one of them! I was curious how you were doing, and if you went back on HRT. Whatever you chose to do, I hope you're feeling better!

Hi Catherine
Thanks for the reply to my post. I am now off of HRT for 2 months and as you said, it has been so hard. I got terrible, terrible headaches the first month, sinus infection, too. I could not sleep. I was so jittery all the time. Well, most of that has stopped, but now I have to contend with hot flashes, mostly during the night. I am hoping that they will go away also, but if not, I will talk to my doctor about getting something for them. I know that there is a lot of controversy about natural progesterone cream, but I would be willing to try it, if she says its okay. I know what you mean about the quality of life. Mine was definitely better when I was taking FemHRT. I truly felt so much better, but now I am going into my 3rd month without and I donÂt want to start back on it, unless I can take a dose only once a week. I do take Fosamax once a week for my bone protection. This menopause can be very tricky and I am hoping to feel back to my old self soon. Catherine please keep in touch and let me know how you are doing. Lou

Hi again Lou,
I'm glad you saw my post to you. I just feel so "alone" when it comes to figuring this stuff out. My OB/GYN, or any doctor for that matter, don't seem to appreciate "estrogen habituation". For a long time, I have been trying to understand it. I hadn't even heard of it until about 9 months ago, when I was reading something a physician had said on a Health Professional's Health Forum. She mentioned "estrogen habituation" and how no one really appreciates how "addicted" you can get to these hormones, and it takes awhile to get them out of your system and to get past all the rebound symptoms. I tried to contact her for more specifics, but unfortunately, she was pretty obnoxious with me, so I stopped the contact with her. All I wanted to understand was the time-frame she was talking about. I didn't want to feel horrible for 6 months, if it was only supposed to take 2 months to stabilize. As I've mentioned, I have Fibromyalgia, and so much of my life is spent with pain, fatigue and funky symptoms......and I guess I have very little patience for making the entire situation worse. I just wish there was someone out there who really knew what they were doing with these hormones. Wouldn't it be great if a doctor you really respected said "This is going to take 5 months to get it out of your system, and it's going to be hell, but once you're through it, you'll be glad you did".......or "In my experience, people who have this much trouble getting off HRT, for some strange reason TRULY need it to keep from feeling sick all the time."...........But there's no one out there who seems to understand the possibilities.
I sort of wish I hadn't re-started my patch 9 days ago, because I have continued to feel like poop anyhow. I have gone back to daily bad headaches, incredible facial pressure, dizziness, and constant mild-moderate anxiety, and my G/I tract is always going crazy. I just feel like I'm in an experiment, but don't have any idea where it's going.
Have you noticed ANY improvement at all? Do you see any light at all at the end of the tunnel? May I ask how long you were on HRT and how long you think you've been in perimenopause? I really feel that this society treats HRT like candy, and I wish they didn't. I think alot of the problem is that some of us take months and months to stabilize from any hormone change, while others don't even notice. Also, I try to figure out why so many of us have such horrible perimenopausal/menopausal symptoms. Did our mothers and grandmothers go through this, and we're just wimps? Sometimes I think our bodies are changing (as humans) and our lifestyles, filled with toxins, radiation, etc. may have put us in a different position with menopause......I just don't know. Hey.....I want to talk to whoever's in charge here! ;)
Whenever I went back on Premarin in the past, I always felt better pretty quickly......in fact the panic would ease up within days. Maybe my patch is just slower. I guess another thing we should consider is that maybe now, our own natural hormones are even lower. Sorry to ramble so.
I am very interested to learn from you when you start to feel better, how long it really took. But I understand if you just can't wait that long. It is SO hard to function when you're feeling this bad. What is FemHRT......is it premarin and progesterone?
The sinus problems are interesting......every time in my life when my estrogen was low and I hadn't gone up on the HRT, my sinuses would flare up. My ENT said that lots of women with low estrogen have really dry sinuses.......so maybe you could try to keep your house humidified, and also use a nasal spray (I use a home-made one, to avoid preservatives). Like I said to my husband the other day....I get sooooooo tired talking about this all the time, and having it be the center of my existence. I just want to live my life and not be stuck in this hormone-induced hole. I'm sure you understand. Good luck Lou......I truly hope that you wake up one morning soon, and you're all better!!!

I am all about sympathy with you ladies on this, and I couldn't agree more that we just don't find out enough about this stuff up front (which is why you constantly see me urging women to educate themselves, sooner rather than later). But there's one spin I can put on this, a quibble of terminology perhaps, that might give you a little insight.

Hormones are not "drugs" in the sense of an aspirin or a chemotherapeutic agent or a medication to lower blood pressure--things that alter the normal mechanisms in our bodies for a specific, generally corrective, effect. They are molecules that are, during the fertile period of our lives and to a lesser extent both before and afterwards, made by our bodies to act as chemical messengers from one part to another to signal some of the very basic physical mechanisms. Our bodies are designed to work with them, and using hormones in this niche is more efficient (I'm talking pure chemistry here--not moral values) for these processes than trying to accomplish them in ways that are, essentially, biological hacks. Irrespective of what value you place on fertility and menopause as the destiny of your body, the physiology of the situation is that when you were fertile and produced these hormones, your body functioned in a more or less efficient way. Without them, your body must adjust function to cover the important aspects without the easiest, most direct method being available. Or it simply fails to perform those functions.

When we decrease production of hormones, our bodies make several adaptations to meeingt ongoing needs without the raw materials. We increase the production of estrone from belly fat and a few other places; we shift adrenal output to try to juggle the chemical constituents available to the creation of more ovarian hormone replacements; we continue to take in molecules from outside our bodies that, to one degree or another, partially or wholly make up this deficit (from nutritional supplements, foods, hormone residual in commercial meats, plastics, and evnironmental contaminants, to name a few); and we triage what we do have to the most pressing physiologic needs and let the others go begging.

When we elect to directly supplement the hormones we no longer produce, we return these particular functions to their original operating conditions. How well this is done depends on the particular chemical formulation of the hormone (soy, which is a functional but poor match, will perform a different quality and quantity of the original workload from a synthetic hormone or from a bioidentical hormone; none of the ones available seem to be capable of fulfilling the full "job description" of our endogenous hormones). All we are doing is providing a chemical raw material, of variable quality.

This has the effect of altering the functionality at more than 200 different types of hormone receptors throughout our body. When we remove this hormone, not only do those receptors feel the impact, but all of the processes required to cope with that loss of functionality must kick in. And that shifting of resources then has impacts on other processes, which in turn must shift to different/less effective/less adequate resources for fulfilling their functioning. In other words, think: domino theory.

I am not going to argue about the premise that women live to wonderful productive old ages without hormones, since that belies the basic physiology of our bodies. To look at it from a physiological standpoint, what they may do is meet their hormonal needs, to an acceptable (to them) extent, through other than pharmaceutical means: by nutrition, metabolism, or xenoestrogen exposure. The need is not gone for these chemicals to falicitate necessary physical processes; it is simply that the source of chemicals shifts.

And when we change the makeup of the chemical sources--by perimenopause, by dietary changes, by moving where we live or otherwise altering our environment, by changing the demands on our body, by starting or stopping taking some pharmaceutical HRT, then all of these patchwork metabolic coping means must shift as well. What we feel when we do this is the adjustment of many, many systems to this change in chemical dynamics. As an experiential rule of thumb, this takes a good (or bad, as the case may be) three months to fully shake out. In that time, you can expect to feel worse and better both, depending on your momentary state as some crucial function is either better or worse served (at the expense of other functions).

If you mean, by "addiction," that our chemical processes are altered by the intake of something and that ceasing to take it in also alters them as things readjust, then you may call HRT, just as you may any food, vitamin, exercise, pysical habit, or medication, "addictive." I personally find the pejorative burden of addiction terminology excessive, but, as I said at the top, this is a personal quibble. What I do contest in a broader sense is the premise that removing it from the system constitutes a return to a somehow untarnished state. In fact, it simply plunges the body back into the domino effect of alternate coping strategies. HRT, as well as any other method of coping with the decline of hormone production by the ovaries, is not a "cure" or something that "prevents." It is only one of many sources of a chemical used widely by our body, and, as with any of the other sources, it carries its risks as well as benefits.

As has been demonstrated here and elsewhere, over and over, each of us is an individual. We express that individuality both in our own goals that define what "good health" and "comfort" are for us, and in the physiological needs and the way that our bodies meet them that contribute to that personally-defined gold standard. While it would be truly wonderful to have some firm and simple answers applicable to each of us, measurable by a reproduceable standard, this level of knowledge has not been reached. Still, I am grateful to have what I do know, since that is providing me a much more healthful lifestage than that my mother failed to enjoy when she reached it. Goodness knows I hope that you, Lou and Catherine, work out a strategy that provides what you need at a minumum of personal cost.

Catherine, you are definitely not alone! I cannot believe how badly I felt once I stopped HRT. FemHRT is a lesser dose and more natural HRT than Premarin. It is made from some sort of soy. I only took it every other day and I was doing just great felt so darn good, slept like a baby and then after about two-three weeks off of it, pow! I was so miserable. I hated myself, was always tired, had headaches, was very nervous all the time and could not sleep one wink! Now most of that is gone, except the headaches and a very gassy stomach, whatever I eat lately, seems to turn into terrible gas. My daughter laughs at me when I make my strange noises! Now the new thing is terrible hot flashesfirst once in awhile and now all the time, night and day. I was on all kinds of HRT for five years. I was on Premarin, Combi Patch, OrthoPrefest and then FemHRT which my body tolerated the best. My mom, well she never had any HRT and I know she had hot flashes and cried a lot, but I am not sure about anything else. I know she did have very bad osteoporosis. I do take Fosamax to protect my bones. I am calling my doctor next week to discuss these flashes and to ask her what I can do to feel bettershe will of course, say, well you did say you wanted to come off of HRT and I told you that the hot flashes would probably come! Very comforting isnt she! If she tells me to go back on a very low low dose, I may consider it, but as I said before, I heard that natural progesterone cream works wonders on a lot of my symptoms. I would rather go that route first. I will keep you informed and you me. It was a very hard decision for me to stop taking HRT, especially when I was feeling so good. I sure wish someone someday would come up with a solution for all of us. Yes, HRT is addictive!
Its like giving up coffee and cigarettes! Lou

Thanks for the post Framboise. Are you now taking HRT? Which one?
I know what you mean about living better than our mothers and grandmothers during menopause. I am just so confused as to what to do. I guess I need to talk to my GYN soon to see what "insight" she can give me. She is only 40 year old if that................so I am wondering if I need to go to a doctor who is older and who specializes just in menopause. What do you think? Here comes another one of those darn hot flashes! Lou

I don't think it's necessarily a matter of age so much as interest. Yes, having been perimenopausal yourself gives you some insight, but where that person goes with it may either open their mind or close it.

Instead, I think a physician who reads, who enquires, and, most of all, who listens to his/her patients' concerns and works with them instead of imposing a set-piece philosophy of treatment is most likely to be a satisfying partner in unlocking the mysteries of what suits us best. I have found good and bad extremes of this at all ages. Right now, my doctor is of an age that tempts me to call him "sonny" and yet his first question on anything is most likely to be 'what do you think?"

As for what I am taking myself, I am currently using 0.5-0.75 mg of estrace sublingually plus 20-25 mg progesterone cream daily with about 0.25 mg testosterone cream 1-2 times a week. I also do not have ovaries (hyst a couple years ago). I can add that having gone through 5 years of non-hrt natural menopause in an attempt to shrink fibroids, my state of mental and physical health is vastly better now than then, despite my use of all of the standard non-hrt (and I include nutritional here) strategies when I could not have hrt. But that is, of course, just what suits me and certainly is no guide to what might work for others.

Thank you. You are so correct...each person is different.
I will wait until I can speak with my doctor and then decide
againwhat I will do. Natural progesterone cream may be my answer. I will see if I can get a prescription for it. If
not, well I am not sure what I will do. I am feeling so much
better now than I did a couple of weeks ago. Take care and thanks for the info. Lou

Framboise.......You said so eloguently, what my meno-fibro brain could not. What you said makes absolute sense (about what happens systemically, as we add or subtract hormones). As I mentioned earlier, (or somewhere on this forum), my FMS confuses so many issues. What I seem to have noticed in the past 10 years of Fibro and 4 years of perimenopause, is that my body has major problems accomodating and rearranging medications that are added or subtracted. Sometimes I even refuse pain/antidepressent. etc. medications, because I know that, unless I want to spend months and years "coming off of it" (rearranging my biochemistry), then I usually choose to not even start it.
I kept thinking that I was being too un-natural using HRT, and even wondering if it was worsening my FMS, which is why I quit my HRT. I knew it would be a rough ride for awhile........but after 2 and 1/2 months without it, the ride just got too rough......and I put my patch back on. However, I'm still feeling so bad. But my body is in a different place and a little older this time, so who knows what different shifts and rearrangments are needed to be made. But.....it appears that some folks have systems that can handle these shifts far better than people like me. I also seem to put myself down for needed exogenous medications to feel better, like it's some sort of character flaw. Right now I'm putting myself down for having been "weak" and going back on the patch..... But I think, at this point in my life, I just need to do what improves my quality of life. I thought coming off HRT would do that.....and maybe I just didn't tough it out long enough to know for sure. Because it is so hard on my system to "restructure" after removing a medication, I get pretty obsessive-compulsive about trying to make the right choices before taking any action......but life isn't that easy or simple. Sorry for the rambling.......
But I DO appreciate what you put into words for me, and it will help me to understand and sort out some dilemmas that I have and will have. Thanks!

Hi Lou, I hope you didn't mind my talking with Framboise. She really has a good perspective on things. I think there are people like you and I who have major problems "filling in the holes" that are caused by withdrawing a medication.......and hormones are so far-reaching in their effects, it's no wonder our systems get so upset once they're suddenly gone. Good luck finding whatever it is that will make you feel better. One problem I'm having is that I think I need to "try out" some other brands and types of HRT, but I get such horrendous headaches with any kind of fluctuation, that I tend to not want to make any changes, even when I'm not feeling very good on the present HRT. I guess we just have to be brave and go for it, if we're ever going to hope to maybe feel better. Nice talking with you!

I get such horrendous headaches with any kind of fluctuation

Catherine, I know your situation's complex, but often the headache problem is a result of estrogen excess. One way you might want to consider tackling the problem is to put aside the concept of "usual starting dose" and sneak up on it by starting with a fairly laughably small amount of estrogen and progesterone. Then, increasing by the tiniest increments until you feel you are in the right range might not unleash the full portfolio of effects you feel by turning a usual dose on or off. Flirting with the floor of a dose is generally easier on the body than the other extreme, and as a rule, you notice the effects more quickly than waiting for a too-high dose to clear. I've seen other women who couldn't find a "right" combo but didn't like doing without sneak up on their personal correct dose this way. Obviously, this works best with an easily adjustable form of HRT--whether cream or troche or one of the patches you can cut or a simple (uncoated) tab like estrace that can (to a certain extent) be carved up. Anyway, it's an approach style to consider as you wonder where to turn next. It seems that with hormones, especially when we have bodies that are especially cranky about this kind of frivolity, less is more and slower is better than faster.

Catherine, do you have a compounding pharmacy near you? I went to one in our city and they gave me the name of a Gyn who prescribes bioidentical hormone replacement. So far I have had good results with prescription progesterone cream. But it make sense to me that with a compounded estrogen cream you can more easily come up with the minimum dose needed to make you feel good, without the unwanted side effects. I think when the time comes, that is the route I'm going to try.

I am so sorry you have had this suffering from going off your HRT. I too, have had a sudden onset on terrible symptoms from an inability to be able to buy my HRT lately. I have been on HRT since my hysterectomy in 1991. I started on premrin, changing the strengths until we knew that was not working for me, went to estrace, then patches, then injections; all making me feel like a lab animal, going through too many changes over the years.

It was 3 years ago that I read about Estring, and asked my Dr if I could try it. It was PERFECT! No more dryness, no more remembering to take my meds (it lasts 3 months) and most of all, no more worry about the breast cancer threats from all the other ones. This was my magic ring, and the amount that was absorbed into my blood was so insignificant, that I knew I had found the answer to all my problems. I had balanced out perfectly, and needed nothing more than my ring once every 3 months. 2 months ago, I came into a situation that prevented me from being able to buy my estring, and have not been able to buy it yet. Since then, I have entered, SUDDEN, full blown menopause, and this is not a joke. I have become a basket case; emotionally and mentally, physically I cannot sleep, am stressed constantly, and have tension headaches that overwhelm me.

I am looking forward to when I can resume buying my estring, and will NEVER go off it again, if I can help it. I do not want to have to go through this again, for any reason. I'm afraid I have lost all quality of life in my state now, and just want to get back to feeling like a normal, and sane woman again.

After having found such a safe HRT, I would never even consider the thought of going off it on purpose. I agree that "quality" of life takes precedence over trying to be a model of healthy intake at this stage of the game. I do everything else I can to be healthy, and being ON HRT gives me a far more healthy brain, body, and emotional state of being.

FYI - my sister stepped off her HRT SLOWLY a little at a time over a long period of time when she thought she was "out the other side" and didn't have any negative effects. Obviously its different for everyone but really - I've never had a doctor recommend stepping off a drug as slowly as I think people out to. I dont mean a week or two, I mean over several months. H*** can't hurt.
And its really hard to tell what's going on when your taking other stuff although sometime that can't be helped.

I think you are right marys, It once took me 3 months to get off my Wellbutrin, even tho it is supposed to be a easy one to stop. I am on the lowest dose of prempro, so I dont expect a problem, but I will also stop that over 3 months.

I have been taking femhrt for too many years. My doctor and i agreed I should ween off of it very slowly. I quit taking it one day a week for two months. I now have added a second day..etc. I should be weened off in a few months. I haven't noticed any changes in myself yet. Hopefully there won't be. I don't expect any problems.

I have been taking FEMHRT for a couple of years and I decided to take it off last Sept. thiking it will do good for my body, I t was fine and comforting, no sweat at all for five months until recently. It started with night sweat, more than the beginning and then during daytime. it gets to the point, I wanted to jump into the pool. I'm back into FEMHRT a week ago and I haven't seen a slight change in improving yet. Maybe it takes awhile for my body to adjust to the sudden change. Anyone out there has a similar case like me?

I just discovered this forum today. How could I not know one existed? I used to take FemHrt for my hot flashes and night sweats but when it started getting bad press I decided it was time to quit. By that time I had probably been on it for 3 years. I weaned myself off it ever so slowly, as well as the Fosamax I was taking for osteopenia. My hip joints ached at night so much I couldn't sleep. Somewhere I read that one of the side effects of one of those drugs was muscle aches. Miraculously, once I quit, so did the aches. I still have occasional 'warm spells' and difficulty getting to sleep but I'd rather deal with that than take meds. Now my focus is on my thinning hair and dark spots on my face. People always used to comment on my skin tone. Now I have to use a retinol product to combat the dark spots. Getting older ain't for sissies!

Linda09: I'm guessing the Femhrt hasn't kicked in yet.

I have been on femhrt for about 4 months and today I got my period (haven't had one in almost 2 years). I want to go off femhrt (slowly). Any comments/advice? I did not realize the addictive nature of this drug until the read the proceeding comments. Can anyone comment please? Thanks
Holly

I have been suffering from HRT withdrawal for 2 months. Sweats, body aches, depression, nausea.. I have a couple of good days and then 3 horrific bad days. Can't sleep more than an hour at a time. Freaking out.. life shattered.. anyone have anything to say about making it through this? Is there hope? I can't take any HRT.. was sick on it too. Was on it for 5 months and they could't stabilze me. HELP!

Catherine and Lou.. are you still out there? Do you have any advice for me? I am so miserable.. Please.. anyone.. can you help me understand how long I might have to go through this agony to get to the other side? I was not symptomatic when put on HRT.. I was thru menopause.. was on it for 7 months but the dose was jerked around up and down and I got sicker and sicker. Now cold turkey off.. so sick.. scared.. help and prayers welcome. Scared..

Hi daisymuse
I wonder if you are still out there struggling because there is light at the end of the tunnel, you just have to give your body time to get back to normalization. First it has to undo everything that the chemicals changed and then it can get back to sorting your own natural hormones out. I have been 4 months off my HRT and only just starting to feel myself again. Contact me if you would like some more help.