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Pandora1151 · 04-26-2008, 01:59 AM

"Pandora1151, I am not sure I understand the progesterone-estrogen-testosterone connection. I see you are taking progesterone cream because your progesterone level came back low. What did your doctor suggest for your high testosterone and estrogen? Does increasing progesterone lower the other levels?

Also, what are you doing for your insulin resistance--a supplement, maybe?"

BRbangle,

Okay, I'll give this a shot. What I was told is that progesterone balances out estrogen and keeps it in check. When your progesterone is low, you get estrogen dominance - EVEN if your estrogen is also low! It's because there isn't enough progesterone to counteract the estrogen, regardless of the level of estrogen. That's why women in menopause can still have estrogen dominance (fat cells continue to produce estrogen even when the ovaries stop). In turn, in certain people (like people w/PCOS), testosterone will rise in an attempt to create a balance for the estrogen dominance.

On another note, healthy levels of progesterone are also supposed assist your adrenal glands produce the right amount of hormones somehow (sorry, I'm still learning this stuff myself so I'm not really sure "how"). So the progesterone cream is supposed to somehow level out my estrogen, which should stop the testosterone overproduction or at least slow it down and also help my adrenals produce more cortisol and relieve the adrenal fatigue. As far as the adrenal fatigue goes, I also have to eat a high protein diet, do gentle exercise, take naps, and learn stress management.

Adrenal fatigue is triggered by a variety of things, including chronic/accute stress. I've been under constant stress from a rebellious teenager daughter and dysfunctional family members (I have a psychotic, fatal attraction stepmother who came after me for the umpteenth time last summer in the midst of my son's graduation/open house - another very long story that has a 20 year history) for going on 3 years now. But in the last year I've worked really hard to get that all under control and it's paying off. I've got some good boundaries in place and my teens are both maturing and now that they understand how bad the stress was affecting my health, they are really stepping up to the plate. I'm lucky to have such good kids. Soooo...by treating the condition and managing my stress, I should get better in the adrenal fatigue area.

But I am curious if the progesterone cream will really help lower the testosterone because the doctor didn't give me anything specifically for testosterone/androgens. I can't start the progesterone until Wednesday and I'm sure it will take a few months to see a real difference. I can't help be a little skeptical over the "miracle" of progesterone, but everything else he has told me and I've done so far has been right on point so I'm willing to go along with it.

Okay, he did say that losing weight will help lower the testosterone too (I'm looking at my notes). I'm treating the insulin resistance with diet and exercise (the special diet to kill the candida yeast also pairs to control insulin/diabetes - when I'm done w/the 30 days to kill the yeast, I have been instructed to continue in this fashio but I can add vinegar, dairy and small amounts of high fiber breads/pastas back in). I take a lot of supplements and they are supposed to assist with everything (especially the EPA/DHA) but I'm not taking anything that I know of that is specifically geared for the insulin resistance. The CLA, EPA/DHA, L-Carnitine, and Chromium Picolonate are combined in such a way that they should assist me in losing fat/building muscle so I guess in a way they are also helping the insulin resistance?

Usually when a doctor tells me to lose weight and things will get better, I get angry because I can't lose weight. But now that I'm being treated for EVERYTHING that's actually wrong with me and the doctor has given me a diet in prescription form that is spelled out really well, it's working. I've lost 2-3 more pounds since the last time I posted!! I can not believe how the weight is dropping off of me. I have NEVER lost weight in my life faster than 3 pounds a month. NEVER! I've lost 16 pounds so far in 24 days and I have tons of energy most of the time. I'm still struggling in the mornings pretty bad because of the drop in cortisol I have at night.

When I was losing 3 pounds a month, I was taking synthetic bcp and spiro. But certain side effects from those meds were making me ill in other ways and I had to stop. The spiro caused my bp to drop so low that nobody could get a reading. It was really scary to lose consciousness and nobody could wake me up or get a bp reading on me. Then I would come to and fade back out again several times. I had to stop taking that medicine and switch bcp. When I did that, the weight started coming back on. Then I switched to Met and went off the bcp and the weight still kept coming on. Now I will grant that I went through several accutely stressful events while all this was happening too and the stress was wreaking havoc on me.

But I've really come to believe that most medicines might "cure" certain symptoms, but they always create new symptoms and illnesses because of the side effects. That is what made me so determined to do whatever it takes to heal my body naturally if that was possible and take as few synthetic meds as possible. I'm not a fanatic about it though. If I can't do the whole thing naturally and I need a medication, I will take that too. As long as I get better I don't care what I have to do. I was at a point in my life where I thought I would be dead in 5 - 10 years and now it looks like that won't happen and I'm very joyful about it.