What really happens when YOU STOP HRT?

It can be a lifeline if menopausal symptoms have derailed your life, but coming off hormone replacement therapy can sometimes feel like you're heading backwards. Here's what you can do about it

- SU KARNEY

The menopause: one of life's few certainties. Not an illness or condition, but a natural life event for every woman, when menstruation ceases and the ovaries stop producing oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone.

Across the UK, 13 million women are either perimenopausal (the years leading up to the menopause) or postmenopausal (when you have gone 12 months without any period at all). Of these, 60% will experience menopause symptoms due to the loss of these hormones, including hot flushes, insomnia, vaginal dryness, anxiety, low mood, brain fog, dry eyes, itchy skin, tinnitus and body aches. The length of time that symptoms last varies between individuals, but averages about four years.

'Often women suffer for a very long time and, as a result, aren't able to cope with their careers, children or big life changes,' says NHS and private GP Dr Radhika Vohra, trustee to The Menopause Charity. Indeed, one report** found that 14 million work days a year are lost to menopause in the UK. This is where HRT can offer a lifeline.

'Short-term, HRT brings relief from the big, debilitating, invisible symptoms that women suffer,' says Dr Vohra. ‘Long-term, if taken for five years, HRT can reduce your risk of dementia, osteoporosis, diabetes and heart disease, and be hugely beneficial to your health.'

A resurgence of symptoms

Many women have been put off HRT with the worry that their symptoms will come back even stronger after taking it. HRT doesn't delay menopause, but simply controls symptoms while they are present, by replacing declining oestrogen levels.