Signs you may need hormone replacement therapy
Oestrogen receptors live in almost every tissue, brain, bone, joints, gut, skin, vagina, bladder, blood vessels. So when oestrogen drops, the signal can show up almost anywhere. The clearest diagnostic isn't a blood test, it's a patternof symptoms across multiple domains in a woman 40+.
Highest-specificity symptoms
These are most likely to be oestrogen-driven (versus another cause):
- Hot flushes and night sweats
- Vaginal dryness and painful sex
- Recurrent UTIs after age 45
- Joint pain that started in your 40s with no injury
- Frozen shoulder
Lower-specificity symptoms (need more context)
These overlap with thyroid issues, anaemia, depression and burnout. Worth investigating other causes too:
- Fatigue, low mood, brain fog
- Hair thinning, dry skin
- Weight gain, especially around the middle
Why blood tests don't work
Oestrogen swings wildly day-to-day in perimenopause. A normal result on Tuesday says nothing about your hormone state on Friday. NICE and NAMS both recommend diagnosis by symptom pattern alone for women over 45.
Track symptoms across all 6 domains.
Lila helps you spot the patterns clinicians actually look for, and arrive at appointments with proper data.