I’m not very active here, but I’ve read your posts and want to share my experiences. I see you are giving your different options very short tries and that is probably not helping. I gather you are going through a very difficult period and are desperate for some relief, so I’m not sure if my experiences will help, but I’m going to answer some of your questions anyway.
I haven’t started yet, but I just got a prescription for Dienogest and Oestrogel. (I started with the gel this morning and will add Dienogest in 2 weeks)
I used Drovelis (which also has drospirenone, like Slynd) until yesterday. It (the drospirenone in Drovelis) did suppress my ovaries, but this took a full month and the first month was pretty bad mood wise. The estetrol (estrogen) in Drovelis wasn’t high enough for me once it suppressed my ovaries, so I was supplementing with oral estradiol (oral estradiol is not agreeing with me). I would have asked to supplement with transdermal estrogen if the drospirenone didn’t give me eczema (it has a diuretic effect and my skin isn’t liking it), because after 2 months, my mood was way more level than on my own cycle.
I had Qlaira next on my list, but since oral estradiol gives me nausea and too many fluctuations, I asked for Dienogest + oestrogel. I’ve read multiple articles and 2 mg Dienogest (which is standard dose) suppresses most women. Here is an abstract of an article:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22128200/ .
Personally, I’m intolerant to progesterone, dydrogesterone and levonorgestrel (mirena) and there are multiple progestogens that aren’t an option for me personally, because they increase breast cancer risk. So, I landed on the 4th generation progestogens, drospirenone (Slynd) and dienogest. Drospirenone was much better (I’m not saying good, I’d rather not take any progestogens) than the other tries mood wise, but because of the diuretic effect not great as it turns out.
All of these options need multiple weeks of trying, as it takes time to suppress your ovaries if that is your goal (it’s one of mine, my cycle is horendous). I also find this all very frustrating.
I also tried tibolone, but only for 4 weeks, the estrogenic effect is pretty weak (I still had hot flushes and night sweats) and it didn’t suppress me I think. I didn’t have many side effects at first (I did have an unexpected bleed 1 week in), but started to feel I had PMS that just kept increasing towards the end. A gynaecologist I spoke to said it is supposed to suppress you, but I’m not sure it will if you have these strong all over the place cycles in peri. I might want to re-try post menopause (I’m 50, so hoping that won’t take too long) if dienogest isn’t working out, as it did do wonders for my vagina, I hardly needed to use vaginal estrogen.
