How confident are you in the advice that you don't need contraception after 55?

[Gelatibon]

GP (and written NHS advice) says it's not required, even if you're still having some periods, after 55th birthday...

I know pregnancy is unlikely and a successful one even less so, but....

FILs siblings are all 20-25 years older than him , his mum thought she was menopausal and had him at 50

Thing is though I didn't want to get pregnant at all regardless of the fact any pregnancy wouldn't go to full term. My situation was a bit different in that I was in this stage in my late 30s rather than early 50s,but I did use condoms til I was 2 yrs without a period. Overcautious maybe but I felt it better than worrying every time I had sex

Doing family history, I look through thousands of historical records right up to today.

I am yet to see a mother having a child at age 55.

Given it's rare enough to give birth over 50 that Wikipedia has a dedicated page
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pregnancy_over_age_50

I'm reasonably confident. The vast majority of the cases listed there involve fertility treatment.

It just doesn't happen at 55. Natural occurrences are so vanishingly rare it's not worth worrying about.

I couldn't agree more. I'm past all that and it's brilliant. It's like having a new lease of life! I understand what it's like to be a man 😉. No worries at all.

I think you're misunderstanding perhaps your HRT @Gelatibon

If it's the sort that is sequential, on a cycle, then you'll have a withdrawal bleed every month however long you're using it- till your 90s if you do!

If it's the continuous combined sort , you shouldn't bleed after the first 6 months of using it so you need to see your GP.

The odds of getting pregnant and going full term is almost zero at 55 when your periods were so infrequent anyway.

At 55 having spent nearly 40 years trying hard not to get pregnant even the slim chance of a pregnancy would be too much for me. Periods started at age 11 and still going very strongly (FFS). I guarantee the hormones in the contraception are doing me less harm than a pregnancy.

I have the Mirena coil now as a vehicle for the progesterone part of HRT - previously it was my contraception. So delivers both - no choice needed - something to consider that would sort both issues? Supplemented by oestrogen patch for the other part of HRT.

Me too - my periods were SO heavy in my late 40s, but Mirena took care of that and I now take progesterone alongside the estrogen gel. Periods stopped with Mirena and never came back.

I had menopause at 58. How awful that you were treated like a freak by the dr.

NHS advice says "You can stop using contraception at the age of 55"

For me it's fine as by then it'll be more than a decade since my last period. Dh has had the snip also. But if either of those things weren't the case I'd probably be uneasy. I don't think I'd be wanting to use hormonal contraception still at that age though so I guess it would be condoms.

Yes my DGM had babies at 46 & 48, having had 3 other children 20 years earlier. I have often wondered...

Testosterone isn't licenced for women but I still get it.
Vaginal progesterone isn't licensed, but my GP prescribed vaginal utrogestan pessaries.

Op just use a condom if you're lucky enough to be able to have sex and you aren't sure.

Yes, that's what I'm saying I don't understand. I know the bleeding I have now is a withdrawal bleed (although it actually comes about 6 days into the 12 days of progesterone), but I was having periods before I started on HRT so I don't know if I still would be if I wasn't on HRT.

GP was clear that the HRT alone wasn't sufficient to act as contraception at 54.

Similar here. I’m 45 and we tried for another baby a few years ago. I had 3 miscarriages, 2 when I was 38 and one when I was 40. I had some treatment then but still nothing so we gave up. I still have regular periods and I’m ovulating. This thread is making me feel very naive!

That's horrible 💐
Some women are lucky with later pregnancies, but there can be heartache.

A successful pregnancy after 50 is very rare, but a pregnancy ending in miscarriage less so and I don't blame people wanting to avoid that. But after 55 it's pretty much guaranteed you won't get pregnant. The chances are much less than those of a younger woman using contraception. You'd have to be a medical anomaly to get pregnant at that age.

I wonder why the doctor won’t prescribe the combined pill to women over 50 when HRT contains the same or similar artificial hormones…

You will never know if your periods have stopped while you're using HRT.
TBH I think you're overthinking this. (Said kindly.) The odds of pregnancy at 55 are remote.And if you did conceive it's most likely you'd miscarry.

@aliceinawonderland HRT doesn't contain the same hormones as any contraception pill. They are very different.

HRT is called body identical. it's made from yams- and the molecular structure is the same as our own.

Historically some of the older pregnancies were not the mother at all, but a cover up for a teenage daughter becoming pregnant. Not a guide necessarily for the present day.

HRT hormone levels are much lower than the pill, from what I understand.

Also the pill contains a really significant risk of a stroke (one of the reasons I can't take it). This risk becomes huge once you get older, so it's only really OK to take it when you're young. Even then, it's not good for women to take it, the risks are just smaller

So interesting reading this thread and finding out I'm not alone in still having regular periods at 55. Lately I've been getting a bit concerned about it and kind of freaking myself out by wondering if they're not periods at all but a symptom of something sinister (without wanting to go into TMI the blood is a bit different than it used to be I think.) It's reassuring to know that it's not that unusual to still be menstruating at this age! (And I don't bother with contraception now either...)

@BeforetheDawn Yes, I didn’t think that I still be having regular periods over 50 either (51 this year), I assumed that I’d be through menopause.

I’ve realized that everyone is so different-I have friends whose periods ended in their late 40’s and others 55+ who are still going. Some having horrible peri. symptoms, others barely anything. 🤷

I am 55 and taking Tamoxifen post breast cancer. I’ve not had a period since I had chemotherapy. However, I still have a very clear monthly cycle with ovulation pain, bloating, cramps etc. I have no doubt that if I wasn’t on this medication and had not had to have that treatment, that I’d still be having regular periods and I would still require contraception. I had a baby at 42, very easily, and wouldn’t risk it.