I talked to at least ten people with PFS who have confirmed severely low progesterone levels and supplementing progesterone (even 5a-DHP) has helped them. I just talked to a guy yesterday on the phone for about an hour specifically about progesterone. There is a giant thread on solve PFS showing progesterone being the most effective. To
@mayweatherking point, it makes sense why prog could be low during PFS because fin mimics prog in the body so when you get off it your endogenous levels are low with high cortisol, high estrogen, low thyroid, high prolactin etc. and nothing is opposing it anymore (like prog would) and you are stuck in a hypothyroid type state with downregulated 5AR enzymes.
PFS ppl can't store glycogen because of hypothyroidism which was induced from high cortisol, prolactin, serotonin, low allopreg, low GABA levels (causing continuous stress to burn through glycogen levels super quick) etc. Progesterone promotes hyperthyroidism which would then help improve glycogen stores and improve metabolic efficiency. No, PFS ppl cant take DHEA alone without feeling like a zombie because of the hypothyroid state. The cortisol antagonism is too strong when someone's thyroid isn't working properly to manage it. This was noted by many members personally on this forum.
Preg can help, it helped me personally. But the main reason it was helping me as it was dumping to progesterone as lower doses (under 50mg) didn't do much for me at all.
Cortisol inhibitors are not going to solve it alone, many many people have tried this before. If in a hypothyroid state, inhibiting cortisol too much can make things worse because your thyroid and enzymes isn't working properly to balance. Peat talks about this all the time along with Haidut. You can actually make things worse b/c you are stressing your metabolism more and nothing is there to support it, which is what exactly a "crash" is. I know this from first hand experience, since by taking supplements like DHEA for example, I can now handle if I take thyroid surrogates at the same time (caffeine + aspirin).
Progesterone is also anti cortisol too BTW :
The Anti-cortisol Mechanism Of Progesterone
Again, you can offset any of the anti androgenic sides from prog by using DHEA. Peat has even said the same thing before in his writing specifically for men and it has worked for me personally.
High dose vitamin B-1 could be another alternative as a thyroid surrogate/T3 too.