Should I be made to stop the pill if I don't want to

[MilkTray2018]

I have been on a progesterone only pill for about 5 years now to control heavy bleeding. It is very effective. Gynae told me that I will know when I reach menopause as my periods will stop, regardless of being on this pill. Gynae signed me off when everything was regulated.
My GP contacted me following a repeat prescription request to say she wants me to stop taking the pill, even though I am still getting periods. I am 52 years old and she herself told me it's ok to take this pill till 55. I'm so annoyed that she is making me come off it, when everything is so under control. I dread going back to heavy bleeding again and then perhaps months of trying to regulate it. She says if this happens I can just start it again but it doesn't make any sense at all for me to do this .There is no reasoning with her. I find her an awkward old woman (she must be around 70). Any advice? (Can't change GP as small country practice).

@Pigeonqueen i thought I was doing well not to need HRT when so many of my friends are on it. Perhaps the mini pill has been alleviating symptoms.
This GP is not at all sympathetic to women's health. I can't imagine her even considering prescribing HRT - but maybe I'm wrong.

A private menopause clinic sounds like a good idea!

I haven't had then myself but a few of my friends have had blood tests to check if they are menopausal. No idea if you can have them if you're on hormonal contraception but it would be something to enquire about.

@Grimchmas same GP told me 5 years ago there was no test that could be done to see if you were perimenopausal.
Think a private appt is the answer.
Thank you for your replies. I have honestly been so worried about going to the face to face appointment - I know that sounds ridiculous at my age.

I had to do a lot of learning about it all when I had sudden onset menhorragia. I was convinced it was part of my body recovering from being on hormonal contraception for years; my female GP women's repro specialist GP said that was impossible and was pushing me to go on Mirena. Long story short my body more or less sorted itself out within 3 months with very little pharmaceutical intervention, thank goodness, which rather makes me feel my theory and deternination not to take further hormones was justified for myself.

I'm now fairly sure I'm peri-menopausal to complicate things, but that's a side-note.

I'm a biologist (just not a human one) so I deep dived into the research and reading around the topic, which is how i came to know more than my gp about withdrawl bleeds. One recommendation I was given in a support group was the podcasts by Lara Briden. I found her website really helpful and perhaps you will too: https://www.larabriden.com/why-pill-bleeds-are-not-periods/

If she said there's no blood test for peri menopause she's not 100% wrong. Peri- is the transition period between cycling normally and full menopause - so hormones are a bit all over the show and blood tests can't really be very conclusive during peri without a lot of them to establish a lot of data points (which nobody wants to fund).

In full menopause some hormones stay at constant high or low levels, which is why blood tests can help diagnose full clinical menopause.

I 100% get you when you say you have been worried about going to appointments with her. I felt like that about my GP when I was having problems - she was extremely dismissive of any concerns I tried to voice, and pretty much told me I could have the coil or nothing, those were my treatment options. She didn't explain anything to me, and actualky talked over me several times! She thought i was non-compliant, which i probably was, but it was because she was prescribing things for me without addressing my concerns about taking those things!

I managed to speak to another GP who actually sent me for an ultrasound to work out what was going on, and who I felt actually listened to my concerns and didn't push me into treatment that I felt wouldn't help. Unfortunately he showed some shocking lack of knowledge about periods (I mentioned clots - you know, the lumps of uterine lining that are shed during a period, and he said it was the period blood clotting as it left the body 🤦‍♀️) so yeah I have been left with zero faith in GPs for anything women's repro!

I don't anything about this, but sometimes there are good health reasons for a doctor's prescription. I have to take medicine for hypothyroidism and thought I would benefit from a higher dose (also thought that's what my blood tests said), but it turns out that too high a dose can cause anxiety and osteoporosis.

I'm 49 and take the mini pill it's been bliss of 6 months no periods, it's just an oral version of the coil which they love to push.

As part of my HRT I add in oestrogen patches and my HRT lady said I can just continue to take it to balance hormones for life.

In my mind this was lifelong hormone replacement.

The mini pill doesn’t contain oestrogen which is the main part of HRT, so it won’t do anything from that point of view but obviously as you know it can help regulate periods / bleeding etc which can be an issue during peri and progesterone is one of the hormones that plays a part in it all. HRT really should be prescribed for most women now, I am a firm believer of that. It helps to protect your bones and heart even if you are lucky enough not to have any of the troublesome signs of menopause. If your GP is useless when it comes to it all you really need to see someone else.

Buy the pill private. I had the packs which are more than 21 days so take
the period away.

Superdrug gave a 10% discount on second order of the next three months worth of the pill batch and always someone to speak to unlike the GP’s surgeries in last century.

The GP surgery isn’t always gospel of what a hospital writes that is happening.