I have just began my second cycle of Elleste Duet prescribed for peri symptoms (dosage 28 days total, 16 days oestrogen, 12 days oestrogen/progesterone, taken continuously). I know it’s not the gold standard of HRT but I’m tolerating it well, feeling great and having no side effects……but..
During our consultation, my doctor advised that because my periods were not regular I could start the HRT whenever I wanted, she did warn me that there would “be bleeding” but “should settle down”.
I’m just slightly concerned now that I’ve misaligned my HRT with what’s left of my normal cycle and it won’t correct itself. I’ve been bleeding for 2 and a half weeks with no sign of stopping, and the cycle of bleeding has been bewildering. You can skip to the last paragraph unless you want the details!
I started bleeding lightly on day 14 of my estrogen dose (light and dry as has been my normal bleed pattern for the past year). My previous menstrual cycle had been 40 days.
On day 17 of my HRT, I started the progesterone and almost straight away the light bleeding became incredibly heavily, with huge clots and the blood looked very old and smelt foul (sorry if tmi, I PROMISE I’m not a troll). This continued all through the progesterone phase of 12 days, but tailing off and I thought that would be it. However as soon as I started my oestrogen only phase again (2 days ago) my bleeding immediately got much heavier again, this time though it is bright red, oxygenated looking and doesn’t smell.
I am now worried I have started it at the ‘wrong’ time and I am going to be bleeding permanently. Does anyone have any experience with this? Does it settle or would it be worth stopping and waiting for another period to start again?