Weight loss?

by P
(Canada)

Will progesterone therapy help with weight loss in menopause, not just as a diuretic, but because it balances estrogen dominance?

Also, if used with adrenal function control (corteceps) and natural thyroid if person is hypo, can they eventually get off thyroid hormone or at least reduce the amount required?

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Weight loss?

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Apr 22, 2010
 Weight loss?
by: Wray

Hi P. Progesterone is thermogenic, meaning it warms us up, so speeding metabolism slightly. It also suppresses oestrogen which is a mitogen, stimulating cells to divide and grow, including fat cells. Oestrogen also causes insulin resistance, this slows everything down, including the thyroid. IR can occur during our peri-menopause years, as progesterone is dropping, for more information on IR please see here. Excess oestrogen and parathyroid hormone suppress thyroid activity. Oestrogen also causes copper retention, which raises calcium levels. Excess calcium blocks thyroid function, some adrenal hormones, and increases insulin production. Excess insulin suppresses thyroid activity, but excess insulin over a prolonged time causes insulin resistance (IR), this prevents glucose getting into the cells where it?s needed and everything suffers, not just the thyroid!

Vitamin D is essential for maintaining normal calcium metabolism, low levels result in hyperparathyroidism, which suppresses thyroid activity and leads to insulin resistance. 30-50% of people have low vitamin D. Please have a vitamin D test done, you live in Canada so in all probability you have a low vitamin D level, this is probably the most important factor for low thyroid activity. The following list gives an indication of levels of vitamin D found in the blood. The test should be done for 25-hydroxyvitamin D, also called calcidiol:
Sufficient - 50?100ng/mL or 124.80-249.60nmol/L
Hypovitaminosis - less than 30ng/ml or 75 nmol/L
Deficiency - less than 25ng/L or 62.4nmol/L
For more information see here. Please see these papers...
Paper 1
Paper 2
Paper 3
Take care, Wray
Feb 27, 2012
 Confused
by: Anonymous

Sorry Wray, but that was NOT clear to me. So, which one causes fat cells to divide and multiply? Is progesterone good or not good for weight loss. Which one is doing what? Please dumb this down a bit so we know if progesterone is going to add weight or take it away.
Feb 28, 2012
 Confused
by: Wray

Hi there Are you referring to the answer I gave P nearly two years ago? I'm sorry if you didn't find it clear, as I don't know how else to put it, which was……."It (ie progesterone) also suppresses oestrogen which is a mitogen, stimulating cells to divide and grow, including fat cells" ie progesterone speeds metabolism and progesterone suppresses oestrogen which is a mitogen, meaning it (ie oestrogen) causes cells to proliferate. I have done a page on this which might make it clearer, please see Progesterone Misconceptions. So oestrogen causes weight gain, progesterone doesn't, in fact it can't. Take care Wray

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