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[Ribrab]

I am on Evorel 100 with 12 days of utrogeston cyclically. I find that my symptoms are much, much worse if I ovulate (this doesn’t happen often but after fertility issues I have gotten to know my body very well!) Can I take my HRT so that it is deliberately out of sync with my natural cycle so that it inhibits ovulation? Eg, would taking utrogeston during the time I would naturally ovulate stop me ovulating?

[Gilla999]

I asked this question of two menopause consultants recently for different reasons from you and they both answered no (unfortunately for you). But I do think that everyone's body is different and you never know switching to continuous (which I sssume is what you mean) could woek for you. There also are other medication options to prevent you ovulating (chemical menopause) but I don't know too much about them and the side effects etc xx

[joziel]

I can answer this from another perspective...

I don't want to ovulate at the moment, due to endo. I was on desogestrel POP for 9 years which totally stopped ovulation and all was very quiet on the ovary front.

Starting HRT, I tried stopping desogestrel and taking 100mg utrogestan continuously. But after 5 weeks, the ovaries woke up from their long sleep  and started firing shooting pains everywhere in the process (which faded away) but then I got my endo twinges back again. I gave it a few weeks to settle but no luck.

I restarted desogestrel which stopped it all within a week. Continued desogestrel for 6 weeks to shut it all up again...

Then stopped desogestrel again and now trying 200mg continuous utrogestan. So far I'm at 2 weeks and all is good.... My estrogen is also lower this time round - it was at 50 then and I've had to reduce to 37.5 now.

So - my conclusion from this so far is that 100mg even continuously isn't enough to stop ovulation. But 200mg hopefully is. Unless you want to go on continuous at a higher dose, or to add in the desogestrel POP, I'm not sure you can stop ovulation. You can use the POP at the same time by the way, some women use it for contraception whilst on HRT.

By the way, Lara Briden is a huge fan of ovulation and reckons we should all be ovulating for as long as we can. If I didn't have endo (mildly) I'd be trying to do that. I am sorely tempted anyway but it would probably be a stupid thing for me to attempt...

[sheila99]

No. I found my own cycle was always stronger than the hrt one, hrt is designed to work with your own cycle not to kill it. They sometimes give a combined pill instead of hrt to women in early peri so that may be an option if you're in that category. Are you talking about pmt symptoms? If so you may well find it improves as you head towards meno (my fatigue on utro was very much when producing my own progesterone as well).

[Ribrab]

Thank you for the input ladies. I didn’t realise a continuous regime would be possible as I’m still having some regular periods.  I have tried a variety of Pills previously and while they helped stop the horrendous ups and downs (heightened anxiety at ovulation and low mood and fatigue on day 2 of period until ovulation) it left me feeling flat and anxious. I do wonder if my patches would help to offset that …

My other option is to return to the estrogel I was on previously which seemed to act much better as a buffer for the mood swings. I like the patches but don’t feel as well as I was on the gel but haven’t had much option due to shortages in my area. I will check with the pharmacy to see what the situation is. Fingers crossed!

[joziel]

 Ribrab, some women do better on continuous even during peri. I'm on continuous due to endo, but some women are on continuous because they prefer constant hormones and feel they have too much fluctuation on sequential. The only downside is you might get some breakthrough bleeding if you try continuous too early. If that happens, you can schedule a bleed by using progesterone for 25 days out of 28 or even stopping for a week every 3 months - so you know when it will be.