Pregnenolone & Progesterone together?

Kray

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tomisonbottom said:
Yes and Yes. ;)
Pregnenolone will help you make more progesterone if you're short on it.

tomisonbottom: If I take both and have enough progesterone from my taking it, what happens to the pregnenolone that I take? Does it convert to more progesterone or lean towards male hormones, etc? Is it fool-proof that it will do what your body needs it for, and how much would one know to take of the pregnenolone if you're doing progest too? Thanks
 
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readforjoy

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My experience was that, no, pregnenolone did NOT do what I needed it to do. I needed progesterone, by preg made my estrogen dominant symptoms WAY worse. I was taking 100-120 mg pregnenolone per day. Now I am only on progesterone and doing much better.
 

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readforjoy said:
My experience was that, no, pregnenolone did NOT do what I needed it to do. I needed progesterone, by preg made my estrogen dominant symptoms WAY worse. I was taking 100-120 mg pregnenolone per day. Now I am only on progesterone and doing much better.

It seems a lot of us having problems with pregnenolone. Although some do find it helps.

Progesterone for the win. :mrgreen:
 
J

j.

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readforjoy said:
My experience was that, no, pregnenolone did NOT do what I needed it to do. I needed progesterone, by preg made my estrogen dominant symptoms WAY worse. I was taking 100-120 mg pregnenolone per day. Now I am only on progesterone and doing much better.

I wish I knew what would happen if you tried 1000 mg.
 

himsahimsa

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According to RP:
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/th ... ones.shtml
Pregnenolone is largely converted into two other "youth-associated" protective hormones, progesterone and DHEA. At the age of 30, both men and women produce roughly 30 to 50 mg. of pregnenolone daily. When taken orally, even in the powdered form, it is absorbed fairly well. One dose of approximately 300 mg (the size of an aspirin tablet) keeps acting for about a week, as absorption continues along the intestine, and as it is "recycled" in the body. Part of this long lasting effect is because it improves the body's ability to produce its own pregnenolone. It tends to improve function of the thyroid and other glands, and this "normalizing" effect on the other glands helps to account for its wide range of beneficial effects.
He also says that it's pretty harmless in high doses. But I don't see anywhere that he says taking 100mg or more a day is therapeutic. Maybe I missed that. Once you're taking as much as a healthy young person could ever make, more would seem likely to unbalance the system.

Also.
I'm wondering which "estrogen dominant symptoms" were made worse or just not effected and what had readforjoy taking pregnenolone as a strategy to get at them?

I have taken up using pregnenolone at about 50mg/D but I think it's too much, I get a definite buzz for about two hours and am speedy a few days with no further doses. I tried 10, 25, 50, 70, 100 and 150mg, each for a few days to see what the effect would be, not expecting to "fix" anything in that short time but just to get a sense of the stuff itself. I feel that the right amount would be just below what I become consciously aware of. I put it under my tongue, swallowed caps, mixed it with food and snorted pure powder. Snorting feels best to me, eating prolongs the speedy effect. Snorting gets around first-pass and delivers the primary load to the cranial circulation, so I think I will adopt that as my norm. I will also try what RP suggests in the paragraph above since this gets the equivalent of 43mg/D to the body, but, for most of the week, it will not be imposed on the circulation exogenousely. But, I think I will end up around 10-15mg/D equivalent, whatever the schedule.

I get the feeling that chronically overloading on the stuff is likely to throw something out of whack. There is nothing trivial about it the way I experience it. The idea is to coax the system, nurture it, into a state of healthy dynamic balance, not to slam it around, no?
 
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j.

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himsahimsa said:
But I don't see anywhere that he says taking 100mg or more a day is therapeutic. Maybe I missed that.

He says that in generative energy, page 71.

Ray Peat said:
A tenth of a gram is a reasonable first dose, though some people seem to need as much as 1 gram per day.

I took up to 1.5 grams in a day without noticing bad effects.
 
J

j.

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himsahimsa said:
Wow!! What effects did you get. You must have felt it, no?

I felt pretty sedated, but I'm not sure I got different effects from, say, 100 mg. Once it balances your hormones to the extend it can, there is reason to think adding more doesn't do anything
 

mas

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I started off with pregnenolone approx. 30 mg daily periodically taking a few days off for the last 4 months. It has helped somewhat with my hyper adrenaline POTS tachycardia and the jittery wired feeling. But with less adrenaline, exhaustion hits me quite badly especially mid-afternoon with periods of feeling lightheaded faint and brain fog that come over me just as if a net had dropped on me with this. I was hoping that the pregnenolone would do more but I am still trying.

I am just waiting for my Progest-e and Nutripak. I do think my high estrogen needs the progesterone. It is going to be quite a learning experience. I am going to need all the help that I can get.

Megin
 

Kray

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mas said:
I started off with pregnenolone approx. 30 mg daily periodically taking a few days off for the last 4 months. It has helped somewhat with my hyper adrenaline POTS tachycardia and the jittery wired feeling. But with less adrenaline, exhaustion hits me quite badly especially mid-afternoon with periods of feeling lightheaded faint and brain fog that come over me just as if a net had dropped on me with this. I was hoping that the pregnenolone would do more but I am still trying.

I am just waiting for my Progest-e and Nutripak. I do think my high estrogen needs the progesterone. It is going to be quite a learning experience. I am going to need all the help that I can get.

Megin

I'm off the pregnenolone now. Think my gut feeling about preg. is very similar to other women's posts above. Just doing menopausal dosage of Progest-E. I'm in my late 50s, with no thyroid supplement. I would like someone who knows their thyroid stuff to tell me if there is any indication for taking thyroid even if your temps and pulse are good, for other reasons such as eczema and dry skin, brain fog, moodiness. Should I avoid thyroid if my temps and pulse are good (in 98.0> range and 76-80 pulse rate throughout day, basal temp 97.8-98.0)?

Are you taking the Progest-e for menopause by any chance? Have you been taking the Nutripak or just starting? Are temps/pulse the deciding factors?
 

mas

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I am postmenopausal, basically disabled 9 years ago with "CFS/FM". I found Ray Peat website 1 1/2 years ago. I started slowly by trying to implement RP diet - Milk, oj, carrot salad, bone broths, etc…

I have been using red light therapy (2 250 w 130 v lights you can get at the hardware store).

I thought that since pregnenolone has been reported to be the precursor for the bodily path to make progesterone, I tried this first just to see if and how it would work for me. After 4 months, I really want to move up to the Progest-e because I am not sure if the Pregnenolone is working all that much for me. Perhaps I haven't been taking a high enough dose.

When I start taking the Progest-e and Nutripak (the order should be here this week) I will surely be looking for help and guidance from the experienced members of this board. Considering how sick I have been I am definitely going to take it slow and use caution, but I really want to move forward and be able to be fully participating in life.

Megin
 

HDD

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classicallady said:
mas said:
I started off with pregnenolone approx. 30 mg daily periodically taking a few days off for the last 4 months. It has helped somewhat with my hyper adrenaline POTS tachycardia and the jittery wired feeling. But with less adrenaline, exhaustion hits me quite badly especially mid-afternoon with periods of feeling lightheaded faint and brain fog that come over me just as if a net had dropped on me with this. I was hoping that the pregnenolone would do more but I am still trying.

I am just waiting for my Progest-e and Nutripak. I do think my high estrogen needs the progesterone. It is going to be quite a learning experience. I am going to need all the help that I can get.

Megin

I'm off the pregnenolone now. Think my gut feeling about preg. is very similar to other women's posts above. Just doing menopausal dosage of Progest-E. I'm in my late 50s, with no thyroid supplement. I would like someone who knows their thyroid stuff to tell me if there is any indication for taking thyroid even if your temps and pulse are good, for other reasons such as eczema and dry skin, brain fog, moodiness. Should I avoid thyroid if my temps and pulse are good (in 98.0> range and 76-80 pulse rate throughout day, basal temp 97.8-98.0)?

Are you taking the Progest-e for menopause by any chance? Have you been taking the Nutripak or just starting? Are temps/pulse the deciding factors?


I am post menopausal and in my late fifties. I started thyroid in November and I just increased my cynoplus to 1/2 of a tablet. My temperature and pulse were good before starting thyroid after following a good diet and supplementing many things. I have used Progest-e for quite some time and have supplemented pregnenolone off and on. I decided to use thyroid because I wanted internal healing and I felt like I was jumping through a lot of hoops to keep metabolism good. I had borderline high blood pressure and high cholesterol (296). My high cholesterol was the final decision-maker. After extensive reading, I was no longer intimidated by the hormones. My pulse is mid 80's to low 90's. I have good energy and have been able to maintain health under increased stress.
 
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readforjoy

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[highlight=#ffff40]I'm wondering which "estrogen dominant symptoms" were made worse or just not effected and what had readforjoy taking pregnenolone as a strategy to get at them?[/highlight]

I started taking pregnenolone following this protocol to boost my cortisol which would then work synergistically with T3.

http://anabolicminds.com/forum/attachme ... c16%20.att

Thyroid hormone on its own made me much worse due to low cortisol. I took the pregnenolone in 2-4 divided doses throughout the day, typically 50 mg in morning, 50 mg at noon, and 10 or 20 mg late afternoon. That's how fast my body used it up and I would need more to restore my energy. It worked good for a few months, but then I got depressed, had headaches, and my brainfog and fatigue got much worse. My doctor and I think that too much of it was converting to estrogen (he tested my estrogen and it was really high), so I am now taking Prometrium and am doing really good (Progest-e would only last 30 minutes in me. Doc said I was poorly absorbing it. I'm doing much better with Prometrium staying in my system).
 

Kray

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readforjoy said:
[highlight=#ffff40]I'm wondering which "estrogen dominant symptoms" were made worse or just not effected and what had readforjoy taking pregnenolone as a strategy to get at them?[/highlight]

I started taking pregnenolone following this protocol to boost my cortisol which would then work synergistically with T3.

http://anabolicminds.com/forum/attachme ... c16%20.att

Thyroid hormone on its own made me much worse due to low cortisol. I took the pregnenolone in 2-4 divided doses throughout the day, typically 50 mg in morning, 50 mg at noon, and 10 or 20 mg late afternoon. That's how fast my body used it up and I would need more to restore my energy. It worked good for a few months, but then I got depressed, had headaches, and my brainfog and fatigue got much worse. My doctor and I think that too much of it was converting to estrogen (he tested my estrogen and it was really high), so I am now taking Prometrium and am doing really good (Progest-e would only last 30 minutes in me. Doc said I was poorly absorbing it. I'm doing much better with Prometrium staying in my system).

Very interesting about the Progest-E. I wonder how many others have had a similar problem. This is the first I've heard that it may not be well absorbed. Were you swallowing it or rubbing it into the gum tissues, skin, etc? What amount were you using? How much of the Prometrium does your doc have you on? Did you research it and find it to be a safe alternative to Progest-E?
 
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readforjoy

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I was taking 50-100 mg at a time, rubbing it on my gums the best I could. It was the same deal with Natpro (a transdermal cream) and also with a transdermal progeterone cream from a compounded pharmacy. They would all take 20 minutes to absorb, then I would feel great for 30 minutes. My naturopath said that he and other doctors have found oral progesterone to be better absorbed. I didn't believe him, but sure enough, that's the case with me. I take 1 capsule (100 mg) at night. Some days that's enough for 24 hours, but some days I need an extra 25 mg in the morning.
 
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readforjoy

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As far as Prometrium's safety, it is USP bio-identical progesterone. The inactive ingredients for PROMETRIUM Capsules 100 mg include: peanut oil NF, gelatin NF, glycerin USP, lecithin NF, titanium dioxide USP, D&C Yellow No. 10, and FD&C Red No. 40.

I get mine made at a compounding pharmacy and they are pure white so I don't think they have any dyes. The label on them is progesterone not Prometrium, though that's what my doc called them. I don't know if mine have peanut oil in them. I guess I'll ask next time, but it's worth it to me even if it does have peanut oil.
 

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