Heavy bleeds on HRT

[KillingMeDeftly]

I started Oestrogel (2 pumps a day) and Utrogestan (200mg on days 1-12) in May and for the most part it's been great- the hot flushes have stopped, I have more energy, my moods feel more balanced.

The only thing I'm not keen on is the return of periods, especially as they're much heavier and painful than they were before. The first couple of days is basically flooding and I try not to leave the house, and I get bad cramps too.

I recognise that I've been taking HRT less than six months but has anyone else found that the same happened to them? Did it settle down after a while and did the bleeding lessen? Months between periods was pretty much the only good thing about early menopause so I'm not happy about having to deal with them again!

I took the mini pill and utrogestan continuously once a day to combat this. I had some breakthrough bleeding for a few months and then none at all whatsoever. Might be worth a consideration.

Hi @KillingMeDeftly I'm a bit like this. Bleeds far worse and heavier than pre-hrt.

I have found the cramps have got less and one thing I do is to take pain killers immediately the flow starts even if I have no pain. I think it's sometimes advised to use Ibuprofen or tranexamic acid tablets for 3 days before the bleed.

What I've found helps is reducing the gel. I can get by ok on1 or 1.5 pumps a day. That may not work for you as you are much younger than I am.

Your other option is to have a Mirena coil along with gel.

Thanks. I have friends who've had bad experiences with Mirenas so I'm not keen.

I know it's possible to be on HRT for life but at what point can you move to the kind that doesn't give you a bleed? I don't really want to be having periods in my 70s and 80s!

I started this treatment (with the exception that my Utrogestan is every day) quite a while after my periods had stopped. They haven't restarted thankfully.

I had exactly this on utrogestan though I was on long cycle, so only a bleed every 3 months. I’d never experienced such heavy bleeding. I went to the chemist to get tranxemic acid which helped but then made me nauseous. Went back to the pharmacist and she suggested taking max dose ibuprofen if I tolerate it as it had the same effect. It did work really well.

Long story short my gynae switched me to cyclogest pessaries and I’ve had no problems since. I am very progesterone intolerant though.

I didn't know you could do it on a long cycle like that @Deux. Having said that, not sure it would work for me. I tried delaying the utrogestan once by 2 weeks as I was going away for a long weekend. Started taking it on the Friday as I figured it wouldn't kick in for a while but nope, started bleeding by Sunday!