One-trick Tony
Member
Hello there all you good people on this forum! :)
I've been lurking for perhaps two years or more and finally managed to sign up this winter, and this will be my first post. It's been long in the making but finally I caved in since I don't really know what to do about my situation.
In short I'm a man in my mid 40’s from Sweden. For those with better memory than me who listens to Ray Peat interviews with Patrick Timpone, I’ve sent in a question or two over the years. Then like now my main concern has been my ever increasing migraines.
I’ve been on thyroid for over two years in various doses but besides bringing my temps up and getting the warmth back in my extremities, no small feat I guess, it hasn’t really done anything else. I’ve always been skinny and could eat anything without my weight even blinking. I added some DHEA and pregnenolone and it also didn’t do much, although the DHEA helped my libido that had been tanking after 40 or so, but at least my weight and migraines were the same. This was early last year.
Enter this summer and me getting my hands on some Progesterone cream (Source Naturals). Finally I felt I’d found something that helped at least a little with my migraines - less and not as strong and I was thrilled! In the end of August I took a course of penicillin after a summer cold that never seemed to want to give up (I supposedly had “Covid” in December of 2020 and life somehow hasn’t been the same, at least my immune system), and this really wrecked my stomach which hasn’t really recovered fully yet despite all the probiotics, home made kefir or whatever I’ve thrown at it, as well as strong essential oils like oregano on the other side to try to kill of something nasty. Before this I had also started to sleep quite bad and for this reason started low dose Mirtazapine which will knock out most people with it’s antihistamine effect. I had to stop it though in November since I got some strange joint pains which I’ve never felt before (yes it wasn’t the first time with Mirtazapine).
And at least somewhere there in November at least I had to realize that I was really starting to be quite fat, especially around my belly (but it’s really all over). From always weighing under 70 kg (about 155 lbs) for 20+ years, and wanting to gain weight, I was now like 80+ kg (175 lbs). This would be more normal for a guy about 1.80m tall (5’11”) but since I’m anything but muscular still and it’s all just fat, it’s not funny and has gotten quite unpractical. I never though a big belly could get in the way so much…! And I don’t think it’s water since I don’t see any signs of edema in my feet and ankles (been there at times) and the fat has sort of a cellulite tendency.
So I didn’t know what was the culprit but being afraid to stop the progesterone I continued. After the holidays I had gained a few more kilos and sometime in January I stopped the pregnenolone. 3-4 weeks ago I finally had to try and cut the progesterone, then two weeks after or so I also stopped the DHEA. I have slowly gained another kilo or so after this and am now around 86 kg (190 lbs).
So during all this time I was taking about:
5-10mg progesterone in the evening as a cream, applied to the back of my neck always since that’s where my migraine sort of starts.
10-25mg of pregnenolone orally in the evening.
5-12,5mg of DHEA orally in the morning.
I know this has already gotten way too long, but what the heck should I do at this point? I think it must be the progesterone since everything else has never touched my weight before, including the very few antibiotics I have taken through the years. Could it be enough to just stop all and hope things might balance out with time, or should I perhaps try the approach that at least some women do and take a much higher dose of progesterone (and I would then like to finally try to get me some Progest-E) for a while? As for libido and so on I can’t say it really has become worse during my time with progesterone, maybe even a little better.
If anyone has made it this far I would surely appreciate any input you might have or gladly answer any questions. Sorry to be “another train wreck” on here but if nothing else maybe it could be a cautionary tale or something. It all just became a sort of perfect storm where I didn’t know what was doing what. If I’d been more energetic and alive I would have stopped earlier I guess but there is quite a bit of anhedonia and barely making it through the day energetically, so… Just turning myself into another lab rat I guess.
I've been lurking for perhaps two years or more and finally managed to sign up this winter, and this will be my first post. It's been long in the making but finally I caved in since I don't really know what to do about my situation.
In short I'm a man in my mid 40’s from Sweden. For those with better memory than me who listens to Ray Peat interviews with Patrick Timpone, I’ve sent in a question or two over the years. Then like now my main concern has been my ever increasing migraines.
I’ve been on thyroid for over two years in various doses but besides bringing my temps up and getting the warmth back in my extremities, no small feat I guess, it hasn’t really done anything else. I’ve always been skinny and could eat anything without my weight even blinking. I added some DHEA and pregnenolone and it also didn’t do much, although the DHEA helped my libido that had been tanking after 40 or so, but at least my weight and migraines were the same. This was early last year.
Enter this summer and me getting my hands on some Progesterone cream (Source Naturals). Finally I felt I’d found something that helped at least a little with my migraines - less and not as strong and I was thrilled! In the end of August I took a course of penicillin after a summer cold that never seemed to want to give up (I supposedly had “Covid” in December of 2020 and life somehow hasn’t been the same, at least my immune system), and this really wrecked my stomach which hasn’t really recovered fully yet despite all the probiotics, home made kefir or whatever I’ve thrown at it, as well as strong essential oils like oregano on the other side to try to kill of something nasty. Before this I had also started to sleep quite bad and for this reason started low dose Mirtazapine which will knock out most people with it’s antihistamine effect. I had to stop it though in November since I got some strange joint pains which I’ve never felt before (yes it wasn’t the first time with Mirtazapine).
And at least somewhere there in November at least I had to realize that I was really starting to be quite fat, especially around my belly (but it’s really all over). From always weighing under 70 kg (about 155 lbs) for 20+ years, and wanting to gain weight, I was now like 80+ kg (175 lbs). This would be more normal for a guy about 1.80m tall (5’11”) but since I’m anything but muscular still and it’s all just fat, it’s not funny and has gotten quite unpractical. I never though a big belly could get in the way so much…! And I don’t think it’s water since I don’t see any signs of edema in my feet and ankles (been there at times) and the fat has sort of a cellulite tendency.
So I didn’t know what was the culprit but being afraid to stop the progesterone I continued. After the holidays I had gained a few more kilos and sometime in January I stopped the pregnenolone. 3-4 weeks ago I finally had to try and cut the progesterone, then two weeks after or so I also stopped the DHEA. I have slowly gained another kilo or so after this and am now around 86 kg (190 lbs).
So during all this time I was taking about:
5-10mg progesterone in the evening as a cream, applied to the back of my neck always since that’s where my migraine sort of starts.
10-25mg of pregnenolone orally in the evening.
5-12,5mg of DHEA orally in the morning.
I know this has already gotten way too long, but what the heck should I do at this point? I think it must be the progesterone since everything else has never touched my weight before, including the very few antibiotics I have taken through the years. Could it be enough to just stop all and hope things might balance out with time, or should I perhaps try the approach that at least some women do and take a much higher dose of progesterone (and I would then like to finally try to get me some Progest-E) for a while? As for libido and so on I can’t say it really has become worse during my time with progesterone, maybe even a little better.
If anyone has made it this far I would surely appreciate any input you might have or gladly answer any questions. Sorry to be “another train wreck” on here but if nothing else maybe it could be a cautionary tale or something. It all just became a sort of perfect storm where I didn’t know what was doing what. If I’d been more energetic and alive I would have stopped earlier I guess but there is quite a bit of anhedonia and barely making it through the day energetically, so… Just turning myself into another lab rat I guess.
