How long for mini pill to settle heavy, prolonged perimenopause periods?

[Seekinginfolady]

Hello everybody,

I'm hoping people will be able to share their experiences of what helped their heavy and prolonged perimenopause or adenomyosis periods?

I'm in perimenopause and have had two long bleeds (over 30 days), with a break in between. My gynaecologist did a scan and confirmed I'm in peri and have mild adenomyosis. He prescribed mini pill or mirena. I thought I'd start with mini pill. Doc said to allow 3 months for things to settle. It's been 3 months now.

The mini pill brought on a second long bleed. Then a month of nothing (bliss!) then about 10 days of spotting followed immediately by a proper period (though lighter than before). And now back to spotting.

Before the crazy long bleeds I missed my period for 2.5 months. It's all gone nuts.

Wondering what everybody's experiences were?

Mini pill was awful for me. I bled solidly, and heavily, for over 5 months. I was so anaemic I could hardly get out of the chair. Gynae insisted I take it for 6 months, which was why I didn’t stop it sooner, I must have been nuts! There was only around 28 days the whole 5 months that I didn’t bleed. It was hell.

Mirena, which I’d tried first, had me spotting and bleeding every day for the whole time it was in. I was begging to have removed and kept getting told to wait a bit longer for it to settle. It was nearly a year before I finally went to a walk in sexual health centre and begged them to take it out.

It was, between all the appointments, trying the ‘treatment’ options, waiting for follow up appointments, nearly 5 years of hell. At which point I broke down sobbing in the appointment and begged for a hysterectomy. I hope you have better luck op 🤞🏻

I'm so sorry to hear you had to go through this. You poor thing. Did they do scans to try to find out the cause of the heavy periods or you knew you were in perimenopause so the treatment of mirena/mini pill was given? How did you find the hysterectomy and how do you feel after?

I have mirena, no periods whatsoever except the odd very light bleed. I wouldn’t even know I had it in. Must admit it’s weird not having any cycle whatsoever but it’s much better than the awful heavy bleeds I was having

Thanks for responding and I'm so glad to hear the mirena worked out for you. Dod your periods settle immediately after it was fitted?

I started on mini pill at 46 due to unmanageable heavy periods. The first month was a huge improvement. Now they are regular, heavy but not abnormally so, and shorter. Other pros include clear skin, good sleep and less anxiety. Cons are slight weight gain and my blood pressure has gone up a lot. Now on blood pressure medication. That said, I can manage my life without planning around my sodding period. I also am no longer anaemic. Hope things improve for you OP.

Mirena did the trick for me, absolutely life changing and I wish I'd done it years before. Went from debilitating flooding to hardly any bleed at all. Took a few months to settle.

Mirena worked for me. Bit of bloating for the first few months but nothing, and only v light periods after that.

I had fibroids, Endo and peri.
Hysterectomy and recovery were a breeze. Life changing 🙌🏻
I hope your pill settles and you don’t have to faff about with other, possibly useless, options.

So glad it worked out for you!

Happy to hear it worked for you.

So great to hear you found a solution. And hurrah to getting on with life!