Femoston

Femoston, made by Mylan, is a type of hormone replacement therapy called a combined treatment, meaning that it has both oestrogen and progesterone hormones in it. It comes as a tablet and it’s available as either a continuous or cyclical treatment.

The continuous treatment is usually prescribed to women who haven’t had a period for at least a year, whilst the cyclical treatment is prescribed to women who haven’t had a period in at least six months. Femoston isn’t suitable for women who’ve had an hysterectomy, so if that’s the case, contact our clinicians and they’ll be able to find a suitable alternative for you.

Menopause occurs when a woman stops ovulating and periods stop. You don’t only stop bleeding once a month though, your body stops producing oestrogen. This can cause unpleasant symptoms like hot flushes, night sweats, lack of vaginal lubrication, and sleep problems.

HRT, or hormone replacement therapy, comes in at this crucial stage of your life to substitute the hormones your body has stopped producing, and reduces menopause symptoms. ^[1]Femoston supplements the drop in oestrogen. But not just that, since oestrogen on its own can increase the risk of certain types of cancer. It’s the progesterone in Femoston that reduces your cancer risk, by keeping the oestrogen in check.

There are a few different versions of Femoston available.

Femoston 1/10mg and Femoston 2/10mg are the cyclical versions of the pill, and the packs come with oestrogen-only and combined hormone tablets. In sequential therapy, you will be taking the oestrogen-only pills for the first 14 days of the month, and the combined pills on the last 14 days of the month.

Femoston 0.5/2.5mg and Femoston 1/5mg are the continuous versions of the pill.

The continuous and cyclical versions of Femoston should be taken differently, and you should always follow our clinician’s instructions on how to take your medication.

To take the cyclical version:

• Take one tablet every day, without breaks.
• You can take Femoston with or without food, but always take it with a glass of water.
• The usual treatment course involves taking one tablet of 1 or 2mg of oestradiol for the first 14 days of the month, and for the following 14 days take one tablet of 1 or 2 mg of oestradiol plus 10 mg of dydrogesterone. You should start the next treatment as soon as those 28 days are over.
• The pills are marked with numbers on the back of the blister strips. The pills marked with a ‘1’ should be taken first, and the ones with a ‘2’ should be taken after you finish the first batch.
• If you’re not having periods and aren’t already using HRT, you can start taking Femoston at any time.

To take the continuous version:

• You can start taking your tablets on any day if you’re currently not taking any HRT.
• If you’re taking the cyclical version of Femoston, you can start taking the continuous version one day after your 28 day cycle is over.
• You can take your tablet with or without food, but always take it with water.
• Always take your tablet at the same time every day to make sure that you always have a constant quantity of the product in your body. This may help you to remember to take your tablet too.
• Take one tablet a day, every day, without breaks. The blister packs are marked with the days of the week to help you remember when to take your tablet.

It can take a while for you to feel the full benefits of taking Femoston, but you’ll usually start to experience a difference after a few weeks. Our clinician will check in with you regularly to make sure that the treatment is working for you.

If it’s been a while and you’re still not feeling any better, it might mean that the treatment isn’t working. If that’s the case, our clinician will advise you on an alternative HRT medication.

If you miss a dose of Femoston but you’re less than 12 hours late, you can take your missed dose and take your next one as usual. But if more than 12 hours have passed you should skip your missed dose and wait for the next one. Don’t take two pills to make up for it, just resume treatment as usual.

If you take too many pills, don’t worry. Both the active ingredients in Femoston are low toxicity. In the event of an accidental overdose though, you may experience nausea, vomiting, breast tenderness, dizziness, abdominal pain, drowsiness, fatigue, and withdrawal bleeding. If you experience any of these symptoms, you should seek medical treatment immediately.