Hello. I'm perimenopausal and 53, married without children (not for want of trying). I have had bad menstrual pain since I was about 31. About two years ago I started with night sweats, itching skin, sleep disruption, vivid / bad dreams, and terrible rage-like moods that could last for a fortnight and were affecting work and personal life. I felt anxious and depressed. My periods were still very regular, every 23 to 24 days but very painful and woke me or prevented me from sleeping and I couldn't do much and sometimes missed work. I had two events of unusual bleeding (too gross to mention). After being given anti-depressants for my rage-like moods and having a D&C with biopsy, nothing much had changed after six months, except the anti-depressants made me feel like a zombie rather than a raging maniac. I asked for HRT and stopped the antidepressants.
The GP put me on Elleste 1/10 for three months which I didn't find helped me much, then 2/10 which brought about noticeable changes. Periods became every 28 days, much lighter and less painful. Night sweats stopped. Moods were improved. On the downside, I was gaining weight, had bloating, my bra size increased, I had breast tenderness and my ankle joints and lower legs were painful at times (making getting down stairs in the morning difficult). But, I had pelvic cramping a lot when not on my period (felt I was coming on all the time), sometimes really painful, and one morning the cramps were really bad and I started sweating heavily (mid-winter in Scotland), felt faint and then threw up in the street to my utter humiliation. This was similar to how I felt on a couple of occasions a day before my period started, before HRT. After that and after reading some information here I asked my GP if I might try Femoston as I felt the worst of the side effects was always during the progesterone part of the pill packet. She decided to put me on 2/10 as the higher oestrogen had suited me better with the Elleste.
This is my fifth month on Femoston 2/10. It is indeed different from Elleste. The ankle and leg pain are gone. I have some night sweats again (I can live with that as it's minor). The bad / vivid dreams are back (I can live with that too). I sometimes need to pee during the night (which is new and annoying for a bad sleeper), my skin feels itchier again (but I'm being super careful about detergents and showering so it's ok). I am a bit moody, but, irritable, impatient and anxious as opposed to the pre-HRT rages. I have felt less bloated and the random pelvic pain has gone, being replaced by more normal cramps about a week to ten days before my period, similar to when I wasn't on any HRT.
However, I get pronounced breast tenderness and stabbing breast pain, (in one breast especially, which has always been a bit more sensitive and appears to be slightly bigger than the other one now), and they feel large and heavy and in the way all the time, (I singed my fluffy-jumper-clad boob while cooking recently
). Most notable of all, my natural menstrual cycle seems to override the Femoston. My period comes every 22 to 26 days and I don't then have the withdrawal bleed after finishing the progesterone pills. I also have more menstrual pain then with the Elleste but it still remains more manageable than before taking any HRT at all. My periods last a bit longer sometimes too but not longer than a week.
I understand from what I have read that the progesterone in Femoston does not stop ovulation and is gentler than that in Esstele, so I guess that is the reason for these differences.
If anyone has experienced their natural cycle over-riding Femoston 2/10, I would be really interested to hear about it.
So far, I'm better with it than without it.
Author
Topic: Newbie - Comparing Elleste 2/10 with Femoston 2/10 (Read 2169 times)