I hate my quality of life post-HRT! I took it for years, from peri menopause, primarily to reduce severe migraines (strongly hormone dependent) but now I realise just what benefits it had. Just before screening detected my mini mutant, I’d agreed with GP I could continue HRT as long as I attended mammogram screening. A few weeks later, being a good citizen, I turned up at the Portakabin in Sainsbury’s car park for the ritual breast squashing- guess what?
I knew as soon as I saw the scan when I was summoned for more investigation; that almost impalpable parasite I couldn’t even find when I did a careful self-examination. I knew already it was unlikely to kill me before my time was up, but also that I’d have to stop HRT. I’d feel differently if I were younger or had a more advanced tumour, or a more deadly cancer, but the abrupt “castration” of HRT withdrawal has been miserable (in a heatwave, too). UTIs, bowel malfunction, sweats, headaches, sore skin, brain not working, poor sleep. I’ve long had a semi-humorous theory we’re not well designed to live much past 50 - teeth are the giveaway, as we only have two sets - so I realise HRT comes in the same category as reading glasses, hair colouring, exercise classes for “mature” adults: artificial adjuncts to quality of life for those once regarded as “old”, but now expected to continue working and contributing to the economy-,and above all, not to become a burden to society, the NHS, and to continue to supporting our adult children financially.
It seems ironic to me, that being now 66, I’m classified as in the oldest (final) age group when it comes to health statistics, although pension age is now set later. If you are in a different, it is implied close to the grave, category for health, it seems unjust to enforce employment. In some jobs, that might work, but I wouldn’t want someone of my age performing microsurgery on my brain if they’d just stopped HRT. As far as I’m concerned, hormones are more fundamental than breasts, which are only used for a few years of life, otherwise just decoration, hidden from sight. For me, letrozole would be half a gender change, and I don’t think I could regard myself as a woman while I took it. But that’s just me, with a tiny early tumour I don’t expect to figure on my death certificate, and (almost) wishing routine mammography had been 3 years later, so I could have carried on with HRT till then, or until I’d found a lump, or had symptoms. I think it must be different for those who have sought treatment, rather than being grabbed off the street, in apparently good health, and only become unwell as a result of treatment. I try not to overestimate the evidence suggesting that breast screening is not a “oood thing”.(more substantial for prostate cancer amongst others) but I intend to decline treatments which may only reduce by a minimal amount the risk of recurrence without improving my life expectancy overall, but with a near certainty of significant impairment of my quality of life.
