Would you rather be irritable/miserable or suffer from physical symptoms? I have to choose over the next few months

[foxinsocks]

As I thought, I have a fairly severe progesterone intolerance/sensitivity. I have (hallelujah) found a consultant who specialises in this however, with my holidays and him being away, chances are I won't get an appointment till September.

In the meantime, I have a choice. I can stay on one type of pill which will stop my periods, stop my migraines but leaves me totally irritable/short-tempered and a bit low also I get nauseous, some skin rashes (mild).

Or, I can go off this pill - I'll get horrifically heavy periods, menstrual migraines, raging PMT with a nasty blister/hive like rash on my joints BUT I feel totally normal in between my migraine/period ending and PMT starting.

I thought I would want to take the pill - I thought I could handle it but 2 weeks in and I really don't think I can manage to feel so emotionally weird and I know if I stop taking it, that will completely go.

What has made me rethink is that I asked dh what he thought and while he would back any decision I make, he thinks that I am (overall) happier when on the pill because I am totally useless when having the migraines/heavy periods (this is true) and he thinks what is swaying my mind is that I can stop feeling strange by stopping taking the pill whereas once I've stopped taking it, there is nothing that can halt any of the other symptoms I'll get.

So what would you do?

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It is an evil choice, poor you

I THINK that I'd rather be ill pysically.

thanks for replying Lio

yes. I think I am swaying that way aswell

maybe tot up the days affected - after all Sept is only 3-4 weeks away so you may only have say 10 days affected out of 40 rather than 40 out of 40.

I sympathise - nasty dilemma. FWIW I would probably come off the pill. I have been on a couple which really disagreed with me and personally I hate the "altered" feeling - led to depression at one stage because I was so not myself.

You've probably already tried everything to alleviate the symptoms of the migraines, PMT etc - but at least you know when you are going to feel rotten and can prepare for it. How many days a month are you affected when not on the pill?

Hope you get the consultant appt soon and get some progress.

Oops too slow - meowmix got there before me...

thanks

I reckon I get the migraine/heavy period for 7 days and the PMT/rash/other symptoms for another 7 days. Problem is I get 'numb brain' after having the migraine for so long so that affects me for another 2-3 days afterwards so I guess in every 28 day cycle, I feel ok for about 11 days.

It's just such bad timing because it's dd's birthday coming up and our holidays but I think I'll have to stop taking it. I'm annoyed because I really believed the GP when she said this had a different formula (it does) and that there was a good chance it would help ggrrr!!

Looking at your breakdown then half of the time you would feel good.

Do you have help for the worse affected days?

Great DH is so supportive.

Personally if it was me then i would come off.

I don't have help but I can manage - I haven't really told many real life friends about it (I only see them when I'm feeling ok but no-one has noticed a pattern!) because I hate being ill and I feel really annoyed about it all. Also, for a long time, I had the GP telling me there was nothing wrong with me and it was all in my head (even though I had nasty blistering rashes etc. ggrrr) - they even dared to tell me that I didn't suffer from migraines just headaches!

But now that I've found this consultant, I can finally see the shining light at the end of the tunnel so at least I know there are solutions to the problem.

thanks for all your thoughts