Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[jillyrich]

Hi ladies.

Just looking for a bit of help please!

I've was using evorel conti patches for a year,  started off really well but by the end of 12 months I was bleeding every other week on them. Switched to femseven conti in the hope they might make a change. They haven't!  I am wondering whether I'm intolerant to either the progesterone OR oestrogen? I admit to be completely useless and can't work out which hormone my body isn't happy with!

I've been poked and prodded, had scans and smears and more scans and a hysteroscopy to find the cause of the bleeding, but there is nothing present internally that the docs are worried about. They say just to switch to a different HRT.

Is it even possible to be intolerant to one aspect of HRT?

Does anyone else have any knowledge or personal experience of something similar? I'd be really grateful if they could share their experiences with me please. Thanks ladies.

I should quickly say I'm 54, been post meno for about 3 years, and do not want to take tablets due to a history of blood clots.

Jill

[Hurdity]

Hi jillyrich

Looks like your post was missed....sometimes this happens as there are so many!

Anyway - just to say that bleeding on HRT is not caused by intolerance of hormones.

Progesterone intolerance is a condition where women experience worse than usual side effects either from their own progesterone (ie during the second half of their menstrual cycle - severe pms) or from progestogens taken as contraceptive pills or HRT. Oestrogen intolerance does not exist as such - although some women need to find the right route/dose for adding oestrogen as part of HRT to lessen their menopause symptoms as well as make them feel at their best!

If you have been examined and tested, and the docs can find no reason for your bleeding - eg fibroids or polyps then a change of HRT might be the answer as has already been suggested. Did any of the scans of your womb show a thickened lining? In the absence of any other problems insufficient progesterone in relation to oestrogen can cause sporadic bleeding but usually the lining would show to be thickened.

Did you bleed all the time you've been on the patches, or has it tailed off or perhpas become more frequent ie fortnightly now whereas it wasn't before?

Alternatively sometimes spotting on continuous hRT can be caused by too much progesterone causing over-thinning of the lining which can become ulcerated and bleed. However this would surely be picked up on the scans that you've had and you would have been told your lining was very thin?

I would suggest you would be better off taking separate oestrogen and progesterone - ie oestrogen patches and utrogestan, although taking this continuously can sometimes cause tiredness. Some women thrive on this regime though. Taking the progesterone orally does not increase clot/stroke risk as far as I know, and you would still be taking the oestrogen transdermally.

Also if it was a case of not enough progesterone, some women with irregular bleeding on continuous HRT benefit from returning to a cycle so that the bleed is then predictable. The downside is the fluctuation in progestogen once a month. Evorel sequi patches would give you the same type of HRT as you are on now.

Hope this helps!

Hurdity x

[jillyrich]

Hi Hurdity, thanks for your reply!

I was originally on Everol Conti and there was light breakthrough bleeding originally, calmed down for a few months, then I started bleeding more frequently.  And after 12 months this had turned into a full blown period like bleed where it was a week on, week off.

After one of the hospital apps I changed to Femseven in the hope it would help, but the pattern of bleeding was exactly the same.

The hospital said my lining was perfectly normal, and I'm sure she said it was less than 5. They said all of me internally looked perfectly normal (which was obviously great news) and there was nothing to be concerned about.

My last hospital appointment left me completely at a loss because they just said change the HRT. But my doc is completely useless unfortunately, I think he just doesn't know enough. He had no idea what to try next! 

This site has been absolutely brilliant though with help, and ideas, and treatments etc.  So many of us ladies going through hell trying to find help and a way of dealing with being a woman of a certain age!!

So I had an email consultation with Dr Currie and told her my entire sorry tale. And she's said exactly what you have, Hurdity!  She suggested Estrodot 25 via the patch, and utrogestan 100 mg orally, daily for 1-25 days out of 28. She said that patches are good for oestrogen absorption, but not so good for the progesterone side of it. Also that the oestrogen dose was possibly too high for me, therefore increasing the chances of the side effect of bleeding.

So I toddled off to the docs today and asked him for the prescription. I have it here and I will be taking it tonight for the first time! The old femseven patch can come off and the new teeny tiny Estrodot can go on, and I will take my first tablet at bedtime.

I'm really hoping that this combination is the answer to my prayers! Failing that, I'll settle for not bleeding every other week and feeling vaguely human. Not too much to ask surely?!?!

I'll let you know how it goes!

Thanks again.

[jillyrich]

Made a mistake in my last reply!

Dr Currie said to take the Utrogestan daily at bedtime, but didn't actually clarify whether to take it all the time.  So I emailed her again - and she advises taking it every day without the usual 3 day break. So that's what I will do.

Fingers crossed that this regime will be perfect for me!