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Effect of menopause/HRT on UC?

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Posted Yesterday 2:36 PM (GMT -7)
Something for the ladies!

I went off birth-control pills in October because I was about to turn 50, and I seem to have indeed started menopause. It seemed like my body just decided to fall apart right afterward -- hot flashes, acne, anxiety, trouble sleeping, widespread pain and stiffness, all sorts of fun stuff. I had a flare of my UC in December, my first in years. It seemed to get better for awhile, but now I seem to be flaring again (blood on TP, urgency, gas).

I'm wondering what other women's experiences have been with menopause and hormone-replacement therapy affecting their colitis. Did you find going through menopause changed or worsened your colitis? I'm considering hormone replacement -- did using it have any effect on your UC?
Posted Yesterday 2:49 PM (GMT -7)
I believe the change of my IUD has def had an effect on my UC. It was changed in March of last year, then my IBD started in June with constipation that was intermittent at first but became bad enough I saw my GI doc. After a very clean scope in December, I’m in a full flare after a very solid 8 year remission & it’s horrible.
While I work to get it under control- I’m paying my Gynecologist a visit also to discuss...

Post Edited (JustaMyth) : 2/25/2020 2:54:18 PM (GMT-7)

Posted Yesterday 5:06 PM (GMT -7)
I don't remember if I started HRT before or after I was diagnosed with UC, I know I was in my 50s for both :/

I used a progesterone only patch called Combi patch. You use 2 patches a week. It was like a miracle for me. Definitely saved my sanity. I slowly weaned myself down to 1/2 a patch a week. I tried to stop using even that low dose and the hot flashes at night came back. I have a hard enough time getting sleep and I just can't deal with waking up feeling like a blast furnace so I am still using 1/2 a patch every week or 2
Posted Yesterday 9:16 PM (GMT -7)
I would advise you to be very cautious about HRT for menopause symptoms. A longtime friend of mine who was always healthy took it in 1990s and developed non-hereditary breast cancer in 2002. 5 yrs after her treatment series for that she developed a malignant lump in the other breast. Not fun and she's still with us after double knee replacement surgery 4 yrs ago, but still, the cancer DX + treatment was hard to go through even though tumors were caught early when very small. There's a wide variety of responses to menopause; for example, I lucked out in having night sweats as my main symptom-- no hot flashes. I learned to keep a thick bath towel bedside so that I could dry myself down without the distraction of nighttime rummaging around for relief. A few times I also had to change nightgowns, besides-- but no big deal. Part of menopause relief is psyching yourself to stay positive. Another friend of mine was advised by her older sister to sip some cool water whenever she got hot flashes-- a simple kind of self-help. Be kind to yourself and fit in some activities that you really enjoy, which should relieve anxiety and help you to sleep better, too. I felt glad to be rid of tampons, etc., finally, at age 55. / Old Hat (39 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)
Posted 2/27/2020 7:06 AM (GMT -7)
I know you mentioned the thread is for ladies but let me chime as I am searching exactly this for my mom and her Osteoporosis.

HRT will definitely help with menopause (and osteoporosis) but it all depends on which hormone combination is prescribed by the physician. My mom went into menopause in 40s. I don't know if the menopause started before or after her pancolitis Dx. UC affects bone strength. Menopause, in addition to UC, brings a lot of trouble to bone mineral density. I understand that you are focused on menopause symptoms only but osteoporosis will soon follow if the bone mineral density is not addressed before it starts.

So far in my research (after another poster mentioning they know someone on estrogen), I figured that if you could use lowest possible dose of 17b-estradiol as a transdermal patch, a lot of HRT related symptoms (from breast cancer to stroke) can be successfully avoided because transdermal application estrogen does not go through the liver, which is where all the trouble starts.
This patch should also help you with your menopausal symptoms. If required a super tiny dose of progesterone can be used.

Also, Iodine is required for healthy breast tissue and ovaries (irrespective of whether you have a thyroid issue or not). Menopause will affect these tissues first (almost every part of the reproductive system). The mainstream physicians disagree and claim that Iodine intake above RDA is toxic but it is based on bad science. I can not get into the details in this comment (too much to cover) but it took me a long time to accept that it is indeed based on the bad science. But if you are interested, you should also read up on that.
Posted 2/27/2020 2:54 PM (GMT -7)
Delta, HRT should be a last resort. Doctors were not paying enough attention to women's calcium + vit D levels plus need for physical exercise to maintain bone strength with aging. That's the main reason why osteoporosis became such an issue by 1990s. Then in the case of IBDers, the lack of essential minerals/vitamins/exercise was compounded by Rx steroids plus neglect of reliable nutrition counseling for patients. There are cases where HRT is more of a necessity, such as for women who start into menopause in their late 30s, or shortly after childbirth at an older age, when something chemical has definitely gone wrong and the female body cannot "right" itself without a medical intervention. You're a great guy, by the way, for trying to help your mother find effective solutions to her health problems. / Old Hat (39 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)
Posted 2/27/2020 9:48 PM (GMT -7)
Thank you all for the replies! I'm still debating about HRT -- have an appointment next week to talk it over with my gyno. It sounds like it's definitely a risk/reward decision that depends a lot on a woman's particular menopause symptoms. A month ago, I was definitely thinking I would try it, as I felt so awful in so many ways. But now it seems like my body may be adjusting to the lack of birth control pills and my hormones may not be fluctuating so much, so my symptoms have improved. My gyno has indicated that she prefers the lowest dose possible, in a patch, for the shortest time possible.

Thanks for the note about osteoporosis, deltaforce. I know I'll have to think about it -- my mom has had to take Prolia because of a high fracture risk, even without UC, so I'll be genetically predisposed.

I just wish I could find out more about the possible interactions of both menopause and HRT on UC. I think that would be helpful in making a decision. It doesn't seem to have been studied much. I have read that estrogen has anti-inflammatory properties, so it seems important, if true.
Posted 2/29/2020 12:21 PM (GMT -7)
Estrogen is supposedly beneficial to a woman's cardiovascular system, and also to the mucosa of UT organs. But excess estrogen can be dangerous so it sounds good that your gyno favors limited use of HRT for menopausal symptoms. As to the possibilities of menopause affecting UC, I'd say that there's some chance for it to make a woman's UC easier to manage. Before Big M I always felt at the onset of periods that my bladder, colon, & gyn organs were all competing to occupy the same limited internal space, aaarrrrrgg! That sensation faded away, thankfully, and my fluctuating moods also evened out. Once I got rid of the night sweats I felt like a definitely improved version of me-- that was by the end of my 1st yr w/o a period. In that respect I fared much better than my mother & maternal aunts, who had been inconvenienced by hot flashes over several years and did not have IBD, except for one aunt with middle-age onset Crohn's. / Old Hat (39 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)
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