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[Fianna]

Hi

Continuing on my HRT journey I'm currently on Femseven as I was having increasingly heavy bleeding with Evorel + Utrogestan.

I believe Femseven contains a synthetic progesterone.

After reading the recent info on the benefits of HRT, there are more benefits for body identical progesterone (Utrogestan? ). So my question is can I take body identical progesterone in addition to femseven, is there any benefit or disadvantage to doing so? Maybe using a body identical progesterone ream rather than a tablet?

Any advice or insights please?

Thanks.

[Hurdity]

Hi FIanna

Personally I wouldn't take any extra progestogen including progesterone, to the one you are already taking as part of the patch. I'm not a fan of the idea that there are benefits of taking bio-identical progesterone - except importantly, as part of HRT. I wouldn't want to OD on progestogens because of the adverse progestogenic side effects. It may also cause overthinning of the womb if you take more than you need.

If you experienced heavy bleeding with Evorel and utrogestan - there are other ways of controlling this and depending where you are in menopause too.

Progesterone creams don't really do anything significant though anecdotally, some women feel they do if they're not taking anything else.

Hurdity x

[bombsh3ll]

The "benefit" of micronised progesterone is that it is less unfavorable metabolically than the synthetic progestins, however as you have discovered, it is not as good at controlling bleeding.

There is no point taking both for health reasons, unless micronised progesterone was serving a specific indication for you such as helping insomnia.

This is OK to do.

[discogirl]

Hi bombsh3ll

Sorry to hijack this thread, however I'm considering my next step in my menopause journey.

I've just had a very heavy bleed again, had a similiar one last year, this time I ended up having a hysteroscopy.

I was on 100mg utro orally and 2 pumps of gel however i had a very small bleed on that, so I increased to 200mg utrogestan on the advice of my gynae however i decided to use the 200mg vaginally. Bad idea, as I had a really heavy bleed, had a hysteroscopy. I've done a bit of research about the coil and I don't want one fitted and don't believe I would get on well with synthetic progestins.

Thing is the utrogestan when I use it orally really does help my sleep, would you say there was any benefit in me taking the utrogestan on its own; I'm a bit worried about re-introducing the oestrogel as I'm concerned I may bleed again.

Just wondered what your thoughts were on this. Thank you x

[bombsh3ll]

There's absolutely no harm in using micronised progesterone on its own.

It is far better if needed for sleep than to either go untreated with chronic insomnia, or take sleeping pills which have their own issues.

[discogirl]

Thanks bombsh3ll,

That's the reason I went on hrt for chronic insomnia and anxiety.

Also due to the fact I seem to bleed whenever I use estrogen so I would be using progesterone on it's own, would there be a chance that I'd end up with too much progesterone, I mean would I end up with a different set of issues?

[Fianna]

Thank you both, this is very helpful, I'm sleeping well on Femseven so will continue just with this for now.

[bombsh3ll]

It's very unlikely and if you aren't using estrogen you are not compelled to use an endometrial protective dose, so you can take the lowest effective dose that helps you sleep.

You also don't have to take it every night.

However if you do, there are no known safety concerns (other than in the presence of hormone sensitive cancers) and some clinicians intentionally prescribe progesterone alone at higher doses long term eg 300mg or 400mg in place of giving estrogen.

[discogirl]

thanks bombsh3ll, that's a great help x

[Furyan]

Hi bombsh3ll

Sorry to hijack this thread, however I'm considering my next step in my menopause journey.

I've just had a very heavy bleed again, had a similiar one last year, this time I ended up having a hysteroscopy.

I was on 100mg utro orally and 2 pumps of gel however i had a very small bleed on that, so I increased to 200mg utrogestan on the advice of my gynae however i decided to use the 200mg vaginally. Bad idea, as I had a really heavy bleed, had a hysteroscopy. I've done a bit of research about the coil and I don't want one fitted and don't believe I would get on well with synthetic progestins.

Thing is the utrogestan when I use it orally really does help my sleep, would you say there was any benefit in me taking the utrogestan on its own; I'm a bit worried about re-introducing the oestrogel as I'm concerned I may bleed again.

Just wondered what your thoughts were on this. Thank you x

Hi Disco - really sorry to hear you’ve been having dreadful problems with bleeding again. I can understand your reservations about using synthetic progestins especially if you’re looking for some symptom relief for mood and sleep as well. I dont’ see why you couldn’t use progesterone alone as many women do it. Think you’d need to consider a higher dose if you did though, but it’s probably better to check this with a practitioner knowledgeable in the use of progesterone with that option. Or take an even lower dose of oestrogen? Or, why not increase the oral progesterone to 300mg?. Sorry, you might have tried at least two of these options already as I know this has been a long haul for you. x

[discogirl]

Hi Furyan

I don't want to hijack someone else's thread, so I'll message you now if that's ok xx