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[Jaylow]

Hi ladies I'm new here. Age 45 and started with peri symptoms over the last 10 months or so. First was dry eyes and mouth. Then dry vagina, now hot flashes and awful sleep, or lack of it. And lack of libido. So to cut a long story short (hassles of trying to get help / hrt) I've now got a prescription for fem seven sequi. My periods had been fairly regular every 26 days. I've had a couple of periods that have lasted for over 2 weeks, and right now I'm around 7-8 weeks since my last period.

So my question is, do I wait for my next period to arrive and start my patches on day 1? Or should I start now? I'm wondering if my womb lining will be quite thick with me missing my last period which makes me think that waiting til my next one arrives before starting makes more sense. Does it matter?

[Dancinggirl]

Hi - I think it may be worth waiting till you start your bleed - unless you go another 2-3 weeks with no period - in which case you could then just start the HRT. It can be worth synchronising the HRT with your cycle or you may find you get erratic bleeding from the outset. DG x

[Jaylow]

Thank you DG, that's what I'll do

[sheila99]

Hi Jaylou - I am on Everel Sequi which I think is similar. The patient information leaflet says to start it withing 5 days of a period. Does your leaflet say something similar?

[Jaylow]

Hi Sheila, I don't know yet. I spent half of this afternoon driving round all the local pharmacies to find that nowhere had it in stock. Apparently I need to go back to a pharmacy and order it in.
 I'm not sure when my next period is going to arrive. I could usually tell but I've no clue what's going on right now.

[sheila99]

I didn't know when my next period was coming either. I decided to give it a couple of weeks then ask GP if I should start with a conti patch so I'd have a bleed. Period started a few days later so never got round to asking. I know how frustrating it is waiting when you're desperate for symptom relief!

[Jaylow]

Well I'm now on day 70 of this cycle and still awaiting my period. I'm going to give it 1 more week. I've only ever missed 1 period in my life before this. The symptoms are awful, the dryness is the worst for me, dry eyes, mouth, skin, vagina... not to mention no libido, hot flashes, itchy skin, low mood. I'm going slowly insane with it all. I've been taking vagifem twice a week but it's not enough. I've never wished so much for my period to arrive.

[Dancinggirl]

Don't wait any more. Just start the HRT.

Alongside the Vagifem, you need to use some vaginal moisturiser - SYLK or the YES products are best and you can get these online. Don't use these moisturisers at the same time as the Vagifem  or it could affect the absorbtion of the oestrogen, so just use them morning and night when you are not inserting the Vagifem.
Hope you start to feel better soon. DG x

[Hurdity]

Hi Jaylou

 

I agree with Dancinggirl - don't wait any longer. This could be the first episdoe of a long gap between your periods and you could still be waiting for another month. If it turns out you have a period next week and you are out of sync then you could adjust your patch cycle. Let us know if that happens? As you are young you don't want to be too long with deficient oestrogen not to mention the unpleasant symptoms.

Hurdity x

[Jaylow]

Thank you ladies .

Hurdity , adjusting my patch cycle - would I wait for the week to finish and then put a combined patch on? So miss out the second week of oestrogen only?

My gp only gave me 4 weeks supply! I struggled to get hrt and ended up seeing a gynaecologist who recommended femseven without hesitation. But I had to go back to gp to get prescription. 4 weeks is hardly long enough to know if it's working and it'll probably take me another 3 weeks to get a gp appt to get any more! Little Sunday rant there 

[Dancinggirl]

Silly GP - he should have given you 3 months supply.  I would suggest you ask for a repeat prescription now and this time insist it is a 3 month supply - your shouldn't need an appointment.  This HRT should be put on you repeat prescription list as it is.  These pedantic GPs drive us NUTs!!!! 
Don't worry about adjusting how you use the patches.  You should get a bleed after you finish full 4 weeks of the first cycle and are back on the oestrogen patches at the start of the next month..
DG x

[Jaylow]

Well I waited a little longer as I started to feel like my period was due. Then yesterday at day 79 of cycle I had enough of waiting and stuck that patch on.

Before this peri started I used to get migraines most months, around the first day of period and could last up to 3 days. Probably the only good thing about peri for me was that my migraines eased off a lot. Now since a few hours after I started the patch yesterday I've had a migraine  . I was expecting one possibly when I started the progesterone patches but didn't expect one now. Should I be worried?  Do you think it will settle down?