PROGESTERONE

When I first started on BHRT Progesterone was touted as THE ANSWER for seemingly all of a woman's hormonal problems. Put a cream onto the face or chest before bedtime and all your problems will go away.
Well it didn't work like that for me. I was only using a low dose of compounded bioidentical progesterone, but I felt very very unwell, very quickly. I turned to the internet and joined a few message boards. I found I was not alone. It seemed that women were far more able to tolerate Estradiol, than Progesterone.

I read several books, all recommended on this site (information is power). Most of them very pro progesterone, less pro estrogen. (strangely, most of the pro Estrogen authors are women, and the pro Progesterone authors, men. Who is taking the stuff? Go figure!)

Mind you some women do very well on progesterone. So I don't want to knock it. I just want to flag up the possibility that progesterone may not suit you. Despite all it's protective benefits, you may not be able to bear the side effects. You may need to try a smaller dose, a different delivery method, ie maybe the cream is not for you, you may need a gel, sublingual drops, vaginal suppositories, or take a pill.

If you still can't bear the side effects, the other option is to only take your progesterone for 14 days, every 3 months. (When you are using estrogen, you need to use progesterone to slough off the endometrial lining of your womb, ie make you have a sort of period, so that your lining does not build up. There is a risk that if your lining does build up, endometrial cancer could have a chance to develop. My gut feeling is that this research is NOT correct but until I am proven right by science you have to take progesterone in some way if you are taking estrogen) If you have had a hysterectomy and therefore don't have a womb, you don't need to take progesterone, but if you get on with it you can. It has a lot of benefits.

Below are some interesting excerpts from various authors :-

"Progesterone is the primary hormone designed to prepare the female to support a pregnancy. In the first half of the menstrual cycle, the follicular phase, there is no significant amount of progesterone produced, and levels in women are about 0.3-0.9ng/ml. When ovulation occurs, the ovum is released and becomes the corpus luteum, egg, which begins to secrete progesterone. Levels of progesterone in this half of the cycle, luteal phase, rise to about 15-30ng/ml or up to thirty times the level of the first half of the cycle. Levels in pregnancy are about FIFTEEN times greater than luteal phase progesterone levels.
Studies done in the 1970's showed that an oral dose of 300mg micronized progesterone given daily for one week would produce blood levels of progesterone equivalent to the third trimester of pregnancy.
Oral doses of 200mg daily for ten to fourteen days are used in HRT to prevent endometrial hyperplasia. The progesterone secreted by the corpus luteum stimulates the lining of the uterus to thicken and become secretory in preparation to recieve a fertilized egg and help it grow. If there is fertilization and pregnancy, the placenta becomes a hormone producing factory, with increasing progesterone throughout the months of pregnancy. With so many changes needed in a womans body for her to sustain a pregnancy, it is not surprising that progesterone has a wide range of metabolic effects on the whole body, not just the reproductive organs. Think about it. For a female to get enough nutrition for the growing fetus, she has to eat more. Progesterone is the hormone that stimulates appetite and drives the individual to eat more (both in a non pregnant menstrual cycle, as well as throughout pregnancy). It also stimulates the desire for carbohydrates, which are more quickly converted to useable fuel.

In addition, progesterone relaxes the smooth muscles of the intestinal tract, which slows down the movement of food and allows greater absorbtion of nutrients. For a pregnancy, this is a beneficial effect. If you are not pregnant you may experience this slowing down of the intestinal tract as constipation (especially if you dont get enough fibre). Progesterone has been shown to have marked effects to increase total body fat, and this occurs in many different species studied, not just humans. This fat-storing effect has an obvious evolutionary advantage for survival to ensure that pregnant women have adequate fat stores to provide fuel for mother and baby through nine months of gestation. Another important effect of progesterone is to suppress the mother's immune system so that the mother's body will not 'attack and destroy' the foreign protein of the developing fetus that contains the fathers genetic makeup and protein coding systems. This is a crucial function of progesterone for a pregnant woman, but not one that we want all the time."

Elizabeth Vilet -Screaming To Be Heard