if you had no PMS, progesterone not likely to be good--study

This is a small prelimary study that just appeared in the European Journal of Endocrinology. It's very preliminary--except that it might be a clue to which women might have better luck with progesterone.

The objective was to investigate the effect on mood and the physical symptoms of two dosages of natural progesterone and placebo in postmenopausal women with and without a history of premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

It was vaginal progesterone. Their conclusion was that in women without prior PMS natural progesterone causes negative mood effects similar to those induced by synthetic progestogens.

So, for us, a history of PMS might indicate whether progesterone will help or not.

Cheers,
Trish

(((Trish))) thanks for bringing this here! Very interesting. I had no or very little PMS all my life, and didn't do well at all on natural progesterone. However (and this is the confusing part), I did use depo-provera for b.c. for 3 years and felt great on it.
s,
-Linda

(((Trish))):

This confirms something that I suspected for a LOOONGG time...my PMS totally disappeared when I had my surgery. And I always had the suicidal/homicidal (well, not quite, but you get the picture) PMS, month after month. We tried almost everything, and my whole family went through hormone h*ll each month.

Now, with Prometrium, I'm calm (except when DH comes home from work three hours earlier and does NO housework, ). And I've loved the fact that my hrt is even, without the peaks and valleys that led to so much of the PMS before. It confirms what I thought about PMS being due to estrogen dominance.

And (((Linda))), your response confirms something that I'd always suspected about you...that your crazy metabolism confounds ALL the studies . But I have to admit, BCPs with me always did improve my mood -- and my weight -- unlike everyone else I ever knew.

Thanks for this, Trish! Is it on Medscape?



Audrey

Yeah, I thought this one was a bit of a light bulb moment.

I found the abstract through the Doctor's Guide. I'm not at work for a few days so I haven't read the whole article yet.

I am an exception to the rule. I had severe pms -- sucidal, anxiety, couldn't sleep etc. BCP caused severe sucidal depression with the first dose. I found taking progesterone made me very depressed. So I think they need to do a little more studing before any conclusions can be made. I was using xanax for pms before the surgery.

Dar:

The BCPs contain progestin, which is a different breed altogether from the bio-identical progesterone I think the study refers to. But, did you find that your surgery eliminated your PMS? I know it did for me. I suspect that much of PMS for some of us has as much to do with the erratic hormonal swings each month as it did the hormones themselves. If you're "cycling" wildly (and I sure was), it may not just be estrogen that's the culprit, but the roller-coaster of hormonal shifts.

That's why I'm much happier than I thought I would be with HRT...I can regulate it myself, and there's no wild swings from "high" one day to "low" the next. Hope you got the same relief!

Trish, as ever, thank you. I find that all I have time to keep up with is Medscape...and I so rarely have time to write up what I find there, these days...



Audrey

I have used both progestrin and bio identical progesterone and both caused depression. I really think my pms was from the change in hormones also since I had problems at mid cycle and before my period. I do not have to deal with pms now unless my estrogen level is too high.

Just out of curiosity, dar, were you taking oral progesterone?

I did wonder when looking at the study how significant a difference it was that it used vaginal progesterone (available in Europe). I remember from my reading for www.hormonejungle.com/progest.php that oral progesterone was far more likely to be depressing. The dose is high and that first pass through the liver is a problem--it changes it into metabolites with more negative effects.

Trish, I have used oral prometrium(sp?) and I have used a compounded (cream or gel) progesterone. I have used all the forms of progesterone except vaginal and I had the same reaction no matter which form I used. It also gave me severe stomach problems whether it was oral or transdermal which my gyn kept saying could not be the result of the progesterone but more research and my GI showed it was. I am still suffering from the stomach problems. Progesterone or progestrin does have side effects. The suggestion of doing one thing at a time is always excellent advice.