Periods closer together messing with utrogestan dates

[edemamequeen]

I’m so confused! I’m on oestrogel daily & utrogestan days 12-26. Prescribed in July. But my periods keep coming early so I can’t take the utrogestan for the full 12-26 days. And today I’ve started a period on day 12 so I guess I just now start a new count and don’t take it till 12 days from now?
My doctor says it will take a few months to settle down so I should hang in there. But I am worried about missing lots of the utrogestan.
I am 48 if that makes a difference.
What would you do?

Just keep taking it for 14 days (patient leaflet says 12 but GPs often say 14) and eventually the HRT will overwrite your own cycle. No need to stop because you have a period.

I was told if I have a proper period I have to stop it though and start a new count…I’m quite wary of just ignoring the advice given.

I take mine 1st to 14th even if I have a bleed whilst taking it. However mine seems to have settled down now. I was having problems at the beginning as I wasn’t taking it on an empty stomach but once I fixed that the only issue I’ve had is when I had tummy problems so dr thinks it wasn’t digested.

I take mine days 16-26. I run 2 different period trackers and gradually the gap is closing.

Sorry 15-26

So you’re all taking them period or not?
I was told if I have anything more than spotting then don’t take them and start the count again. And my periods are quite heavy these days.

I start taking mine on the 25th of each month regardless of periods. I have been on HRT for almost two years now and my periods are still completely random. It's weird because I was regular as clockwork when I started HRT and it has completely screwed me up. Feel better though ☺️

If everyone else here has been told something else, maybe your GP is wrong?

I've used it for years and was told by a consultant to start on the same day each time.

If you followed the advice you were given, what happens when your periods eventually become further apart? You'd be waiting 2 months, 3 months and even 10 months before 'starting again'.

Unfortunately many GPs are not well informed on this.

I think what you've been told is wrong. I was originally on oral HRT with 2 weeks of oestrogen only and two weeks of oestrogen with progesterone- no question of mucking round with that according to my natural cycle. Same with gel/utrogestan combo.
Maybe go on menopause matters or the Balance app or one of the expert FB groups like the Menopause Support Network and either ask or look in the documents? Or ask your pharmacist.
Personally I'm sure you've been given dodgy advice. I had clear instructions to take the P days 15-26.

Thanks everyone. The advice I got wasn’t from a GP but from a gynaecologist. I’ve queried it once and she repeated it but for all the reasons above I was doubtful. I’ll query again, asking in more detail, and see what she comes back with.

I meant to add: thank you for giving me clear things to say to her to ask her more coherently!

@edemamequeen I can only reiterate that I was told by my expert consultant gynae (15 years ago) that you override your own periods when you use HRT.

Look at it this way...

women using patches or tablets, don't 'skip' the patch or tablets that contain a progestogen, and wait for their next period.

They carry on with the 28 tablets in the strip, or the patches in the box (where half the patches are estrogen-only and half are estrogen + progestogen.)

Just because you are using two hormones that come in 2 packages, doesn't mean that you fiddle around with the regime trying to work it around a cycle.

It should be obvious that this won't work long term. Your periods might be every 4 weeks now but soon they could be 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks apart and longer.

And you will never know how long that gap will be, until it's happened.

You need to choose a day (go for mid cycle if your period is predictable. Say that was 14 October, then that is Day 1. Take 12 days of Utrogetan then and the next Day 1 is 14 November.

Thanks @JinglingSpringbells. As I said, I’ll go back to the gynaecologist with that and see what she says.

Hi, I take mine for 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off and mine has totally overridden my natural cycle.

You don’t need to do the 14 days even if peri

i still have period and doctor said it can take 26 single days and have 3 day break and that’s all I do

you can take continuous too

I just do the 1st to the 14th regardless of whether I have a bleed or not

I have started doing 12 on and 16 off so always start on the same day @Alwaysanotherwine don’t you take it like that 26 days when your post
memo, isn’t that classed as continuous?

You can take it anyway

you don’t have to bleed

my gp knows I have regular periods but still take it continuous as prescribed

I'm not sure why your GP is prescribing that way.

The way it's used (and this also applies to all patches and tablets) is that for women with periods, the progesterone creates a withdrawal bleed (which will override a natural cycle, especially as in peri they become irregular.)
So that is estrogen daily and a progestogen for 12-14 days each month.

For women post menopause, who don't wish to have a withdrawal bleed, progestogen is in the patch or tablet every day (or by using utrogestan daily.)

There is no point taking it daily if you are having periods, because eventually when they are less regular, it may not be enough to control the cycles as they become further apart or closer together.

i still have period and doctor said it can take 26 single days and have 3 day break and that’s all I do

The 26 days used to be classed as continuous.
The 26 days is a bit 'old hat' and has been replaced with daily.
The 3- day break was there was a kind of insurance for any lining that might come away but post meno or late peri it rarely happens.

I’ve no idea but when I Google many websites say it doesn’t matter which way you take it

anyone can take continuous if they don’t want to bleed

as it happens I take it daily and have monthly periods same I always did

I just know I’d forget the 14 day routine

anyone can take continuous if they don’t want to bleed

Only if they are post menopause or have very few natural periods.

This is a medical site by an NHS consultant gynaecologist recently awarded an MBE for her work on menopause.

https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/postmeno.php

POST MENOPAUSAL -
Continuous combined therapies.
"Period free" or continuous combined therapy can be used by women who are 54 + yrs, or more than one year since last period at any age. The criteria should be fulfilled in order to offer such treatment to women who no longer have a continuing ovarian cycle, so that steady levels of both estrogen and progestogen can be achieved. When there are steady levels of estrogen and progestogen from daily administration of both, the womb lining stays thin. Although some bleeding in the first 6 months of therapy is common, there should not be bleeding after that and the lining does not go through the stages of stimulation and then shedding as it does during a normal cycle and with sequential therapy.

If women use it continuously before they are late peri or post menopause, it's likely they will get breakthrough bleeding. The lower dose (used daily) isn't enough to stop the lining thickening when women are still having their own periods.

https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/perimeno.php for women in peri.

When you say you have regular periods still, is the bleed you are having actually a withdrawal bleed over the 3 days you stop Utrogestan?