Birth control pills at 46???

I have quarterly periods, which became 2 weeks long in duration, heavy, with clotting. Also have several breast cysts popping up. I was just giving Progesterone creme a try which successfully stopped my heavy period. Then my OB/GYN said stop the creme because we can't be sure how much is being absorbed and it converts into testosterone. He said the "YASMIN" brand of birth control pill would be good for me, as I have a 5 year old to keep up with, since it contains both ethinyl estradiol estrogen, and a new progesterone called "drospirenone". Anybody have an opinion or helpful story regarding this method? I'm a bit nervous about the estrogen although I've heard it's good for Alzeiheimer's, osteoperosis, uterine cancer (waiting on a biopsy there, had a thickened endtometrium) and cysts in the breasts....not so good for stroke and lung clots. He even said women who take estrogen PRIOR to breast cancer treatment have a greater survival rate than those who get breast cancer but never took HRT. Any tidbits of ideas????

Thanks!
"hysterical"

Hysterical,
If you felt good on the progesterone, why not ask to continue it and have your blood level checked for converting to testosterone. If you have not already read the book by Dr. John Lee called What your doctor did not tell you about perimenopause please read it. He also has a website www.johnleemd.com Personally if my bleeding was controlled and I felt ok using the progesterone a couple weeks out of the month and the endometrial biopsy is ok etc I might leave well enough alone. How much progesterone cream(mg per day) were you using?

Becky in OHIO

Hey there hysterical As a fellow cyst sufferer I had to pop in I suffered for many years with those. I am 33 and have had 4 mammograms in my life already because of those nasty boogars. Since starting my progesterone I have had not even 1 occurance of them acting up. Progesterone does help them. If your using otc cream there is some difference from brand to brand in potency. I have also been reading that there is some debate about the amount actually absorbed when using a cream. I will continue to use mine though. There is alot of benefit as your doctor says with using estrogen as we go through menopause but in my humble opinion unless you cant tolerate a "regular" form of HRT there is no need to get it in a birth control pill.

Here are a few ideas that you can mull over. Prometrium is a biologically identical progesterone, just like the one you were probably using in the cream. It comes in an oral form (capsule) and because it is biologically identical you shouldnt get the side effects (or get them as bad) that you can get from the synthetic version of progesterone that you would find in a BCP. Some people tolerate them very well, but they made me bleed terribly. Estrogen is also available in a biologically identical form. Estace comes in an oral dosage and a cream. THere is a wide variety of patches available, vivelle, vivelle dot, climara, and a few others. There is also generic estradiol available. There is a wide variety oc choices available to you without having to take BCP's. Sounds like you are not comfortable with that so maybe your doc will meet you halfway with another form of hormone therapy. Do let us know how things turn out with the biopsy S