Progesterone dosage for girlfriend

[InterrogaOmnia]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone with progesterone experience might be able to give me some insight into my girlfriends health problems. I just received a bottle of progest-e in the mail but she hasn't tried it yet.

My girlfriend is 270lbs 5'7" and 20 years old. She suffers from depression in varying degrees on a regular basis and generally has a weak appetite. Her periods are very irregular, in fact her last one was 2 weeks late. She frequently has muscles soreness and other aches. Due to an emergency room visit, we found out she recently tested positive for mono and has been sick for weeks. We learned two additional things during the stay. She was highly anemic. A 6.7 for hemoglobin i believe. They also found a huge cyst in her uterus. I believe it was 14cm in diameter. She had a blood transfusion which brought her back to an 8.7 before we left. On december 8th she is going to have another ultrasound to evaluate the cyst. They didn't want to do surgery during her mono.

Well, she is now currently taking iron which may or may not be cause for the anemia. She has also been prescribed birth control as microgestin fe but she hasn't taken it.

Well, this is all I can think of to mention at this point. I wish I had some sort of labs to verify anything, but is progesterone a solution? What might be a good supplementing regimen. Can she start immediately or should she only use it during the luteal phase? I've been trying to help her with a pretty nonrestrictive peat approach but it doesn't seem to be enough at this point.

I appreciate the help!

 

[tara]

Hi,
Sorry your girlfriend is having such a hard time.

I'm not qualified to advise, but I have a couple of thoughts.
Did they do all the iron tests, including saturation, or did they just assume she was iron deficient because she is anaemic? Anaemia can be caused by iron deficiency, but it can be caused by other things too, eg B12 deficiency. I cannot interpret results of such tests, but I think there are others here who may be able to. Apparently it is common for drs to assume iron deficiency when there is anaemia. Maybe the cyst can do this too. I think your girlfriend should have the right to request her own test results, but I don't know how much resistance there would be to giving them where you are.
Someone recently posted a link about anaemia sometimes being a defensive mechanism against infection. Bacteria need iron to grow. There are studies showing that iron supplements worsened recovery rates for children with malaria and some other infectious diseases, and worsened malaria rates in children in malaria prone regions. Not sure if anything like this goes on with virus.
If she really does need iron, liver is probably a much better way to supply it than a pill - you get a lot of other good minerals and vitamins. Can you come up with some good recipes she likes? If she's not keen on it straight, you may be able to concoct a pate or something with other flavours?

I'm not familiar with that birth control product. Is it estrogen-based? If so, it may contribute to the problems.

I don't really know anything about the causes and effects of cysts, but I can imagine its presence might be disruptive of hormones, as well as possibly being a result of unbalanced hormones.

I would not expect problems with progesterone supplementation, but since there are diagnosed medical issues going on, I am uncertain. What dose is most helpful seems to vary a lot between different women. I think Peat as suggested starting with 3drops 5x/day for a while, and maybe later reducing dose to 3 x/day. I think the rational is that starting lower can draw estrogen out of the tissues without being enough to counteract it adequately, and some symptoms can worsen. Can use it in second half of cycle only, or if symptoms are severe without it, it may be OK to use continuously. I was intending to reduce in first half of cycle, but never did - I've been taking it ~5x/day for more than a year, but I'm older, approaching menopause and have different issues.

Are you/she able to track pulse and temp for a few days, to get an idea of thyroid function? I think there may be a link between low body temp and susceptibility to viral infection, but I can't remember if I've come across this from Peat or elsewhere. If temps are generally low, thyroid function is probably down. There are various tactics for increasing metabolism, temperature, and CO2 levels. Getting good nutrition would be first, which is tricky - if she has no appetite.

A daily grated raw carrot salad between meals, if it doesn't aggravate things, can help relieve the load on the liver, which leaves it more resources to handle other stresses.

What is she eating? What does she enjoy eating? Getting some sunlight? Mouth or nose breathing?

 

[InterrogaOmnia]

Hi,
Sorry your girlfriend is having such a hard time.

I'm not qualified to advise, but I have a couple of thoughts.
Did they do all the iron tests, including saturation, or did they just assume she was iron deficient because she is anaemic? Anaemia can be caused by iron deficiency, but it can be caused by other things too, eg B12 deficiency. I cannot interpret results of such tests, but I think there are others here who may be able to. Apparently it is common for drs to assume iron deficiency when there is anaemia. Maybe the cyst can do this too. I think your girlfriend should have the right to request her own test results, but I don't know how much resistance there would be to giving them where you are.
Someone recently posted a link about anaemia sometimes being a defensive mechanism against infection. Bacteria need iron to grow. There are studies showing that iron supplements worsened recovery rates for children with malaria and some other infectious diseases, and worsened malaria rates in children in malaria prone regions. Not sure if anything like this goes on with virus.
If she really does need iron, liver is probably a much better way to supply it than a pill - you get a lot of other good minerals and vitamins. Can you come up with some good recipes she likes? If she's not keen on it straight, you may be able to concoct a pate or something with other flavours?

I'm not familiar with that birth control product. Is it estrogen-based? If so, it may contribute to the problems.

I don't really know anything about the causes and effects of cysts, but I can imagine its presence might be disruptive of hormones, as well as possibly being a result of unbalanced hormones.

I would not expect problems with progesterone supplementation, but since there are diagnosed medical issues going on, I am uncertain. What dose is most helpful seems to vary a lot between different women. I think Peat as suggested starting with 3drops 5x/day for a while, and maybe later reducing dose to 3 x/day. I think the rational is that starting lower can draw estrogen out of the tissues without being enough to counteract it adequately, and some symptoms can worsen. Can use it in second half of cycle only, or if symptoms are severe without it, it may be OK to use continuously. I was intending to reduce in first half of cycle, but never did - I've been taking it ~5x/day for more than a year, but I'm older, approaching menopause and have different issues.

Are you/she able to track pulse and temp for a few days, to get an idea of thyroid function? I think there may be a link between low body temp and susceptibility to viral infection, but I can't remember if I've come across this from Peat or elsewhere. If temps are generally low, thyroid function is probably down. There are various tactics for increasing metabolism, temperature, and CO2 levels. Getting good nutrition would be first, which is tricky - if she has no appetite.

A daily grated raw carrot salad between meals, if it doesn't aggravate things, can help relieve the load on the liver, which leaves it more resources to handle other stresses.

What is she eating? What does she enjoy eating? Getting some sunlight? Mouth or nose breathing?

Yeah, I haven't seen any iron tests nor has she requested to see them. I'm very aware of the fact that it may not be an iron problem and I did suggest liver over iron supplements. The infection anemia correlation is interesting. We had actually had a discussion about that at one point. I haven't researched the birth control type yet. Their reasoning for her taking it was to reduce her menstration volume and according to one doctor, protect her from more cysts(which i thought was some straight up bull****). I've stressed it over and over that the birth control is a bad idea. She believes me, but she allows other people to make decisions for her. I try not to be controlling of her, but her mom and grandma are. Her mom is nagging the hell out of her to take birth control. I was very irritated at how willing they were to just have her spleen removed before the physicians had even mentioned such a procedure(due to pain and swelling at the time).

She isn't having too bad of issues at the moment so maybe we should wait until the second half of the cycle regarding progesterone. I haven't really tracked her pulse or temperature, but that's mainly because I've just long suspected that she is hypothyroid as is. She isn't a mouth breather unless her nose is clogged. Regarding the diet, we have pretty limited funds currently. But I've been trying to ensure that she gets a decent amount of protein and carbs, as well as trying to get her to eat more frequently. Lately we've been having fruit smoothies and she does drink a fair amount of milk. Generally pufa intake is low. She has never eaten liver. She loves shellfish, but we haven't eaten much in a while. Not a whole lot of direct sunlight but we do sit around a 250 watt heat lamp a lot. Generally clothed though.

 

[tara]

I drink a small amount of chicken neck soup morning and night in the hope of getting a small amount of natural thyroid hormones out of it. I think I can notice a difference when I miss it. It's cheap but a bit inconvenient. I usually boil up 30-40 necks for 2-3 hours add a bit of salt at some stage, pour off the stock, and when it's cooled, remove fat from top and pour into ice cube trays and freeze.

 

[aguilaroja]

...My girlfriend is 270lbs 5'7" and 20 years old...She was highly anemic. A 6.7 for hemoglobin i believe. They also found a huge cyst in her uterus...4cm in diameter. She had a blood transfusion ....

InterrogaOmnia,

It would be helpful to have prompt and ongoing discussions with your girlfriend about whether and to what extant she would like to explore Peat-style metabolic support. If going that route, it would also be good to discuss how to coordinate with physician monitoring, and how to proceed if things are not relieved swiftly with metabolic support. Taken together, the factors are major and decisions go beyond using bio-identical progesterone or not.

Issues mentioned include ovarian cyst, major anemia, muscle pain, depression, reduced appetite, disproportionate weight, and recent infection, all in a young adult. Quite possibly there are other symptoms of decline. See, for instance:

https://www.longnaturalhealth.com/healt ... ogesterone

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-cond ... n-20021179

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/long-and-pathetic/

Blood loss due to the bleeding from the cyst is a prominent possibility for the anemia. Certainly, if appetite has been low for a long time, iron stores could also be low. It could be that iron is prescribed mainly for adequate to produce red blood cells and compensate for recent blood loss.

If Dr. Peat's general framework is correct that specific problems can result from depleted metabolism, extensive difficulties may have gone on a while, as irregular periods suggest.

Transfusion has been needed for anemia and the cyst is large. It seems likely that physicians will mention surgical options and other medical interventions again soon. Microgestin is a combination of norethindrone (a synthetic progestin, not bio-identical progesterone) and estradiol (the prominent estrogen). It is a different approach from Dr. Peat's views.

In addition to tracking pulse and temperature, it would be good to make sure that recent thyroid serum tests are done and to get the exact numbers, not just the interpretation of normal or not.

You might take a look at the Long's instructions for the Progest-E product, Dr. Peat's articles on his website, and the Peat books & interviews. The instructions listed on Long's site suggest initiation without waiting for the later part of the cycle for severe issues. I have no connection/experience with Long's and am neutral about their commercial services.

https://www.longnaturalhealth.com/sites ... ctions.pdf

http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/pr ... ries.shtml