Progesterone to T?

[Sentinel]

One of my endos recently gave me a prescription for progesterone-based birth control pills to stop the monthly while I wait for T.

Has anyone done anything similar? If so, did Aunt Flo come back to visit during the switch from progesterone to T?

[makipu]

I used the progesterone only pills for a couple of months and while I can't give too much info on T since I didn't take it by itself to stop the periods, I can say that the birth control method has a better chance of stopping the bleeding quicker.

[Maleth]

I'm going to do something similar since I won't be able to go on T for a long time. Keep us updated!

[harlee]

I took some Progesterone with birth control for the same reason and I remember the bleeding stopped for about 3 months. Then one day, it came back out of nowhere and lasted for about a month.. maybe longer, I can't quite remember but it was ages and it wouldnt stop! It was only very light, but still annoying and I ended up stopping the pills. I decided to just use the progesterone to delay the period so if I wanted to do something fun on that weekend I could push it back.

[Alexthecat]

Birth control is a hit or miss per person. It might work great for you but suck for someone else.

[Kuritzk]

I was prescribed Primolut N by my endocrinologist. He actually told me it had "masculinising effects", but I think he was deliberately/undeliberately misleading me because I wasn't eligible for T (underage). It stopped my periods, but it also made my boobs feel heavier, which sucked, arguably more than having periods. After going off, my chest area feels normal again, though.

[Sentinel]

Keep us updated!

I started taking Norethindrone pills on the first day of the red death, and so far it hasn't come back in full force. I always got cramps the day before, but this time they were minor and not very painful. It's currently a week late, though I did see blood about an hour ago. Hopefully it's just breakthrough bleeding.

I don't know if it's just a placebo effect or something, but the progesterone pills have also noticeably improved my mood. I still get feelings of deep depression sometimes, but it's not nearly as often or as intense as before, and I've been generally more patient and less angry. Also, libido has seemed to increase, which is weird--it was nonexistent before, and I'm fairly certain that progesterone is supposed to lower libido.

I have a hospital appointment in 4 hours with an endo and a psychologist, so I might find out approximately when I can make the switch to T. Until then, I'll probably have to stay on the pill.

[Ephemeral]

I don't recommend pills to get rid of the period; the problem with pills is that you will have to take a break to let the build up of tissue bleed out anyway. In other words, you cannot get rid of your menstruation entirely by going on pills. It is recommended that you take a break from the pills and bleed it out normally every three months; doing it longer will result in unwanted spotting and the like. Because you have so much build up, it will also be a very strong bleeding which may take over a week until it's over.

The best way to get rid of menstruation are through other means such as copper staves and the like. They will last up to a year depending on the type (those inserted in the arm last up to 3 years) until you replace them, though as with anything hormones, there's no guarantee how it will work. The effect is different for everyone. The only way to be truly be rid of it is to have a medical castration.

It should be added though it's rare, that one can still bleed on T many years after you started due to the build up of tissue.

[zero.cool.crash.override]

My endo put me on medroxyprogesterone for about a month prior to T, and continuing about 6 months into T.  I am now about 9 1/2 months on T, and I have not experienced bleeding since that first month on progesterone. 

[Sentinel]

I don't recommend pills to get rid of the period; the problem with pills is that you will have to take a break to let the build up of tissue bleed out anyway. In other words, you cannot get rid of your menstruation entirely by going on pills. It is recommended that you take a break from the pills and bleed it out normally every three months... The best way to get rid of menstruation are through other means such as copper staves and the like...

It should be added though it's rare, that one can still bleed on T many years after you started due to the build up of tissue.

1. I'm an unemployed minor and from a lower middle class family, so anything more than birth control pills (which are clearly working, by the way) is extreme overkill. I'm expected to go on T within a month anyway.

2. I am aware.

I understand that you're trying to help, but different things work for different people, so there is no real "best way" short of a hysterectomy. I know there are other options, but none are viable for me. The same might apply to others.

[Ephemeral]

1. I'm an unemployed minor and from a lower middle class family, so anything more than birth control pills (which are clearly working, by the way) is extreme overkill. I'm expected to go on T within a month anyway.

2. I am aware.

I understand that you're trying to help, but different things work for different people, so there is no real "best way" short of a hysterectomy. I know there are other options, but none are viable for me. The same might apply to others.

Well I am just trying to say that for those who don't know, that pills aren't miracles. I have been on and off pills for many years and while it helped with the amount and pain, I could never skip more than 3 months since that's the maximum recommend. For those unaware and get dysphoria, it is of course important to know. Same thing about T and periods. If you know all that then it's not directed at you anyway, and my post was generic without being targeted at anyone specific. If you felt targeted I apologize.

[wkly1269]

I was on the depo-provera shot every 3 months for about 2 years. This shot completely stopped my periods. You will have have occasional spotting in the first year but after that i never had alot of issues with that. It was nice when i started T because you can take depo with testosterone. So i started T while i was still on the depo. I was able to get my hysto covered by insurance so before the depo shot was due again after starting T .. i was able to have surgery and to not worry about depo anymore.

[Kylo]

I am going to ask my doctor about this on Thursday, as I recently quit using estrogen based pills and I finally feel 'alive' and 'awake' again for not being on it. I don't want bad bleeds while I wait but I also don't want to get hooked on the estrogen again. What a nightmare to get off E after 5+ years...

If she gives me something non-e to take the edge off that would be great.

[Muscle Matt]

Generally, I suggest people stay away from BCP unless they've done a LOT of research first, or they absolutely need it to help ease some sort of health problem (like endometriosis). I tried a birth control once to try to get rid of my monthly, and it gave me permanent side effects my doctors didn't even know about (obviously, they were terrible doctors). I took the pill for a month and a half, bled the entire time, and my libido has been ruined ever since (this was 5 years ago). Sometimes I just cannot feel sexual urges, but even when I do, my body almost never functions the way that it used to. For some people, that might not be much of a problem, but if you enjoy sex with your girl parts, it causes a LOT of problems, and sometimes makes sex almost impossible.

Before I took the pills, I was an absolute hornball, and sorry for the TMI, but I was soaking wet and ready to go all day, every day. My sky-high libido is one of the things that made me feel most male, and it's been so rough on me mentally, losing that over something as stupid as a pill that I took for less than 2 months. I'm still constantly worried that even T won't be able to revert me back to my old self.

I hope that things work out for those who decide to take BCP, but please be on the lookout for any potential side effects. If even one doctor in my life had told me that this was a potential side effect of the pills, not only might I have not tried it to begin with, but I could have known what was happening and immediately stopped the pills, and maybe a lot less damage would have happened to my body. Doctors NEVER told me any of the potential bad side effects, only the good ones. Stay safe, and no matter what kind of medicine you're trying, please do yourself a favor and research it a LOT before you take it.

[Kylo]

True, the side effects are nasty, especially long term. I took them however because the side effects outweighed what was for me the sheer body horror of potential pregnancy.

For anyone taking them for more than a year or two and coming off e based BCP, as Muscle Matt mentioned, doctors won't tell you the bad effects, or won't believe it if you tell them there are bad side effects that you are most definitely experiencing. My loss of libido was a cakewalk compared to what I had quitting estrogen based pills. First off the migraines. Killer ->-bleeped-<-ing migraines if you try to just stop taking the pills (particularly if you take them through and not have a week off, which granted you are not supposed to do, but I did it a lot), that if you try to quit "cold turkey" might well last up to 3 months... and I mean *one continuous migraine*, not 3 months of on and off ones. The only way I could quit and stay sane was to rehab by dividing up the pills and slowly weaning myself off them over 8 months. The migraines from estrogen withdrawal I hear are up on par with the same levels and kinds of pain from opiates/heroine withdrawal. I know they drove me almost insane because neither sleep nor serious painkillers can stop them. At first I didn't even know the BCP was causing these migraines.... because doctors never warned me about it, and they never made the connection when I mentioned having migraines. Only my very latest doctor asked me if I had migraines on Loestrin. None of the others ever mentioned it in 10+ years. Most of what I figured out about BCP was through a slow process of elimination and trial and error.     

The other effect was hypothyroidism. My doctor still doesn't believe the pills were the reason my thyroid hormones took a nose dive after quitting e based pills, but it couldn't be anything else... and if you google others talking about a possible link between BCP/depo provera and hypothyroidism there's a lot of talk out there of the same. Doctors don't believe it though. Mine didn't.

I suffered hypothyroid symptoms (which ofc have some very unpleasant knock-on effects on the body) for the entire duration of quitting BCP over 8 months, and a little after too... only recently has my body recovered and gone back to normal, and my blood tests for T3, T4 and TSH are now back to normal too. Something in the BCP caused them to go nuts as the estrogen levels fell away, and the hypo was awful. I felt like a living corpse half the time and couldn't function without several naps every day. Thankfully the hypo went away after as my body got back up to speed on its own following no more BCP. I heard this is because if you take estrogen and progesterone in pill form, your body itself quits making its own because a second source is coming in. Quit that second source and your own body is sluggish on the uptake. Makes sense... the timing of my own hypo seems to fit this idea.

If doctors had warned me about the side effects of using BCP long-term, I wouldn't have. It's taken me a year to get well after just stopping using them.

[Maleth]

Are all of these bad effects also can come from progesterone-only pills or are they only from estrogen based pills?