No HRT due to Endo?

I was reading up on some of the post op articles here, and I saw where someone said that if you had endometriosis you could not have hormones. They said it would make it come back. I had my LAVH/BSO due to endometriosis and chronic severe pain. The doctor removed several deep pockets of endo before doing the hysterectomy. He put me on a hormone patch before I left the hospital, and prescribed me the Vivelle dot patch upon discharge. Is it proven that these hormones bring back the endometriosis, and if so, why would my doctor put me on this medicine?

hi there same thing happened to me except they gave me a different kind of patch.........

Hi, Well, every Dr believes differently. Some Dr's believe that the amount of hormones/estrogen you get from some of the HRT isn't enough to exacerbate any endo and others believe that any kind of estrogen based HRT should be help off at least 6 months and maybe never taken. My Dr won't even let me take any soy supplements right now. I have read ALOT on the subject and it seems to me from what I have read that their is a much greater incidence of endo reoccuring when taking any kind of estrogen based HRT. Even if the Dr thinks he got all the endo it can still be in there microscopically and can become active disease with estrogen from HRT or alot of soy products etc...(anything acting like estrogen). From what I have read I also know that our bodies do produce estrogen in small amounts from adrenal glands/stored in our fat, and from some red meats (cows that get hormones). That is what I have read and heard anyways. For me, I am not taking any chances and choose at this point to stay off estrogen based stuff forever. Unless my symptoms worsen anyways, that is menopausal symptoms. I have started trying this week natural progesterone cream. Have been told and have also read that balancing the progesterone with the little bit of estrogen in the body can help as much with symptoms of menopause as much as taking some HRT's. So I figure worth a try! As much pain as I was in before surgery at this point I am not willing to risk taking estrogen. I don't know if I made much sense, and I am not a Dr by any means, but these are just things I have learned in doing research and talking to a few specialists. Take care and good luck with your recovery. Tiffany

Hi ladies i just joined! this is a wonderful site.I had a TAH-BSO lots endo and adeno,cysts but no cancer cells TG. I had an emergency hyst because of pain on sept 8. the dr put me on a bio-chemical i don't know if i can say so i won't. Had a little headache for the first few days but it's better now, my moods have been better not crying and feeling so sad all the time. Istill have my days but getting better. the dr said because i don't have a uterus this is the way to go. I new i had to do something the ups and downs are way to much for me to handle.everyone is different good luck!!!

I have my one-wk post-op appt tomorrow. My doc plans on starting HRT then, says that usually endo doesn't respond to hrt the way it does to a womans natural estrogen, usually. But it can, so a woman should always take progesterone with the estrogen.

Right now, I am not feeling the effects of loosing my ovaries, so I am going to ask him if I can wait on the HRT for awhile.

Dianne

I'm just going to paste what I posted in another thread about endo and HRT. This is just my experience, though. Other docs and other patients may feel differently.

Here is the other post...

"I had TAH/BSO for endo 7 months ago, and I waited one month before I went on HRT. I have fairly serious digestive issues (colitis), and I try not to take any more oral med than necessary, so I am using Estrogel, which is an alcohol-based gel that I put on my arms every day. My colitis was started by all the hormone meds I took for treatment of endo - anything with estrogen made me quite sick. Perhaps you are reacting the same way.

There were numerous reasons why I went on HRT even though it is not usually recommended for those of us with endo. First was my age - I am 33 - and both my gyn and my PCP felt that I should not be without estrogen at such a young age. Second was the fact that the vast majority of my endo pain was with menstruation, so the fact that I didn't have a uterus would make any regrowth of endo a mostly moot point, since I was not menstruating. Third, I did not have much actual disease, just a lot of pain - I had two laps to cut out the endo, and both times doc found only a few lesions, meanwhile I was on demerol for the pain. Fourth, the small amount of endo I did have grew very slowly. In between laps was two years, and he found even less the second time than the first. Putting all those reasons together, we felt there was very little chance of the endo coming back to any extent that would affect my life, while the hot flashes and insomnia affected my life significantly.

The benefits of HRT far outweighed the risks for me. Someone near natural menopause who had stage 4 endo with lots of quick regrowth between removals and who had pain every day might look at it differently."

Hi rn0 icu, I didn't know about the progesterone too. Istarted with a warmth all over about 2 wks into it and then came the crying and not being myself.I also heard that estrogen was not a good choice for endo, my dr said im just putting back in what i took out for a couple of years until my reg menapause should have kicked in. Good luck tomorrow and keep in touch.

Hi Ladies,
First off, thank you so much for this post. My hyst was scheduled on Aug 1st for 10/31 so I'm in the home stretch!! While I'm very comfortable now with the upcoming procedure itself and my castle stay, I find that I am now starting to worry about instant menopause. I too have endo (along with PCOS & a history of cervical issues) so everything is going. My doc believes in holding off on any HRT for 3-6 months because of the endo but due to my age (32) says I'm too young to go forever without it. My question is, if I start to suffer from severe hotflashes & mood swings is there anything herbal or RX I can take to help? I have my pre-op appt on 10/24 and will certainly ask my doctor then but I'd like to put my mind at ease until then....:O) Thanks!

Jen aka Jiggy

Hi Ladies, I too had Endo. I am post-op, well tomorrow will be 4 wks. I was also told to wait 6mos. before any form of HRT asked why because I am having hot flashes and bad mood swings and anxiety, Dr.said if any traces of Endo left it could regrow, I had endo for 11 yrs. near the end pain was horrible. I asked what would happen if it did regrow she said the pain would come back so I opted to try and tough it out with nothing, I certainly don't want the pain back,that was the #1 reason I had the surgery.

Part of the reason for my hyst was for endo. My doctor and I discussed HRT prior to the surgery and he recommended my going on it. I started the Climara patch the night of surgery. Haven't regretted it for a single moment.