Progesterone Negative Side Effects. Help!

[nikkmm]

Progesterone (Progest e or the health natural brand) helps me tremendously with sleep, anxiety, mood and PMS but the diuretic effects are so extreme that I have to stop using it. It makes my skin so dry that it literally peels in multiple places. It then gets red, irritated and itchy and dermatitis results. My urine turns dark brown, and I feel like I have a UTI. My gums get irritated and swell like I have gingivitis or something.

I've tried high and low doses, oral and transdermal, multiple doses over the day and single doses at night. I've tried taking breaks and restarting. Same effect every time. It's definitely the progesterone. I want to keep using it so badly as it seriously helps me feel like a human again but I can't bear the side effects. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm lost.

 

[jb116]

Have to remember health is not a 1:1 ratio or perfect picture. You don't always get what you put in. Using progesterone will knock estrogen out of tissues, which we want. But in the midst of that you may experience negative effects. More often than not, afte the "smoke" clears you will notice these things dissipating. In the meantime, up your mushroom, carrot, and/bamboo fiber to help filter the estrogens out.

 

[Milena]

How long did you try each regime for? What was your baseline F/M? Fat. thin, hypothyroid, euthyroid, hyperthyroid? You may get answers that better suit that way.
I am just starting Progest-E today. Fat, F, Fifty, hypo and poor glucose storage.

 

[nikkmm]

Female, thin, mild hypo after a vegan stint, recovering from years of birth control and amenorrhea. Used for 2 weeks at a time, to simulate normal luteal production. Also tried using a month straight just because it helps with symptoms so much that I didn't care if it stopped menstruation.

 

[jitsmonkey]

just a stab at the limited info provided but sounds like the consequences of increased metabolism in the face of missing other key ingredients.
ie. adequate fuel/sugar, adequate protein, adequate salt, adequate thyroid, adequate fat sol vits, etc.... Progesterone sounds like its doing its job
and you're running out of one, some or all required (probably some) raw materials somewhere in the process.

 

[goodandevil]

Progesterone (Progest e or the health natural brand) helps me tremendously with sleep, anxiety, mood and PMS but the diuretic effects are so extreme that I have to stop using it. It makes my skin so dry that it literally peels in multiple places. It then gets red, irritated and itchy and dermatitis results. My urine turns dark brown, and I feel like I have a UTI. My gums get irritated and swell like I have gingivitis or something.

I've tried high and low doses, oral and transdermal, multiple doses over the day and single doses at night. I've tried taking breaks and restarting. Same effect every time. It's definitely the progesterone. I want to keep using it so badly as it seriously helps me feel like a human again but I can't bear the side effects. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm lost.

I think ray said you can take t4 to shrink your thyroid gland before using progesterone.

 

[LUH 3417]

Progesterone induces secretory changes in endometrial glands which
increases endometrial and platelet monoamine oxidase activities (MAO)
dramatically, increases vascular development and causes irregular bleeding
and headaches, and also induces proliferation in breast tissues. Removal
of the ovaries has long been used to prevent endogenous progesterone
production as a treatment for breast cancer. Recent studies confirm that
progesterones cause more breast cancer than oestrogens. Progesterone is
also potentially teratogenic.

I found this articles when I was doing some searches on K. Dalton. Anyone care to comment?

Effect of oral contraceptives on
depressive mood changes and on endometrial monoamine oxidase and
phosphatases

Abstract
Significant variations in the incidence of depression and loss of libido were found with the various types of oral contraceptives. The highest incidence occurred with strongly progestogenic compounds (especially with those containing a small amount of oestrogen) which have high monoamine oxidase activity for most of the cycle. The lowest incidence was found with the strongly oestrogenic sequential regimens which have weak monoamine oxidase activity for most of the cycle.

Effect of oral contraceptives on depressive mood changes and on endometrial monoamine oxidase and phosphatases. - PubMed - NCBI

 

[HDD]

@seraphim I took a quick look at the study you linked and it looks like a progestogen was used rather than progesterone.

RAY PEAT: Yeah. With a few chemical operations, they can become exact copies of the progesterone molecule. But since no one can patent that one substance, they introduced small changes, making it no longer progesterone but they said it was close enough to progesterone, that it would be better than progesterone because they had a patent on it, and could advertise it. And they devised tests that had something in common with the real progesterone molecule a certain change in cells of the uterus. But that led them call it a progestin, or progestogen, because that had something in common with

00:11:14 > progesterone. But they implied that it supported gestation. But in fact these were the chemicals that were the bases for the birth control pill, because they prevented gestation. So, really they should be called anti-progestins.

Ray Peat

 

[LUH 3417]

@seraphim I took a quick look at the study you linked and it looks like a progestogen was used rather than progesterone.

RAY PEAT: Yeah. With a few chemical operations, they can become exact copies of the progesterone molecule. But since no one can patent that one substance, they introduced small changes, making it no longer progesterone but they said it was close enough to progesterone, that it would be better than progesterone because they had a patent on it, and could advertise it. And they devised tests that had something in common with the real progesterone molecule a certain change in cells of the uterus. But that led them call it a progestin, or progestogen, because that had something in common with

00:11:14 > progesterone. But they implied that it supported gestation. But in fact these were the chemicals that were the bases for the birth control pill, because they prevented gestation. So, really they should be called anti-progestins.

Ray Peat

So do you think removal of the ovaries helping breast cancer was a reduction in circulation estrogen and progesterone? Are you saying they made leaps in their conclusion that simply stopping progesterone production leads to a decreased prevalence of breast cancer?

 

[lampofred]

This happens to me too, and I think it might be due to low androgens relative to estrogen resulting from hypothyroidism which was masked until now because of adrenal androgens. Since progesterone turns off your adrenal androgen production, your true androgen deficiency is becoming apparent (obviously women need testosterone too). In my own case, I haven't fixed the underlying issue yet (generalized hypothyroidism) but red light helps a lot because it increases steroid production in the skin without needing thyroid. Massaging myself with coconut oil also helps tremendously for me. The irritated gums also suggest intestinal inflammation but I haven't figured out how to fix that yet... Zinc and niacinamide seem to help though.

 

[HDD]

So do you think removal of the ovaries helping breast cancer was a reduction in circulation estrogen and progesterone? Are you saying they made leaps in their conclusion that simply stopping progesterone production leads to a decreased prevalence of breast cancer?

I was pointing out that the term progesterone is mistakenly used for progestin and progestogens. They do not have the same effect. I trust what Ray Peat says on these hormones more than studies. I think there is a lot of confusion in the medical community regarding progesterone, influenced by the estrogen industry. I wasn’t aware that ovaries were removed to prevent breast cancer, I need to read more about it.

“Tekmal, et al., 1999). Women who have had their ovaries removed are usually told that they need to take estrogen, but animal experiments consistently show that removal of the gonads causes the tissue aromatases to increase. The loss of progesterone and ovarian androgens is probably responsible for this generalized increase in the formation ofestrogen. In the brain, aromatase increases under

estrogen, and so increases the body’s retention of estrogen, which in turn impairs the thyroid gland’s ability to secrete thyroid hormone.”

 

[LUH 3417]

I was pointing out that the term progesterone is mistakenly used for progestin and progestogens. They do not have the same effect. I trust what Ray Peat says on these hormones more than studies. I think there is a lot of confusion in the medical community regarding progesterone, influenced by the estrogen industry. I wasn’t aware that ovaries were removed to prevent breast cancer, I need to read more about it.

“Tekmal, et al., 1999). Women who have had their ovaries removed are usually told that they need to take estrogen, but animal experiments consistently show that removal of the gonads causes the tissue aromatases to increase. The loss of progesterone and ovarian androgens is probably responsible for this generalized increase in the formation ofestrogen. In the brain, aromatase increases under

estrogen, and so increases the body’s retention of estrogen, which in turn impairs the thyroid gland’s ability to secrete thyroid hormone.”

Ya I’m with you. Was just trying to decipher this website which warns against taking Dalton and Lee’s advice regarding bioidentical progesterone

Katharina Dalton and progesterone dangers

 

[energyandstruct]

i'm having somewhat severe side effects from progestE, but have kept using for over a month because it also helps sometimes. I feel like I should really stop and get hormones checked out

 

[energyandstruct]

I get shivering and tense feelings a lot