Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Got a story to tell for the magazine? Get in touch with the editor!

media

Author Topic: New to HRT  (Read 1420 times)

Berrys75

  • First Flush
  • *
  • Posts: 2
New to HRT
« on: August 15, 2024, 12:38:47 PM »

Hi
Looking for some advice . I hadn’t had a period for 10 months and had menopause symptoms and have been put on HRT. The last four months I have had a heavy period and really tender /sore breasts and irritability . This was upsetting as I have ten months without this . O went to the Drs and said could I switch to gel as o think the oestrogen is too high . They switched it out when i told them why . Now o have collected my prescription and read that I will have 14 days of the tablet . I have only just realised by Google searching that I am on Sequi patches so no wonder I am having periods and symptoms back neither Dr has explained this to me . I know that 12 months is officially the start but o am now disappointed to be having periods again would I be able to switch to the continuous as I am convinced if I had waited another 2 months I would have hit the 12 month mark . Drs are very frustrating at our surgery 🤦‍♀️
Logged

CLKD

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 78787
  • changes can be scary, even when we want them
Re: New to HRT
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2024, 01:26:34 PM »

We are finding that many GPs/Gyanes etc. don't have any ideas about HRT!

Is there a Nurse Practitioner at your surgery with more knowledge?  If not ask for a referral to a dedicated menopause clnininc, there are waiting lists in both the NHS and private sector. 

Some find that keeping a mood/food/symptom diary of use to push home to any medic that symptoms are real and troublesome.

Is there any info in the label in the box?

 :welcomemm:
Logged

Berrys75

  • First Flush
  • *
  • Posts: 2
Re: New to HRT
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2024, 02:26:51 PM »

Yes think I may need to see a specialist . I would prefer to be on the constant HRT rather than the cyclical ones as I am sure if I had waited 2 more months I would have been 12 month period free . They are classing me as peri which I would be but 10 months is practically there . Gutted that I am having periods again and the irritability after not having it for so long . Dr should have realised this when I said I am getting periods again , he should have said yes you will do because you are on Sequi 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️
Logged

CLKD

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 78787
  • changes can be scary, even when we want them
Re: New to HRT
« Reply #3 on: August 15, 2024, 02:50:09 PM »

Doctor probably didn't realise  ::) and even after being 12 months without a bleed, Mother Nature can throw in the curved ball.  Then we have to begin counting, all over again.

R U able to remember why you opted to try replacement, which symptom were you hoping to ease? 
Logged

bombsh3ll

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1823
Re: New to HRT
« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2024, 08:01:37 PM »

The withdrawal bleeds on cyclical hormone therapy, as with the birth control pill, are completely artificial, and were historically only built in due to paternalistic beliefs about women wanting to have periods, thinking they were pregnant if they didn't, and/or being unable to cope with any irregular bleeding that MIGHT occur on continuous treatment.

Withdrawal bleeds are not medically necessary and do not treat or prevent any disease, so should be regarded as an option not a mandate.

Generally speaking, now that we have much more options available than 50 years ago, it is common practice for cyclical HRT to still be prescribed to women still having cycles, as the thinking is that it will synchronize with their bleeds and that regular periods are better than potentially sporadic bleeding, and then after 12 months or so it can be switched to continuous.

However this is completely arbitrary and nobody other than you should decide whether you spend every fourth week bleeding!

You MAY get some irregular bleeding if you aren't fully menopausal, but this can happen on a new HRT regimen even if you are.

If I were you I would go back and ask for continuous if that's what you want.

Actually regarding the tablets you mentioned, if that's micronised progesterone you will probably have been prescribed 2 x100mg a day for 2 weeks.

If that's the case, the equivalent continuous dose is one 100mg capsule every day.

This is still the same number per 28 days, so if that's the case you have agency over whether you take it continuously or cyclically, and do not necessarily need a replacement prescription.
Logged