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[AuntyNancy]

Hello,


I have been a stalker of this website for the past 5 years so thought it was about time I joined and introduced myself.

I'd been suffering with peri menopausal symptoms for a couple of years prior to starting HRT - hot flushed, night sweats, really bad mood swings - sobbing followed by the urge to want to kill my husband because he was breathing 😱, brain fog, vaginal dryness, the whole shooting match of symptoms really. I was also having heavy irregular period 3-5 weeks apart lasting no less than 10 days.

So in Sept 2011, a month after my 50th birthday, my GP commenced me on Estradot 50mg patch and Utrogestran 200mg (12 days) - which almost immediately (after initially period of adjustment - huge boobs and nipples like bullets)  turned my life around, I felt great, all symptoms disappeared. Overtime, my periods remained heavy(ish) but regulated to every 28 days, for 5 days.

In Sept 2015 during a routine HRT check up with my Gp I asked if I could go on a no bleed HRT regime, to which my Gp agreed.  I was to continue with the Estradot 50mg but change the Utrogestran to 100mg daily (25 days).

For the first 5-6 months of changing my regime I felt great, no period and breakthrough bleeding. However, in Feb 2016 I started to get bad PMT symptoms this was followed by a really heavy bleed that lasted approx 10 days. From then on I suffered heavy periods every fortnight lasting 7-10 days with intermittent breakthrough bleeding in-between, I felt awful, sluggish, weepy, had frequently migraines, hot flushes, night sweats, the lot.
Anyway, I decided that I would put up with symptoms for a few months as I thought my body may have been adjusting to the change in the way I was taking g the HRT.

I re-visited my GP at the beginning of July 2016 as I just couldn't cope with the symptoms anymore, I was feeling just as bad/worse than when I wasn't on HRT at all.
At first he suggested I come of HRT, but the look of horror on my face made him rethink, we agreed that I am going to go back to my original regime of Utrogestran 200mg (12days).
Within days of stopping the daily progesterone I started to feel back to normal, thank goodness.
I have no idea when the first day of my cycle is so I'm picking the 1st August to restart the Utrogestran 200mg.

So, that's me.  I'll let you know how I get on with the recommencement of my original regime over time.
I would have liked a no bleed regime but my body obviously has other ideas. 

Debs x
 

[dazned]

Hi 

Glad you have decided to stop lurking and join in with us 

[Taz2]

Hi AuntyNancy - lots of us struggle with continuous progesterone as you've probably read on here already. I'm glad you're able to return to your old cycle. I'm sure you'll soon be feeling much better.

Taz x 

[CLKD]

Glad you popped your head over the Parapet - come on in, we don't bite [often  ]

  for sharing!

[Dancinggirl]

Hi and welcome AuntyNancy - so good to hear about your experiences and not untypical when using Utrogestan or any progesterone continuously.  Many women choose to stick with the sequential version of HRT well into post meno because problematic bleeding and PMT can be the result. Utrogestan is particularly prone to give these problems with bleeding as it is less stable than the synthetic progesterones. 
If you want to stop having the monthly bleeds, you could consider having a Mirena fitted as this can be a good alternative - any spotting or bleeding usually stops completely within a few weeks after fitting - so you then get 4 years of no bleeding and just use as much or as little oestrogen as you need alongside. DG x

[Mary G]

Welcome to MM.

I can well understand how bad you must have felt while on that quantity of Utrogestan, I would not be able to function and would probably have a permanent migraine.  You were taking a lot of progesterone for a fairly low dose patch and it sounds like your oestrogen/progesterone ratios were seriously out. 

Unfortunately, I have not found any progesterone product used in HRT to be anywhere near as successful as the oestrogen products (Oestrogel in particular is fantastic) and although Utrogestan is supposedly the closest match to the progesterone we produce ourselves, my experience of the end product is nothing like the experience I had with my own progesterone pre-menopause.  A hormone doctor I spoke to a while ago thinks the minimum dosage of Utrogestan (100mg) is too high hence the side effects so many women experience.  That said, we do have some women on here who feel better on the Utrogestan phase but I think that is quite unusual. 

From my own personal experience, Utrogestan is better at lining clearance and has fewer side effects when used vaginally.  If for any reason you can't use it vaginally, it is probably better to look for an alternative form of progesterone and as DG says, a Mirena coil is a good option as long as you do not have migraines that are triggered by synthetic progesterone as I do.

To that end, I now use only 100mg Utrogestan vaginally for 7 days every 5 weeks because I am severely intolerant to all types of synthetic progesterone and Utrogestan in high doses and I have to say it is working very well indeed (no breakthrough bleeding or lining build up) and it also has fewer side effects when used in this way and does not take away the feelgood factor of the Oestrogel.

I hope you can get back to where you where before you changed to the continuous combined regime.

[AuntyNancy]

Thank you all for your replies.

I agree with you Mary G, if feel that during the continuous regime I was taking to much progesterone to oestrogen; I felt as though the bad effects of the progesterone was cancelling out all the good effects of the oestrogen.

I have recommended the 200mg Utrogestan and so far (3 nights in) I feel ok. But I will go back to see GP if I start to feel symptoms again

I'm not sure my GP knows enough about HRT to consider 100mg for 7days but I can ask.  They were open enough to prescribe me the Estradot/Utrogestran without argument when I asked for that, so I can but try. But, I will happily have periods than feel as bad as I did when taking the progesterone daily.

I am reluctant to have the Mirena coil fitted.  I really really really hate having cervical smears so the thought of all the furtling around to have a coil fitted scares the bejusus out of me 😱 My anxiety levels go through the roof thinking about it; silly, I know.


Debs x

[CLKD]

'furtling' - haven't heard that expression for years 

Let us know how you get on!