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[CrispyChick]

Gilla, remind me, are u taking any breaks at all or straight through from say 1 on zoley.

Yes, I agree if you are having to take time off then it can't go on. I just wonder if u should wait it out one more cycle, just to see? I've chopped and changed for the last year, and it's never been easy.   

How was your appointment??? I so share your frustration. I've had appointment at meno clinic and they just say try all the pills or ring or patch. My gp suggested I try the best of the bad bunch.

So I started my combined pill journey 14 months ago. I started on gederal (marvelon). Same prog as the mini pill so assumed I'd be fine, but it gave me severe migraines. Thd lower estrogen dose (20mg) didn't make me feel good. So I tried microgynon avd was left grumpy abc aggitated, so stopped after 6 weeks. Then I tried millinette. Dud the full 3 months, but never felt well and felt so much better the day I stopped.

So, the newer prog don't seem to work for me - my hunch is they don't balance the estrogen enough and I get poisoned. I have also dappled with the patch, but I felt poisoned straight away with that. So that's why I'm back on microgynon (my best of a bad bunch). Its also meant to be one of the safest - a good thing at our age. I pushed for microgynon itself, I ding want geverics.

So that's me 8 weeks in. I would say the rage has calmed (fingers crossed). I'm still very aggitated and a bit narky, but defo not as ragey. I've been feeling quite tired, achy and heady the last week. But, as you know, I'm not sure if thst was my covid jab or not.

But whatever my symptoms, they don't seem cyclical, si that might be a good sign?!?!. Although they're more constant 🙈

I really hope you got some decent advice...

[Gilla999]

I've been going straight through on Zoely, haven't had any breaks!

Funnily enough in searching the site for something earlier I came up with some of your posts from quite a while ago and thought to myself what a long journey you've been on - it must have been bloody awful.

Thanks for the info Crispy, this is all really useful. I know everyone is different but it's really helpful to hear other's experiences of different Pills. I've decided to go for Yasmin - for now. I collect it tomorrow morning and will start it then. I chose it just because of the strength of Estrogen, being an estrogen dominant pill, plus having a less androgenic Progestin. I remember taking it years ago and stopping after a couple of weeks due to side effects but all things are relative - side effects then compared to what I go through every four weeks now would be preferable! I was thinking if I really don't get on with Yasmin then I'll try Marvelon. Unlike you I don't tend to have problems with the Estrogen in things (except for the crazy boobs) it's the Progesterones I struggle with (raaaaaage!)

I'm so glad to hear your rage has evened out a bit - I know it's easy to say but you're still in a relatively early stage of taking it so I am absolutely sure things that are side effects will continue to get better as your body adjusts to it. (I may need to remind myself of this when I'm going through side effect Yasmin hell and wondering how it's "only" been 8 weeks.)

Trying not to feel like I'm back at square one and think it's all positive steps...

[CrispyChick]

Great, I'm glad to hear you have a way forward. Was the doctor of any use??? Shed any light on what might be going on??? And the differences between the different pills?

I don't think I've ever been on yasmin. Yes, grit your teeth and try and get through any side affects. I've been so determined to do that this time.

Yes, I've been on an immense journey, but my hrt trial was horrific, so I'm assuming my own estrogen still very high at times (although defo low at others!)

Funnily enough I was on gederal (marvelon) only 4 years ago, but they took me off it because I got migraines in the pill free week. Gp so desperate now, that they don't care about that as I won't be taking breaks, but now gederal doesn't suit me only 4 years later... I loved it 4 years ago. So crazy. I suppose it might have evened out but the migraines last year were soooo bad and so frequent thst I couldn't stay on any longer. I also remember intense boob pain. They were agony. I've got slight pain on and off with micro, bug nothing really.

Interestingly on no pills at all from Sept to Dec, I got frequent migraines. Not one since starting micro... Woo hoo. Every cloud.

When are you going to start? X

[Gilla999]

The GP was pretty useless! Not as bad as some, but I've never spoken to anyone who has had an in depth knowledge of the different Pills etc. I asked her what she thought about Yasmin as a starting place and she said ok. She didn't have a clue about which Pills would be more likely to suppress hormones vs others. I have managed to get on the waiting list for a gynae lady near to me so hopefully will be seeing her around mid April.

That's interesting that a Pill doesn't suit you now when it did four years ago, I wonder if it was to do with differing levels of your own hormones? I find it soooo frustrating that we are left second guessing things all the time, there should be a way of easily measuring our own hormone levels all the time so we can correlate symptoms etc instead of blindly trying to work it all out! Boob pain is classic Estrogen dominance so it would make sense you don't have it as much on Microgynon which is a prog dominant pill. I'm sure I'll get the boob pain back with Yasmin but hopefully it will subside in a couple of months. I start taking it this morning! It is such a shame that Zoely didn't work out as apart from the digestion issues it really was pretty much symptom free - if I was in my 20s or 30s and not in perimenopause hell I would definitely recommend it

Thanks again for all the support Crispy, honestly without this forum I don't know what I'd have done!

[CrispyChick]

I totally agree, it is impossible to find someone with expert knowledge on how these artificial pills help/hinder us. Even the meno clinic just told me to keep trying different ones before hrt?!?

So, good luck with yasmin. Fingers crossed for you. Hopefully you'll get an easier ride of it as you already have some extra hormones in your system trying to suppress.

I do think for the most part, most of the 30mg estrogen pills I've tried suppress my system significantly. I think what I end up with is side affects... But, given that never used to happen, maybe it is actually that my own are not suppressed and it is indeed the double dose that causes me issues. Who knows...

Microgynon does seem to be the best of a bad bunch for me. It certainly gives me less physical symtoms in terms of migraines, nausea etc... But the prog is harsh and is still affecting my mood and the way I feel. Today however, I think I can say that my miserable state this past week was due to covid vaccine side affects... So I'm really pleased about that.

Will keep plodding on and see where I go...

Keep updating. Good luck xx