Really confused about hrt & my cycle

[Caerulea]

(46 & peri)

I'm 4 months in to using HRT & have just realised my cycle is still exactly as it was, 25 days long, which means I start bleeding during the progesterone phase. Still having ovulation pain etc. No timings have changed at all.

Started with evorel conti but found the progesterone half of the month intolerable so my GP switched me to the evorel estrogen only & micronised progesterone - which I started on Monday. Wednesday I came on as expected but have just read that the bleeding should start after the progesterone, not at the start?

Is this due to my cycle being 25 days & the hrt is planned around 28? So I'll end up with my period shifting to different points of the hrt cycle? Or is there something amiss here?

What should happen is that HRT creates an HRT cycle of around a month where you have a withdrawal bleed at the end of the HRT cycle.

You have to forget about your own cycle and stick to the HRT regime.
That means using Utrogestan for 12 or 14 days each month - but not timed around your natural cycle.

If you are in peri you should not be using Utrogestan every day because it won't control your own estrogen + HRT estrogen. It's not a large enough dose. Utrogestan daily is for women with no periods for 12 months or over 54.

(I'm not clear if this is what you're on. Patches with Norethisterone are more efficient usually at controlling cycles. It's stronger than Utrogestan so your GP's advice is a bit odd.)

My meno consultant advises women to start Utrogestan on the same day each month - for 12 or 14 days - so it's a 30day cycle, which is fine.

Imo it doesn't make sense to go to 28 days when your body functions on a different schedule. I'm currently trying to figure this one out.

If it were safe or sensible (like they tell us it is) to switch to a different cycle from our own, in practise (from reading lots and lots of threads here and elsewhere) it doesn't actually seem to work for so many women. The hrt just doesn't effectively or happily override their body's usual functioning, even if they keep trying to reset the cycle after a bleed. Sounds like a proper nuisance to fight it, so why do so?