Thank you so much for replying, Dancinggirl. Thank you CLKD, too!
I didn't know it was possible to be progesterone intolerant, but having googled it and read the list of symptoms it's described the situation to a T! I was taken off the pill and given the Evorel patches because of crippling headaches but the doctors said that they were because of the pill and quite common, but that the patches wouldn't give me headaches - which is quite clearly nonsense.
The Utrogestan rings a bell - I think I took this as part of an egg donor IVF cycle. I don't seem to remember it causing a problem (although obviously at the time I was up to the eyeballs in various hormones!). That with oestrogen in a gel or patch sounds like an option.
The Mirena coil would be an option, but I saw that it's also a contraceptive, and whilst there is virtually zero chance at all that I will ever get pregnant, I don't want to rule out the chance of a miracle happening. Having said that though, I was toying with the idea of demanding a hysterectomy the other week just to stop all the faffing about, so should the other options not work, I would have to seriously think about it.
Thank you so much - it's so nice just to have someone understand what I am saying and offer advice rather than try to brush me off.