Endometrial Thickening in a postmenapausal woman on HRT

[ltlov]

Hi,  In August I had a cortisone shot for ITBS tendonitis. It caused me to get a period that lasted 10 days. I had my yearly check-up at the Obgyn and they had a transabdonimal sonograph performed just to check.  My results came back with endometrium measuring 1.0cm in thickness and homogeneous. I have been on homeopathic estriol vaginal creme for 5 years ( 2mm 3 x's per week).  The Obgyn wants to do an endometrial biopsy to rule out hyperplasy or cancer.  I opted not to do it because I feel this thickening is a result of the HRT and the cortisone shot. I have not had ANy bleeding for the 5 years that I have been postmenapausal, except for the 10 day period a few months ago ( 2 weeks after the cortisone shot). Should I have another test in a few months? Should I stop the estriol creme?



This discussion is related to How to understand ultrasound results?.

[garden67]

If I would be you I will follow your doctor's advice.I'm post menopausal and never had  spotting until this past november.It was tiny but any bleeding/spotting after menopause is considered abnormal. She ordered a Transvaginal U and the report indicated that I had an11 mm heterogenous endometrium. To make the story short I had a D&C and hysteroscopy one week ago. They removed one polyp that was causing the thickness and bleeding. For that I'm so thankful! I was very scared because malignancy was a possibilty.So I would suggest better be safe than sorry! Best of luck!

[Sanjivani Wanjari, MD]

HI,
The 10 day bleeding that you had may not be related to the cortisol shot, but may be related to the endometrial hyperplasia. Also local HRT should not cause endometrial hyperplasia. This type of bleeding at the age of 61 years is highly abnormal. Hence it would be best to go in for an endometrial biopsy, to rule out endometrial cancer.
Take care and good luck.