Help, severe hair loss after starting progesterone

by Amy

I am a 38 year old who began all natural progesterone cream approximately 6 weeks ago and almost immediately startded losing my hair. It has helped with decreasing spotting before my periods but that has been all.

I have read that it takes time and I increased the progesterone as well as added a B-12 and zinc supplement. I have read on one website that progesterone cream is highly fat soluble and within weeks or months can saturate the fat tissue with hormones and it will stop working or symptoms will worsen... one doctor recommended applying the cream to the mucous epithelial membranes that line the vagina. This apparantly has the hormone enter the same pelvic plexus of veins that your ovaries normally empty into. This same doctor also suggests (because progesterone is normally cyclical) to change the concentration....applying 14 days before expected mensus and stopping a day or two before mensus (starting on day 12 and stopping on day 26).

I am so confused and anxious about the hairloss I don't know how long I can continue with the progesterone. I would love to hear some advice.

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Help, severe hair loss after starting progesterone

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Apr 09, 2011
 Help, severe hair loss after starting progesterone
by: Wray

Hi Amy I'm having to do some guessing here, but it appears the amount of progesterone you are using is too low. The hair loss is caused by excess testosterone. Briefly, when first using progesterone, or when increasing the amount, it stimulates the production of oestrogen. But oestrogen has to first be converted from testosterone within the ovaries. So testosterone rises initially, hence the hair loss. We do have info on our Oestrogen Dominance page. With sufficient progesterone the two hormones are suppressed. Progesterone itself does help hair growth, so does vitamin D, which is essential for the anagen phase of hair growth. I recommend 100-200mg/day, I've found anything less merely keeps stimulating oestrogen production. There is this 'myth' as I call it, circulating about the fatty layer becoming saturated. In the 15 years I've been using it and advising about it I've not found this the case. The fatty layer is in fact essential to the transport of progesterone, which is lipophilic, see here. I often advise using it in the vagina, it's excellent for dryness and inflammation. Plus it's effective against Candida whereas oestrogen exacerbates it. Progesterone should always be used as and when needed, a minimum of twice a day, and not as a fixed daily amount. For instance stress drops levels, so more is needed to prevent the return of symptoms. If a cycle exists, it should be used from ovulation for the duration of the luteal phase, for more info please see our page on How to use progesterone. All women, irrespective of their cycle length, ovulate 12-14 days before bleeding. So if a woman has a 26 day cycle, then the progesterone should be used from day 12. But if the cycle is longer or shorter this will not be the case. Please increase the amount of progesterone you are using. You might consider taking 5000iu's/day vitamin D, 2000mg/day N-acetyl cysteine, 2000mg/day inositol, 2-3mg/day biotin and 100mg thiamine (B1). All these assist hair growth. Take care Wray
Aug 26, 2011
 also suffering severe hair loss via the use of progesterone cream
by: Christine

Hi Wray ~ I was hoping to get a progress update on Amy if possible.

I too have experienced an enormous amount of hair loss while using progesterone. I am 36 years old and I began using the cream [paraben-free Progest by Emerita] in early November 2010 to help with symptoms of estrogen dominance, mid-cycle spotting [likely due to fibroids] & intense PMS symptoms. I was using a dime-size each day from day 12 - 26 & following instructions. I felt physically & emotionally fantastic, but within weeks my incredibly thick / long head of wavy dark hair began to change. at first I lost a bunch of hair around the front hairline & then it started to fall out underneath and directly from the root. I stopped using the in February because the hair-loss freaked me out. Shortly after stopping, the fallout subsided, but my other symptoms returned [mid-cycle spotting, mood-swings mainly]. I resumed using the cream again in June and now my hairloss is worse than ever. I've lost nearly 50% of my hair. The long, thick strands are falling out at the root from all over my scalp & I'm left with a fine, limp texture. I'm at the point where I'm near tears in the shower where the long hair literally rinses down my body.

To Amy you recommended increasing the cream. I'm open to trying that, but do you think I should get my levels of progesterone & testosterone tested first? I think my fear is the more I use, the more it will fall out. [2] I noticed there were a few other women who wrote to you besides Amy [Kiya + someone else] who have also experienced severe hair-loss while using progesterone cream. Do you have updates from them?

Many thanks in advance for your time & for your site,
Christine
Feb 08, 2012
 Mother Concern
by: Veronika

I would like also to point out and add that Contraceptive pills work best for a lot of women even though it is not a hundred percent effective. The menstrual cycle of a woman is dictated by the hormones progesterone and estrogen. The levels of both these hormones rise in order to prepare the uterus for any fertilized egg. If conception doesn’t occur, the levels of estrogen and progesterone drops shedding the thickened uterine lining which then leads to menstruation.

What a contraceptive pill does is to regulate these hormones and keep it at a regular level. This synthetic form of estrogen and progesterone compressed into one pill prevents the ovary from releasing an egg in every month.

Dr Andrew Kim
http://www.aihr.com.au/

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