Natural progesterone is the similar hormonal agent that is produced by a female’s ovary. It is made from naturally occurring plant steroids found in the wild yam. It is NOT the synthetic version that is typically bought as tablets with a prescription such as Provera.
Artificial progesterones, like Provera or medroxyprogesterone, can produce severe side effects consisting of increased risk of cancer, unusual menstrual circulation, fluid retention, queasiness, depression and can even enhance risk of heart disease and stroke.
Side effects are exceptionally rare with natural progesterone. The only one of issue is that it can possibly modify the timing of your menstrual cycle.
Benefits of Natural Progesterone
Progesterone is a steroid hormone made by a female’s ovaries when she ovulates and in smaller quantities by the adrenal gland. A menstruating female will typically produce about 20 to 30 mg of progesterone a day during the luteal or last stage of her menstrual cycle.
While menopause does not normally take place until age 50 or later, lots of women can begin heading out of balance in their 30s or perhaps earlier. This decrease in progesterone is not insignificant for as women age into their fourth, fifth, and sixth years, their progesterone levels remain to fall. By the time they reach perimenopause as much as 75 % or more of their youthful progesterone secretion might currently be missing out on.
Natural progesterone is extremely beneficial to balance excess estrogen which can be a significant risk for breast cancer. Natural progesterone is likewise different from estrogen in that your body can utilize it as a precursor or beginning material to make other hormones such as adrenal hormones. It can even transform it into estrogen or testosterone if your body requires it.
Natural progesterone is made from a substance called diosgenin which is frequently extracted from wild yams or soybeans. Despite the fact that it might be drawn out from soy it is a highly cleansed hormonal agent and there are definitely no residues of soy drugs that would lead to any issue.
Estrogen Dominance
Many if not most women in our culture are estrogen dominant, so making use of the progesterone goes a long way towards balancing hormones which generally:
- Decreases a woman’s risk for breast cancer,
- Improves her PMS and breast tenderness and.
The table listed below lists the buildings of estrogen relative to progesterone. A few of the factors that estrogen is frequently in excess in many women are:
- Overproduction of estrogen. Ovarian cysts or growths can cause excess estrogen production. Stress also increases production, but most likely the most typical cause is obesity. All body fat has an enzyme which transforms adrenal steroids to estrogen, so the more fat you have, the more estrogen exists.
- Inability to breakdown estrogen. Excess estrogen is typically gotten rid of by the liver. Illness of the liver like cirrhosis or reduced enzyme activity can result in enhanced estrogen levels. Vitamin B6 and magnesium are needed for the liver to reduce the effects of estrogen. Enhanced sugar consumption will also excrete magnesium and interfere with its ability to breakdown estrogen.
- Exposure to pesticides in foods. The majority of us eat foods that have pesticides on them. These and numerous other abnormal chemicals share a common structure with estrogen and act as “incorrect” estrogens which even more promotes the body’s estrogen receptors.
- Estrogen supplements. Clearly any additional estrogen offered by prescription will enhance the level unless it is appropriately stabilized with natural progesterone.
- Reduced production of progesterone. Progesterone is needed to counterbalance estrogen. If women do not ovulate during their cycle they will not produce any progesterone that cycle. This happens commonly and intensifies the currently disrupted progesterone/estrogen balance. Decreased progesterone levels are one of the most common reasons for miscarriages.
To minimize your risk of cancer it is essential to understand that you should never ever take any supplemental estrogen without taking natural progesterone. Keep in mind that I use the term “natural’ progesterone, or the real hormone. Taking artificial versions like Provera will actually enhance your risk of cancers and heart disease.
| Estrogen Effects | Progesterone Effects |
| Stimulates breasts cysts | Protects against breast cysts |
| Increases body fat storage | Helps use fat for energy and keep it off hips |
| Salt and fluid retention | Natural diuretic (water pill) |
| Depression and headaches | Natural anti-depressant |
| Interferes with thyroid hormone | Facilitates thyroid hormone action |
| Increases blood clotting and risk of stroke | Normalizes blood clotting |
| Decreases libido (sex drive) | Increases libido |
| Impairs blood sugar control | Normalizes blood sugar levels |
| Loss of zinc and retention of copper | Normalizes zinc and copper levels |
| Reduced oxygen level in all cells | Restores proper cell oxygen levels |
| Increased risk of endometrial cancer | Helps prevent endometrial cancer |
| Increased risk of breast cancer | Helps prevent breast cancer |
| Helps decrease bone loss slightly | Increases bone building |
How to Use the Cream
If you want to copy nature and reproduce a hormone environment that many carefully looks like a normal premenopausal lady the first rational step would be to obtain the hormones directly into your blood stream, just the method your ovary does.
Hormonal agents carefully determined and formulated in a suitable cream or gel require just be rubbed one or two times a day into your mucous (epithelial) membranes. Considering that there are no destructive detours through your GI tract when administered this way, your tissues are exposed to the appropriate concentrations of the hormonal agent without the side effects of 30 different liver metabolites.
I first started making use of these creams in the early 1990s be ended up being slowly disenchanted with them after I observed that they typically worked incredibly initially but then invariably quit working. This is now referred to as “dermal tiredness”.
What takes place, not just for progesterone cream, but for ANY hormonal agent preparation you use by applying as a cream to your skin is that within a few weeks to a couple of months you will saturate the fat tissue with the hormones and they will really quit working or can even make your symptoms worse.
The problem relates to the fact that progesterone is extremely fat soluble and once applied to your skin will keep itself in your fat tissue. When one at first makes use of the cream, there aren’t any problems as the fat stores are very low. However as time goes on, the cream accumulates and adds to disruptions in your adrenal hormones such as DHEA, cortisol, and testosterone. I have discovered that although progesterone cream is an enormously helpful tool, it has to be used really carefully.
I found that many of the women who were on the cream have extremely raised levels of this hormone. Progesterone is normally a cyclical hormone and the body really needs to see a modification in the concentration to impact an appropriate physiological response. If the level is constantly above the concentration that it recognizes as “off” or low, this is not possible.
Thankfully, this is repairable. But it may involve going off the cream for as long as 2 years to wash the progesterone out of your system.
Progesterone Cream Side Effects
The crucial error that lots of well intentioned experienced doctors, including myself made is to encourage to use the cream on your skin. While this certainly provides better results than swallowing the hormonal agents, it can still be enhanced.
There is a fairly small fine-tune you can make with the creams which prevents nearly all of the side effects of using progesterone cream on your skin.
If you apply the cream to your mucous epithelial membranes that line your uterus and vaginal area you get a practically ideal administration system. Not only is absorption through these membranes more complete than through your skin, however hormonal agents taken in through your vaginal membranes get in the same pelvic plexus of veins that your ovaries typically empty into.
From here the hormonal agents are reached your heart and lungs and distributed to your tissues just as if your ovary had actually produced them.
Men also need hormonal agents. Undoubtedly men do not have a vagina to use however we do have a rectum that has a similar mucosal epithelial surface area and can be made use of to administer the hormones in a near perfect style without any of the issues formerly described.
Timing and Dosage
For a lot of premenopausal women the usual dosage is 15-24 mg/day for 14 days prior to expected menses, stopping the day or so before menses. So you would make use of the cream for twelve days and then stop. Generally this would mean you would begin on day 12 of your cycle and stop on day 26.
The abrupt lowering of your progesterone level is the main stimulus for your duration to start. Hopefully when it starts any PMS and painful periods will be significantly lowered.
When a women remains in menopause she may just need 15 mg however taken for the first 25 days of the month, then take 5 or 6 days off and reboot on the first of the month.
For many women a single day-to-day application will work. However, because the half-life is relatively brief, some women discover that they get a more satisfactory reaction by splitting the daily dosage in two, half in the early morning and half in the evening. If you are just taking the hormones in the early morning and start to feel symptoms later in the day, splitting the dose in two must solve this problem.
