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[emuchops]

Started 20mg on Saturday, made me nauseous and tired. Reduced to 10mg. I can't stop crying today - surely it's not the meds? Only been on it 4 days. Any advice much appreciated. I'm 51, was great on Femseven- obviously no longer available sadly. Now on Ethinylestradiol plus utrogestan for the second half of the month. Thanks.

[CLKD]

Oh poor you!  What does the leaflet in the box suggest?  Do you have a pharmacist locally who U could have a chat with?

[emuchops]

Thank you both for your replies. The leaflet states 'mood changes' as a side effect, it also states nausea (which i have). So I guess it's just as likely that it would affect my mood - I just didn't expect it to affect my mood so quickly. I've been on several sorts of hrt and it has always been the progesterone/second half of the cycle that's been troublesome, never the oestrogen part. I think will perservere but check out the oestrogen in femseven or evorel and see if I can get that rather than the ethinylestradiol if things don't settle down.

[Alicess]

It's quite normal to feel emotionally out of balance when you start a new treatment. I would give it at least 6 weeks to 2 months. It happened
to me every time I tried a new BCP which also contains ethinylestradiol. Also nausea and tiredness. Your body needs to find a balance. Just give it some time. Try not to change the dosage to much as it would cause more upheaval. I would stick with 20 mg as your physician prescribed as it's the most common dosage. Ethinylestradiol stopped working for me but if I still had a choice I would definitely prefer EE instead of patches or gel.

[emuchops]

Many thanks for that. How long did it take to 'even out' and not leave you feeling out of balance? The dip in mood has taken me by surprise tbh - perhaps I'd got complacent about the oestrogen part of the cycle - as I said it's usually the progesterone that gives me problems.

[Alicess]

Everybody responds differently, you have to bear that in mind, but for me the first week gave the most side- effects. It's possible you experience the dip in mood because you lowered the dose. Is there any reason why you're not taking a low dose BCP with ethinylestradiol and a progestin?

[Hurdity]

Hi emuchops

I am puzzled that you have been given EE as part of your HRT and maybe you are outside UK? This is not licensed for HRT so would not be prescribed here (nor in US or Oz as far as I know either). I would suggest either taking the combined pill as Alicess suggested or using one of the proprietary HRT regimes. A replacement for Femseven would be Evorel sequi or separeate oestrogen patch tablet or gel with  a progestogen. If you look at the menu you will see all the different HRT preparations under "Treatments". EE is probably too strong as it is synthetic. Estradiol - or "natural" oestrogen is the recommended one as it is body-identical.

Hurdity x

[emuchops]

Oh no - I think i've asked the GP for the wrong thing!!! I was after the same progesterone as that in Femseven (Levonorgestrel) along with a suitable oestrogen. I've got Ethiylestradiol 10MG and Utrogestan 200MG. Is there any other HRT medication that contains levonorgestrel? I've tried Evorel and lots of others too. Thank you

[Alicess]

Microgynon 20, a low dose BCP contains 20 mg ethinylestradiol and levonorgestrel. At least that's what it's called in the Netherlands, not sure if it goes by the same name in the UK.  Also Microgynon 30 which contains 30 mg ethinylestradiol and levonorgestrel. And there's the Mirena coil, also containing levonorgestrel. I'm not familiar with other products containing levonorgestrel but maybe someone else does. It could be different in the UK.

[emuchops]

Thank you Alicess. I'll see what my GP says

[Nicola Winter]

Newson has an article on this. She recommends taking uterogestan vaginally every other day. I've tried to upload the article but I can't work out how.