Progesterone cream?

[Seadragon]

Wondering about people's experiences with this.

I am female, get increased wired feeling and emotional around ovulation and a week before my period, also doing a Valium taper so get anxious and agitated at these times of the month in particular. Severe sleep onset insomnia also.

Would this help at all?

How does one use it, how often, where on the body and what can it help with?

Any bad experiences also?

Any info appreciated,

Thanks and love Esperanza x

 

[Ema]

Progesterone works on GABA receptors so many women do find that it can ease anxiety. Oral progesterone in particular produces a compound called allopregnanolone after it passes through the liver which can be extremely sedating. I actually did not care for oral progesterone due to this but have used progesterone cream for years successfully to raise my low levels.

I use varying amounts to try to mimic the natural rhythm throughout the month. The range is from 30-90 mg of cream (oral dosages are much higher to compensate for having to pass through the liver). I generally apply to areas where skin is thinner like upper thighs, inner arms etc. It can also help with breast tenderness if applied directly to that area.

The best way to know if progesterone might be of benefit to you is to do a blood test on day 21 of your cycle. Most people feel best with progesterone about midrange. I would also test estrogen and free testosterone at the same time to give yourself a full picture of your sex hormone levels and their relationship to one another (which is just as important as the levels themselves).

 

[Sallysblooms]

I use that and estrogen, pregnenalone, 7 Keto, Thryroic etc. but I get my levels checked twice a year. I see doctors that can balance all hormones with bio identical hormones. It has been amazing. I have no more migraines, had them for years. Hormones are so important but balance is important.

 

[heapsreal]

Im male and did a short trial with progesterone cream, i found it very helpful for sleep but this worse off after a few weeks and was quite calming. I read that it helps improve gaba receptor sensitivity so maybe this is how it can help with anxiety and sleep. Can also help build up other hormones that may be low like cortisol, dhea etc I have read that bioidentical creams are better for someone then synthetic oral progesterone, but i dont have any experience with oral prog.

cheers!!!

 

[Hanna]

My experience with progesterone cream wasn't pleasant, but perhaps I didn't give enough time to do its job. I have used it during two months (from cycle day 18 till period) and got swollen and very tender breast. The dose was 50 mg/day at the beginning and 100 mg towards the end, the brand was NOW. Because of the bad reaction I stopped.

 

[BEG]

I used progesterone cream during the peri-menopause years. It was very calming and evened out the mood swings. I thought it was nothing short of a miracle. Shortly after menopause, however, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My cancer was positive in both estrogen and progesterone receptors. I take it the latter is rare(?) Long story short -- in hindsight, I wish I never touched the stuff even though the connection can never be proved.

 

[heapsreal]

doses i have seen recommended for bioidentical cream are 10% for men and 20% for the ladies

 

[Calathea]

I tried it years ago for PMDD and the only effect I noticed was slightly increased spotting between periods. I'm wary of the stuff. Apparently there have been various scandals about the creams being sold online, e.g. tests have been run on major brands and no active ingredients found.

If you're in benzo withdrawal, this may not be the time to add something potentially disruptive, as your system (particularly your liver) has enough to deal with already. There are fairly good support forums around for people withdrawing from benzos, they may be worth asking about this. I was recommended to ask there when I was having a hellish time coming off gabapentin (not a benzo but nasty to withdraw from in similar ways), and they do seem to have a good level of experience as a group. That said, there's not much available. It seems that anything which relieves the withdrawal effects is itself likely to be addictive. You can't win. I'm mostly out the other side of the gabapentin withdrawal by now, especially since I added bright light therapy back to my regime (previously I'd been managing fine on darkness therapy alone), which seems to be helping my sleep pattern.

 

[Seadragon]

Thanks everyone for the responses. Seems people have mixed reactions so I'll hold off for the moment.

Love Esperanza x

 

[taniaaust1]

Before I even had ME, I had such a reaction to the mini progesterone only pill .. I had issues from the very first day I took it which got worst with each further day I took. After being on it for 5? days, things got so bad that I ended up in a mental hospital for a week.. I was fine again as soon as I stopped that pill so left hospital with no follow up needed.

It took 19 years before I was game to try any form of progesterone again, to try to correct an imbalance I have in my body. Cause of an imbalance (estrogen predominant), Gyno and I wanted to see if progesterone helped my PMDD mood swings so we tried a natural progesterone cream. I had no negative effects at all with it, no positive improvement thou in any way either. (I got the cream on prescription throu compounding chemist)

I am female, get increased wired feeling and emotional around ovulation and a week before my period

1000mg-1200mg of calicum may be used for PMS stuff.. a dr specialising in female issues put me onto it (there has also been studies done on using it for this).

I found it took a 2-3 of months, of daily all month taking it, before it started working on my moods at that time of the month. It actually helped the PMDD (PMDD is severe PMS). I stopped taking it for a while and got the old symptoms back .. then trialed it again and again it worked after 2-3 months.

After taking it for probably well over a year, I thou have since stopped taking it, due to reading of a ME/CFS study which found high intracellular calicum levels in us. I just didnt want to risk it even thou it does some good for me. But anyway... it may be something you may like to try for any PMS symptoms.

* Only negative side affect for me was Calicum did make my IBS and the constipation I get from that worst while Im on it.

(The naturopathic part of myself warns.. if you do take calicum, do take some magnesium supplements too as these vitamins need to be balanced).

 

[Calathea]

The progestogen-only pill is nothing to do with progesterone. For some reason, progestogens (called "progestins" in the US) are often incorrectly referred to as "progesterone". This mistake is so popular that it's even made by doctors, although it's easy to check. Progesterone is the natural hormone, and when people talk about progesterone cream, they are talking about bioidentical progesterone which is meant to function exactly the same in the body (it's sold as "natural progesterone" but this is nonsense, it's synthesised from a plant source). Progestogens/progestins are artificial hormones which are vaguely similar to progesterone, but are actually closer to androgens, a different hormone altogether. Anything involved in hormonal contraception - the combined pill, the mini-pill, the hormonal IUD - will have progestogen rather than progesterone. Progesterone is almost never used in modern medicine. Some doctors will prescribe progesterone pessaries (suppositories in the US), which have a much higher dose of hormone than the progesterone creams. This was quite popular in the seventies, but the research didn't really back it up, so it's almost never done today. A few women swear by progesterone treatment.

For the record, I too have reacted very badly to progestogens. Apart from the progesterone cream which had pretty much no effect, I haven't tried bioidentical progesterone. I occasionally wonder how I'd fare on progesterone pessaries, but I have no idea how I'd get them prescribed, and I'd be concerned at the risks of taking that high a dose of hormone.

 

[SaraM]

Worked for just a month. I am now taking Prometrium.

 

[physicsstudent13]

does progesterone help you get deeper restful sleep? I have terrible sleep apnea and got the cream from piping rock. is there a better brand or pills?