Does ERT make anyone really tired?

Still fight the good fight ladies, but trying to get off again, but already feeling the back issues that come up for some reason when I get off ERT.

My main complaint lately is that it makes me so tired. I even tried cutting it way down and I got hot flases and stuff becuase it didn't work, but I was still exhausted.

Anyone else have this issue with ERT and what did you do? BY the way this is bio...but I found the same issue with Premarin in the last 3-4 months as well. Have had tests to check everything...OK.

Yes, absolutely. All forms of ERT make me exhausted. I thought I was the only one. I was about to go ask for an antidepressant last week when I realized I hadn't used my testosterone cream in a long time. One tiny little bit of testosterone lifted the veil of darkness and extreme fatigue I had over me. I'm still tired, but not to the extent I was. The thing is, if I use testerone more than once in a blue moon, it apparently raises my estrogen level even more and makes me more tired so I have to be super sparing with it.

I have gone without any ERT and actually had more energy but the not sleeping and hot flashes get to me so I go back on, much to my shagrin.

Yeah, I tried the testosterone route, but after the second day, I start having side effects of too much testosterone and while I feel better with it, it's like the tiredness still layered on top of it. I wonder what the estrogen is doing to bring on the tiredness. And I wonder why i'm dealing with it now and wasn't at first. I've always felt tired with bios, but never with Premarin until now. Hmmmm.....

It's the jungle again.

Yes, that's why the doctor gave me anti-d. When she saw me in her office and I was too tired to care about anything. She said it was depression. So yes, that works, but so does stopping the ERT. NOt depression...a side effect of the ERT.

The vivelle dot patch makes me exhausted, fatigued, dizzy, and upsets my stomach. Femring didn't but doesn't last longer than 3 weeks for me.

Have you had ALL THYROID tests done? If your thyroid is low, or even slightly low, adding estrogen can increase the low thyroid symptoms.

Thanks Calypso. Yeah, I've had all of them done. Doctor definitely was trying to find something else(other than depression becuase I didn't really present as depressed), but at the time, it didn't occur to either of us that I could be that exhausted and out of it from the hormones. I didn't have this issue from Femring either at the time I tried it, but I didn't have this reaction to anything. The bios made me tired, but nothing like this and now they all do. I guess i could try femring again, but I didn't like that because it made my stomach and thighs so swollen....not to mention it doesn't even last 1/2 the time for me.

I hope you find the relief soon. I talked to my endocrinologist today (complained really) about the symptoms and she is having me 1/2 the dose until the symptoms subside, then slowly build it back up as tolerated.

I am so tempted to go back to Femring but can't afford to fill the Rx every 3 weeks!

If your stomach and thighs were swollen, wonder if you were on too high a dose?

If you get the low E symptoms when you cut it down, perhaps cut it by less initially then slowly increase as tolerated. I am going to try it.

Thanks, Calypso. Great minds think alike...I already tried all of that.

The thing is I seem to be very sensitive to estrogen, it takes very little to make me swell up like a tick and this makes my BP rise, yet that same little amount doesn't help with the symptoms. I tried the lower dose femring and it did the same thing...I posted on it earlier this year. It's like the estrogen doesn't get out of the surrounding tissues as it should.

I guess I'm going to stick with what I'm doing for right now...taking welbutrin and trying to stop the estrogen...I don't know anything else to do at this point. I want to see if I can get to 8 or 12 weeks and what I feel like then (I guess). That's if I can take the back pain...it's already bad.

Are you using progesterone with the estrogen? Seems to counter the negative effects of estrogen for some...

No, I can't use progesterone...it makes me catatonic and depressed