Stopping HRT

[Celynfour]

Please advise !
Im on an Evorel conti patch and a oestrogen only patch which was added for joint pain 2 years ago.
Ive had about a month of bleeding and have been referred for NICE guidelines 2 week investigation .
I understand the guidelines but sort of thought they would just increase the progesterone dosage . I’m a bit upset and worried tbh
GP has asked me to stop using the oestrogen patch for now.
What should I expect with that ? Will I get any issues with a sudden decrease in oestrogen ?
I suddenly feel a bit out of my depth.

I’ve had to stop mine for similar reasons - very long story, lots of autoimmune issues - I was on oestrogel, utrogestan and the mini pill and just stopped it cold Turkey about a week and a half ago. I’ve had a period / bleed and it’s finally calming down now. I’m still continuing the mini pill as I am hoping my periods will completely stop on that again as it was before I went on the HRT. I am 43 and have been on it since 37 but keep having lots of bleeding so I wanted to stop. I am on the waiting list to have an investigative hystoscopy.

Meant to add apart from the bleeding I feel fine, but I’m not sure that’s typical. It may get worse maybe. I know it takes about 6 weeks to completely get out of your system.

I had to stop taking oestrogen and have the injections to stop your ovaries working for 4mths pre-op. It wasn’t pleasant I struggled alot with sleep kept waking up early hours, hot flushes, joint pain and brain fog all came back sadly.

I had to stop suddenly - I am progesterone intolerant and was the gel and on utrogestan. I was in absolute bits emotionally and actually suicidal whilst on HRT . I had a bit of a hormonal crash when I stopped - worse menopause symptoms - night sweats, very emotional and a bleed. It passed after a couple of weeks. That was in January and I’m fine now. Hope this helps. On antidepressants to help emotionally x

I suppose your GP realises that you're having bleeding because you've added extra estrogen to the patch - and the progesterone in the patch is balanced only for the estrogen in the patch?

They aren't supposed to prescribe like that. Do they not know?

If all you're doing is removing the extra estrogen patch, then nothing should happen. You will still be getting estrogen from the combined patch.

As @JinglingSpringbells said it sounds like you are bleeding because you’re not on enough progesterone. It has been prescribed incorrectly. When increasing you should have been given separate patch and progesterone. The progesterone in the combined patch only covers the amount of oestrogen in the patch.
i keep seeing this and it is awful prescribing plus who wants to wear 2 patches anyway 🙈

Thanks everyone - I know that from a logical perspective . Just sort of assumed they would prescribe me extra progesterone and off I would trot . Not stop using one patch and go for emergency scans 🤷🏻‍♀️

They need to do a scan to see if you have a thick lining. IF you have, they will need to prescribe the right amount of progesterone to treat that (regardless of the HRT dose.)

Has your GP ever admitted they made a mistake with the prescribing?
If not, you might want to consider writing to the practice and explaining etc in case there are other women who've been given the same thing.

It's really bad that GPs don't understand the Conti regime and how the 2 hormones in it are balanced to work together, (and won't if they add more estrogen.)

It would also make sense if conti patches were made in more then one strength too

Maybe the idea behind it is that they are for women post menopause, who are expected to have very low levels of estrogen and will be ok on a medium dose? Without having to change it as their own periods have stopped.

There are plenty of other options which the GP could have considered. Estrogen on its own with Mirena, Norethisterone tablets (they come on their own but drs need to know the dose) or Utrogestan.