Hi, I’m a GP and I’ve recently done a lot of training updates on hrt prescribing due to the high levels of calls we’ve been getting about it after the Davina show! I’m presuming you’re on a sequential hrt regime (ie you’ve had periods at some point in the past 12months, and the plan is you’ll continue to have regular bleeds after starting hrt) with utrogestan?
What I tend to advise - and this is on the advice of consultant gynaecologists with hrt interest I’ve see present on various webinars- is taking the progesterone component for days 1-14 of the calendar month to make it easier to remember. You should usually then get a bleed a few days after stopping the progesterone, though this might be a bit erratic initially and take a few months to settle into a predictable bleeding pattern.
The gynae specialists I’ve spoken to disagree with what the BNF (doctors drug reference book) advises, which is 200mg once daily on day 15-26 of each 28 day oestrogen cycle (sequential hrt), or 100mg once daily on day 1-25 of a 28 day cycle (continuous hrt, so women past the menopause ie no period in the last 12 months), as it makes it overly and unnecessarily complicated. They basically advise 200mg days 1-14 for sequential, 100mg every day for continuous.
The 12 vs 14 days things - traditionally it’s been prescribed as 12 days, but most women find 14 easier to remember as it’s 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off, but you can do it in whichever way suits you best : days 1-12 of the month, days 1-14 of the month, day 15-26 of every 28 days. The reason the progesterone is used is to protect the lining of your womb from the oestrogen component of the hrt, and it’s licensed for 12 days out of a 28 day cycle, but saying that very few women have a bang-on 28 day cycle usually slightly longer, so a couple of extra days of progesterone aren’t going to do you any harm and may well provide a tiny extra bit of protection.
So coming back to your question (apologies for the background waffling above!), you would be due to restart the progesterone again 2 weeks after you stopped, so two weeks on, two weeks off. Obviously this means the actual dates you start and stop will be slightly different every month, so if you wanted to make it easier for yourself you could start the next lot slightly earlier on the 1st July - no risk to you doing this other than the chance of bringing on another bleed sooner than usual when you stop it again - and continue on like this, taking it day 1-12 of each month. I hope this helps! Xx