Gnatty: In short, no. Long version:
Why they might prescribe the contraceptive pill instead of HRT:
During perimenopause you’re getting menopausal symptoms (like hot flashes, night sweats, and so forth), you’re still producing a fair level of hormones on your own. And, unlike typical HRT which supplements hormones in your body, birth control pills literally take over.
They override your own hormonal production — in effect, signaling your ovaries to take a breather and stop producing estrogen and progesterone — and supplant it with the hormones in the pills themselves.
In other words, you get just what is in the pill. You’re not adding hormones on top of what you’re producing on your own, but literally replacing them.
This can be a welcome relief in stabilizing your hormones during perimenopause — a time when fluctuating hormones can be the source of problems.
It’s also a key reason why birth control pills are often prescribed if you’re perimenopausal and suffering with symptoms: In perimenopause, you’re still producing non-menopausal (that is, higher) levels of estrogen and progesterone on your own, so adding more hormones (as you would if you went on standard HRT) might actually make you feel worse.
Your hormone levels are usually fluctuating a great deal in perimenopause, so there could be days when HRT would provide you with too much… and wind up causing symptoms from excess estrogen or progesterone.
All in all, you’ll get a set, steady amount of hormones that won’t fluctuate according to your own ovarian production
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This is why we need good doctors who advise us, so we don’t get misinformed. Don’t treat HRT like ‘the pill’, they’re different.
