Estradiol- Noreth Aceta 28's

Cathy Says:
Wed, May 08 '13, 6:47 AM

I have been taking these pills for exactly 21 days, I have not had a period in about a year, and have not taken birth control pills for over 21 years. It was prescribed for menopause symptoms. This morning I woke up with cramps and bleeding. Is this normal?

Verwon Says:
Fri, May 17 '13, 11:20 AM
Yes, these are synthetic hormones, the estradiol is a form of estrogen and the norethindrone is a progestin, which is a synthetic progesterone, so the rebalancing of your body's hormones can cause those types of side effects.

You actually may not have been completely menopausal, even though you hadn't menstruated in a year or so, you may have just been low in hormones and on the verge of full menopause.

If you were experiencing menopausal symptoms, then it is most likely that you were still producing some estrogens, but not enough or maybe not any progesterone. It's usually estrogen dominance that causes women to feel emotional, irritable, tender breasts, hot flashes and etc.

And what happens is that after this goes on for awhile, your estrogen receptors kind of get lazy and aren't as responsive to the hormone as they used to be, so your symptoms kind of level off.

But then when you add a medication like this, that alters your hormones, especially one that adds some form of progesterone, you wake them back up and they go into a riot of activity for a brief period and you'll usually experience more symptoms for a few weeks.

They should taper off in severity, as your body gets used to the medication, but it may take 2 or 3 months.

If you're concerned, by all means, consult your doctor to reassure yourself and you should definitely do so, if they symptoms get too severe, or if the bleeding is very heavy or continues for a long period of time.

It's really just that conventional medical thinking always assumes a woman in menopause is low in estrogen or has stopped producing it and it needs to be added back, but in most cases, she is still producing enough of it and only needs some type of progesterone to abate her symptoms.

Have you ever tried natural, bio-identical hormones, since they carry far fewer risks?

Are there any comments or concerns?