How long until I feel menopausal symptoms?

I'm 2 days post op from a da vinci hysterectomy. I lost both ovaries too. They put a estradiol patch on me in the operating room. It's falling off though. Since they couldn't get all my endo they want me off hrt for a few months to let the endo dry up and die.
My question is how fast can I expect to feel menopause symptoms like hot flashes. Can you give me an idea of what to expect to feel and how soon once I lose this patch? I'm scared.
Thanks ladies.

Alison

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Originally Posted by Alisonbc I'm 2 days post op from a da vinci hysterectomy. I lost both ovaries too. They put a estradiol patch on me in the operating room. It's falling off though. Since they couldn't get all my endo they want me off hrt for a few months to let the endo dry up and die. My question is how fast can I expect to feel menopause symptoms like hot flashes. Can you give me an idea of what to expect to feel and how soon once I lose this patch? I'm scared. Thanks ladies. Alison

Hi Alisonbc,

Last Friday I had to stop my estradiol because I had a blurry spot in my left eye turn up and the estradiol is a suspect, among other new factors such as the strong narcotic pain meds while in the hospital and the few days post op. I have not experienced any menopause symptoms yet and today is day 8 of no estrogen. I too am waiting for the other shoe to drop at this point. I do know from research and my Dr. that your body stores estrogen and it hoards estrogen when the tap is turned off. The body also uses the endocrine system to reduce progesterone production in order to squeeze all it can out of a dwindling estrogen reserve. The amount of estrogen reserve in your body depends on how much you need per day, some women need more estrogen than others. The supply room for estrogen is mostly in your fat cells and most preferably the fat cells in your middle are used first. The more fat cells you have, the more storage room you have. For me, I have a curvy body type so I have fat cells a plenty, especially in the bust and booty so here I am 8 days without estrogen and no symptoms. I would not be scared though. I had one hot flash in the recovery room. It was intense heat. It felt like I was put in an oven. The worst part of it was the fact I was still half knocked out, hoarse, in pain and unable to get into a cool shower or do anything to help myself. The nurses were right on it once I croaked out what was going on and they had me cooled down within a few minutes. Nothing scary, just annoying! Hang in there with me. The symptoms are on the way. If you are a thin girl, the symptoms will come sooner for you is my guess.

I'm not a thin girl by any means so that's good to know that it won't hit me instantly out of the blue.
I was nervous when they told me no hrt for a few months.
Thanks for reply!
Alison

So THAT explains it...I was expecting BAM, instant & constant hot flashes once my ovaries were out. I was having a few a day for the first few weeks. Now after 5 weeks it is up to 12 to 15 a day. But nothing I do can stop them once they start. I could stick my head in the freezer but get no relief so I just wait them out.

Well that sounds dreadful! What do you do if your in public? Just suffer through? Do they last long?

I just wait until they go away. There's really NOTHING I can do to make them stop. At night, I can remove blankets but there is no relief from doing that. They last 1 to 5 minutes.

I'm wondering how long this will go on. Months? Years? (yikes!)

Barb, may I ask why you are declining estrogen and toughing out the symptoms? In 3 months when remaining endo dies I'll be starting estrogen therapy.

It will be at least 6 months before my doctor would approve hormones due to severe endo. After that, we'll revisit the issue.

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Originally Posted by lattenut It will be at least 6 months before my doctor would approve hormones due to severe endo. After that, we'll revisit the issue.

I hope you get the opportunity to have the control over your physiological status after the endometrial tissue dies off. In reality we do not have control, our doctors do. It is sad that we are in a situation where we have to ask permission to explore what hormone combination works best for us in order to feel normal and function like we should. Best of luck to us all that we have doctors who will listen to us, inform us, educate us, respect our wishes and not pass judgement or force their prejudices on HRT on us if we choose or decline HRT.

Thanks for the good wishes.

Frankly, after 2 surgeries in 2 years and quite a few years of pain from endo, the "at least 6 months" thing is nothing to me. I'm in no hurry to do anything that might encourage it to come back.