Months after one zoladex injection, still no period.

[Marrg]

I had a lap mid September 2018 followed by one injection of Zoladex the same day. Over 7 months on now and my period is yet to return. Still experiencing daily hot flushes, trouble sleeping, loss of sex drive, mood changes and regular miagranes. I am 33 and my husband and I want to start a family soon. I was told by my Dr/Gynae that the injection would wear off and periods would return 2-3 months after injection. I saw Dr again 5 months after injection and was advised it was different for everyone, it could be 5 months or 8 ect she couldn't be sure. However, I have little faith in this Dr anymore as at the same meeting she told me it was ok to fall pregnant whilst on Zoladex (but when she administered the injection told me to NOT fall pregnant under any circumstances whilst on Zoladex untill my period returns).

Has anyone else experienced their period taking a long time to return after only one injection of Zoladex? Any issues or success with getting pregnant after Zoladex?

[Jac99]

Hi yes iv had 2cycles of zoladex both 6monthly injections ...the first I don’t remember being any real problems once I stopped my periods returned as bfr & the side effects quickly went! This cycle I had finished in dec! As I’m in my late 40s my circumstances are slightly diff to yours so I won’t be trying for a baby but my periods haven’t returned properly either this time iv had symptoms of starting but no bleeding but I’d say the side effects hot flushes, mood swings, anxiety, rashes have more or less gone now

I wouldn’t have thought one injection would be enough to completely mess up your cycles etc. Maybe like you say give it a while longer then talk to them again! I hope your soon feeling better & hopefully things will settle down Can I ask what the lap was for & what did they find? X

[Marrg in reply to Jac99]

Thank you for your reply and experience Jac99. I am glad your injections wore off.

Sure, my lap was to remove two problematic ovarian cysts, which after the lap the Gynaecologist confirmed they were endo related. She also confirm I had some small, old endo scaring and was probably only a stage 1 out of 4 endo wise. I am not sure why the she gave me Zoladex after the lap when my only issues where the cysts (which had been removed). She knew we were trying and said she thought the injection would help but I wished she had asked for my consent and explained the injection before giving it to me, as I never would have agreed to it. I have been researching it and been reading some worrying things. Some women have reported their periods never returning after Zoladex :o/

Never would I have thought I would be wishing for my period so badly!

[asoullessstatic]

Clinical studies have shown that giving the injection after surgery is one of the best ways to stop reoccurrence of endometriosis and to give the surgery the best chance of success. Periods can take a long time to go back to normal after being fiddled with. When I came off Dianette (one of the combined pilled) they told me that my periods would go back to normal after 2 or 3 months. Mine took a year and a bit to go back to normal. Every single person is different and what regulates your period is such complex biochemistry that everyone is their own case study unfortunately. Though I’m currently on a different brand of GnRH agonist at the moment and wont stop bleeding haha.

The stoppage of periods during Zoladex treatment is because it’s an GnRH agonist, this drug acts as an agonist (agonist is the fancy term for binds to something), it binds to the GnRH receptor in the pituitary glad. This causes a flair response, where your body will go mental with hormones, hence why endo normally gets worse for a week or two, then continuous stimulation causes the pituitary gland to shut down and stop producing all hormones. This process also causes the pituatry gland to stop expressing the GnRH receptor and it’s levels decrease around 4 weeks after treatment begins.

There is a lot for your body to do to recover from this, the cells have to increase GnRH receptor expression again, then they have to be stimulated, and then your have to replenish all your hormone stores, before you start to return to a normal hormone cycle. Biologically this is a lot to do. It’s not that your body isn’t returning to normality, just taking quite a long time to do so, and it’s not out of the range of normal, the clinical studies have shown it can take from 2 months to a year for periods to return to normal again.

It’s not something I would be really overly scared of, I understand it’s a really frustrating situation to be in, and also to be told so much different information (I don’t understand why doctors can’t read a clinical trial paper properly honestly it frustrates us academics too), but I wouldn’t be too frightened about them never returning, the incidence rates for that is about 1 in 100,000 women that use the drug, so it’s a 0.0001% chance that’s what’s going to happen. I sometimes find though understanding the biochemistry behind that’s going on inside me helps me remain a little less freaked out during all of this.

[affecting_meg]

Hey Marrg,

I hope you're well!

Do you have an update on this? I am in the exact same position now and waiiiiiiting feels like an age.