The birth control that is commonly used by women is a progestin, same as progesterone, however it’s molecularly different and causes things like breast cancer, blood clots and stroke. I wouldn’t worry about the breast cancer link, everything causes cancer at some dose.
Pharmaceutical companies cannot patent bio-identical hormones. So, they alter the molecule slightly, patent it, and sell it as a synthetic version of the hormone.
Yup, just another example of Big Pharma, the FDA, doctors, and our governments not really caring about people.
Bio-identical hormones are becoming more popular.
HypoCyclist,
This post gave me a much needed mental boost this morning. My eye are so messed up from Fin; sometimes they ache so bad from the dryness I want to kill myself. It’s nice to hear others’ getting better; it gives me more hope for mine. Thanks.
This is one reason I think we may not all be suffering from exactly the same problem (hormonal imbalance, autoimmune disorder, etc.).
Anyway, I’ve read progesterone is used to combat estrogen dominance. I wonder if that’s why it seems to be working on some members.
Is anyone running progesterone with DHT? Or a T booster? I wonder if that would be effective against estrogen dominance.
I tried out every kind of eye drops and gels to moisturize my eyes, nothing lasted longer than an hour. The only thing that really works is castor oil. It even works for a whole day. You may want to try that, castor oil is pretty cheap.
Week 5-
My off period this week went much better than the first, no jogs / sprints to the bathroom or emergency roadside pull overs. I still feel more “off” on days when I don’t take progesterone and I don’t feel quite like myself. Days that I am on progesterone I have moments where I feel 100% normal but that may only be 15 minutes to 2 hours here and there, those are great moments though. Monday through Wednesday I have felt absolutely fantastic though, little brain fog, high energy levels, and high excitement / zest for almost anything. It may have something to do with the change in the weather, it’s been near zero every day here for most of january and pretty much all of February, Monday Tuesday and Wednesday were in the 30s and 40s. Today we’re back to grey skies and freezing rain / snow. I feel a little off today but I think that is because my wife woke up around 5am, she couldn’t sleep, her back hurt from working out. So I had about an hour and a half less sleep than normal. In some of my previous posts I think I may have painted too rosy of a picture regarding libido. That is still pretty low except right when I wake up and during night time dreams (those coming back was very exciting!). During most of the day I still get the brain / penis disconnect, but if there is a chance to perform I haven’t had any issues while on progesterone, I just don’t crave it like I did prior to taking the poison. Tuesday I went XC skiing and went the fastest I’ve ever gone, I was dead at the end but it felt great, had the runners high feeling and no relapse hours later or the next day. Overall I’m more than happy with the results, I hope they continue and 2014 can be the summer of HypoCyclist! (See Seinfeld Summer of George if you don’t get the reference)
@Raberduck - Thanks for the castor oil tip.
@Finatruth - Any more updates on your first cycle with Progesterone? Are you going to continue with more cycles?
@Hypocyclist - Does it seem like you are trending upward with each cycle, or just going up and down to baseline levels?
Definitely trending upward. I’m expecting to take a while for everything to normalize and be able to eventually ween off like Light did but I see only good things coming, especially with 3 straight nights of excellent dreaming.
A quick word of caution, make sure to stay hydrated while on progesterone, I went to a nice easy lap swim yesterday while my wife taught her zumba class, more like playing in the water really, and after about 30 minutes I had a huge headache that I normally only get after a long bike ride in hot weather. I went home, had almost a 2 liter of sparkling water and 3 pickles (pickles are one of the best hydration tools, try it next time after you exercise) and I felt fine again. Then I realized how little I drank throughout the day, one cup of coffee and one glass of water. With progesterone’s potential diuretic effects make sure to keep up the fluid levels!
thanks for the updates, much appreciated
Thought I would update this thread, here was my post in a diff section
SP- when I was feeling good, I took prog cream for 5 days and bam I crashed. Really bad insomnia, zero sexual function, dryness, completely numb penis. It’s the first time other than alcohol, I was able to find something that directly and dramatically affects this condition. The good news is that both now 3-4 weeks later I am getting better again and 2) I think the cream stimulated my estrogen receptors and I probably should have stayed on it. I just want to make sure I get back to my previous baseline. Once I know it’s not permanent, I’ll play with it some more and probably stay on it like all the people who have had positive experiences with it.
On a side note, cold intolerance and bloating are seemingly disappearing
Me and progesterone is a bit of a love hate relationship. In general day 1 and day 2 on it i feel mentally much more improved and better sexually. Day 3 fatigue kicks in and day 4 my eyes become drier and then slowly sexual function worsens. When its positive things i notice: better erections, spontaneous erections, penis and balls hang as normal, clearer mind, better sleep. When i’m worse penis narrows, mind is blurry, vision a bit worse, fatigue (need to lie down when i get home from work at 6pm). At this point i tend to stop taking progesterone. I’ve taken it on and off over the last 7 months or so. Longest period on was about 2 weeks if my memory is correct.
It sometimes helps enough for me to think i’m on to something and other times makes things worse to make me think its a waste of time. Just taken it again for 4 days and debating whether to continue.
Its a tricky one.
I think you just have to power through the crappy phase to really see what it’s going to do for you.
I believe Cap is right, you do need to power through in order to have the highs level out with the lows.
Week 6- Felt awesome all week. Energy, brain fog and sexual performance wise that is. This week I noticed significantly lower overall libido but able to perform when needed. Have had erotic dreams nightly, but nothing going on when I’m conscious. Looking at another break coming up and I am also just about out of Kokoro cream. I went to a local health food / home brew (kind of ironic they are together) store and found Fair Lady Progesterone cream for $20 vs the $33 Kokoro. I’ll give this stuff a shot and see how it works starting out on Monday.
hypocyclist- you are having erotic dreams?? Did you have these previously? In the last 2 years I probably had 2 or 3 total erotic dreams. If this is happening this is a major good sign!!
19- I had the same thing happen, I actually crashed down bad like 1 month ago but I am getting better. Damn maybe I should stay on it longer 4-6 months
Finatruth- Yes pretty much nightly it’s a really weird sensation since it’s been so long (probably 3-4 years without them). Some of the dreams are just freaking weird to begin with and turn erotic by the end. This started I think the third or fourth day that I used progesterone and I’ve had them intermittently until the past two weeks where I’ve had them consistently every night. If I could get the same erotic thoughts and feelings during the day that would be awesome.
Wow! That is pretty incredible, and a fantastic sign!!! Keep updating us as time goes on. Clearly it is doing something good
HypoCyclist, are you still 4 weeks on two days off? Would you recommend another time span by chance?
19, have you ever tried to use progesterone for more than a week to see how it goes?
I’m 2 weeks on 4 days off. If I could recommend another time schedule it would be to never go off, because I don’t feel as well while I’m off. I understand it may be necessary though so I’ll stick with it.
When you look at how to treat insulin resistance in diabetes (outside of medication) it involves cutting out sugar for a long time which re-sensitizes your insulin receptors since sugar is so scarce. On the other hand to give yourself diabetes you would flood your body with sugar constantly until your insulin receptors were so overwhelmed they down regulate themselves and eventually become insulin resistant.
Following this same logic f you’re going to re-sensitize your estrogen receptors in your brain then you’ll need to stay on the progesterone for a long period of time to get the estrogen under control so your receptors can become sensitive to estrogen again and your body won’t need to create so much in order for it to be effective which subsequently throws off homeostasis (leads to estrogen dominance).
This is still just a theory of course but we have at least one person claiming to be cured by this method, it makes sense to a reasonable degree and we have a protocol. I think going through the pain and doing the exact protocol is possibly the best thing to do at this point and I think we have a total of zero people who have done it which is troubling to me…people aren’t getting magical results and so they give up even though the OP said it took at least 6 months - it would be silly to think that your progress would be completely identical to his. Have you ever had surgery? Some people have more bleeding than others, some people heal up quicker than others we’re all different and so we have to factor that in and put in the time.
As soon as I get my stomach ulcer in check I’m going to do it, I have my drepenyl and progesterone ready. The updates are much appreciated!!
Yeah, LATE said it took months and months to see results, with many prog-induced crashes along the way that made him want to quit. If you’re having a REALLY bad reaction to it like a couple have I would say throw in the towel. Otherwise it seems like you have to power through the bad to get to the good. Or at least try for a reasonable period. I have yet to see anyone else do this besides Beekay and elb, who both claim to be close to cured. Hypo is doing it as well and is getting good results. There are too many posts of people taking it for a couple weeks and quitting. If you’re not going to stick with it for a few months then don’t even bother. I’ve been on it for a while myself but I’m on so much shit right now I have no idea what’s doing what.