HRT and menopause

[Janie156]

Looking for advice on HRT... I was on Evorel Sequi patches and like everyone else on this medication I have had to find an alternative, which was a real shame as the patches suited me well. I have been taking Elleste Duet 2 mg for 12 days now and insomnia has struck with a vengence! I suffered from insomnia during my second pregnancy and when I had PMT, so there’s something in them there hormones that trigger it!! Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do? Anyone expererienced same problems and found another medication that helped? I realise it’s early days as regards taking these tabs, but any advice much appreciated. Thanks 🙏

Why have you had to find an alternative? I am on them and got my new prescription today.

I was also on ES, my GP has put me on oestrogen gel and progesterone pill. I haven't run out of the ES so I haven't started the gel/pill yet. I didn't realise they could have such a different result. Fingers crossed.

dementedma but Evorel Sequi is out of stock nation wide. How has your pharmacy got them?

Oh, so sorry. I am on Evorel Conti. My apologies

My mum got some Sequi the other day from local pharmacy. She's actually on Conti which also is supposed to be out of stock nationwide but I managed to get her some from Superdrug online pharmacy. Worth checking if they can prescribe it to you - my mum gets migraines that make her want to die if she's not on Conti so it was worth paying for it.

Have you read the ingredients list?

What's going on is you have changed from a sequi regime to a continuous regime and are now taking 1mg Norethisterone daily, rather than for 12 days a month.

Norethisterone can 'cancel out' the benefits of estrogen.

Can't you go back to a sequi type?

Had to stop sequi patches due to no availability. A problem with the adhesive apparently, which manufacturers of product say will not be fully resolved until middle of 2020. Interesting re. Superdrug, I’ll look into that. Also interesting comment re.norethisterone (don’t fully understand this, but I’ll look into that too.). Really appreciate people taking time to comment, especially on NYE!!

There are many, many other options for sequi.

I use gel and Utrogestan- currently in stock.

You can find estrogen-only patches available and then all that is needed is a separate progestin for 12 days a month (you can use Norethisterone tabelts.)

Whatever you use, no one ought to swap you from sequi to continuous type as they are very different.

Hi Janie
I'm not sure if @JinglingHellsBells is confusing brands, but that's not true about the Elleste Duet and Norethisterone - it is a sequential regime.
Elleste Duet is a tablet alternative for Evorel Sequi and only gives you Norethisterone for 12/28 days (compared to 14/28 for Evorel Sequi)

I always find this table helpful for comparison: www.menopausematters.co.uk/perimeno.php

Apologies @NormaSnorks yes, that's right. I did have a quick look online at the patient info leaflet but only a very quick look.

@Janie156 Apologies. The issue might be that pills are harder to absorb so you might not be getting such a steady level of estrogen as you were with a patch.

I'm glad I read this thread. I've got a prescription sat in the chemist. Chemist just said they were out of stock but didn't say it was a long term problem. I usually take Evorel Sequi.