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Have You Ever Advised Anyone to Reduce their Progesterone Dosage?

by Anonymous

I have spent time reading alot of the posts on here and I notice that you say in the majority of cases that the amount of progesterone being used is too low and that it needs to be increased.

Just curious....Is there ever a case you have come across where someone has been using too much progesterone and you actually recommended them reducing their dosage?

My compounded cream insert lists the following possible side effects of progesterone:

sleepiness, dizziness, drowsiness, cough, nausea, vomiting, cramps, bloating, irritability, diarrhea, constipation, headache, breast tenderness, stomach upset, acne and dry mouth.

If a woman experiences any of the above side effects, are you suggesting the reason is because the amount they are using is too low??? Or is it possible too much progesterone is causing these side effects???

Comments for Have You Ever Advised Anyone to Reduce their Progesterone Dosage?

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Jul 07, 2012
 Have You Ever Advised Anyone to Reduce their Progesterone Dosage?
by: Wray

Hi there In the 15 years I've been doing this I've yet to find someone using too much. All the creams on the market say to use 20-40mg/day, most people follow this. Suppositories come in 100-200mg doses, these are prescribed by doctors and are usually given to prevent miscarriages or pre-term births. Injections come in 50mg and 100mg doses. There's more info on our Delivery systems page. I always recommend using a large amount initially to overcome or prevent Oestrogen Dominance, then once stable to reduce the amount until the optimum is found. Oestrogen dominance was a term coined by Dr Lee as he found his patients experienced it. His recommended amount was 20mg/day. Dr Dalton's patients never got it, and in fact she never mentioned the possibility in all her papers or books. The reason being she would give 400mg, 800mg or 2400mg/day, depending on the severity of the problem. Those side effects you've listed above are all caused by oestrogen. If too little is given it stimulates oestrogen making it the dominant hormone. It's essential to use enough to prevent this. Those side effects are also those experienced by some women in the early days of Pregnancy. The corpus luteum is producing small amounts of progesterone, enough to stimulate oestrogen. But once production increases the symptoms go. Unfortunately the 20-40mg/day does not raise levels to that found in the luteal phase, in fact it's only giving amounts found in the follicular phase. I go into this on our Progesterone Misconceptions page. I go into headaches, nausea and vomiting on our Migraines page. We also have a page on Breast Tenderness and Acne. Take care Wray
Jul 12, 2012
 Estriol
by: Anonymous

Hello Wray...

Do you never recommend bioidentical estradiol and/or estriol? Or are there cases where you make an exception? I know estradiol is pretty potent but I have read various research that conclude higher levels of estriol (sometimes known as the "friendly" estrogen) actually result in less breast cell stimulation and thereby blocks the breast cancer gene. I would like to know your thoughts on this. THANKS!
Jul 14, 2012
 Estriol
by: Wray

Hi there I never recommend oestradiol, as you point out it's very potent, the same goes for oestrone. Oestriol does have a reputation for being milder, although it still has the same stimulatory effects as the other two. It does appear to be safe, see here. This very long, fascinating paper here, points out that 'oestrogens' in excess cause foetal death. They don't mention oestriol specifically, but as it's the major oestrogen in pregnancy, one can only assume they included this in their assessment. To find the passage put 'Expression of 5-alpha-Reductase in the Brain' into 'find'. The main reason I don't recommend any of them, is I see little reason to. There is always the potential for risk, whereas progesterone has none. It's extremely rare to find a woman who produces no oestrogen, Turner's syndrome is one case which has a genetic cause. There's more info on our Menstruation and Progesterone misconceptions pages. Another possibly more concerning reason, is the vast number of oestrogen mimics we're subjected to by industry. There are now over 100 of these in the environment, see Our Stolen Future. Plus the fact we are eating greatly more phytoestrogens than we did prior to 10,000 years ago, when the agricultural revolution started. Grains and legumes have high amounts, plus the fact we eat them in large quantities, see here, and here here. This paper here gives an excellent resume of the potential adverse side effects of consuming too many. Hope this helps! Take care Wray

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