Can I reduce the amount of days I take progesterone on HRT

Not good girls!    I took half of the 400mg Cyclogest suppository before I went to bed.  At 3am I woke with awful anxiety and severe headache.  This morning my memory has gone and I can't remember my bank pass code.   :-(

Update.  The 100mg of Progesterone that was ok for me, was not. After a week all of the awful side effects came back.  I spoke with my regular GP and she has now given me Utrogestan pessaries to try and also told me that if reducing the Progesterone, then it is unsafe to use for less that 10 days.  She told me the reason I had a bad reaction to the Cyclogest is that maybe it was a different brand that didn't agree with me.  I will let you know how I get on with the Utrogestan Capsules. x

Hi Maxine Carla,

Just wanted to say that I follow Prof Studd's regime of 4 pumps of oestrogel a day plus 7 days a month of utrogestan taken as a pessary. I am progestogen / progesterone intolerant and the taking of it as a pessary rather than orally MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE. I was suffering with extreme PMS with my natural cycle (I am 36 and pre-menopausal), and started on 3 pumps of oestrogel per day plus 7 days of utrogestan orally (taken on first 7 calendar days to make it easier to remember.) There were 2 problems with this. 1) the 3 pumps per day of oestrogel was not enough to suppress my natural cycle, so I was still ovulating and getting PMS as a result. This was solved by upping to 4 pumps a day. Second, the utrogestan taken orally (even just 7 days) was a bloody nightmare and just as bad if not worse than my natural cycle (unable to get out of bed, on a knife-edge of anxiety and suicidal). So I started using the utrogestan vaginally and now I am fine. I still get a few days of exhaustion when I stop the utrogestan and get my withdrawal bleed (which is heavy) but the terrible psychological feelings are gone. Now I am considering getting Mirena coil plus the oestrogel since I seem to do so much better on the LOCAL (vaginal) application of progesterone. If I were you, I would take utrogestan for 7 days a months vaginally (put it in just before bed so feelings of tiredness don't affect you while you are sleeping). One further observation- I do much better on oestrogel than oestradose (my local pharmacist fulfilled my script and gave me the latter which is the generic form- I think it isn't as well absorbed as the oestrogel as I definitely noticed the difference (massive feelings of anxiety on oestradose after only couple of days which went when the pharmacist switched it to oestrogel) . But you have to ask the pharmacist to phone through to specifically request oestrogel as the computer automatically generates an order for oestradose if left to its own devices (oestradose is cheaper than oestrogel to the NHS although why that matters on a private script god only knows) Good luck. Prof Studd's regime has made the difference between life and death to me, but I'd you're lucky enough to have a GP who is prescribing you his regime already, you don't need to pay out to see him privately.

Latest update, my regular GP who is female and in Menopause and who has recently completed a GP Menopause course, is happy to  prescribe the Utrogestan 200mg pessaries.  I have upped my Oestrogel from 3 to 4 pumps as my memory became very bad again and is now better with the extra pump. I started the Utrogestan pessaries 5 days ago and so far so good.   My GP told me that these can be taken for 10 days and still protect your womb from cancer. I will post again if I start to get any side effects or if not, in 3 months. Thank you all so much for you kind advice. Take good care and live life to the full x