Posted by Jenna S. on November 8, 2001, at 12:31:24
In reply to remeron and irregular periods..Help!, posted by krista on November 4, 2001, at 14:41:30
> I started Remeron a few weeks ago and am now having a period even
> though I just had one 2 weeks ago. I'm worried about it because
> I usually have a cycle of 38 days between periods. I'm usually a week behind the normal 28 days.
> It's been only 15 days. I wondered if anyone has had this happen to them
> and if it goes away. I want to talk to my doctor but she's out of State for 3 weeks, and i don't really feel
> comfortable talking to the doctor who she has left on call for her.Krista, my periods were affected by Remeron too. The time of my period varies from 4 to 6 weeks usually, which is a drag as you can imagine. While I was taking Remeron, they were at 4 week intervals almost to the day, for the 4 months I took it. Then when I stopped - I had withdrawal bleeding!! With breast swelling, which was very strange, because as you know if you get that as a PMS symptom, it goes away when you get the period.
My theory is that it could have been prolactin related. I discovered that Remeron lowers prolactin. So I assume that when I stopped taking it, my prolactin levels rose again, which would account for the breast swelling, and perhaps for the withdrawal bleeding as well, although I don't know by what mechanism prolactin would affect that.
I've tried to find information about hormones on the web, but there seems to be as much confusion and disagreement about hormones as there is about psychiatric drugs. I know that estrogen will cause bleeding if it is unopposed by sufficient progesterone. Also it is estrogen that provokes ovulation, and a period will (normally) follow 2 weeks after ovulation. My guess is that either you have ovulated too quickly, or if it's not that then some sort of breakthrough bleeding that you can get with the pill, which is supposed to happen due to progesterone levels being too low. Of course with me I needed higher estrogen to stop it.. sigh. I always seem to have the 'wrong' reaction to things!
Good luck in getting this sorted out.
Jenna
poster:Jenna S.
thread:83187
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011104/msgs/83548.html