Hello!
Find myself here after what's probably quite a familiar story...
My periods started changing about 6 months ago (clots, the occasional flooding). I didn't think much of it and thought that they were just one off occurrences.
Then a couple of months ago my periods started getting really, really heavy and much, much longer, from my usual four days (one medium, three light days) to eight unrelentingly heavy days. The clots started getting more frequent and really big.
So I went to my GP and she prescribed Tranexamic Acid. I took if for a couple of days, and it worked, but the side effects were really bad. I had to cancel going out to dinner with my fiancé to celebrate our recent engagement.
I went back after another eight day period. She told me I was too young for menopause, so didnt think it was that. 't discussed the different options open to me. They were in order of preference: the mini pill, the coil, the combined pill. I asked her straight out for the combined pill, as I'd taken it for 18 odd years from my late 20s, and it had been absolutely great for me, no side effects at all. She wanted to start with the least amount of hormones and prescribed Cerelle. It made me feel incredibly anxious from the very start of taking it, and I didn't really feel like myself at all. I I took it for a week and got another heavy period.
By this point my mental health was really starting to suffer, big time, as I couldn't go to the gym at all or go out running at all because of clots, flooding, haemorrhaging, even after a few days of having a period when they would usually be much lighter. And it triggered my eating disorder from my late teens early 20s (when I ate so little than my periods eventually just seemed to fade away into nothing).
I called NHS24 one night I felt really bad and was referred. The doctor I saw suggested it was perimenopause and prescribed ten days of Norethisterone. I took it and my periods stopped - at last. I only took it for two days, so I have some left now, in case the nightmare starts again.
Anyway, I started googling and things started to make sense: insomnia, waking up after 4 hours drenched in sweat, a feeling of absolute dread and perpetual negativity (which isn't like me at all), rage like I've never felt, a total roller coaster of emotions in one day...
I went back to my GP with an emergency appointment the day after I went to the walk in clinic, and was pretty much hysterical at this point. I'm self employed. I can't call in sick, or start turning down work. I won't get paid and I won't get offered more work if that's what I start doing. I have a very active life as it really helps my mental health, and my fiancé and I like going away on weekend trips on really long walks and sleeping in the back of his jeep. I really couldn't deal with the thought of not being able to do any of that.
She couldn't wait to get me out of the room and couldn't even look me in the eye. She basically asked me what I wanted. I told her the combined pill. She said it was really unusual for someone of my age (almost 49) but as I don't smoke, am not overweight, etc, she prescribed it. The lowest dose, she said.
I've been taking Loestrin 20 for a few days now and already seem to feel like myself a bit more. I've been able to go to the gym and go running again. My food intake is still pretty low though, but hopefully that go back to what it was once things even out again and I feel like I have a little more control.
Nightmare. This is an absolute nightmare.