Does anyone know if you can only take progesterone cream right before your period? I heard this is when your progesterone levels are lowest and this is when my symptoms are the worst. Anyone? Also, I think it helps with weight. I've noticed when I'm on the cream, I seem to shed quite a bit of the weight I carry around during the months when I was off of the cream. My cream is naturally compounded for me by my doctor. Please let me know your thoughts on this. I really don't like taking it on all the days because it makes me slightly drowsy even tho I take it at night.

Lisa
I am also on prescribed bio-identical progesterone and when I am on it I notice...what I think is weight loss due to water I am peeing all the time but happily
I take it all the time with a break once a month as I am not getting a period for now ... I haven’t made it to a year as yet.
Barb

Unless you are also using estrogen and must balance with a minimum of 10 days of progesterone, you can just use progesterone for the couple of days before your periods. I didn't have much luck doing that a number of years ago--I needed it the full two weeks before my period to get general PMS relief.

I am confused.....how can using progesterone help pms symptoms?Isn't high progesterone and low estrogen levels in the latter half of the cycle what causes the symptoms in the first place?Also,if that is what causes the symptoms,why does pms worsen in peri?If our progesterone levels are getting lower,shouldn't that make the pms symptoms less severe?....do i have this all backwards or something?
I have been prescribed klonopin for pms...it is WAY too strong for me and i don't want to be so sedated....if natural progesterone cream can help pms that's great.....but can someone please explain HOW it helps?

Progesterone is the first hormone to "go" when starting perimenopause (you don't ovulate every month, so you don't get any progesterone that month). Progesterone balances estrogen.

Also, when you start losing progesterone in peri, supplementing with natural progesterone cream is said to wake up your estrogen receptors.

All I know is Progest cream (there are other good brands--but must say "USP" progesterone on the label) completely rid me of hot flashes and some emotional symptoms when I started peri about 10 years ago, and helped for many years. As I got close to menopause (still not quite there yet), it definitely did not work as well, because my estrogen finally dropped a lot, also.

Right now, I use a tiny bit of estriol (the weakest estrogen) and a little bit of progesterone (for the last two weeks of the cycle only), and at age 52, nothing seems to help that much, really!

I tried BHRT a couple of years ago, off and on experimenting with doses, but it really didn't help, either.

Hi: I am on Progest cream too and it has helped me just like it did you. I mostly started using it for my monthly migraines. My doctor and I kept track of my migraines and knew instantly they were hormone related. He wanted me on birth control to help but I wanted to try something different. Anyway, it has taken my migraines away about 85% of the time and helping with other peri symptoms.

Now when you said it stopped working because your estrogen levels started to fall, how could you tell? Did you get hot flashes again etc?

Mopsy

I still don't really understand "how" progesterone could help pms but if it helps,i am willing to give it a try.

Hi Mopsy,

It helped my migraines tremendously, but that was with prescription progesterone, Prometrium. Like I said, though, just the Progest helped in the early years.

Anyway, yes, when the estrogen hit the dirt, the hot flashes came back--but only at night, so that is a blessing, at least. Early in perimenopause I had hot flashes in the day and night and Progest got rid of them 100% for years.

I wish something would help now! I guess without any estrogen (well, almost no estrogen!) you don't need any progesterone because there is nothing to "balance."

I have been experimenting with progesterone for about 3-4 months. I started with a very very low dose and noticed nothing really. I switched to progest and have been on that less than a month. For the first time in a long, long time, I feel a little happier, a bit less depressed. I haven't noticed anything else, I'm not tired when I use it or anything but I haven't used it very long.

Progesterone is the calming agent of our hormones - the one that kicks in a few days after our period starts and re - balances our moods etc. It also acts as a 'buffer' on our nerve endings - which in turn decreases our sense of anxiety and such. Women who still have their period, use it just like birth control - I'd have to look on my bottle of cream, but it says on the back how much you use. Peri women use it for 25 days, then stop for 5 and then resume again. And post meno women can also use it too.

The reason why you get sleeping is because like I said, the progest calms, so it relaxes you. I've used 2 brands, one I got at a health food store (it's about 40 bucks and lasts about 2 months, if you use once a day), and just a few days ago I found some out at wal-mart back in the vitiman aisle - that's under a rexal label. I just started that one, so I don't know whether it will be as effective, but it sure was cheaper. About 12 bucks, I think? I do know it has the same amount of progest (480 mg.)

I do believe, I am actually seeing an over-all easing of my peri symptoms, and like mentioned above, I'm also 52 and have only spotted (and I do mean spotted) twice this last year. The first last about 2 days the 2nd one followed about 10 days later and it really was only noticed when I wiped. It's hardly there anymore... So, that's when I began using the cream again. I felt really tense - lots of tight/sore pulled muscles and my gut was in an uproar as well.

At the start I used the progest cream twice a day - once in the morning and then again before bed. I did that until last night. This morning I didn't wake up with that internal vibrating. Today I'll start using it only once, at bedtime and see how it goes, but I do think it's working. If the anxiety feelings increase, I'll go back to using it more...but right now it's more 'trial and error' than anything.

But I'm also in the same boat as DesRoth - at night I tend to feel warm...not exactly a hot flash, just a sensation like the electric blanket is on. That only lasts for a few seconds, then disappears..

Des, are you thinking like me - that THIS is our year?? Because everything I've read points to...yes.

Tay,you said "Progesterone is the calming agent of our hormones - the one that kicks in a few days after our period starts and re - balances our moods etc." .....for quite a few months now my symptoms(anxiety,mood swings,etc.) all start back up in full force a few days after my period starts....so is that a clue that my progesterone is low?I only get a break from my symptoms from day one to day 3 or 4 of my period,the rest of the month is horrible and i am trying to figure out the problem.

Tay--I also use the Wal-Mart progest cream--and one found in a health food store. I use whichever one my hand grabs in the morning--and really haven't noticed that much of a difference. I used the Wal-Mart stuff for the entire month between Thanksgiving and Christmas--and noticed a small lessening of "being on edge" symptoms. These last couple of weeks I seem to be balancing out--it's been so nice to have some consecutive good days. Today was the first day my eyes started feeling sore, blurry, and rather out of focus in a while. (Probably stress-related due to the ice storm here in Missouri and my mother calling me 3 times within the last 18 hours . . . but of course my anxiety says it's the onset of diabetes or a brain tumor . . . .geez.)