Menopause Matters Forum
Menopause Discussion => All things menopause => Topic started by: Ladybird123 on August 15, 2022, 10:22:09 AM
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Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum, am about to turn 45 and been prescribed HRT, part of which is the Utrogestan for 2 weeks out of 4. I am also on Cerazette which I take to help with headaches, not for contraception. I just wondered if there are any others of you out there who do take both the Cerazette and Utrogestan without any problems. I’ve probably been goggling too much but I’m worried it will be too much progesterone for me. I already suffer with depression/anxiety and take Venlafaxine for that and worried that I might make a things worse. Any success stories gratefully received!
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Morning! Welcome to our World.
MayB if no one responds with advice, put each product name into the search box on the Forum. Some threads may pop up, make notes ;-)
Browse round. Does the Venlafaxine help?
Kick Dr Google into touch ;-).
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Ladybird - First thing welcome to MM. :welcomemm:
I think this question has been asked on Mumsnet
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/menopause/4407160-many-questions-on-starting-hrt-when-i-m-currently-on-pop-pill
Hope this helps :)
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Thank you.
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Ladybird, you CAN take Cerazette (desogestrel) whilst on HRT but you might want to see what things are like without it and with just the utrogestan.
I took Cerazette for 9 years and I'm pretty anti it, TBH. To begin with, you might not actually need HRT if you weren't on Cerazette - that was what happened to me.
Cerazette suppresses your natural estrogen levels to the early follicular stage, which is very low. I also think that the effect is greater the longer you stay on it. And because it shuts your ovaries down so much, it also means you're not getting any testosterone.
Whilst you can replace your estrogen and testosterone by using HRT, you may well be doing that before you really need to. I started HRT after stopping Cerazette. My ovaries woke up and started to make their own estrogen and, after testing a few months later, I realised that I don't actually need estrogen yet (which is good, because I had a lot of side effects from it) - it was really that Cerazette had shut my ovaries down so much, it was giving me low estrogen symptoms. I don't think I would have ended up seeking HRT, had I not been on Cerazette.
I also found that it killed my sex drive, and gave me migraines. (Although if you find it helps with the headaches maybe that won't be the case for you.)