Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Menopause

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

50 and still have regular periods

28 replies

stillvicarinatutu · 16/08/2022 20:22

Anyone else ? I'm on hrt. Tablets .
I had some symptoms of menopause like fatigue , depression, brain fog , but even now I still have periods as regular as clockwork and really heavy to boot .

Anyone else been similar? And if so when did periods stop ?
Ta

OP posts:
JinglingHellsBells · 18/08/2022 06:45

TheOGCCL · 17/08/2022 23:52

Sorry to hijack but@JinglingHellsBells, I think this is a rarely discussed topic and would be interested in your expertise. I know if your periods have stopped you’d normally take continuous progesterone and I think if they haven’t you take it cyclically. I am in the latter group, aged 46, does this mean I will have a monthly bleed for as long as I take progesterone, potentially the rest of my life? Or do you somehow have to figure out when your natural cycle has ceased, switch to continuous and then that’s the end of bleeding? How do you do that if both types of bleeding come round monthly? Thanks!

@TheOGCCL The medical advice is that most women can switch to continuous progesterone by 54. By that age the vast majority of women are not having regular / any periods.

Obviously, if you are using HRT that gives a bleed, you can't tell.

You can either experiment and come off the HRT (but you'd need at least 3 months and more like 6 to see if you still had regular periods.) OR you can switch sooner than 54.

The only drawback is that ALL continuous HRT usually takes some time to settle - spotting is expected for up to 6 months.

If you are not post menopausal, then the dose of progesterone in a daily dose is often not enough to control the womb lining and you may still get (unexpected) natural periods.

One thing that is never mentioned, is that swapping to continuous is not mandatory. It's there mainly as a choice as most women do not want a bleed. It does mean that the risk of hyperplasia (thick womb lining) is reduced.

BUT (again, not mentioned) sequential HRT has a slightly lower risk of breast cancer. This is shown is the small print of the research. This is because the breasts are not being stimulated by 2 hormones every day. The sequential regime allows them a 'break' and it's also thought that it's progestogens that increase the risk of BC (when used alongside estrogen.)

This is why women using only estrogen HRT (they have no womb) have a very low risk of BC- lower than women NOT using HRT.

TheOGCCL · 18/08/2022 08:27

@Sarahcoggles @JinglingHellsBells

Thank you - really useful information that I’ve not properly appreciated or had explained, I guess because for now it is theoretically still a while until the stopping of my natural periods. (I get awful pain on the day my tracking app says I’m ovulating). I can’t find very much about this online but then not sure what to search.

As well as the ovulation pain, my periods, or withdrawal bleeds if that is what they are (there was no sign of my periods, stopping when I went on HRT last year - in fact they had become more regular) are quite disruptive. I have 4-5 days with spotting and a sense of my body in a tight pending mode (irritated, tired, spots, period pain) then 3-4 days of what I’d describe as flooding (along with a lot of pain) so over a week of each month. Not sure I can cope with this indefinitely! Should I perhaps be looking at the mirena? I am meeting with my menopause clinic doctor next month so will speak to her of course.

PritiPatelsMaker · 18/08/2022 08:30

Mine stopped at 53.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread