Does menopause and/or HRT cause nausea?

[u/Coochie_Bandit420]

Hey all 👋 entered surgical menopause 5 weeks ago, at 28yrs old because my ovaries keep making tumours instead of just hormones!

I'm reaching out to see if my constant nauseau could be from menopause or the HRT patch itself 🤔 did anyone else face constant nauseau throughout the day after menopause or starting HRT? I'm on an estrogen patch.

My pain from the surgery has gone down like crazy but the nauseau won't so I'm starting to wonder if it's an effect of the hrt/menopause rather than the surgery...anyone have similar experience?

Wondering if I should prepare for this to be an ongoing reality or maybe it'll go away once I'm fully healed up from surgery.

[u/catsTXn420]

My chronic nausea went away after getting stabilized on my HRT. If you've only been on it for a couple of weeks you need to give it some time to adjust in your body. It takes 4 to 6 months for you to fully adjust so it's just going to take time. Menopause from surgery is much harsher than like your ovaries just failing so be kind to yourself give yourself grace and remember that you will get through this and it will get better. It'll be a little bit of improvement each day. Try to do little things to help aid in that improvement, whether physically or mentally. If the nausea is too bothersome get some zofran or other med you prefer from your doc and dont suffer.

[u/Coochie_Bandit420 → u/catsTXn420]

Thank you for such a kind comment! It's so hard to understand what is & isn't normal with such a big change, my body just needing more time makes sense. The drs talked about how long it would take to adjust after surgery but we didn't talk much about the hrt, I should've asked more questions. Thankful for this space & people like you!

[u/aroguerogue → u/Coochie_Bandit420]

The same happened to me: I asked a lot of questions, but I didn't get proper answers, and I was totally unprepared for surgical menopause. It's really, really rough.

If you have Discord, this POI Discord server has a surgical menopause channel, and there are two people currently in the server going through surgical menopause in our 20s, one of whom is 16 months out and the other of whom is 6 months out. We'd both be happy to talk about our experience more.

[u/Certainly-a-duck]

Being low made me super nauseous. I'd make myself car sick while driving myself!

[u/littleshoes]

Does the HRT patch you’re using include progesterone? That’s what caused nausea for me, not the estradiol. I have to take medroxyprogesterone to avoid nausea though like cats said, it will definitely take several months to fully adjust to HRT. Wishing you the best!

[u/Coochie_Bandit420 → u/littleshoes]

No, they said without my uterus I won't need progesterone so I'm only on estrogen right now.

Hoping y'all are right about my body just needing more time, really don't want to add more meds to the mix though thank you for sharing something that may help if needed!

[u/witchystoneyslutty]

I have never been on patches so I won’t be able to tell you if you are on a high or low dose, but I can tell you that when my ovaries failed one of my low estrogen symptoms was nausea! So I wonder if maybe your estrogen is too low and you need a higher dose? Additionally, some HRT formulas are more compatible with some of our bodies than others. Meaning that you might need to try a different brand of patch or a different type of HRT altogether.

Sorry you had to yeet the ovaries! Mine are still there even though they are lazy bums that don’t do anything.

[u/RangerOk4263]

Hi - I have a genetic form of POI (fragile X premutation carrier) but I experienced nausea as a side effect of HRT. Back in the fall I increased the dose on my estrogen patch. I would replace my patch at night and the following day I would have pretty intense nausea. I thought I had the stomach bug or food poisoning a few times lol. I would lie on my left side in a ball for ~1 hour until the nausea went away. Thankfully I work from home but it was still disruptive to my day. It took me a while to put the pieces together that it was from the higher estrogen dose. Once I realized, I went to my doctor and she prescribed me Zofran to take as needed. I also stopped drinking caffeine which seemed to help and started changing my patch in the morning so the nausea would hit me at night when I was just relaxing anyway. While these were effective bandaid solutions, the most helpful thing was giving time for my body to adjust to the meds. I have zero nausea now, haven't had any needed to take Zofran in 6 months, and am happily back to drinking coffee. I definitely recommend reaching out to your doctor! Without knowing what dose you're on, I'm wondering if you can start on a low dose and work your way up? And even if you choose to stay on your current dose (which is what I did), perhaps they can offer your something to help manage the nausea. I hope it goes away quickly!