Brave face masking uncertainty - HRT

Hi CC2025 

I hope you’ll hear from some of the other ladies who have got the right experiences to share with you. As someone who was post menopausal at diagnosis, I had sailed through a natural menopause with no issues at all, but I appreciate that a surgical menopause has different challenges.

I do grieve for my pre cancer body and indeed my pre cancer life which was so much easier, because my life has changed beyond all recognition and I live with the consequences of my surgery every single day. However, although a radical hysterectomy is a major surgery, it will hopefully be enough to ensure you don’t need any further treatment, and can recover well and continue with your life. 

I know you don’t have your own family close by, but have you got a good network of friends around you? Some people find it helpful to talk about loss and grief with a counsellor to come to terms with how they’re feeling, so is that something that is available to you there? It must be very difficult going through all of this on your own. You have said a radical hysterectomy is “likely”, so has this not been confirmed yet because you’re still waiting on scan results?

Sarah xx

Hi CC205,

Sorry to hear of your recent diagnosis and some of the more understandably difficult thoughts and feelings you are currently experiencing 

I was diagnosed with cervical cancer in September 2023, and as mine was locally advanced surgery was not an option for me and i had chemo-radiation, completed December 2023.

My treatment, as will your intended surgery meant that overnight i was plunged into early menopause. I have to say that at the time, my main focus was the wait for the scans to see if my treatment had been successful and everything else paled into almost insignificance.

I immediately accepted my consultants advice re HRT, as within days i had pretty relentless night sweats (alongside a whole host of the symptoms attributed to radiotherapy and chemo) ive been taking progesterone tablets and oestrogel daily ever since, the night sweats disappeared as quickly as they had come.

I think we all have our own strategies to cope when diagnosed but i very much decided that as much as possible i would just take each day as it came, i didnt take too much onboard about any one else's experiences or struggles, (we are all so different, our cancer journey's are all so different and the way the mind and body responds will be very much unique to you. 

Im a single mum too, so i understand some of the emotions you may be going through and am sorry to hear you are far from family support. Please do reach out to trusted friends, i also called the macmillian support line at times when i felt that i had lent too heavily on friends and family at certain periods during treatment, they were really wonderful, great at listening and validating, it might be something you might find helpful too

Wishing you lots of strength for the road ahead

Big hugs

Hi CC2025 

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis - I had the same diagnosis of cervical adenocarcinoma at the start of January this year and had a radical hysterectomy just under seven weeks ago, which put me into surgical menopause at the age of 42. If you click on my username, I have put more information about my treatment on my profile page.

For me, the main menopausal symptom since surgery has been getting hot - night sweats and sudden hot flushes during the day. I seem to be frequently removing layers of bedding/clothing then adding them again once I’ve cooled down. This hasn’t been too bad though - the night sweats can be a bit annoying if I wake up in the night then I can’t get back to sleep for ages because I’m too hot. The only other thing I’ve experienced is crying more easily than usual or for no particular reason but this has only happened a few times. I am really happy not to have any more periods as mine had become very heavy and painful.

I have an appointment with my doctor to discuss (estrogen only) HRT soon so I’ll know more about it then. One of the nurses recommended the Menopause Matters website to me as a reliable source of information which I have started to look at and I am finding useful.

I hope that you don’t have long to wait for your treatment plan to be confirmed. I am happy to chat and to answer any questions about my experience if there’s anything you would like to ask about.

Louise x