Has anyone tried taking the progesterone cream that you rub on your skin? It seems that it has made my anxiety worse when I started using it. I also noticed my blood pressure trying to come up when I started using it? Just wondering if I am crazy? It has not been for me at all. Help, anyone?

I only made it about 3 days on the cream. My anxiety was off the charts. I was probably using too much, but I am NOT willing to try that again for a LONG time!

Just curious. How much were you using? Are you using it on its own or with E? Also, do you still get a period and if so a what point in your cycle did you try it.

I have the same questions for you Patsy as I had for Main. How much cream? Are you also taking E? Do you still get a period and if so at what point in you cycle did you try the P?

I think I was doing like 1/8 of a teaspoon. Like I said, I only made it 2 days. I followed the instructions and started like on day 12 or something.

Doesn't sound like a huge dose. It would depend on the concentration to know how many milligrams that is. The cream I have is compounded 6% and 1/8 tsp is around 30mgs.

Here is something I have posted before but I thought I would post it again here in case you are interested.

I have recently read an interesting theory that progesterone could have a biphasic effect in that it may cause more problems at moderate doses than at higher ones. Seems counterintuitive I know.

Here is an abstract.

Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2009 Sep;34(8):1121-32. Epub 2009 Mar 9.Click here to read Links
Sex steroid induced negative mood may be explained by the paradoxical effect mediated by GABAA modulators.
Andréen L, Nyberg S, Turkmen S, van Wingen G, Fernández G, Bäckström T.
Umeå Neurosteroid Research Center, Umeå University Department of Clinical Science, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Norrlands University Hospital, Umeå SE-901 85, Sweden.

Certain women experience negative mood symptoms as a result of progesterone during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, progestagens in hormonal contraceptives, or the addition of progesterone or progestagens in sequential hormone therapy (HT). This phenomenon is believed to be mediated via the action of the progesterone metabolites on the GABA(A) system, which is the major inhibitory system in the mammalian CNS. The positive modulators of the GABA(A) receptor include allopregnanolone and pregnanolone, both neuroactive metabolites of progesterone, as well as benzodiazepines, barbiturates, and alcohol. Studies on the effect of GABA(A) receptor modulators have shown contradictory results; although human and animal studies have revealed beneficial properties such as anaesthesia, sedation, anticonvulsant effects, and anxiolytic effects, recent reports have also indicated adverse effects such as anxiety, irritability, and aggression. It has actually been suggested that several GABA(A) receptor modulators, including allopregnanolone, have biphasic effects, in that low concentrations increase an adverse, anxiogenic effect whereas higher concentrations decrease this effect and show beneficial, calming properties. The allopregnanolone increase during the luteal phase in fertile women, as well as during the addition of progesterone in HT, has been shown to induce adverse mood in women. The severity of these mood symptoms is related to the allopregnanolone serum concentrations in a manner similar to an inverted U-shaped curve. Negative mood symptoms occur when the serum concentration of allopregnanolone is similar to endogenous luteal phase levels, while low and high concentrations have less effect on mood. It has also been shown that progesterone/allopregnanolone treatment in women increases the activity in the amygdala (as measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging) in a similar way to the changes seen during anxiety reactions. However, it is evident that only certain women experience adverse mood during progesterone or GABA(A) receptor modulator treatments. Women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) have severe luteal phase related symptoms; in this phase, they show changes in GABA(A) receptor sensitivity and GABA concentrations that are related to the severity of the condition. These findings suggest that negative mood symptoms in women with PMDD are caused by the paradoxical effect of allopregnanolone mediated via the GABA(A) receptor. CONCLUSION: Progesterone and progestagens induce negative mood, most probably via their GABA(A) receptor active metabolites. In postmenopausal women treated with progesterone and animals treated with allopregnanolone, there is a bimodal association between serum allopregnanolone concentration and adverse mood, resembling an inverted U-shaped curve. In humans, the maximal effective concentration of allopregnanolone for producing negative mood is within the range of physiological luteal phase serum concentrations.

When I first started P and also when they upped my dose, I had some mild anxiety. This tapered off after about a week and a half both times. I highly suggest starting low and letting it build up first. I have read it takes about ten days for the P to completely cycle through your system which kind of goes along with the time it takes me to get leveled back out with it. When I initially started it I used my xanax to help with the anxiety just as I always had until eventually I didn't need it anymore.

gazelle, So glad for that post. I had crazy head with progeterone. used a small dose. think it was a 2percent cream and used 1/8 tsp. told doc and he said to use higher dose. I thought he was nuts. my grandchildren were being loud and my head felt like it was going to explode. like on the verge of a headache (I never get Headaches). took about 3 days to be totally back to normal.
the doc prescribed a 5 or 6 percent cream, but I was too scared to use it. I still have it but it is expired. think it loses potency?
I read somewhere a diff take on progest negative effects....that it goes down the pathway to cortisol.

It would be great if we had an expert opinion from an endocrinologist or someone like that to weigh in here. I seem to remember reading somewhere in an Elizabeth Vliet book "It's My Ovaries Stupid" that the reason that some people advocate progesterone for PMS is that when it is present in doses higher than what the body would normally make in the luteal phase it has a tranquilizing effect. That would kinda jive with what the article says. (Dr Vleit, unlike a lot of the popular Docs writing hormone books these days, is not a big progesterone promoter.)

The headache thing is interesting. I am in the late stages of peri and even though I have had some high E phases in the past couple of years, I haven't had the kinds of migraines that I used to get when I was younger. Since ovulation breaks down quite badly in late peri and you start running out of P I have wondered if it was P causing my headaches all those years rather than E. Or whether it was a combination of the 2, like P making the vessels more sensitive to E. A couple of cycles ago, I had been using P during the luteal phase and stopped, as instructed, on the first day of my period. Four days later I developed quite a bad headache that lasted for another 4 days. This made me wonder if it was the P cream starting to wash out of my system triggering a sort of withdrawal or if it was just a matter of having P in my system again had sensitized my brain to other triggers like E and weather. Or, was it just the phase I was in and had nothing to do with the P? Who knows! In a recent study of progesterone cream vs placebo in postmenopausal women, the women taking P ended up with a higher incidence of headaches than the placebo group. I don't know how much higher because I only read the abstract and it didn't say. Now, these were postmenopusal women who had no E in their systems and would have been P deficient for a while so it is hard to apply these results to the pre and peri stages.
All this being said, I know a number of women peri and post who are taking or have taken either the cream or prometrium caps with no problem. It seems that some of us are just sensitive.

Re the expiry of the cream. I, like you, had a tube of 6% compounded cream that I was afraid to try. I finally started using it at around 4 months. I then asked the pharmacist who said that it lasts about 6 months, so the next cycle I used it I got a new batch to be on the safe side.
You could check this out with your pharmacist.

Yesterday, someone pulled out an interesting progesterone thread from the past so you might want to have a look at yesterdays posts.

Gazelle, Interesting. I am post. at the time with progest cream I was about 8 yrs post. my estradiol around 20. Have a friend using progest cream for about 5 yrs she says she feels nothing one way or other. BUT she is always complaining of headaches so who knows. she takes ad klonipin and more so I can't really be sure of what she feels. she took so much exedrin she inflamed her stomach. wouldn't that be something if it was the progest all this time?
I don't know where to look for the progest thread.

The thread was posted a few days ago so it would be in the posts from the last week. You could also try looking under progesterone in topics. I don't know all the ins and outs of this board yet and am not good at finding things. I will see if I can find it. Interesting about your friend. Does she take the P on its own or with E?

She was taking progest cream on its own until a month ago she added E cream. and dhea