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[dangermouse]

Thanks, yes its a huge surgery! It started off very small but they they moved to bigger premises and its now more like a factory. I did ask my local pharmacist about recommendations when I had enough of them last year, she said the others were ok but I wouldn't get evening appointments and might then have to use urgent care at the hospital which is the next port of call. After all the hanging about I'd had in A&E that kind of put me off!

[CLKD]

Stuck between a rock and hard place then  .

[Dana]

How do you find the Provera? And how do you use it? Continuous or cycling with a bleed? I was trying to stay away from the progestins as I had a very bad reaction to another progestin, hence the search for the most natural progesterone. If I am really stuck, I might consider Femoston as a last alternative.

I can only speak for myself, and what I read here of course, but Provera seems to be a progestin that a lot of women get on fairly well with. Norethisterone tends to be the one that can give a lot of grief. I've tried it too, and it was okay, but for some reason I felt it didn't give me as good a bleed as the Provera, which is odd because a lot of people find it stronger. That was also the problem I had with Utrogestan and why I stopped using it. It definitely gave me a build up. I won't go into the reasons why it's not available here in Australia, because I know how popular it is on MM, but the TGA has its reasons.

I currently take Provera 5mg x 12-14 days, but I do it every 6-8 weeks. That gives me a pretty good bleed of about 3-4 days with a few extra days of spotting. At the moment I'm a bit too scared to try it continuously because I tried the continuous patches (that contain Norethisterone) and after about 6 weeks I had a lot of side effects.

My GP did suggest Femoston, but I'd prefer to use patches for at least part of my HRT routine, especially as I approach 60. Also, I was using the 2mg estradiol tablets for a while, but I felt they weren't working very well and my doctor said that maybe my liver was working "too well" and I wasn't getting the full benefit of it. So patches seem to be the better option for me.

I may eventually try the Provera continuously, although I am aware of the risks of continuous progestin, and I might get the same reaction as I got with the Norethisterone anyway. My next experiment will be to try taking the Provera for 21 days of the month (giving myself a break from it for the rest of the month) and just see what happens. Maybe taking the progestin longer may oppose the estrogen enough to either give me no bleed or a much lighter bleed, or it may make no difference at all. Such is the life of the menopausal woman.... 

There are risks with a lot of things in life, and my motto is "Quality over quality" (edit - oops, meant quantity). Even if what I'm doing is in some way going to shorten my life, so be it. I'd much rather live a happy shortened life than a miserable long life. Longevity is pretty big in my family. No one dies before their late 80s-early 90s, so I don't want to live that long and be suffering with menopause symptoms most of the time.

[matildamouse]

Thanks for that Dana. I also feel better on the patches as oppose to oral estradiol. I agree with the quality of life. If you roll around in sweat all night with minimum sleep you have no quality of life. I am willing to take the risks of HRT to have a better life especially if you have tried everything else. Even the weight gain is worth it!