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[Tulip]

Hi all, a bit of background first:
I'm pretty knowledgable about health & medical stuff, but.. endocrinology is not an easy subject!
After years of peri and meno suffering, (and 3 years without a period, no kids, no hysterctomy), and trying endless natural remedies, I rang my GP and asked for gel/patch and pessary HRT, and got Kliovance tablets which did nothing except make me really angsty and depressed, so after 2 months I stopped it, and then found out the only GP in the practice who knew about HRT had retired. I asked for cyclogest pessaries and oestrogen patches.
My GP referred me to the pharmacist, who had to act as a third party, and the GP had to ask advice from a meno clinic. So after some weeks, I got estrodot patches and cyclogest pessaries yesterday. (I don't want utrogestan because of the gelatin).
There's now a different pharmacist on, and she has confused things by putting "twice daily per week" on the estrodot label  (I know it's twice a week), but my concern is that with the cyclogest, they've said use it on days 18-25 - yet every website I've seen says progesterone should be used for 11-12 days. So I don't know why they're recommending only 7 days.. obviously it's not worth calling the GP as it took 5 weeks just to get a prescription.. I did say to the pharmacist that it felt like I was getting too much progesterone with the kliovance, but I don't want to be under dosing on that, so can anyone help please? What days do you start yours on?
TIA.

[Mary G]

Tulip, I only ever used 100mg Utrogestan for 7 days (sometimes less) because that was all I could tolerate - it triggered my migraines and I hated Utrogestan.   I always had good womb lining clearance on that dose which was confirmed with regular uterine scans.

I'm now on a continuous combined HRT regime and use a low dose progesterone every day.

It really depends on the individual and the dose of patch you will be using.   

Why not try the dose the pharmacist recommended for a few months and then have a scan to check the womb lining?   There is no point in taking more progesterone than you need and risking side effects.

Hope that helps.

[sheila99]

Not sure I can help much, it's rarely prescribed for hrt so perhaps no one has the knowledge you need. Presumably you found nothing online? The only useful thing I found in a quick search is
Alternate Brand Names: Crinone, Gestone, Utrogestan
So on that basis I would use it as for utro which is 12 days a month (days 15-26 where day 1 is the first day of your bleed). I would ring the surgery though, reception should be able to ask the doctor for you. Might be worth checking the dose is similar, it seems to be used more for ivf which may be a different dose. Personally I wouldn't use it for 7 days unless I could have a scan in a few months to check the lining is thin.

[Dotty]

https://thebms.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/14-BMS-TfC-Progestogens-and-endometrial-protection-01H.pdf

Hi if you look on page 6 of this document from the British Menopause Society, it gives you the dosage for Cyclogest. x

[Taz2]

If you put Cyclogest into the search box (in blue bar top of screen) it will bring up all of the posts from members about this product. There might be useful information there.

Taz x 

[Cassie]

Hi Mary, what progesterone are you on now? I remember you had issues with the Utro.

[Hurdity]

Ho Tulip

I used Cyclogest for may years and pposted on the Cyclogest thread about this.

When I was prescribed this by GP (some years ago - I changed to Utrogestan 10 years ago!) the dose was 2 x 200 mg capsules daily for 12 days per 28 day cycle (or possibly 11 days?). ie twice the amount compared with utrogestan. Although 400 mg per day may be too high, this was prescribed on the basies that when used for fertility, a higher dose of cyclogest is given ( 800 mg daily) compared with 600 mg for utrogestan so it woud be a question of seeing how you get on with the 200mg cyclogest but possibly with a view to increasing if it doesnt work in protecting the endometrium?

You should not be taking it for 7 days as sheila99 says as this dose is shown to increase the risk of endometrial hyperplasia and possibly cancer - but if the doc is supervising this and has prescribed this reduced regime for a reason and is prepared to scan you then fine, otherwise start with the 12 days.

I take mine (2 x 100 mg utrogestan) for 12 days but on a 6 week cycle - so I still get the full dosing but slightly less often - and this has seemed to work OK so far over the years....

So if you are post-menopaussal it might be better to start with the proper licensed length of time ie 12 days per 28. Try that for a few months and see what sort of bleeds you get. If minimal bleeding then you could try to lengthen the cycle so you take progesterone less often but still giving it time to do its job when you do take it - if you see what I mean?

Good luck!

Hurdity x

[Tulip]

Thanks for the replies - yes, I've read all I can find, and nowhere have I found anyone on less than 11 days of progesterones - which makes me wonder if the chemist had read '13' as '18' on the prescription (we have constantly rotating newbie pharmacists, and this one seems.. well, a bit half soaked, lol  after speaking to her twice).
I'm still waiting for an answer from the clinic pharmacist (my GP doesn't know much about HRT) but as it took 5 weeks for them to converse with each other, I'm not holding out much hope of a quick response, so failing that in time, I'd rather do 12 days of cyclogest as it appears to be the standard, and ties in with the way a menstrual cycle runs.

[Mary G]

Hi Mary, what progesterone are you on now? I remember you had issues with the Utro.

Cassie, you are right, I had dreadful problems with Utrogestan.   It triggered my migraines and the bleeds became intolerable as I got older so for the past three years, I have been using a bespoke progesterone from a compounding pharmacy.  I started on 50mg progesterone every day and have since reduced to about 25mg daily and it's a still going well.  Having a continuous dose of stable hormones without the bleeds has made me feel so much better!

I have a very long thread in the Alternative Therapies section on here which you may find interesting.

[Cassie]

Thankyou Mary, I will take a read.