Can natural progesterone help ease, if not cure, fibromyalgia?

Estrogen, progesterone and thyroid hormones are interrelated.

Many women with estrogen dominance are taking thyroid supplements which, when progesterone is introduced and estrogen dominance is corrected, can often be reduced or eliminated altogether.

Estrogen causes food calories to be stored as fat. Thyroid hormone causes fat calories to be turned into usable energy. Thyroid hormone and estrogen have opposing actions. Estrogen, therefore, may compete with thyroid hormone at the site of its receptor. In so doing, the thyroid hormone may never complete its mission, creating hypothyroid symptoms despite normal serum levels of thyroid hormone.

From the evidence we have collected, the symptoms of hypothyroidism occurring in patients with unopposed estrogen (progesterone deficiency) become less so when progesterone is added and hormone balance is achieved.

Sex hormone imbalance closely resembles those of hypothyroidism and thyroid hormone resistance. For example, a progesterone deficiency can cause fatigue, weight gain, irritability, depression, memory and concentration problems, headaches, irregular and painful mentstrual cycles, fluid retention, loss of sex drive, and cold hands and feet. These symptoms are also characteristic of hypothyroidism and thyroid hormone resistance. Some symptoms of estrogen and testosterone deficiencies also resemble those of hypothyroidism and thyroid hormone resistance.

If lab testing is inconclusive, empirical evidence suggests it’s safe to try natural progesterone to see if your symptoms can be alleviated.

A number of our women battling chronic fibromyalgia have reported significant pain relief and long term improvement of symptoms using natural progesterone cream. There seems to be no doubt in these women’s minds that progesterone has a positive impact on sleep and mood modulation. Catherine, for example, is but one of many women reporting promising results when natural progesterone is incorporated in the treatment of fibromyalgia.

Catherine’s case mirrors many others observed and monitored. She was first diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 1991, around the time she began experiencing the early warning signs of hormone imbalance. In her search for answers, Catherine visited a leading Australian rheumatologist - spokesperson and top researcher in the field of fibromyalgia. However, beyond lifestyle modifications, rest and attention to diet, nothing much was gleaned from the appointment that she didn’t already know. She was told to go home, get on with her life and learn strategies to cope with this potentially debilitating condition.

Catherine fortunately discovered natural progesterone cream which helped balance her sex hormones. Catherine uses progesterone cream and nutritional supplements, particularly magnesium, to stay healthy. She points out, however, there’s a fine line between stress, diet, nutrition, lifestyle, hormone balancing and fibromyalgia. She maintains progesterone helps her to remain calm and level headed. That her coping skills are markedly improved, and that her sleep is deep and restful.

Catherine applies as close to physiological doses (20-30mg) of progesterone cream according to her menstrual cycle and symptoms. She, on occasions, applies cream intra-vaginally. Catherine maintains she gets immediate results where often times it’s not evident topically, suggesting that her receptors are responding to this form of application.

Catherine continues to alternate between vaginal and topical applications throughout each month to facilitate optimal receptor response.

But progesterone isn’t always the answer

More recently, Catherine reported a number of observations with her health that she felt deserved further exploration.

These past 12 months Catherine has had trouble regulating her dose of progesterone according to symptom relief and salivary hormone profile results. Specifically, even physiological doses of 20mg daily would push her reading off the chart and yet her symptom relief felt compromised. She took from these readings that her body was not metabolizing this hormone.

Here are the symptoms she reported:

• Her resting pulse was typically 60+ bpm
• She’d put on weight that did not fit with the lifestyle she lead
• She felt depressed, stressed out, anxious
• She found herself dwelling on things that would otherwise not have bothered her
• She was easily upset, felt unable to cope
• Her skin felt dry even though she lotioned every day
• Her sleep had become fitful
• She’d lost interest in most things, including sex
• She suffered bouts of dizziness
• Felt unable to track conversations and that her response seems inadequate or ’stupid’
• Her lips appeared very pale
• She was constipated more often than not
• Her lower legs were continually cramping up @ bed-time
• Her body felt ‘busy’ like it was unable to completely come to rest
• She’d experience occasional chest pains and a burning sensation in neck & shoulder blades
• And her vision had deteriorated.

And, as this condition worsens, managing the waves of diffused pain and ‘burning sensation’ on top of all the above symptoms was proving tiresome.

Catherine, however, pointed out that she felt she did extremely well by comparison to most of the women with FMS. At 46 years old, she has good muscle tone and substantial body strength, she can jog 5-6 klms when she feel like it and does not suffer from fatigue, she take nutritional supplements daily along with natural progesterone replacement therapy.

As it happened, in the middle of all this, Catherine was invited to attend a Clinical Workshop on ?Hormone Balancing? hosted by Analytical Reference Laboratories in Melbourne. She noted with some interest the lecturer?s ability to show an improvement in progesterone uptake by ?tinkering? with thyroid function.

That little piece of information set Catherine off on a quest for more information which, inevitably led her to Dr Lowe’s website and treatment protocol.

She wrote to and heard back from Dr John Lowe. Catherine ordered and read Dr Lowe’s publications Your Guide to Metabolic Health and The Metabolic Treatment of Fibromyalgia both of which, without question, provided her with a pretty thorough understanding of how proper thyroid function is fundamental to optimal metabolic health while also providing self-help metabolism-stimulating practices that were a starting point to improving her overall health.

Dr Lowe suggested she order (1) a TSH, (2) either a free T4 and possible free T3, or a total T4, FTI, and T3-uptake, and (3) thyroglobulin and thyroid peroxidase antibodies. Number 3, he pointed out, is extremely important; patients who have high antibodies can have debilitating symptoms of hypothyroidism despite all the other test results being within their reference (so-called “normal”) ranges.

Catherine’s thyroid tests came back all within normal range. These ‘normal’ results brought a mixed response from Catherine’s usually collaborative GP who refused outright to prescribe thyroid hormone when it was not medically indicated. She was, however, prepared to refer Catherine onto an endocrinologist.

Rather than bow out of the argument, Catherine changed GPs. She looked up a doctor she’d seen previously who made the original diagnosis of FMS years earlier … who happened to be on the same ?Hormone Balancing? seminar. Catherine felt they were at least on the same wavelength (the seminar having touched on slow release T3 medication).

Catherine submitted to yet another salivary hormone profile, liver function test, and thyroid function test which, incidentally, indicated slightly elevated TSH while T3 & T4 levels were within normal limits. She’s also capturing her temperature daily first thing in the morning before rising to get a fix on her metabolic rate.

Investigation/tests still continues which Catherine hopes will provide enough evidence to convince her GP that she’s a candidate to trial slow release T3 medication… meanwhile FMS is still a very real part of her life.