Progesterone Making Me Exausted?

[Sagitarrius90]

Hey there. 26 year old male with low progesterone 23 pg/ml reference 12-100. I started using progesterone cream because I read it helps with adrenal fatigue and it helps reduce stress.

I used 20 mg of a trans dermal cream and I felt a very calming affect but I feel really tired on the cream and can't get my words right, can't think (foggy) and have no sexual interest. Even having a basic conversation is tiresome. With regards to cortisol levels they are low in the morning and normal/high throughout the day especially at night.

The fact progesterone lowers cortisol, is this the reason I am so tired? Could it be my body has been so stressed that now that I am finally getting the rest I need? Also I am craving salt how much would I need to replace my body with? I heard it accelerates sodium secretion

I will lower the dose to 5mg-10mg


-Feel tired/exausted
-Feel that its because its lowering cortisol alot
-Have no sex interest
-Have no desire to carry out a convo, hard finding the right words, diminished eye contact with gf


TSH is 1.0, testosterone is normal/high, estrogen was low normal not sure what the number was but It was 18 i believe

 

[TubZy]

20mg is a lot man for a male (I would be a walking zombie at that dose). Anything over 5mg of progesterone for me without DHEA makes my **** completely numb, but DHEA dosed in the range of 5-15mg daily fixes any anti androgenic effects from progesterone for me and I wouldn't say just fix it puts me over baseline too for sure. I would switch back to 5mg of progesterone only first and see how you feel for a free days, if it still bothers you add in the DHEA at the same time of it.

 

[jitsmonkey]

when are you taking your dose of 20 mg?
I don't know of any prog creams I'd be willing to use.
Progest-E, Idealabs & HealthNatura are the only supplemental progesterone sources I'd trust.
None of them offer a cream and for good reason.

 

[Sagitarrius90]

Thanks for the informative reply tubzy I will try and report back

And jitsmonkey I take my 20mg first thing when I wake up so I assume taking such a high dose would be more beneficial at night since my cortisol is higher then but in the future I'm going nowhere near 20mg

I have a problem of overdoing things today I felt like a zombie. Went to an amusement park with my girlfriend and even 4 cups of coffee wouldn't wake me up/more social

 

[jitsmonkey]

You absolutely will be better served taking your progesterone closer to bedtime.
You'll sleep better and be better rested the next day. If you're "hung over" the next morning
your dose is simply too high.
I'm answering your specific question re: progesterone assuming you have all your other bases covered re: diet,etc....
considering your age I'm guessing Ray would likely recommend you starting with pregnenolone before progesterone but that's just a guess. Truthfully for a 26 year old otherwise healthy male progesterone isn't a typical starting point.
and I'm serious about the cream and where you source your progesterone.

 

[Sagitarrius90]

I have two sources of progesterone. A now brand that's a lipsomal natural cream paraben free no colors and that's 20mg a pump and source natural progesterone that I haven't used.

I apply the cream on my chest.

The reason why I use is because I've studied my body and have gotten some blood work and concluded my saliva cortisol is way below average in the morning and high at night. I've suspected I had adrenal fatigue but see ray believes that it would be adrenal fatigue but just thyroid deficient. I've checked my thyroid and tsh is 1 and t3 and t4 are within range.

I exercise 4 times a week and my tolerance has gone down and I'm looking older my skins not as youthful even though my diet is very healthy and rich with vitamins.

Alot of eggs coconut oil lean meats vegetables whole grains fruits olive oil for fats omega 3 oils rarely will I eat bad.

I've tried pregenalone before. Initially I felt amazing but then felt exhausted so I assume my dosage was too high.

 

[Sagitarrius90]

Does progest e ship to canada? I had a hard time finding a source and those two brands were the only ones that I saw that shipped to canada. I live in Ontario canada near toronto

 

[jitsmonkey]

I don't know.
IdeaLabs Online Store - Worldwide Ordering And Delivery
http://www.healthnatura.com/Default.asp

both company owners are members of this forum.

 

[lvysaur]

Alot of eggs coconut oil lean meats vegetables whole grains fruits olive oil for fats omega 3 oils rarely will I eat bad.

lol

lurkmoar

 

[marsaday]

Find a source for ProgestE.

Don't use higher levels of progesterone, it will make you tired and kill sexual function. I think it is part of a treatment plan in high doses to treat sex offenders.

ProgestE delivers 1 drop = 3mg. I have used this for 2 yrs now with fantastic results. It has really given me my life back. It has improved thyroid function as well and i take thyroid meds. I take 2 drops per day (AM and PM).

The max amount you want to use is i drop for a few days to see how you get on. You will get the calmness, but not the tiredness. Ray Peat says 3mg per day is the most a male should be taking, but i think he is referring to younger men. For those in the 40's and above you can take a little more.

As mentioned here, there are other solutions you can take made by ideal labs. They do their own version of progesterone as well, then they make pansterone which is similar, but i find it not so good for me - makes me tired.

The progestE though is about £35 in the UK. I still have 1/2 my bottle after 2 yrs. So it lasts a long time and still works. The ideal labs stuff cost the same money, but only last a few months.

 

[Sagitarrius90]

Marsaday thanks for the response

I noticed that I fall asleep faster but have been waking up like 3 or 4 times now vs once... I used to wake up at 3 but now it's around 5 and 6.. is there any correlation between taking too much progesterone and frequently waking up?

Maybe it's because of increased thyroid I have no idea but it's actually ruining my sleep but I do feel really refreshed somewhat when I do wake

 

[Sagitarrius90]

Bump

 

[jitsmonkey]

I'd make straightening out your diet a much higher priority than supplementing progesterone if I were in your position.

 

[Sagitarrius90]

Just had my 3rd sleep on progesterone.

I don't wake up at 3 or 4 anymore now it's around 6.

So I get a solid 5 hours of sleep before I wake up every other hour and before progesterone I usually wake up around 3 then up at 9.

I'm thinking itd maybe decreased serotonin from lowered estrogen.

Can anyone chime in? Maybe I need more food now that im taking progesterone.

 

[Sagitarrius90]

Just making a note..
Last two days cut down to roughly 3mg give or take a mg and same sleep

Going to get off the progesterone even tho its already making a good difference on my appearance weight. Don't like waking up 4 plus times a night

 

[Diesel]

Nick I experience the same thing using progesterone, I would wake up in the middle of the night with my heart pounding. You need to be very careful because I ended up with some pretty serious symptoms from doing the same thing you are doing. Your dose of 20mg is way too high, what you need to do is slowly wean yourself off of it before you start getting the symptoms that I develop.

Progesterone itself is sedating and make you feel tired and out of it, I experience those same symptoms as well. I suspect what is happening is that progesterone first gave you that sedating effect that put you to sleep but later on in the night it boost your cortisol level and that might be waking you up. I know in my case I was being woken up by my heart beating so hard while I sleep. I think this a result of progesterone causing a temporary in-balance between my cortisol level and my t3 levels.

Was you on progesterone when you did those cortisol test that showed that you was low in the morning ? And if so, were you taking progesterone in the morning ?

I know a lot of people on this forum does not believe progesterone can boost cortisol but from what I have read, it can boost cortisol as well as have a suppressing effect. In my case something definitely got suppress permanently because my body is now dependent on either progesterone or pregnenolone to function properly. I suspect that my body is not producing enough cortisol on its own without me using prog. or preg. but I have not gotten a chance to confirm this.

 

[Sagitarrius90]

Cortisol levels were low pre progesterone and my progesterone was low before I started. I feel alright when I wake up its like my sleep quality is improving but again I wake up too early and when I try to go back to sleep i wake up repeatedly... maybe that's all the sleep I need.

I've cut down to roughly 3mg for the past two days last night same situation with sleep.
Today I'm going down to basically nothing and well see the results.

I want to mention again that even though I'm not getting my eight hours of sleep I feel alright

 

[Emstar1892]

Nick I experience the same thing using progesterone, I would wake up in the middle of the night with my heart pounding. You need to be very careful because I ended up with some pretty serious symptoms from doing the same thing you are doing. Your dose of 20mg is way too high, what you need to do is slowly wean yourself off of it before you start getting the symptoms that I develop.

Progesterone itself is sedating and make you feel tired and out of it, I experience those same symptoms as well. I suspect what is happening is that progesterone first gave you that sedating effect that put you to sleep but later on in the night it boost your cortisol level and that might be waking you up. I know in my case I was being woken up by my heart beating so hard while I sleep. I think this a result of progesterone causing a temporary in-balance between my cortisol level and my t3 levels.

Was you on progesterone when you did those cortisol test that showed that you was low in the morning ? And if so, were you taking progesterone in the morning ?

I know a lot of people on this forum does not believe progesterone can boost cortisol but from what I have read, it can boost cortisol as well as have a suppressing effect. In my case something definitely got suppress permanently because my body is now dependent on either progesterone or pregnenolone to function properly. I suspect that my body is not producing enough cortisol on its own without me using prog. or preg. but I have not gotten a chance to confirm this.

How long have you tried to wean yourself off it to conclude that it's permanently suppressed your cortisol? That's scary.

I hope that you saying 20mg is excessive is just in the case of men..?

 

[Sagitarrius90]

I can speak for myself and say 20 mg is alot for men it made me a zombie with 0 sex interest and no morning wood..

I'm down to 1 - 3mg a day so basically a small dap of transdermal cream of progesterone and feel relaxed, not exhausted but still weird my body is waking me up earlier than usual and I wake up every other hour after that.

I feel it lowers my cortisol throughout the day and raises it in the morning to the point that it asked me up.

I ate a big meal of coco oil juice toast and cottage cheese and still woke up so it's not diet related

 

[Diesel]

How long have you tried to wean yourself off it to conclude that it's permanently suppressed your cortisol? That's scary.

I hope that you saying 20mg is excessive is just in the case of men..?

Not sure about women but I think in the average male 20mg in one dosing is too much. Now if you were to break that 20mg into about 3 to 4 small doses and apply it every 3 hours throughout the day then that's a different story. There is a big difference in 20mg in one dosing vs 5mg 4 times throughout the day. The best way to apply these hormones is to apply small doses throughout the day, this minimizes the possibility of hormones running in excess for too long and causing all types of issues. That's what messed me up, I was taking sometimes 20mg but mostly 10mg in one dosing in the morning and that was too high of a one time dose for me and I didn't know it at the time.

I did this from September of last year to the end of November when i stop suddenly because my sexual function was getting worst. That is another thing that i did wrong that i think contributed to my issues, I should have slowly wean myself off of it. After stopping suddenly, all hell broke lose, I develop a whole bunch of symptoms. I was in the gym at the time and began to experience pain in my bone while working out. I eventually lost the ability to gain strength and the ability to grow muscle or fat. I also lost strength, drop from benching 225 all the way down to 135 where I am at now. I can lift more than 135 but I am playing it safe because I don't know where my strength level going to be on any given day and I hurt my shoulders trying to pump the same weights. I also develop a lot of sharp muscle pains and joint pains


Also my digestive system crashed and I lost the ability to properly break down the food that I eat. Whatever I eat passes right through me because its not being breaking down enough for my body to absorb it. I am still dealing with all these issues to this day. It took me 2 months after I stopped progesterone to make the connection and figure out what was really happening. Before I made the connection to progesterone I had went back on it to give it another shot at fixing my sexual issues. Its during this time that I notice that going back on progesterone completely eliminates ALL my symptoms but only when I dose it a certain way.


If I did a one time dose of 10mg in the morning that would not relieve my symptoms. But if I did 4 to 5 very small doses throughout the day all my symptom except my digestive symptoms would be gone. The first day I did this dosing and wen back to the gym I was like hulk. Strength was back 100 percent and my body started growing again. This effect is short live though, I would have to dose prog all day consistently to maintain those gains. Usually I would lose most of those gains within a few days. As far as my digestive system, I have to take a small dose of prog about 10min before eating to get any relief from those symptoms.

I think my ACTH got suppressed and my body is not producing enough preg and prog.