Question: My name is XXXXXXX Hall. I was prescribed CombiPatch after being on oral HRT for many years. My doctor was a believer that HRT was, in some instances, safe and beneficial for a woman long term. When I reached 65, he said the patch was better because it did not pass through my internal organs. I am now 76, and have done extremely well on it.
My question: Over the years, I have experienced some break through bleeding, though not much and never lasting very long. Recently I did something I now think was probably foolish. For several different reasons such as: the patch coming off and not sticking back good enough and another one applied too high to wear a certain bathing suit. (silly, I know). Anyway, I ended up changing the patch three times over a period of 4 days. I began having a period, (heavier than previously experienced). I removed patch and left it off until bleeding stopped. About 3 or 4 days. After applying a new patch, the bleeding started again. Could this be happening because of an overload of hormones, and, if so, how long should I wait before applying another patch?