How HRT and an incorrect diagnosis of menopausal symptoms sent me spiralling.
Last week a story broke in the mainstream about the menopause – specifically how employers need to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for women going through this time in their lives. The menopause has been dominant in the press for a good few years now. Davina McCall and others have done amazing work to highlight how awful it can be for some women, and that HRT can be transformative.
As the story broke I was driving my four year old twin girls down to Brighton for a half term visit to an old friend. It was pretty hectic in the car, but I was half managing to listen to a debate about this subject on Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 afternoon show.
Had I not been driving the babes down to Brighton I would have rung in and told Jeremy, if he would listen, a little bit about my toe dipping experience with HRT and the menopause.
As you will gather, I write about mental health, namely OCD and anxiety. Last year my OCD flared up chronically, and I was told that it may be due to the menopause. Dr Louise Newson is a famous menopause doctor who has a whole chapter in her latest book on OCD and the menopause.
For me, I think horrific time I had with anxiety last year was the buildup of stress – having had two children late in life, and undiagnosed OCD and ADHD which had laid fairly dormant for years but with the acute stress in the mix (and let’s not forget Covid) were flaring each other up. Being an addict in recovery for over 12 years now, I call my diagnoses of addiction, ADHD and OCD the holy trinity. They can be the holy trinity of magic or mayhem, depending on where you are at with them.
It turned to mayhem last year. Feeling very reluctant to go on SSRIs which my GP had offered me, I went to see a menopause doctor who told me to go on an Evorel oestrogen patch. I put the patch on for three days and it spiralled me into chronic insomnia. Taking the patch off was worse. I have never taken nor detoxed from heroine, but I can imagine coming off this patch was something like coming off that. It felt as if the blood was draining from my veins, and the anxiety completely acute.
I finally saw a psychiatrist in July last year and he prescribed me SSRIs and CBT therapy, specifically Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) which you can do with me in my practice online or in my home in Hertfordshire. It turns out it was not the menopause, that was a wild goose chase. It may be for hormones some women, but it was not for me. My life has improved immeasurably, and having been so sceptical about medication in a very arrogant and misinformed way, the little white pill I take every morning is one of the things in my life I am most grateful for.
The meds got my anxiety down so that I could do the work for ERP therapy. Some people choose to do ERP therapy on its own, which is an entirely personal choice, and I am not qualified to say whether a client should or should not go on medication. I just wanted to let you know there are options.
Contact me for an appointment to discuss further – jessica@jessicadrake.biz
© Jessica Drake
Jessica Drake - OCD / Anxiety Psychotherapist 