Hi All! Well I guess I could say I weaned myself,with the help of my doctor.off HRTs. I tried a great variety from the onset of my menopause at 50. Tried Prempro pills first then premarin cream, vagifem suppositories, Combi Patch, and finally Femhrt,also garden variety health food store over counter progestone creams, phyto proleif order by mail. Yep you name it I tried it to fight the bad hot flashes night sweats,insomnia, heart palpitations. Just plain fatigue worn out menopausal lady. So now at 55 I think I have run the race , analyzed that each had its good and bad effects on me but in general doc agreed I must be allergic to estrogen products synthetic or otherwise.So I decided to quit altogether no more trials and errors. My flashes were pretty bad at first withdrawl wise, then lessened. I have only mild ones now, not to say they won't return with a vengeance. But my heart palps did lead me to a echocardiogram . Mitral valve prolapse as I may have mentio9ned in previous thread. Fibromyalgia plagues me from my bouts with insomnia, advil or motrim suffices for now. Do to my run down sleepless conditon and teaching and cold weather and bronchitis, well now I have pneumonia and a suspicious lung xray (non smoker) so must go to a pulmonary specialist on Tues. Ruled out blood clot from a blood test so either scar tissue or hopefully not some malignant growth. Oh well aging is certainly not boring, eventful yes. Wouldn't or couldn't have it any other way. Sunflower_55

Catherine...about the patches sticking... HA HA! I have one of those thin woven cotton blankets....there is still a patch on it....it is SO stuck to it...must've come off in my sleep or something...yet I wear underwear to bed so go figure...(I always applied it to my hip/buttock area). The blanket has been washed many times and the imprint of WHERE the patch was is STILL there after many years! Make sure if you get a prescription for iron that is also has "intrinsic value"...that helps the body ABSORB iron. If the Dr. has prescribed iron. I had a very smart doctor once who told me all the iron in the world won't do any good if you don't have that with it. I had prescription iron with intrinsic factor. Iron will mess up your stomach if you're not careful. Since then I've learned to enjoy prunes and prune juice, you get some iron from it. It has very little effect on me "the other way" so I don't have a problem. (Sometimes I wish it would...). Good Luck!

I once lost a kitten who wouldn't "wean". She was an orphan, & I raised her on KMR, but she never would drink on her own, & she never learned to eat. The vet couldn't offer any help or advice, other than to keep the kitten every day & have one of the vet techs handfeed her (my expense, of course). Eventually, the kitten weakened & died. Looking back on that miserable experience, I think the kitten had something like "fading kitten syndrome", & the kinder thing would have been for the vet to tell me that the prospects were dim. Yes, the kittens will be old enough to separate from their mother. If all conditions were ideal, I'd say keep them with her until maybe 10 to 12 weeks, but they'll be fine. I wish you the best.

Thanks everyone. I am still waiting on the tests. Thankfully I have not had to have a hysterectomy and was lucky enough to be 57 when menopause hit. Re the food and products from the health food store, I did try both both but couldn't handle the recommended foods (actually I used to eat a lot of them which contributed to my acid based kidney stone at age 40 - but, hey, I probably owe my skin to said foods). In Canada - at least according to my GP, the Gyno and the pharmacist I have to take both Prometrium and Estrogel - not just the Prometrium - who knows? I just hope the doctor was able to get enough from the biopsy that she did without sedation so that I don't have to go into the hospital for a larger biospy - I figured it would be under a local - nope they knock you out. I had the mammo last Tues. - the results will come in the mail with a copy to my doctor. I may end up like SunnyDJ - taking something every 3rd or 4th day depending on the results and how I fare without it. Of course a lot will also depend on my test results. Cost wise it isn't cheap but since they are my only prescriptions and I will be covered under my husband's office plan for 18 months I won't worry about that. Our provincial insurance does not cover the cost of prescriptions until you turn 65 and then only some are covered - and not fully, there is a deductible and they are about to cut back on a lot of them - somehow I don't think HRT will be covered! I guess I should feel grateful that I have never experienced a hot flash. I don't sweat - ever - which of course is not good and no doubt accounts for my high body acid. And why I love the heat - but not the sun.