I did HRC, but was still having a period at the time. Now mine have stopped all together. I didn't find spotting a problem, but it seemed to occur mostly as my periods tapered off before menopause. Your body changes slowly over time, it's not a sudden thing, so if you change your hormonal status, your body will respond in kind, but it should be fine.

When I went to do the hormone replacement therapy (bio-identical), the testing told me a lot about what was going on with my body and why I was feeling the way I was feeling. As you age and your ovaries stop producing estrogen, your brain keeps telling your body to produce estrogen, but it can't -- at least not through the ovaries. It can produce it through fat, but fat doesn't produce enough estrogen to keep up, so the metabolism slows and the body piles on more and more fat in an attempt to produce enough estrogen as those levels fall.

The testing was able to tell me that I had too much estrogen and not enough progesterone, so I was prescribed a progesterone cream. I was also anemic and low on vitamin D and had some thyroid hormone abnormalities. So she prescribed an iron supplement, vitamin D supplement and 3 herbal/vitamin supplements to try to adjust the thyroid before putting me on a thyroid hormone. The problem was that all of these came from a custom compounding pharmacy and cost over $150-$250 per month. Then she wanted me to come back every few months to have all that testing done again $600-$900 per visit and my insurance wouldn't pay for any of it. I couldn't afford to keep going.

Finally, I found out that I could get the same progesterone creme over the counter at my local health food store or buy it on the internet. The vitamins are vitamins and I can buy those anywhere. I gave up on the thyroid supplements because I couldn't tell that they did anything. I ended up treating myself, based on her findings and have done just fine. Eventually, though, I started having break-through hot flashes again and couldn't afford more testing, so I went another route.

I continue to take my vitamins as keeping your vitamin D level up can prevent breast cancer. Since I don't have periods anymore, I don't think I need the iron supplement, but I take one per week anyway just to be on the safe side. I have now switched off the progesterone and am taking Amberen. It helps some people and not others, but I think if you get your hormone levels and vitamin deficiencies under control first the Amberen can fine tune everything going forward.

It has made a world of difference for me and stopped the downward spiral both physically, mentally and emotionally that I felt that I was in due to menopause. Menopause is just nature's way of kill you off when you are no longer a productive member of the "herd" so to speak. Read some of Suzanne Somers' books and it will all make sense.