If you’re on HRT how do you know when periods have stopped?

[putputnosorry]

I asked the GP this as she keeps asking ‘do you still have periods’, but I’ve been on HRT nearly three years so it’s not a natural cycle. I asked if I’d need to come off HRT to check and she said ‘not necessarily’ but didn’t elaborate. Does anyone know?

I presume you'd have to stop the meds for a while to find out!

I'm peri and was on the mini pill, I didn't have any bleeds. My periods hadn't stopped. I went back on it again.

Now I've been prescribed HRT but since stopping the pill again 6 months ago, still no period so I don't know where I'm at. I haven't started HRT yet as I don't know whether to take it continuously or cyclical!

You won't know, only by stopping HRT for 12 months and seeing if you have a natural period.

That is why there is a guide for combined continuous HRT to be used after age 54 when 80% of women no longer have periods.

OR if your periods were very few and far between under 54 (like 1 or 2 periods in a year.)

This is a great question and one I have been meaning to ask my GP, except that I had to go private. NHS didn't consider my symptoms to be serious enough to even merit a phone consultation during the pandemic! Anyway...

I am 53, been on cyclical oral HRT since Nov 2019, finally got switched to Oestrogel/Utrogestan in Jan 2022 after a full breakdown and going private. I can honestly say I think I would have taken my own life by now without it. My GP is onboard with me staying on it for as long as I want (that will be forever then, considering my MH is now the best it has been since puberty!).

Some months, I barely bleed, others it is a torrent. I would be quite happy to switch to continuous, if there is no need for me to be on cyclical after 2.5 years on the 'good stuff', nearly 5 years total.

This is a good question! I'm 52 and I've been on HRT for getting on for 2 years plus have had a Mirena for about 10 years and haven't had a period in all that time, so I have no idea.