Cerelle pill stopping periods - do you still get symptoms?

[ArtyPal]

Hello! I'm honestly learning so much more in this community than anything my doctors or gynae has ever told me, which is a mix of emotions being both thankful but also frustrated at the doctor's 😅

I have been on the Cerelle pill since around January/February this year and haven't had a period since. Which is a change from my Rigevidon cycle (three month increments since one pack didn't do much and created a two - three week heavy period) that I was on for years

I was told that with this pill, some people get no periods at all, some get random ones and some bleed all the time - for now I seem to be a non bleeder but I don't know if that'll be indefinite or if my body will create a new cycle (again, no clue cause my endo specialist wouldn't tell me much)

But with that I must ask, has anyone else experienced the rest of the symptoms? I feel like my IBS has been worse (both IBS and endo run in my family and we suspect my IBS is worse because of possibly having endo)

Along with that, I still get excessive sweating at times, my lower back and legs are absolute agony some days, my sleep has been crap, I still cramp at times and sex is still a bit painful

I was told the pill would stop or slow my symptoms, but I'm beginning to think when I was told that, they only meant the heavy debilitating periods and absolutely nothing else 😅

In other news, this group has flagged up that MRIs could possibly show endometriosis without the need of a 50/50 diagnosis surgery, so I'm planning to try and get a referral for that because I had no clue it was even an option! So thank you for that. It may not show anything, but it'd be nice to try something not too invasive first 😊

[Hidden]

Hi Sea, I think the reason doctors can't tell us what our period or spotting patterns might be for us uniquely is that the mini pill affects our unique hormonal balances differently.

I dream, in a sci-fi way, that one day, there will be a test a woman can do to show what her balance of hormones is like, and then the dosage of progestin would be calculated specifically for her (e.g. with just the right amount to comfortably suppress periods).

If you're really determined, you can probably harness the powers of the search engine (e.g. Google scholar) to find tables of statistics of what women's period or spotting patterns tend to be like for different pills. Which isn't really gratifying, because it gives an idea of likelihood, but you will only know by trying yourself.

Back to your question - some people say the pill "masks" the endo because it can temporarily reduce some symptoms (e.g. reduce heavy period pain), but in some women the endo can progress anyhow - and that can have symptoms too (e.g. a pill isn't going to make adhesions better, but surgery can). I wish the medical community knew more about endo. I've read that for different women, it can decrease, stay the same, or progress. So, we all more or less have to try to tune in and listen to symptoms from our bodies and follow up.

You have an interesting lead on the MRI. Hopefully that could show something. I've heard it's used when the anatomy is thought to be distorted by things like adhesions (because that's something they can see on the MRI).

[ArtyPal in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for all this! I'm still trying different methods to stay in tune with what my body needs - it's also been helpful on here when I realise some things I struggle with are actually more symptoms that I didn't know of! So I can only hope I'll feel more confident in how I help my body more and more each day with the help of you lovely lot. I really appreciate you taking the time to respond!

[e-sian7]

Hi! I was originally on the combined pill and was put on the mini pill nearly 2 years ago now. I never really get a bleed on it, sometimes a bit of spotting for a few days, so in that respect, that symptom may be stopped, but it definitely hasn’t stopped any other symptoms and I still get pain etc. Hopefully this helps slightly 😊

[ArtyPal in reply to e-sian7]

Thank you, I appreciate the answer! It helps to know what I could expect and that someone's in a similar boat ❤️