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[roseandthorn]

Am hoping that the wise women on here can advise. I've posted before on threads about FemSeven Conti going out of supply. The alternative I have recently started is Femseven 50 patch and 100mg Utrogestan continuously. I didn't feel great on the Utrogestan but have tried to persevere however now, in the first fortnight of taking it, I am having a bleed with cramps (also feel nauseous)...still going strong after 5 days. I had contacted the menopause specialist GP I saw recently, about not feeling too good on the Utrogestan who said why not take a break as I was going on holiday and try taking it vaginally on my return. I didn't stop straight away, again thinking I should perservere, but on the second day of the holiday the bleed started (ie whilst I was still taking it.) I then stopped taking the Utrogestan and the bleed is continuing as above. This might be complicated by the fact that I had a cortisone injection into my knee before travelling and have found out by chance that this can also bring on menstrual bleeding in a percentage of women.

Any advice gratefully received. I have emailed the specialist to ask for another appointment in the meanwhile.

[roseandthorn]

Thank you so much for replying. I have been lucky enough to have a telephone consultation with the menopause special GP today, and she said much the same thing but we are going to try the Mirena coil instead as it has the same progesterone as my original patches, levonorgestrel which I tolerated very well. I will start again with Utrogestan temporarily however, as she felt it would stem the bleeding and cramps in the interim if I could bear it. My appointment for the fitting is next week. I am having to get it done privately. I have been to my GP surgery to ask about the fitting of the Mirena. They looked at me as though I was bonkers. There is one GP in the practice who fits the coil and she is now away for a couple of weeks. She books her own appointments and I had to answer a questionnaire which was all about contraception so most of my answers were "not applicable”. No one there seems to have heard of the HRT use of the Mirena. There is one Family Planning clinic locally that fits coils apparently but they need a GP referral so it was getting a bit circular!
Any ideas on which pain killers to use for the cramps would be great. I took Cocodamol which isn't touching it.

[anais]

I have the Mirena. I had it fitted at a sexual health clinic as they deal with contraception now, at least in my area, even though I'm menopausal. It's also self referral. I had awful pain a few weeks after I had it fitted and I bled for about 5 months too, gradually getting lighter until it stopped. It's all OK now. I would have rather stayed on Utrogestan but I had too much breakthrough bleeding on it. So far the Mirena is working well I recently went up to 4 measures of Estrogel daily, up from 3x per day and apart from some spotting about a week on the higher dose, the Mirena seems to be doing its job.

[Ladybt28]

The first 2 months that I had Utrogestan (I use it vaginally and on a cycle) I got cramps and the bleeding was quite bad but after that it all subsided.  I would say it is your body adjusting to the new regime.  I have been on it now 8 months and since those first couple of months everything settled down.  I take it you are post meno roseandthorn?

Changing regimes can really upset things and then you are back to a good 3 months for things to settle again.  It's a real pain (quite literally).  I used one paracetamol and one ibruprofen (I found the ibruprofen relaxed the muscles a bit and lessened the cramping bit) every 4 hours. It worked for me but you might be a bit more resistant to pain.  I cant take co-codamol it makes me feel a bit sick.

Honestly I despair at the lack of knowledge in some of the clinics. Half the population of the world are women and nearly all of the are going to become menopausal - you would have through this stuff if basic knowledge? 

[roseandthorn]

Yes, Lady. I'm 58 and long post menopausal. I was well controlled and happy on Femseven Conti. I agree about the woeful lack of knowledge about menopause and how to treat it. I'm lucky, we have private cover and have found an excellent practitioner. What about all the women who have to rely on harassed, undertrained GPs with out of date information and variable attitudes to treatment?

[roseandthorn]

Another horrid bleed. Urgh. Roll on Tuesday. Hopes high for the Mirena although not expecting immediate results.