Menopause Matters Forum
Menopause Discussion => All things menopause => Topic started by: Roobee on July 09, 2019, 06:19:46 PM
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I've been wondering why most of us took the birth control pill or some device or other, without any side effects or issues, yet HRT makes so many feel awful?
Birth control is much stronger hormones than HRT so why I ask myself...and you? 😂
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I never had any problems with birth control pills, but also not had with HRT either, up to now anyway,
I always felt great when i was pregnant though, and no problems there either,
Not even morning sickness, maybe just lucky
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I remember being put on one pill that made me a looney. Crying, rocking back and forth etc etc. Went back to the doc who laughed and said that it could do that to some women. She changed it to another one and I don't recall having many issues with that. However after a terrible time with various HRT regimes, I had a lightbulb moment about the progesterone. Yes, I'm sensitive to it, yes I take Utrogestan and yes, it makes me feel crap but better crap than the crappy crap I felt before. Bloody hormones...👹😭🥵🤯🤬
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I remember being put on one pill that made me a looney. Crying, rocking back and forth etc etc. Went back to the doc who laughed and said that it could do that to some women. She changed it to another one and I don't recall having many issues with that. However after a terrible time with various HRT regimes, I had a lightbulb moment about the progesterone. Yes, I'm sensitive to it, yes I take Utrogestan and yes, it makes me feel crap but better crap than the crappy crap I felt before. Bloody hormones...👹😭🥵🤯🤬
Better crap than the crappy crap 😂 that's a very good way of looking at it!
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Maybe it's because we are older? Or been without the hormones for a while so getting them back on track is harder or just because we are now thinking about it all too much?
I would love to know the actual reason from an expert, doesn't make any sense to me 🤷🏻♀️
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I could never tolerate the contraceptive pill (any of them). My husband had a vasectomy instead it was that bad. Conversely I've found hrt works wonderfully, only the oestrogen part though, still trying to get the progesterone part right x
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I would prefer birth control over HRT any time even if it poses more risk as it is more potent. It can be trail and error to find the right one. Different progestins have different androgenic and progestogenic properties and some have higher estrogen and lower progesterone and vice versa. But if it works it surpresses fluctuations way better than HRT. Within limits I would choose quality of life above quantity.
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I remember being put on one pill that made me a looney. Crying, rocking back and forth etc etc. Went back to the doc who laughed and said that it could do that to some women. She changed it to another one and I don't recall having many issues with that. However after a terrible time with various HRT regimes, I had a lightbulb moment about the progesterone. Yes, I'm sensitive to it, yes I take Utrogestan and yes, it makes me feel crap but better crap than the crappy crap I felt before. Bloody hormones...👹😭🥵🤯🤬
I was put on ovranette (think that's how it's said) and it sent me doo lally. Chucked my boyfriend, quit my exams half way through and didn't give a damn about anyone/anything. Mum took me straight back saying what it'd turned me into and he gave me one with 3 different strengths, Trinordial I think and that was the one I always relied on when needing BC x
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Good question! :foryou:
The first birth control Pill made me nauseous, try explaining that to a Mother with elephant sized ears >:(
The 2nd I took for over 11 years B4 being sterilised. No problems. No weight gain etc.. Can't remember what the names were though :-\
It's our hormones that cause us to ask for HRT so it may be the natural rise and fall that is some of the problem. Fluctuation and adding 'replacement' may well upset the whole bodily system and because we already feel ruff, we are more susceptible to changes in hormone levels.
Certainly PMT can cause HUGE upheaval for women, causing them to commit murder. Think of post natal depression ......... that's happening without replacement methods.
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I agree CLKD, we weren't low on anything back then I guess nor were we totally obsessed with every little thing like we are now (or me at least). So I spose once the system has gone without it's a bit of a shock to all of a sudden get some and try to adjust to it!
Don't remember ever reading leaflets of the pill or even considering it may make me feel ill, but now have read the bloody newspaper sized info sheet of HRT over and over trying to decide if I want to use it....what's that all about?
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Some people do react very badly to the BCP - my friend's daughter became suicidal after being put on the pill for PMT.
My GP did advise that BCP tends to be better tolerated than HRT in most cases because it is stronger and 'overrides' the natural hormonal cycle, so that you don't get fluctuations. HRT works more on a 'top up' basis, so if your own hormones are still variable, sometimes the HRT will top you up by too much or too little, depending on your own levels. Well, she put it more scientifically than that, but I hope it makes sense!
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Makes perfect sense Dorothy, thank you 😀
I would like something that totally overrides my natural hormones until I die please lol
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I went on the lowest form of the pill. Green packet, as I remember, micro summat or other.
But it gave me high blood pressure.
Came off that and went onto the injection, depo provera. Just a little weight gain, but nothing much, just the same as this hrt I'm on now.
Then went and got sterilised in my early 30s......OH wouldn't have it done, too scared.😆
Ahh shame! 😡
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This is really interesting, I couldn't tolerate any kind of birth control pill, combined or mini and they either sent me loopy or I had migraines, weight gain, spots, horrendous bouts of thrush, mood swings- you name it I got it. It would appear that my poor daughter isn't fairing much better after trying yet another pill and wanting to jump under a bus ( her words😳). I've just started femoston as I'm peri- haven't got to the progesterone phase yet and have to admit I'm a little worried. The oestrogen has worked on my mood almost instantly and I am feeling a whole heap better than two weeks ago! I can't stop smiling and I'm hoping as I've read that femoston is gentle that I can tolerate it- early days I know!
Just shows really how much/ little is really known about the impact taking hormones has affected so many women 😳 :o
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7dwarfs struggling with the contraceptive pill is an indicator of being progesterone intolerant. Hopefully you'll be ok with that prog in femosten though, fingers crossed x
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Makes perfect sense Dorothy, thank you 😀
I would like something that totally overrides my natural hormones until I die please lol
Me too! I was one of the fortunate ones that had very little trouble adapting to the BCP - just felt a little nauseous and put on some weight. But I went onto it to control hormone imbalance anyway, so I doubt BCP could have made me feel worse than I already was feeling - I used to get period cramps that were so strong I'd be bent double, gasping for breath and unable to speak. So BCP enabled me to live a normal life for the first time in years.
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I briefly took BCP when I was young (Suavuret). Only took them for six months, since I gained a lot of weight, lost a lot of hair and felt very depressed.
Now I got prescribed Qlaira for heavy bleedings and just started the second week. Not feeling any better yet, since I'm spotting all the time and had two episodes of heavy bleedings. Don't feel any side effects yet, nothing. I guess it's still too soon and it has to settle. Hope it will not be as awful as Suavuret was when I was young.
For me HRT isn't an option, since I have just started peri, my hormones are fluctuating a lot and I still need contraception. But I intend to transition into HRT after meno.
I know it would not be easy, because here in Spain doctors are very adverse to it since the scare of WHI 2002, and very, very few women are on it. But I intend to tell my GP that if she doesn't prescribe it, I'll self-medicate anyway, so she'd rather prescribe it and have me under control.
I really don't understand why doctors here are so adverse to HRT but don't think twice about prescribing BCP even to women over 40 like me. My mother, who stopped menstruating at 57 got prescribed Boltin but after a year they told her to stop it because of the risk. Even when my mother has never smoked, never had clots and no history of cancer. Well, she tends to have sugar a little high and spikes in blood pressure so I guess that's why they put her off HRT so soon.
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I would direct your medical practitioner to MM Forum ;-) if they are quoting dis-credited 'research'.
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Don't think they'll listen, as the WHI 2002 scare is so universally believed here to the point that only 0,21% of peri and post meno women in Spain take it.
Data extracted from here: https://medes.com/publication/114473
https://www.saludcastillayleon.es/portalmedicamento/es/boletines/boletin-mensual/novedades-portal/terapia-hormonal-sustitutiva-evidencias-clinicas-consumo
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But if you don't drip feed the idea that the research was discredited ;) - carry that Flag ;D.
Is the Link in English :-\
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7dwarfs struggling with the contraceptive pill is an indicator of being progesterone intolerant. Hopefully you'll be ok with that prog in femosten though, fingers crossed x
Thanks peri😊
I'm really hoping so , it's funny but no one ever mentioned this to me when I was going through all the mini pills a couple of years ago. My practise nurse just kept pushing me to have a merina coil fitted instead ,but after all the other problems I wasn't going to put a progesterone in my body when I couldn't be in control of it. Especially after the mini pill had caused me to have heavy long periods and spotting when she told me I would probably not have any at all!
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Is the Link in English :-\
No but I linked the source even if it's in Spanish so you could see that I didn't gave a random percentage. The paper essentially explains how HRT usage has fell down around 88% since the WHI 2002 and how it keeps being awfully under prescribed
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Tnx. Clear as mud ::)