Progesterone And Depression

[j.]

If I recall correctly, Peat sometimes advised use of progesterone for depression. Is there a rationale, or related study, to support the advice?

 

[Spondive]

It increases allopregnenalone in the brain...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23978486

 

[haidut]

It increases allopregnenalone in the brain...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23978486

Search the forum for "pregnenolone depression" and you will see some older posts I made. Human trials with pregnenolone show strong benefit from 500mg daily, and since some of the pregnenolone converts into progesterone that may be the reason for its helpfulness and Ray's recommendation for depression.

 

[Spondive]

Have any thoughts on obsessive compulsive disorder? I would think anything that increases the neurosteroids would be beneficial for all psychiatric or brain diseases

 

[lindsay]

I will be the first one to chime in here and say that progesterone usage has literally changed me. My estrogen dominance was so bad previously that I was becoming very irrational and would cry at the drop of a hat. I was also more prone to get into fights with loved ones and become very "blue" and "helpless" feeling.

Taking progesterone was a profound thing for me because I realized what I had been missing for years - a balanced hormonal system. My husband and I just joke about it now, but the day I started taking progesterone was the day I stopped being such a b*tch all the time. And if I stop taking it for many weeks, I'm prone to fall into the same pattern. I'm hoping eventually things will go back to a proper balance, but in the meantime, I'm very happy using progest-e regularly.

 

[Spondive]

How much do you use?

 

[lindsay]

How much do you use?

I started off using a very small amount and even this helped. But then when I had blood work done over a year ago, I realized I needed to do a lot more healing, so for quite some time I was taking 400 or so mg. per day (an average of 1 bottle per week). This was for healing purposes.

I still have estrogen issues if I am not consistent in taking it daily, but at least I feel more balanced - meaning I'm calm enough to cope with things. Petty little stuff that used to set me on edge now just kind of gets shrugged off, because I'm like, why bother worrying about that? It wasn't something magical that I felt immediately, more like looking back at how I was and realizing the change that's taken place.

 

[SQu]

Isn't this a time when estrogen is high but progesterone takes a couple of years to catch up? So relative estrogen dominance as per menopause? This explanation has helped me understand why this age was the worst for my two daughters. And for other girls that age. maybe not if she hasn't started her period yet - but maybe the mental symptoms are related to estrogen. Coffee helped my elder daughter. Regular snacks between meals to address blood sugar. Milk. Sugar. Best of luck.