No bleed month one HRT, now heavy the day before second round of Utrogestan

[TranquilBlue]

Posted a couple of weeks back to ask if it was normal not to have a bleed after stopping my first 12 days of utrogestan.

Basing it on a 28 day cycle, I am due to start my second lot of Utro tomorrow, but started spotting last night and have now started a very heavy bleed, similar to my usual period, today.

Should I just carry on and take the Utro as planned or treat this as day 1 and start again in 15 days?

To complicate matters, I have my only break this year the weekend after next, when I will be at a music festival, dealing with portaloos for four days. Obviously I would rather try to avoid having to deal with bleeing/sanitary products etc in that situation if possible. In which case, am I better starting again as day 1 today and taking the Utro 15 days from today? Is it ok to do this or is it going to really mess my body about?

If you are not post menopause, it looks as if the bleed now is your own period. Are they every 28 days?

If your periods are erratic, it can take a while to regulate them using HRT and you might get your own cycle overriding the HRT cycles.

TBH it doesn't really matter when you take it. The whole point is to keep the lining from getting too thick, so a withdrawal bleed stops this.

If you have had your own period, it's shedding naturally.

If you wait 15 days, then your trip away will be over by then if I've understood.

I'd just do that. Start 15 days from now.

Thank you. I think I will wait the 15 days, as long as it’s ok then, purely to try and avoid having to deal with the fluid retention and bloating I got last month on (and following) the Utro, plus the possibility of a potential bleed with the nightmare that is festival portaloos.

On my first month of HRT I started Evorel 25 patches, coincidentally, on day 1 of my natural cycle, then took 2 Utrogestan from day 15 for 12 days, then didn’t get a bleed till now, just before I would have been due to take my second lot of Utrogestan, based on a 28 day cycle.

My own cycle was roughly 28-30 days on average, but had become more erratic in recent months. When I was younger it would generally be 32-36 days (and horrendous) but switched to 28 days ish (and much easier to deal with) after my pregnancies.

One surprising plus so far has been that I have not had a single migraine since I started HRT. I usually suffer at least 15-17 days (often more) of severe migraine a month, but have now realised that it has only been this bad since I most likely became peri, but was unaware. (I wrongly thought if you still had regular periods you couldn’t be peri-menopausal.) I wish I had known sooner, as I have lost years of my life to being stuck in a blacked out bedroom in agony for days on end. I’ll take several weeks of painful boobs and bloating over crippling migraines that steal days at a time and make it impossible to plan anything any day!

You are on a very low dose patch so the reason you didn't bleed last month is probably that you only had 2 weeks of estrogen before adding utrogestan. So very little lining build-up I'd assume.

Great to hear it's helping your migraines. I get migraine too but rarely any since on HRT except for the usual triggers (stress and lack of sleep!)

@JinglingHellsBells thank you, that explains a lot. I think I may ask to up to go up a dose at my 3 month review. It’s helped a lot with my migraines, I presume by protecting me from extreme swings in levels and some of my joint pain, but I am still having hot flushes, especially at night and the joint pain creeps back in towards the time I’m due for a new patch.

I am shocked at how much my migraines have improved. I have suffered so badly for the last decade and am unable to take any of the usual treatments, so have just had to soldier on. I wish I had tried HRT years ago, but I just didn’t know I could and none of the numerous doctors I am under suggested it. My older sister is having a really rough time, but has seen every GP at her practice, the first insisted on blood tests (she’s 53) and they have all refused to prescribe HRT.

Stress and lack of sleep are triggers for me too, but I am both stressed and sleep deprived this week and - fingers crossed - no migraine so far. I also used to get a 3 day shocker leading up to my period and that hasn’t materialised either. Looking forward to enjoying the music festival without the threat of one looming as well. A migraine in a caravan with thumping music vibrating the sides is no fun! 😖