Hello Catnips and Welcome,
I was also prescribed Evorel Conti, I wanted to go onto HRT because my mood had become very low over a couple of years or so and I began to realize I was having problems coping with my erratic emotions, my job, some of the people I worked with, in fact life in general. I had started getting aches and pains in my neck and shoulders and lower back. My sleep was terrible, waking early in morning and not being able to get back to sleep. Stress and anxiety would cause palpitations and bring on hot flushes, or perhaps it was the over way round.
Anyway I started on Evorel Conti and I found that after a week my hot flushes were starting to abate and my sleep had improved. Around three to four weeks later my mood was also improving and I felt a lot less stressed. The first 3 months were very good and I found I was just getting on with life again without being obsessed with how I was feeling. After 3 months I noticed a few side effects creeping in, sore and heavy breasts, bloating and a little nausea and dizziness and after the fourth month I started to have a bleed, which was similar to a period and my doctor asked me to stop taking it. I don't know if the Evorel Conti was not the right type of HRT for me, or if everything would have settled given more time. I definitely want to go back on some form of HRT, as even with the side effects, I felt much better on it than off, but I was starting from a very low place.
I had started looking at some of the other progesterones, particularly Utrogestan, as some research appears to suggest that this progesterone doesn't negate some of the positive benefits of estrogen, such as in protection for the heart, but this is not yet proven I believe. From what I gather on this forum some women get on with it quite well and others don't, so as with most things it is probably down to trial and error.
In the end you probably have to see how Evorel Conti works for you and if any negative side effects, if you get any, outweigh the positive, and if it gives you a better quality of life. For a while at least, it made a big difference to mine, and I hope it will again. FL x