Cerazette pill vs Norgeston pill

I have been on Cerazette for 4 years now. Initially, I had headaches, breast tenderness and mood swings. These symptoms subsided after 3 months. My periods became very irregular and then stopped altogether. Although my doctors deny this all the time, I feel like the pill caused excessive weight gain. Yes, I have had circumstances that affected my life but the weight gain was dramatic. In the first year alone, I gained 15 kilograms. After 4 years, I am up to 25 kg extra weight (BMI 29) and I am struggling to lose the weight with diet and exercise. Lately, I have had more bodily hair growth and am losing some hair on my head. Not many mood swings but definitely feeling angry most of the time. I am also struggling with a very low sex drive, which is starting to affect my marriage. I have an appointment with my GP, will try to switch to the combined pill to try.

I really tried to give it a chance and persevere despite a lot of breakthrough bleeding. My skin got worse. My mood/anxiety got worse. The bleeding never stopped. I would be spotting nonstop for 2 weeks, get a period (heavier bleeding), then no bleeding for ~1 week, and then back to spotting. I didn't notice any changes to my sex drive but the constant spotting was a huge deterrent. I am now switching to a combined pill.

Was on this pill for about 4/5 months. Positives were that it got rid of any cramps/ period symptoms - great as I was previously prescribed meds for dysmenorrhea. However, it gave me constant spotting and light bleeding - I bled for about 75% of the time while on this pill and it didn’t get any better. Doctor recommended that I doubled dose (from 75 to 150mg) - this killed my sex drive and didn’t fix the bleeding issue, so I eventually came off.

I moved onto Norgeston after trialling desogestrel for a few months (it gave me near constant spotting and super decreased sex drive). I was optimistic as levonorgestrel was the hormone I used to have in my combined pill and so far it’s been great for me - I do get periods, but these are regular and of a normal flow each month and thankfully my sex drive has come back.

The minipill gave me pretty bad acne, which took years to resolve after I gave up the pill. It also completely killed my sex drive.

I would bleed for 4-6 days every 14 days with cramps the whole “period”. I seemed to feel every emotion much more intensely and felt rather negative a lot more than usual. I was also very bloated a lot.

Generally a good pill but I am bleeding every week on it which is it’s main downside for me

I was on Cerelle for 6 mths which was not working out for me as I had prolonged, frequent irregular periods on it. The doctor suggested changing to Norgeston and it has been great. I have been on it now for 5 months and my periods, although not regular (actually there has been a slightly longer gap between periods, which is nice) have been back to normal length of around 6 days long. In fact better than normal as I’d been getting very heavy periods possibly due to me being perimenopausal. I’ve got lighter periods now that don’t come as often with no bad side effects. Also, a good side effect is that I don’t get feelings of depresssion any more before my period like I used to when not on the pill. I did have a blip recently with bleeding - but it’s because I missed a pill and I bled for 20 days, so I asked my doctor and they told me to take 2 pills a day until the bleeding had stopped for 7 days and this has worked. I recommend this pill!

This hormone made me suicidal. I was trialling it for 3 months as I intended to get the mirena coil but wanted to see how I reacted to the specific hormone before I had it more permanently in my system. All day every day all I could think about was killing myself. I felt miserable and severely depressed. I started getting spots on my face and chest, one of my breasts is still slightly larger than the other since taking and stopping this medication (past them being sisters not twins level of different). The low mood wasn't noticeable to me until I'd run out of the 3 months script and couldn't get any more for a while. Within days I felt miles better. My period had been stopped already by my cerazette usage, and it didn't return while I was taking Norgeston. Absolutely I would recommend trying Norgeston before committing to the Mirena coil, if I hadn't I'm not entirely sure I'd still be here!

I can’t describe how happy I am to have found this pill after being put on about 5 different combined pills, both types of coil and the implant and having horrendous side effects. The only side effects I’ve had with this was a little spotting when first starting, and now I have normal regular periods. My skin, mood, tiredness etc has not changed at all. This has the same hormones as the kyleena implant so maybe avoid if you’ve tried that and didn’t get on with it. Couldn’t recommend this pill enough if you’ve tried multiple methods and none of them seem to be working for you!

I completely lose my sex drive when taking the pill. The vaginal dryness isn't as bad with the mini-pill as it is with the combined for me. I started experiencing muscle twitches on this pill which I personally feel are linked so have stopped taking it.

After being off this pill for 6 months I have seen an enormous improvement in my mood, weight and overall well-being. I gained 9kg on this pill! I’ve been the same weight for a very long time, so to gain 9kg in a few months seemed odd but it was shrugged off as an ‘age thing’ as I’m approaching 30. Yet as soon as I came off this pill I lost the weight. I in part put this down to the extreme bloating I experienced on this pill. Insane levels of water retention stopped me from being able to wear any of my clothes. Not to mention the constipation! This had a serious impact on my well-being, self image and consequently my sex drive. Retrospect is a wonderful thing. Just wish I’d tried coming off it sooner!

I started taking this pill around 9 months ago after switching from another progesterone only pill (cerelle). The reason I switched was because the pat pill gave me a period every two weeks. When I first started taking Norgeston this issue completely cleared up, however, has now come back in the last two months. Aside from this I have also been noticing in the last few months I have been getting extremely low moods as well as very painful headaches so I’m thinking of switching to the combined pill