Late period after starting oesterogel

[periconfusion]

Hello. I'm 43 and new to all of this. In a bit of a confusing situation where I'm not sure of my symptoms are perimenopause or still related to tapering off an antidepressant at the start of the year. My GP has recommended a trial of HRT to see if that can help.

I started Oestrogel a fortnight ago and have yet to see any difference, although I understand it can take weeks to months, I think part of me was hoping for a magic bullet! When I started it, my period was already a bit late. I've never been bang-on regular but not massively irregular either. Last few cycles, for example, have been 27 days, 30 days, 24 days, 25 days, 24 days. At the time I saw my GP and collected my prescription, I was already over 30 days (30 is the longest cycle I've had since starting to track at the start of 2025) so assumed my period would be along anytime. However, I'm now on day 45 and no sign.

Can starting estrogen delay or mess up your cycle initially? I'm definitely not pregnant.

I haven't started my progesterone tablets yet. The GP said to start them 14 days after my period but am a bit confused now there is no sign of it.

Can starting estrogen delay or mess up your cycle initially? I'm definitely not pregnant.

No, absolutely not.
All it's doing is topping up your own estrogen.
Your periods rely on ovulation and HRT doesn't change that in any way.

Your dr gave you incorrect advice, which many GPs do.
It's fine to say 'start after your period' (as if they are coming bang on every 28 or 30 days) but in peri they don't!

What you should have done is start progesterone 14 days into the estrogen. Many consultants would recommend using that DATE every cycle -eg - so if your start date was 2nd June, you'd do the next 12 days from 2nd July etc.

It's not harming you in any way at the moment to miss the progesterone as you're in peri and a period will come along sometime. However, if you were to go 3 months or more with no period,you should start progesterone then to avoid your womb lining becoming really thick.

Thanks, that's really helpful. I even double checked with the surgery last week and they confirmed again to carry on waiting for my period.

That makes sense that the top-up estrogen wouldn't delay or mess up my period. I just wasn't expecting my cycle to suddenly get so long. I guess I'm just still confused about whether I'm actually perimenopausal or not!

I'm on day 14 of oestrogel today so I could start the progesterone tomorrow?

Yes you could do that.

Be aware that if your period is about to arrive the progesterone probably won't delay it, so you may end up with 2 periods- your own and the withdrawal bleed once you stop the progesterone. (Or you might get no withdrawal bleed if you've just had a 'real# period.)

Don't overthink it- just do the progesterone on the same date each month and it may all fall into a pattern. So if it's 6th June you do 12 days (you can do 14 but 12 is enough- the patient leaflet days 12) then the next time is from 6th July.

Thanks, maybe I'll wait another couple of days in case my period does show up. I'm trying to increase my low ferritin level at the moment so keen to avoid two bleeds if possible.

Thanks again for responding. My health anxiety is off the scale at the moment so I'm overthinking far too much.