I'm 47 and until Autumn 2013 had been on Cilest for years with no issues. Normally, I would start my withdrawal bleed the day after starting my 7 day break i.e. if I took last pill on Thursday night, would start bleeding on Saturday. Very occasionally, after I'd been on Cilest for a while, I would start bleeding very shortly after taking the last pill, i.e. before my body could have *known" I'd started the break.
In the last few months I took Cilest, I started regularly bleeding and spotting mid pack and it was getting worse. My periods were also heavy considering I was on the pill. A scan revealed small fibroids growing under the womb lining. Due to their location, they could not be removed completely so I had surgery to have them trimmed away from the womb lining. I stopped taking Cilest as a Mirena Coil was inserted during surgery. Unfortunately, this made things worse and I had almost constant light bleeding and spotting for the entire 9 months it was in!
In October, I could take no more bleeding so had the coil removed. Since then, I've had 4 natural periods. Although I did not bleed in between, the periods were very heavy, lasted over a week and were only 22-25 days apart (pre kids & pill I was text book 28-30 day cycles). The GP agreed I could go back on Cilest to see if it would lighten the periods and lengthen the cycles.
Last night, I took the last pill of my first pack. This morning, less than 7 hours later, I woke up to cramping and bleeding. I do realise that the pill can take a few months to settle down, but I never had this happen when starting Cilest in the past.
I do feel a bit worried as I'm pinning my hopes on this sorting out my bleeding issues. I've been told that if this doesn't work, the only option left is hysterectomy :-(
Given my age, I know there's a good chance I'm peri menopausal. However, I was told that the pill completely masks any menopausal symptoms such as weird bleeding. I'm presuming it's nothing more sinister as I had biopsies etc done during my fibroid surgery which was done via hysteroscopy (camera in the womb) and was told all looked fine, except for fibroids of course!
Would be grateful for any pearls of wisdom or to hear from anyone who's had similar issues :-)