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[Doodie]

Hello all,
What a wonderful thing to have found you!
I would be very grateful for any help as my GP, who is very proactive and helpful, and I seem to be learning about this together and I don't have the amount of money needed to go to a menopause specialist clinic here.

I'm sure this topic has been covered but as the treatments I can get a different brand named products from the UK, I thought it might be worth seeing if anyone can help me.

I am a 54 year old woman and I live in New Zealand.

2.5 years ago I began having irregular periods and around 19 hot flushes and night sweats every 24 hours. Exhausting.

I used menolife for a year and it helped, then,  it stopped working and everything went up a gear and I was on my knees with it all.

So rather reluctantly I went on to Hrt in the form of a 50ug patch of Estradot and for the first 10 days of every month a 2.5mg pill of Provera.

I am the kind of person that thinks twice before taking a disprin so this was huge for me but my life and that of my patient husband were becoming increasingly difficult to cope with.

The hrt I'm on cleared all symptoms almost immediately and I have been able to stay at these low doses so I am very grateful.

However over the course of 3 months (nov-feb 2019/2020) I started moving the 10 days that I take the provera to a later date of each month to manipulate when I got my period because ... and my apologies for what's coming....we were going on a two week camping trip to a conservation camp site where there is not hot water and only long drops and I really didn't want my period then...
Anyway on month three, (in the middle of said camping trip) my period came while i was still taking the provera instead of a few days after.
I went back to the doc and she put me on provera at the same low dose everyday to try and stop my periods altogether which i didn't mind as they were becoming much heavier and more painful than before.

But it's now been 4 months and I still get regular  spotting and twice in that time it has been heavy enough to need to use sanitary products.
I have hardly had a week without spotting in that time.
If I go back to my GP I know it will be lots of invasive procedures and my gut feeling says to wait for 6 months as I have read so many things that say it can be up to a year before things settle.

I have no adverse reactions other than that and all the other symptoms have remained at bay.

I would be grateful for any opinions or advice as I'm vacillating between ignoring it and thinking I have endocrine cancer 😱🙄
Thankyou so much.

[Doodie]

Thanks Avalon, I appreciate your input very much.
I did ask my gp If the doses  of estradot and provera need to match and she said no as at 5 mg of provera I had issues with bloating and period like pain.
So I'm just confused.
I think I could go for  all these procedures and be told it's just something that has to be ridden out.
Or I could go back to 5 mg of provera and see if that sorts it out I guess

[Doodie]

Should I try 5mg again? If I go to my go she will say yes. If I want to lower the rise she will say yes.
I feel like I'm working blind 

[sheila99]

As you're peri you should be on a sequi regime. The only thing I know of that will stop your periods is mirena which has a much higher dose of progesterone as it's designed as a contraceptive. I think you bled because your body had come to end of it's progesterone phase. You need to keep the hrt cycle in step with your own. In my experience trying to do it the other way round just doesn't work (natural 6 week cycle that refuses to fit in with a 4 week hrt cycle). My own cycle is always stronger than the hrt one.

[Doodie]

Thankyou.
So have I caused this by lowering the dose and then taking it every day instead of sequi?

In which case should I go back to only taking it for half the month or should I stay taking it continuously but up the doe to 5mg?
As you can see, I don't fully understand no was always as regular as clockwork, every 28 days without fail but that's nearly 3 years back now.
Thankyou again.

[Doodie]

Should the two doses(est and prog) match?

[Penelope]

Hi Doodie glad you found this site I am also in NZ and  54  I'm on the lowest dose Kliovance continuous.
 
I was going along nicely till 5 and a half months then got a period for a week but nothing since it's now 7 months.I rang my doc and he said it must be to strong and to take one every second day.

I jumped on this forum and got some good advice and did not drop and every thing has been just fine fingers crossed
I had terrible symptoms and would rather have a bleed once now an again rather than going back to that.Dont you hate winter is here?😀

[Doodie]

Hi Penelope
Yes winter is not much fun that's for sure.
Thankyou so much ladies for your replies, I have been thinking and thinking and getting a greater understanding.
 Itrust my doctor, she is lovely but this is not her specialist field.
She presented hrt to me by saying do you want to have periods or not have periods. I didnt know anything about sequential progesterone and how important it it is to get it right. 
My doctor said the doses don't have to match but I understand now that they do with the ones I'm on.
So I think as I have a full blown period this morning that I'm going to stop taking the provera continuously but go back to sequi once this period has finished and take it for 10 days and maybe even go back up to 5 mg.
So, Thankyou again.
 

[sheila99]

I think you're doing the right thing. I don't know what the doses are for provera but it's important you take the recommended dose so that your lining doesn't build up as this puts you at greater risk of cancer. It should tell you in the patient information leaflet, if not put up a post and I'm sure someone will know.

[Doodie]

Thankyou. This is so helpful. I feel like for the first time I actually get it now.   

[Doodie]

There don't seem to be dedicated menopause clinics here but someone attached to a general clinic who specialises in menopause.
But they are just too expensive for me to attend.
Especially since covid.
Hey ho.  Lots are in the same boat.