Anyone tried cyclic progesterone for heavy periods? Or know which is better?

[bw52]

My dr suggested I either try cyclic progesterone, the mini pill, or loestrin to help reduce my periods. They’re very very heavy and getting very long. My last one lasted over a month. I’ve just dealt with it till now. But now I’m having to have iron infusions just to keep up with the blood loss.

He suggested other options, too, but I’d rather try one of these first. I haven’t taken birth control since high school to regulate my periods, so I know very little about it. And this isn’t for birth control, just to reduce my periods so I can live a normal life.

He didn’t go into detail about which one would be better, just told me my options, so I’m reading online to learn more about them. I can’t find much about cyclic progesterone for reducing periods and wondering how it compares to the other options. Really, I just want whatever will work the best with the least side effects. Anyone know?

[AnnieW625]

I tried the mini pill about five or six years ago (after not taking BCP since taking the mini pill post DD2 in 2010) and I hated the way it made me feel. I lasted one month. I have pretty heavy periods, but have never needed iron infusions (if my cycle is very heavy I can go through a super plus tampon in about 2.5 hours and occasionally 1.5 hours) and I recently started taking two Thorne Calcium Gluterate tablets and I have noticed that other than last month my cycles have become shorter and I am using more regular tampons than super plus, and my period is a max of four days vs. five or six. Last month I was slacking in taking the supplement (I was taking one instead of two) and I noticed I was back to going through more super and super plus tampons than I had the prior months. I learned about the supplement here from Essnce. So far I am pretty happy with the results I just have to remember to take two supplements daily.


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[KpbS]

I sent you a pm.

[SASM]

I sent you a PM a few days ago but I am also going to mention…have you had a uterine ultrasound? A high percentage of ladies age 40 and up have fibroids. I discovered that I had one 4 years ago and it has grown more than twice its size in this time. Fibroids cause heavy bleeding and, if left untreated, can grow larger and get quite painful. See if you have a fibroid and possibly have it treated. If you take estrogen-based OCPs to decrease the blood flow, the estrogen will feed the fibroid and it’ll grow larger.

If fibroid isn’t the cause, look into tranexamic acid. I, personally, would do that, as it’s only take a max of 5 days a month during menstruation, instead of taking hormones. I cannot/will not take it because it’ll place me on the Red Cross’s deferral list for platelet/plasma donation, which is very important to me.

Ablation isn’t an option for everyone. My fibroid is too large for ablation…I am looking into embolization treatment.


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[MMMommy]

I have been having horrible, heavy periods the last few years. I do have fibroids and have had fibroid surgery before. My periods are bad enough to warrant wearing a Depend on the worst days, which actually work wonders overnight.

I've sort of been through it all to try to improve my cycles--

1. Mirena- tried and failed. Mirena inserted, strings not found at 6 week checkup, had to do pelvic ultrasound and then pelvic MRI. Ultimately removed b/c the Mirena was displaced and embedded. Didn't reinsert because I didn't want to have to worry about the same thing happening again, at any given time.

2. Transexamic acid--Gyn prescribed these for me to try it during my period. This helped and did lighten the flow a little. You basically take them as soon as your period starts. Two pills, three times a day, which can be burdensome (spacing them apart, remembering when to take the next two, etc). Transexamic acid is basically a blood clotting medicine.

3. Errin Mini-Pill--I've been on Errin now for a few months. The first month, my period was just as bad as ever. This was coming off of the Mirena fail, so I don't know if things were just out of sorts. Second month, period was longer, but lighter. I was pretty much on a 23/24 day cycle before trying anything out to improve my flow. With Errin, I'm now on month three and my period hasn't come for this month yet, and I'm on day 37! So Errin is clearly doing something!

Time will tell, but I'm giving Errin a shot for at least a good six months to see how it works out. It hasn't been consistent yet, so time will tell.

Good luck, and I hope you find a solution!

[Gracemom]

I was given progesterone to stop heavy bleeding many years ago. I think I only took it for a week. I remember how awesome I felt on it. And it did make my bleeding stop. I never had a month long period again but they were still heavy so I did an endometrial ablation which I was very happy with.

[Kestrel]

Different things work for different people. I took progesterone like the above post - didn't do anything for me. Turned out, I had bad fibroids. But I did four cycles of the Tranexamic acid, and if was a game changer! Reduced my massive bleeding by more than 50%. I still went on to have my hysterectomy as planned; but by doing the cycles of Tranexamic acid first, it let me get stronger first and I no longer needed a transfusion to do the surgery.

So - don't be surprised if you have try different things to find what works for you!

[gatorsmom]

When my period first started to get wacky at the perimenopausal stage, my doctor prescribed taking 3 Ibuprofen (so 600mg) every six hours starting a couple of days before my period started. That helped for like a year or 2 until the bleeding grew worse and more frequent. We discussed ablation and we also discussed that it isn't a guaranteed cure. We discussed iron infusions but my IBS makes me VERY constipated even just taking iron pills. So that sounded miserable. Instead to get the bleeding under control, I started taking Norethindrone which is progesterone. I take it without stopping to allow for a period. It acts as birth control pill when taken at the same time every day. I'm not using it for that. For me, it controls bleeding. It has made a huge difference. On it I don't bleed and so don't need to take iron pills. I have so much more energy and find that my moods swing a lot less too. I've been taking it for I think 4 years now.

I had a friend with fibroids who had to have several surgeries and eventually had to have a hysterectomy because they just kept coming back. She was miserable.