Menopause Matters Forum
Menopause Discussion => All things menopause => Topic started by: GypsyRoseLee on October 06, 2015, 05:59:59 PM
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Saw my GP today to get a repeat prescription of my BCP. I mentioned how I've had brown spotting virtually every day since I started taking it.
The GP was a locum but seemed quite clued up. He told me that I shouldn't take more than 3 packs together. He also suggested I try a different brand which is less likely to cause the constant spotting.
So here I am with Gedarel 30/50 which is identical to Marvelon I think?
But he told me to stop taking the Rigevidon now for 7 days to give my body a break and a chance of a withdrawal bleed (though only had one last week) and then start the Gedarel in 7 days time.
I have felt very low and anxious all day, really quite horrible. Have no idea how I'm going to feel over the next 7 days with no hormonal help either?
I just feel heartily sick of it. I am going to give the Gedarel a try but if I'm still getting really down days and anxious like I have felt this last week then I'm going back to my GP and ask for ADs. I'm just so fed up with losing all these days and having to pretend that I'm fine when inside I'm breaking into pieces.
I realky struggled to get to sleep last night, despite nearly nodfing off on the sofa. But once in bed I kept getting nasty adrenaline surges every time I nearly dropped off. No idea why? And I felt so anxious today, and it totally ruined what should have been a nice day shopping with my Mum. No idea why I should feel so anxious today? The fresh bleeding stopped 3 days ago now.
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Here is hoping you do really well on your new regime.
I think the trouble is....and I'm guilty of this....is the pursuit of feeling the way we did before this hormone upheaval started. As CLKD is fond of saying....it's not called the change for nowt.
Sometimes it's easier, well I have found it easier, to accept things are different and I will just have to accept this, and work with what I have got.
The BCP and/or HRT can only slightly mimic what our bodies did naturally.
Other ways have to be found to cope with the situation we now find ourselves in.....and I highly doubt that ADs are the first choice. Of course some women need them.
Relaxation, Yoga, self help books.....acceptance.
It's never going to be the same, unfortunately.
Honeybun
X
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I found in the years when I didn't sleep in bed, that if I dropped off on the sofa to have a blanket handy - DH would put it over me and go off to bed. I would wake in the early hours and wander upstairs ……. sometimes I would sleep but because I felt 'rested' I didn't worry too much. I knew I would drop off in bed the next night.
You have your own hormones joining in too ::). I remember how I felt during my teen years :-\. Let us know how you get on during the week and remember, you are not alone!
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Hello GypsyRoseLee.
Like many ladies here I follow your posts with interest and I hope your new BCP does the trick. I understand your concern about feeling worse but when I was having continuous spotting I worried about becoming physically depleted and the impact that was having on my emotional state. Hopefully the new regime will lift your mood without causing spotting, if so the temporary turmoil may be a price worth paying.
Wishing you well and let us know how you get on.
K.
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Hi GypsyRoseLee
The thing is that with the COC Pill, although you are eliminating the fluctuations in the cycle when you take the tablet packs back to back, you are still taking a high dose of synthetic progestogens which may not suit everyone. I wouldn't want to take progestogens all the time. The only other time we have high doses of oestrogens and progesterone is during pregnancy - and this is our own natural progesterone.
I can't remember why you decided against trying Qlaira as Briony takes? There are variations in dose throughout the pack but there are at least some progestogen free days and only 2 ( or is it 3?) tablet free days. Your hormones will still dip and rise a little - but not in the same dramatic way as they do during peri-menopause and without the synthetic oestrogens and high dose progestogens?
I see that the pill you have been given has the same progestogen as Cezarette. Not sure if synthetic progestogens interfere more than progesterone with some of the beneficial effects of oestrogen?
Obviously I can see you are searching for something that makes you feel best overall as well as liniting unwanted bleeding - but as others have said you may well find that nothing will make you feel good all the time - there will be some side effects - but hopefully not so bad that you feel like you did before. For example I am post-menopausal and on HRT - but because I have a cycle I don't feel so good during the progesterone phase and also have to put up with a bleed because I limit the progesterone. Therefore there are days and weeks when I feel really rough and ready to throw in the towel and give it all up - but I persist because I know what the alternatives are without it - and don't want to face this yet.
I do hope you feel better on this one. Also did you keep a diary also of how you felt before starting HRT, and on the HRT that you were taking? It would be good to compare so that you know which you felt best on for most of the time.
Wishing you all the best!
Hurdity x
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Thank you everyone, you're very kind.
I intend to try this new BCP and see how it goes. It's a newer type of progesterone, so if the prog is the problem I'm hoping I react better with it.
Though I don't understand how I can feel perfectly fine and good on it for over 2 weeks, then it all come tumbling down?
If I react badly to it, then surely I would react to it all the time, not just selectively?
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So hope this works for you. Like others have said, this new progesterone is at the other end of the pill 'scale', so it could be just what you need. Have a look at the Avon Pill Ladder.
I would try and resist ADs for the moment and give this at least three months to settle. Otherwise you won't be able to tell which of the two is helping and which of the two is causing potential side effects, if that makes sense? It definitely took at least four months for me to feel significantly better.
Hang in there x
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Here is hoping you do really well on your new regime.
I think the trouble is....and I'm guilty of this....is the pursuit of feeling the way we did before this hormone upheaval started. As CLKD is fond of saying....it's not called the change for nowt.
Sometimes it's easier, well I have found it easier, to accept things are different and I will just have to accept this, and work with what I have got.
The BCP and/or HRT can only slightly mimic what our bodies did naturally.
Other ways have to be found to cope with the situation we now find ourselves in.....and I highly doubt that ADs are the first choice. Of course some women need them.
Relaxation, Yoga, self help books.....acceptance.
It's never going to be the same, unfortunately.
Honeybun
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Honeybun, such wise words. I need to print this out and stick it on the fridge/desk/computer/bed and anywhere else I turn to in moments of need!
I just wish I'd known it was coming; I'm sure I'd have appreciated my 'before' life a lot more than I did. I'd also have put having a family before my career and other things that don't, in the big picture, really matter. That said, at least it has helped me discover who my true friends are and also what really matters in life!
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Maybe because the hormone takes time to be absorbed, initially there's no adverse reaction?
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GRL, sorry things are not going as well as they were for you. Thank you for all the sharing you do though, it really helps us to know what is what.
Great advice here ladies. Especially love HB reply, I too need to print that one out.
:hug:
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Hi
My gut reaction as a long term pill user is that the pill you have been changed to is a much better choice than the regivedon/ovranette/microgynon one and I hope you will be more settled on it.
I was happy on the pill and did a lot of dancing, walking, and healthy eating. During the week off, my biggest problem was oestrogen withdrawal headache, and the best thing for this was to make sure I did not get thirsty, at all, ever. I used to feel quite a sense of relief when I went back on it. The other thing was to be absolutely routine in taking it and not waver by more than an hour. I had lovely skin ::) which I really miss but I started with the itchy dry privates then :o so it did not help everything.
I think honeybun is so right when she says hrt/coc does not replace everything. I am sure there is so much more going on, other than progesterone and oestrogen changes, that affect us. And I am very guilty of the pursuit of lost times.
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Hi
My gut reaction as a long term pill user is that the pill you have been changed to is a much better choice than the regivedon/ovranette/microgynon one and I hope you will be more settled on it.
Couldn't agree more! The pill you were on is the cheapest and one of the safer ones - but it is one of the least well-tolerated.
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Thanks dahliagirl. I forgot that you take the BCP. Did you have a break at the end of each pack every month? My GO recommends I take them back to back for 3 months at a time.
I am hopeful that a more oestrogen rich formula will suit me better. If not, then I see my consultant in December and I will ask her about maybe trying very high dosage oestrogen and separate Utro.
Funnily enough I started to feel much better mid morning. Anxiety gone, but I feel very, very drained. I wonder if this is because I didn't take the BCP last night and I'm benefitting from the prog leaving my system? I also wonder if after 2.5 packs back to back I'd had too much of a build up of prog and hence suffering with my old symptoms for the last week?
Just so many questions which I know will never get answered.
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You've been worried too which can be draining ;)
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Yes that's true CLKD. I just don't seem able to shrug off worry anymore. It really gets it claws into me.
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Thanks Briony. I do intend giving this new Pill a good try. Definitely 3 packs together, then see? I go back to my consultant near Xmas, and if Gedarel seems no better I am going to ask about mega high oestrogen and separate Utro.
After what you wrote about Microgynon/Regevidion being badly tolerated often, I've just had a very sobering thought. Years ago when I first met my husband I suddenly and inexplicably started 'suffering with my nerves' with nasty anxiety and bouts of very low mood. Then it would all magically disappear for a few days.
This started about 6-7 weeks after going on the Pill, and I'm pretty sure the brand was Microgynon! I 'suffered with my nerves' for about 18 months, on and off (but mainly very 'on'). At times the anxiety was crippling and I put my poor boyfriend (now DH) through Hell at times.
Then it all seemed to quickly taper off. And I'm not 100% sure but I think that around that time I came off the Pill for a while.
All these years I thought I had just suffered with my nerves because of the stress of university and exams. But actually I'm now wondering if it wasn't the Microgynon causing the symptoms, because they felt so similar to how I feel when anxious/depressed now.
The timing seems so coincidental?
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Maybe you are just over thinking which is very common during peri.
Perhaps.....although I'm sure your pill diary is helpful to others , it's not that helpful to you.
It's dwelling to my mind. Sometimes you just are better to get on and not try and analyse ever single symptom.
Keeping busy and occupied, which I'm sure you are, and not over thinking every single blip might be beneficial.
Let's be honest....who feels well every single day now. Certainly not me.....sometimes off in the morning and better later, sometimes energised in the morning and tired later.
You just have to get on with life no matter what it flings at you....but overthinking every single little thing focuses the mind on negative things.
Honeybun
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I put down when my anxiety is bad - i.e. 1-5, 5 being really bad. Although I have anxiety often prior to doing 'stuff' I tend to tick the calendar when it's bad in the mornings because I feel better as the day goes by ::)
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But HB, this is far, far more than 'just feeling off' some days as opposed to others. If all I was dealing with was slight ups and downs then I certainly wouldn't bother noting them much. But the symptoms I experience are just so much more extreme and I can't just dismiss them and ignore them. Usually I do keep them at bay by keeping busy. But sometimes they're so intense that any mind of effort it pretty much beyond me.
Although every health professional I have ever spoken to about my symptoms thinks keeping a mood diary is an excellent idea.
I have a very analytical type of mind and what you term as 'dwelling' I term 'analysis'. Believe me, even if I didn't keep a mood diary I would still be mentally logging and dissecting my symptoms. I spent a long time at university being trained to use my brain this way, it's impossible to just not do it.
If I do check and find that I was taking Microgynon way back then I will actually find that incredibly reassuring because all these years it has really bothered me that I suddenly experienced a long stretch of anxiety etc for literally no logical reason.
I am happy to shoulder lots of the changes that going into midflecage can bring. I never expected or hoped to feel 25 forever. I am accepting of the aches and pains. I have got used to rarely sleeping through. I am used to rarely drinking coffee now, and avoiding anything too sugary after about 7pm.
But I'm not ready yet to just accept that for usually nearly half the month I just have to 'get on with' feeling so crippled with anxiety and feeling unable to even smile at my own children.
I will continue to analyse and experiment to see if I can connect at least some of the dots which hopefully might help me fine tune my medication or better adapt my lifestyle.
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I didn't mean to cause any offence at all, neither was I dismissing your symptoms.
I just think that the analysing every little point can be detrimental to your wellbeing.
I understand how it is to feel more than a bit off as I have suffered from anxiety for over three years and that began after I started HRT.
If I kept a diary then it would make pretty miserable reading.
I choose to get on whether I feel like it or not and many a time I have to paste a false smile on my face ::)
I have accepted that things have changed and I'm not able to get back to what I was before.
That's why I suggested trying to deal with things the way they are.
Honeybun
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It's fine, I'm not offended at all. But I think very differently. I actually find a mood diary a real source if comfort because, aside from logging the bad times, it also logs the good times and the days when I feel my mood suddenly improved. And when I'm in a bad patch it really helps to see in black and white that I have felt exactly like this before, many times, but that each time I always bounce back.
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Hy GypsyRoseLee
Just to say I am just like you - I also have an analytical mind from years of university and research so I completely understand where you are coming from re trying to work out what's going on! Unfortunately some of it is outside of your control but at least you are logging what you are taking and over the long term a picture should build up and what's even more important, it's a way of comparing how you feel now to what you were feeling before you started any treatment - and then you can really work out what's best - from your own perceptions at the time!
Also to add that the only time I was ever on the pill it was in my early 20's and it was Microgynon and made me feel terrible. I think I was on it for a year - I just remember being moody, tearful, irritable and low (unlike me!). I was completely back to normal when I stopped and changed to physical methods of contraception.
Incidentally ever since I've been on HRT I have been a nil-by-mouth gal (sorry if I've already said that elsewhere) and felt that the least side effects would be experienced by getting the most natural hormones into my system in the most natural possible way ie without going through digestion/liver and so that my body wouldn't have to deal with all the unwanted metabolites! I can see that in your case you are needing something more extreme at the moment ie preventing the fluctuations and I guess tablets are the only way to do this - although some have mentioned contraceptive patches, implants and rings? if you don't find a pill to suit maybe this is the way to go as being less likely to cause side effects (at least from having to take such a high dose?). I know nothing about this at all so just thinking aloud!
I'm like honeybun in that I've never experienced such crushing and extreme anxiety/depression/symptoms that I can barely function - just the usual ups and downs, worries and anxieties that many (?most) of us have to a greater or lesser extent.
Anyway hope it turns out to be good and you will be "bouncing" more of the time :)
Hurdity x
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Thank you for such a lovely post Hurdity :)
Obviously different approaches work better for different people. Being an analytical control freak it really helps me to use a diary to chart patterns and symptoms. But once I have updated it, I don't dwell on it anymore that day. But, in retrospect it has often proved both informative and reassuring.
If it does turn out that I took Microgynon all those years ago at university, then it will solve a mystery that has niggled at me ever since! I had always loved university life, was doing very well in my studies and newly in love with my DH, so why did I suddenly start suffering with intense anxiety and bouts of low mood???
I can clearly remember the moment it started, I was crossing campus to meet DH on a cold but sunny Sunday morning, when I felt a horrible surge of anxiety from nowhere.
Anyway, thank you for your recommendation about differing methods for BCP absorption I will chat to my consultant in December.
I do appreciate it is difficult to understand how overwhelming extreme mood swings can be, and how debilitating they are. Two years ago I wouldn't have understood either. But the lows are so much worse than just 'feeling pretty fed up'. They really are. I have suffered with PMS all my life so am very familiar with feeling fed up and irritable once a month.
But my peri symptoms are a while other ball game entirely, much akin to what I had to deal with when I had severe PND years ago.
In a nutshell it is an utter lack of hope and joy, and all you feel is a wretched sense of doom and despair. Years ago I had a breast cancer scare. When my GP examined me and told me I needed an emergency clinic appointment I was immediately terrified and despairing. I left his surgery, came home and vomited through fear. I don't know if you can imagine what that feels like? But that awful sinking sensation of fear and despair is exactly the same as the hormonal anxiety and depression I get now.
So, it's really not something I can just shrug off with a 'can do' attitude, unfortunately. Believe if I could, I would.
But the flip side is that I also get lots of days when I feel really good and at peace with world.