Vagifem , can this happen?

[Ladybird3355]

Hi
Hrt working ok and I think I'm coming to the end of my periods. Was still bleeding slightly every 4 weeks so had a scan and it's all ok. Was given vagifem 3 weeks ago to help with the frequent weeing which was awful. The first 5 days were great, really worked and I slept through 3 nights. After this it's worm off a bit. I carried on with the first 2 weeks and now I'm on my first week of twice a week. It does say give it 3 months so just so wondered if anyone else had something similar but then it worked? Probably being impatient but I thought it was great the first few days. Thank you

I guess it depends on what's causing the frequent weeing and how the Vagifem works to change that. I'm afraid I'm not sure what the link is between additional oestrogen and bladder is. Did your gp explain the link?

There are lots of direct and indirect links, for example if sleep is poor with lots of waking we can just become more conscious of any feeling of wanting a wee even if the bladder isn't actually full. Then we end up accidentally training our bladder to complain before it really needs emptying!

Hi, yes, she said I wasn't having uti's as there was never infection or pain so she said it was all to do with the lack of estrogen making the bladder irritated. Guess I'll just have to carry on and see what happens, just strange it was so good at first.

Pumpkin Oil helped me quite a bit with this, just bought some capsules from Amazon.

I had a lot of bladder irritation before going on HRT - at one point it was so bad I couldn't be away from the loo at all and had a constant sensation of needing to wee - I was practically immobile. Had all the uti tests, bladder scans etc and all normal.
The best thing for me was HRT patches, plus vagifem (the dose is week and you can re do the loading dose of one every day for two weeks if you need to). A lot of bladder discomfort is antrophy from falling hormones. I also saw a women's physiotherapist. She was awesome - sometimes you can have an overactive pelvic floor and the muscles need physical release. She can show you how to do that - I used a pelvic wand once she taught me how to identify the right places to apply pressure. Plus pelvic floor training to get your bladder out of the habit of weeing all the time.
When you do wee, make sure your bladder is fully empty - you can do that by tilting forward iirc.
I found her to be much more helpful than my GP who made vague noises about interstitial cystitis but with no definitive diagnosis.
Anyway, I'm a lot better now, but the HRT will be prised from my cold dead hands!

Thank you both. I'll keep going and maybe try the pumpkin oil. Me too, the benefited from hrt have been ace just this little niggle of wanting the loo but some days are much better than others. Thanks again to you both 😊

If you're on HRT you won't know when your periods have ended.
If you are using cyclical HRT you're supposed to get a withdrawal bleed every cycle- so every 4th week. That is not a period.
Wondering why your GP referred you for a scan when what you've described is normal on cyclical HRT- are you using progesterone for 12-14 days a month?

It can take weeks or months for vaginal estrogen to work.
Many specialists now suggest using it more than twice a week- every other day perhaps.

I'm on continuous and have been for 2 years. Did increase the progesterone to 2 a night and the bleeding stopped but they didn't suit so gone back to one with a 50 patch. She referred me as was still having light bleeds after 6 months of changing, but it was fine. She is happy for me to continue and see how I go as they are lighter and more far apart now. Apart for the loo thing, I am happy on what I'm on. Hopefully it will get better in time then

I agree that seeing a pelvic physio is worth the money, made a huge difference to me in reducing pelvic pain and I understand my body much better now.

Definitely worth a session or two if you can possibly afford it, OP. They're brilliant

Have you considered a mirena for the progesterone part of your hrt?

I have thought about it but didn't want to go down that route. I will look into the physio though so thank you

I have being using vagifem for the last 3 months. My symptoms of discomfort disappeared within the first week of using. I took daily for the first 2 weeks then twice a week. My symptoms came back on the twice weekly dose, not as much as before but still uncomfortable. Now 3 months in I sometimes forget to use twice a week as all symptoms have slowly disappeared. I did also change my HRT when I started the vagifem from a patch to Oestrogel as I wasn’t absorbing anything from the patches. The estradot patches used to be great but they seem impossible to get and I found the others either irritated or just fell off.

I also increased my utrogeston from 1 tablet to 2 per night due to bleeding.

Absolutely an individual decision but just to say I really didn't like the idea of a coil (horrible word!!) and resisted for years but it was absolutely life changing in terms of reduced bleeding and pain. Wished I'd done it years before.

Thank you. Hopefully it will get better then as I'm only on week three and some days much better than others

I get you. A lot of my friends have had it and they gave been in so much pain but I know every one is different. I will definitely consider it. Thank you 😊

You can ask to have it fitted under GA.

The link is vaginal atrophy. The lack of oestrogen causes the vaginal wall to thin. This can cause bacteria to transfer more easily to your urethra. If the vaginal walls thicken up again via local oestrogen then things improve.

My menopause specialist believes all menopausal women should be on it. I was starting to literally piss myself and the vaginal oestrogen knocked it on the head.