Pregnenolone & Progesterone Side Effects

[chrismturner89]

My partner--who has been displaying high estrogen symptoms for a few years now since coming off the implant contraceptive and who is starting to display some very worrying MS-like symptoms--reacts very badly to progesterone and pregnenolone.

Progesterone causes extremely bad mood swings and stress. The stress (cortisol, adrenaline?) can be very bad at times that she acquires a distinctive odor on her breath and acts very uncontrollably. Why would progesterone do this?

Furthermore, pregnenolone initially made her seem a lot better in terms of mood and symptoms (i thought we had solved the issue) but after the first few days has started to produce symptoms similar to progesterone.

Is it a possibility that she has both high estrogen and progesterone at the same time and that raising progesterone is not key here?

It's starting to really worry me and i want her to get better more than anything else.

Her diet is pretty decent at the minute--high quality proteins, saturated fats, lots of sugars. She doesnt do well with wheat. These symptoms have become a lot worse this year after our eating habits fell towards a more PUFA-heavy, especially in regard to eating pork, which I now deeply regret.

I feel like diet a lone is not lowering her estrogen. We have eaten pretty well for a long time before this year. Unless, like I stated--the issue is not estrogen but something else that we are missing.

Really grateful for any suggestions/advice. Getting pretty desperate.

 

[Blossom]

How are her thyroid and vitamin D levels?

 

[chrismturner89]

We need to get a recent blood panel of thyroid and D but in the past they have been decent.

 

[Blossom]

We need to get a recent blood panel of thyroid and D but in the past they have been decent.

That’s good. When I was having issues with progesterone a couple years ago Peat suggested I check both of those labs. It turned out that my D was slightly low and I needed to adjust my thyroid dose. It happened during the late fall- this time of year.

 

[baccheion]

Maybe get lab work done? A comprehensive hormone panel, a thyroid panel, and NutrEval.

Pregnenolone, progesterone, etc can initially cause moodiness. On the other hand, it should go away after a week or so.

 

[jitsmonkey]

What progesterone is she taking?
How is she taking it?
How much is she taking?

 

[Light]

That’s good. When I was having issues with progesterone a couple years ago Peat suggested I check both of those labs. It turned out that my D was slightly low and I needed to adjust my thyroid dose. It happened during the late fall- this time of year.

Hi @Blossom ,
I also had kinda bad reactions to progesterone and I also found that I had low vit D,
I've been taking 25,000IU a day for a couple of months now, and I was wondering if after you got your vit D up you could take progesterone without any issues.
Also what issues did you have with taking progesterone? - For me it was wooziness, increased brain fog and at worse I got a weird feeling I was falling when turning from side to side in bed. Also very easy to cry and almost impossible to stop - I was moving appartments at the time I was using prog, and I cried the whole drive from the old place to the new one - almost 3 hours (!)
- How Long untill your vitamin D got to normal?
- Can you now take progesterone, and if so - how does it effect you?
- By adjusting your thyroid dose - did you just check pulse and temperature or did you rely on other clues as well? (I'm guessing you needed more rather than less Thyroid...)

 

[Blossom]

Hi @Blossom ,
I also had kinda bad reactions to progesterone and I also found that I had low vit D,
I've been taking 25,000IU a day for a couple of months now, and I was wondering if after you got your vit D up you could take progesterone without any issues.
Also what issues did you have with taking progesterone? - For me it was wooziness, increased brain fog and at worse I got a weird feeling I was falling when turning from side to side in bed. Also very easy to cry and almost impossible to stop - I was moving appartments at the time I was using prog, and I cried the whole drive from the old place to the new one - almost 3 hours (!)
- How Long untill your vitamin D got to normal?
- Can you now take progesterone, and if so - how does it effect you?
- By adjusting your thyroid dose - did you just check pulse and temperature or did you rely on other clues as well? (I'm guessing you needed more rather than less Thyroid...)

It took me about 6 weeks from starting D (I was only taking 5K) and adjusting my thyroid dose to completely resolve the issue which was a fist sized breast lump. I went by symptoms and pulse and temps only because it was so obvious the lump was shrinking and I wasn’t in a position to check my labs at that time. I do think if at all possible labs should be checked. I am able to tolerate progesterone again without any issues.

 

[Light]

It took me about 6 weeks from starting D (I was only taking 5K) and adjusting my thyroid dose to completely resolve the issue which was a fist sized breast lump. I went by symptoms and pulse and temps only because it was so obvious the lump was shrinking and I wasn’t in a position to check my labs at that time. I do think if at all possible labs should be checked. I am able to tolerate progesterone again without any issues.

Excellent news. Thanks :)

 

[Blossom]

Excellent news. Thanks :)

You’re welcome, it’s one of my best Peat successes.

 

[tankasnowgod]

In another thread, there was a response that could help to explain these stress like symptoms-

Just want to note. I wrote earlier about pregnenolone raising estrogen etc and making me feel like rubbish.

Well, I have trialed preg again. As usual it raised my temps, energy etc for the first few days. Then I fell back into the bloated, cold, high estrogen effects i get from preg. However, i realized if preg doesnt directly raise estrogen something else was doing it.

What was happening was preg was raising my metabolism. This was causing a release of PUFA's as my detox systems etc ramped up. The increased PUFA's then caused high estrogen, serotonin, low metabolism etc.

After supplementing with a high dose of vitamin E, aspirin, coconut oil etc., my temperatures started to come back up and my distended stomach started to shrink back down.


So, the lesson from that is, increasing your metabolism can cause an increase in circulating PUFA's making you worse off than when you started..

Also, as far as the "weird odor" on the breath, Peat mentioned something similar in his recent interview, and he noticed it after being exposed to pesticide in periods where he was running on fat later. Might be that the weird odor was the Birth Control being detoxed through the breath. But it could all be due to the raised metabolism from either substance (pregnenolone or progesterone).

 

[koshko]

It took me about 6 weeks from starting D (I was only taking 5K) and adjusting my thyroid dose to completely resolve the issue which was a fist sized breast lump. I went by symptoms and pulse and temps only because it was so obvious the lump was shrinking and I wasn’t in a position to check my labs at that time. I do think if at all possible labs should be checked. I am able to tolerate progesterone again without any issues.

Hi Blossom, i am new here. I have very painful and almost fist size breast lumps. My vitamin D results came very low (12) and TSH high. i am planning to start supplementing t3-t4, vitamin D and progesterone. Do you think it is better to wait until my vitamin D levels get better a bit before starting progesterone?

 

[Blossom]

Hi Blossom, i am new here. I have very painful and almost fist size breast lumps. My vitamin D results came very low (12) and TSH high. i am planning to start supplementing t3-t4, vitamin D and progesterone. Do you think it is better to wait until my vitamin D levels get better a bit before starting progesterone?

If it happened to me again I would wait based on my prior experience.

 

[Dr. B]

In another thread, there was a response that could help to explain these stress like symptoms-



Also, as far as the "weird odor" on the breath, Peat mentioned something similar in his recent interview, and he noticed it after being exposed to pesticide in periods where he was running on fat later. Might be that the weird odor was the Birth Control being detoxed through the breath. But it could all be due to the raised metabolism from either substance (pregnenolone or progesterone).

Ive asked Peat a few times and h says he hasnt recommended pregnenolone for many years and hasnt used it himself since the 80s. ever since his supply of the symntex pregnenolone ran out, he said all pregneolones he tried gave effects that shouldnt be pregnenolone. and hes heard many bad experiences with it so he doesnt recommend it.
why would pregnenolone/progesterone be the only substances out of a wide variety of metabolic boosters causing this effect? i havent megadosed progesterone, but 10 days of using just 50mg-100mg pregnenolone per day (pure encapsulations brand, probably the priciest stuff and supposedly heavily tested) caused 12 pounds fat gain, a ton of hair shedding, extremely dried out eyes, and shrunken gonads. so it basically caused every cortisol type symptom in the book, as if it was just turning to pure cortisol in the body as if i was taking prednisone or something.

in one of the podcasts from a few months back, haidut and Peat were discussing how bacteria in the air could potentially turn pregnenolone to estrogen or something. im not sure that's what's going on with all the bad experiences with pregnenolone, it seems to be something occurring since the 80s, so its maybe the sourcing of the pregnenolone has changed then (similar to how vitamin C had major sourcing issues ever since they started offering the megadose capsules of 500mg+), or some other environmental/dietary factor leads people to have bad responses to pregnenolone (this is doubtful since Peat himself said he had bad experiences after his symntex pregnenolone ran out so he stopped using it). but if simply boosting the metabolism is enough to cause this pufa detox/estrogen/weight gain effect it should also be occurring from eating more calcium, more protein, sugar and salt, from caffeine and thyroid, maybe from vitamin d3/k2 etc

 

[jomamma007]

Ive asked Peat a few times and h says he hasnt recommended pregnenolone for many years and hasnt used it himself since the 80s. ever since his supply of the symntex pregnenolone ran out, he said all pregneolones he tried gave effects that shouldnt be pregnenolone. and hes heard many bad experiences with it so he doesnt recommend it.
why would pregnenolone/progesterone be the only substances out of a wide variety of metabolic boosters causing this effect? i havent megadosed progesterone, but 10 days of using just 50mg-100mg pregnenolone per day (pure encapsulations brand, probably the priciest stuff and supposedly heavily tested) caused 12 pounds fat gain, a ton of hair shedding, extremely dried out eyes, and shrunken gonads. so it basically caused every cortisol type symptom in the book, as if it was just turning to pure cortisol in the body as if i was taking prednisone or something.

in one of the podcasts from a few months back, haidut and Peat were discussing how bacteria in the air could potentially turn pregnenolone to estrogen or something. im not sure that's what's going on with all the bad experiences with pregnenolone, it seems to be something occurring since the 80s, so its maybe the sourcing of the pregnenolone has changed then (similar to how vitamin C had major sourcing issues ever since they started offering the megadose capsules of 500mg+), or some other environmental/dietary factor leads people to have bad responses to pregnenolone (this is doubtful since Peat himself said he had bad experiences after his symntex pregnenolone ran out so he stopped using it). but if simply boosting the metabolism is enough to cause this pufa detox/estrogen/weight gain effect it should also be occurring from eating more calcium, more protein, sugar and salt, from caffeine and thyroid, maybe from vitamin d3/k2 etc

“If a person has an enlarged thyroid gland, progesterone promotes secretion and unloading of the stored “colloid,” and can bring on a temporary hyperthyroid state. This is a corrective process, and in itself isn't harmful. A thyroid supplement should be used to shrink the goiter before progesterone is given.” RP
Progesterone Summaries - Progesterone Deceptions - Progesterone Supplementation - Dosage of Progesterone

 

[Dr. B]

“If a person has an enlarged thyroid gland, progesterone promotes secretion and unloading of the stored “colloid,” and can bring on a temporary hyperthyroid state. This is a corrective process, and in itself isn't harmful. A thyroid supplement should be used to shrink the goiter before progesterone is given.” RP
Progesterone Summaries - Progesterone Deceptions - Progesterone Supplementation - Dosage of Progesterone

ive read that, but it only applies to progesterone. but it doesnt address my experience and the experiences of some others with pregnenolone. when the metabolic rate gets high, body temp should be high so you should see organs/glands actually gain size and recover.