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[Mimi12]

I am on Evorel Conti patches and take the progesterone-only mini pill for contraception.
The patches made something resembling a period come back after 20 years of the pill stopping them. I'm 54 and wonder if the periods are real periods - i.e. relese of egg not being fertilised resulting in a bleed, or if they are something else caused by the patches as they are very unlike a real period in presentation (weeks in duration, brown not bright in colour, and light enough to be dealt with by panty liners rather than pads).

I would like to stop the contraception but am worried that I might have the horrendous periods that I've heard about just prior to menopause as a result. Do you think the progesterone-only pill is keeping them light, and stopping it will mean I'll be in flooding teritory? Untill I come off the pill I guess I won't really know what stage I'm at.

It's all very confusing. Your thoughts would be appreciated. 

[Hurdity]

You are having a lot of progesterone and therefore - yes this will be helping to keep your periods lighter than they would be. You could always have a Mirena coil instead, along with oestrogen patches, and this should eventually stop the bleeding once your body as settled.

You won't know where you are in menopause unless you stop HRT but that doesn't matter. As you are only 54 you could still be having periods ( according to stats on this site 80% of women - in the developed world -  have gone through menopause by age 54, which leaves rather a large minority who have not!).

What is the brand of mini pill you are taking?

Hurdity x

[Mimi12]

Hello Hurdity,  thank you for replying to my post.

The contraceptive I'm currently on is Cerelle, 75 micrograms Desogestrel, although it can be any brand name of the generic Desogestrel that the pharmacy have in stock.

It used to be Cerezette consistently, which was fabulous - no periods whatsoever for 20 years, but since I turned 50 they only give me the generic Desogestrel, as it's cheaper than the Cerezette brand.

I think I'll stay as I am for another year, as I guess the GP will want to review the Desogestrel at age 55. I don't want that anaemia-inducing flooding that several women of my acquaintance have gone through toward reaching menopause.

Thank you for your time on this.

[Mimi12]

Hudity - I forgot to say that the generic Desogestrel contraceptives have always caused spotting for me.  They say there's no difference in generic Desogestrel and Cerazette but that has not been my experience.

I am nervous of having a Marena Coil fitted because of the horror stories (pain in placing it, diappearence into/out of the body).  Although I'm still gatehring information on that and may well change my mind.

[Bungo]

I was on cerazette for years and stopped on same day I started continuous hrt a year ago ( I wanted a big bang approach and partner and I decided to use condoms instead). With cerazette I hadn't had proper periods in years ,just spotting and blood tests indicated I wasn't post menopause at the time but I still wanted continuous regime. I had what seemed like very light periods upto December , every month and lasting 5 or 6 days but nothing heavy and no flooding..I'm 53 so wonder if it's because I was late perimenopausal that the periods were light. So I guess I'm saying that there's a chance you'll have very light periods if close to menopause. Before I started cerazette when I was 44 I had very heavy periods every 3 weeks which I know now was start of peri for me