I started using Progesterone Cream in October after receiving results from a saliva test indicating estrogen dominance (thank God there is a reason for all my problems...I am not losing my mind!)

Typically my cycles are a bit irregular but generally run 21 to 24 days.

I used the cream in October - days 12 - 26. My period started on day 26 and I stopped the cream. In November, I used the cream again day 12 - 26 - it is now day 33 and still no period. Is this normal? Is this because of the cream or is it just coincidence? I have never missed a period or had one come this late...as far as I can remember.

(Not that I am complaining) just wondering if it is typical for the progesterone cream to impact the cycle this much.

Thanks!

Dawn

I'm sure it's not because of the cream. I think you are just becoming more irregular, it's completely normal. For 2 1/2 years I had early periods and late periods. The progesterone cream helped me become more regular, but many cycles were earlier or later than my usual 29-31 days.

Are you using an over-the-counter product or cream from a compounding pharmacy ? If the former, you might not be getting the amount of progesterone you think you're getting. The key to OTC progesterone is making sure it says "USP", not that it's a total guarantee but it will probably be better than the creams that don't indicate that. You will really only be guaranteed of the dose if you use a compounded cream. I use Pro-Gest OTC cream and will be switching to compounded very soon.

I disagree - it could be the cream ---- the same thing happened to me when I took Projuven which is a bio-identical progesterone cream.

Hi Dawn,

I would be hesitant to supplement any hormone based on a saliva test. While I believe saliva tests are accurate for cortisol levels due to seeing studies on PubMed that used them as a measure of cortisol output, I do no think they are accurate for saliva. I came across a couple of studies on PubMed that tested hormones via both blood and saliva, and they found the saliva tests were not as consistently accurate as the blood tests. Blood tests are considered the gold standard for determining hormone status at fertility clinics.

You might want to get a serum test just to be sure you need the P.

Hi Sariah,

My doctor wouldn't even give me a test to determine hormine status. She said our hormones fluctuate so rapidly (sometimes from hour to hour), a test would give unreliable results. She prescribed progesterone cream based on my symptoms. Just wondering what your views are on that?

Well, she is right to an extent. If one is able to get a few hormone tests done ( both follicular and luteal phases if still menstruating; a few weeks apart if not menstruating) then it gives you a pretty good idea of what's going on. But in the end, it's all just a guessing game anyway. And hormone tests can be expensive.

So it's good to familiarize yourself with the symptoms of excess and deficiency of all the hormones and try one hormone at a time so you know exactly what's affecting you positively or negatively.

Well, the same thing happened to you but you can't say that you were late because of the cream. You can only say you were late.

During peri, period cycles can be all over the place. Supplementing progesterone isn't going to make them like clockwork again.

I agree. I used to be a testing nut but now I feel that symptoms are the best indicators of what you need.

If you are not yet having temperature probs (hot flashes, cold flashes, etc) or other symptoms of low or dropping estradiol, but your periods are irregular, progesterone is probably warranted.

Dawn, how much are you using per day ? I use 20mg divided into morning and evening applications, tapering down in the last days of that cycle.

Btw, saliva tests can be useful, but you'd have to do them much more frequently than most of us would. Like every day for a couple of months, not once every 6 months. :-)

Please read my post carefully -- I said it COULD be the cream that was responsible for messing up the cycle. However, you're saying you're sure that it is NOT the cream that is responsible for dawn's late period, and in my opinion you are wrong to say that because it could well be.

I'm aware that irregular periods go hand in hand with perimenopause ---What woman doesn't.

Thank you for all the replies. I am using 20 mg a day (one pump per day - pre measured). I feel a million times better. Cannot even BELIEVE how much better I feel. I am using it day 12 - 26...this is only my second month (day 33 now...waiting for my period.)

If I don't get my period anytime soon, should I start back on the progesterone?

I did read your post carefully, it was short, thank you for that. >:-)

It doesn't matter if you said "could". Because late periods are so common during peri, it's not reasonable to link a late period during peri with the use of progesterone cream ... unless you're applying piles of it every day without break, that is. Were you ?

Peridawn, I had the same great experience with progesterone cream.

If you don't get your period, just use your normal pre-peri cycle length to figure out when you would have normally gotten your period and count that as day 1, and then just start using the cream again on day 12. If you get your period between that day 1 and day 12, just count the first day of your period as day 1 and start from scratch.

I just want to clarify my prior reply about whether or not supplementing progesterone can cause a longer cycle, now that I have more time to type ...

If you have just one longer cycle, I doubt it's the progesterone. Maybe if you went cycle after cycle and noticed that they're all long. You really can't conclude anything with just one long cycle because it's so common to have long and short cycles during peri, especially mid to late peri. It's my understanding that a massive amount of progesterone can prevent menstruation, but that would be pregnancy levels, and it would be very hard to maintain that level with progesterone cream. With progesterone supplementation I would expect a tightening of the cycle, the short cycles will get a little longer, and the long cycles will get a little shorter, with limitations of course. It depends on where you are peri-wise.

Oh dear, you really are beginning to sound like a stuck record. I say again -- "I'm quite aware that during perimenopause periods can become irregular" -- Every time I've taken progesterone cream my periods have been delayed by 3 or 4 months. I have now stopped taking the progesterone cream and my periods are now returning to a normal cycle --- This is MY experience and I wish to share it with others. Do not attempt to censor me with your rudeness and sarcasm ---

It's fine if you want to explain yourself, but honestly you really go overboard when you personalize our disagreement and accuse me of being rude and sarcastic. I was neither, I assure you. I want people to have factual information in this forum. To say that one late month is due to progesterone, or even can be, is HIGHLY unlikely. I wanted that to be clear, that's why I posted again. It had nothing to do with you and everything to do with anyone else reading this thread.

If you are having normal cycles, why are you using progesterone cream ? Don't read my question as a challenge, I just want to know. Are you using estradiol too ?

Hi:

I have had similar experiences with Progesterone myself. Although it could also just be the peri irregular madness as well.

I started skipping cycles every other month, then every two months about 2 years ago. This past June after two tests that showed lowed progesterone (also have just one ovary) I started on an oral E/P/T dose that I took every day. The progesterone was 50mg since it was daily. I got my period after a week on that and was surprised because I had just had one. Then the next month (July) I had no bios and no period. Then the next month (Aug) I went on the bios but in separate cream forms and I cycled the 50mg of progesterone and no period. Then the next month (Sept.) I went on Estrogel and Prometrium 200mg cycled and no period. Then the next month (Oct.) the same and no period. Then the next month (Nov.) the same Estrogel and Prometrium and I got a period. Now this month after doing the same but just using the Prometrium at 100mg for 8 days and then stopping b/c it made me bloated and I had a party last week, I got my period yesterday.

So is it really the progesterone causing me to skip all those cycles? Don't know. I had already started to go one then two months without a period so I don't know for sure. But I just wanted to share.

When I got my period right after starting the orals, Dr. Warner on this site told me it was b/c of too much estrogen in relation to the progesterone. I just cannot get any of this straight.

I actually feel pretty good now that I started shedding and one poster said both your hormones are low at this moment and then estrogen starts to rise, so maybe I just need to be really low in both b/c it's more balanced?

I don't understand why you would attribute longer cycles to progesterone supplementation, since you had skipped periods before you started supplementing, and also after you started supplementing you had shorter as well as longer cycles.

I think the only way supplemented progesterone could delay your period is if you took/used a large amount continuously. But you took breaks, right ?

I don't know if you know this, but one of the ways docs cause a period is to give the woman a large dose of progesterone. If the woman has enough estrogen to build up the uterine lining, she'll get a period after some number of days, triggered by the falling progesterone level.