Period after zoladeX

[K8YL31GH]

Is it true that the sooner your period arrives after zoladeX the less effective it is. I'm 26 my last injection of a a 6 month course was 23 October. I've been having bad cramps and just started spotting as if to start period. It's now 20 December. It's been two months. Is this a bad sign?

[Impatient]

Er not sure what you mean. Zoladex is neither effective or non-effective- it just pauses endo while you are on it. As soon as you stop the drug- which you should be doing after a max 6 months in a life time -according to the manufacturer- the the drug levels drop away and your pituitary gland in the brain wakes up again and starts working to control body temperature and all the other things affected that were shut down- begin to wake up.

That includes the ovaries which hopefully start to ovulate again and restart the menstrual cycle once more.

The average wait for ovulation is 5 months - half of women will start before then and half after. So you are in the slightly quicker half.

For some ladies - that's what they want - as they wish to try to conceive a pregnancy

if you don't have baby makng on your list of proirities the yes it probably is annoying not to have a longer break than 2 months - but it is quite normal at the same time.

Zoladex doesn't cure or kill endo. It just gives you personally a break -a little holiday - stops the supply of oestrogen telling it to bleed - which in turn has the blood dropping on the neighbouring tissues irritating it and causing pain. The endo goes to sleep- but it doesn't die off- it's just waiting for a fresh supply of oestrogen to reactivate it. Sadly for many the side effects from the drug make it a holiday in hell- but it does vary with each individual.

What you now need to do is consider what form of period control you now want to try.

Mirena Coil - BC Pills - arm implants etc to see if you can again stop your periods for a longer term. none of them stop the endo, but a life without painful periods is certainly going to improve the quality of life you have and make the endo easier to cope with till you can have surgery to remove it.

[JulesUK]

I've never heard that before, your body is just getting back to normal, I was on it for six months and my periods came back after about two months too. I went on it again for two years with HRT and that time it took about 6 months (the longer the better in my opion!).

Try not to worry it all sounds perfectly normal. Best wishes x