Can progesterone cream help men with fibromyalgia?

Hi Catherine,

I have read that men can benefit by using Natural Progesterone Cream (helps to reduce chance of prostate cancer), but I was wondering if you know anything about treating MEN for fibromyalgia through the use of Natural Progesterone Cream. I know women can benefit from this condition, but I do not know if it will help men?

Thank you,

Tammie

Dear Tammie,

In the context of metabolic health, hormone balancing is a vital component.

Poor metabolic health affects different people in different ways, resulting in a variety of symptoms. Doctors usually give people with different symptoms different diagnoses.

For example, the most prominent symptoms of some people are chronic widespread aches and pains. These people’s doctors are likely to give them the diagnosis of “fibromyalgia.” The main symptoms of other people are lethargy and fatigue. Their doctors may diagnose their condition as “chronic fatigue syndrome.” Still other people may have depression, and others poor concentration and memory.

Dr. John C. Lowe, a fibromyalgia, thyroid, and metabolism researcher is a board certified pain management specialist and Director of Research for the Fibromyalgia Research Foundation. He has spearheaded the scientific study of two related subjects: the metabolic bases of fibromyalgia, and the metabolic rehabilitation of fibromyalgia patients.

Dr Lowe’s impression is that most doctors and researchers don?t know that too little thyroid hormone regulation of cells in the brain stem and spinal cord can induce and sustain pain. When a hypothyroid patient is under-treated or denied treatment with thyroid hormone (the standard provisions of conventional medicine), and his main hypothyroid symptom is chronic, widespread pain, his doctor is likely to diagnose his pain as “fibromyalgia.”

After the fibromyalgia diagnosis, conventional treatment will follow. This will entail various medications that don?t correct the underlying cause of his pain (hypothyroidism) and that are largely ineffective. Through conventional care, a man’s health is likely to deteriorate further over time ? partly from his continuing hypothyroidism and partly from the adverse effects of conventional medications.

As Dr Lowe announced in France, in most cases, fibromyalgia is caused by inadequate thyroid hormone regulation of cell function. The inadequate regulation results from thyroid hormone deficiency and/or partial cellular resistance to thyroid hormone.

Rigorous logical analyses of the available scientific evidence, says Dr Lowe, make it clear that this is the most plausible explanation of the cause of fibromyalgia.

Throughout The Metabolic Treatment of Fibromyalgia, Dr. John C. Lowe demonstrates that other proposed explanations of the cause of fibromyalgia (such as the serotonin deficiency hypothesis) are false.

Other metabolism-impairing factors may also induce and sustain symptoms that lead to a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. All that is necessary is that these other factors impede the metabolism of the tissues from which fibromyalgia symptoms and signs arise.

Such factors include a diet that contributes to impaired carbohydrate metabolism, B complex vitamin deficiencies, the use of beta-blocking drugs, and physical deconditioning.

One such factor may not be enough to induce fibromyalgia symptoms. However, combinations of the factors may be sufficient. The fibromyalgia symptoms of most patients are caused by a combination of such factors combined with inadequate thyroid hormone regulation of their tissues.

Leon Chaitow, ND, DO., Senior Lecturer, University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, and author of Fibromyalgia and Muscle Pain makes the following comments: “Evidence is growing that a combination of genetic and environmental factors can cause hypothyroidism and/or cellular resistance to thyroid hormone. The metabolic crisis that follows, often in people with apparently normal thyroid function tests, appears to be a key element in the etiology of a wide range of chronic health problems. The existence of cellular resistance to insulin is now generally accepted as an etiological feature of some people’s diabetes mellitus, and Dr. John Lowe has detailed compelling scientific evidence for a similar process in a significant percentage of cases of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.”

Dr Lowe’s latest publication Your Guide to Metabolic Health provides the essentials patients need to know to overcome their health problems caused by slow metabolism. The steps to improvement or recover can work whether the patient has hypothyroidism, thyroid hormone resistance, nutritional deficiencies, poor diet, low physical fitness, drugs that impair metabolism, or a combination of these metabolism-impairing factors.

Guided metabolic rehabilitation is a process in which a patient gets control of, or eliminates, all the factors that are impeding his or her metabolism.

Here are the nine most common factors that cause hypometabolism. It’s important to remember that the first one can cause or influence many of the others.

• Under-regulation by thyroid hormone
• Too little cortisol
• Sex hormone imbalance
• Nutritional deficiencies
• Unhealthy diet
• Chemical contaminants
• Low physical fitness
• Untreated physical problems
• Troublesome drugs

As you can see, sex hormone imbalance is on this metabolic rehab checklist.

Thyroid hormone powerfully regulates sex hormones in men and women, and imbalances of the hormones are common in hypothyroidism and thyroid hormone resistance. We need also to take into account age-related changes alter the balance of sex hormones.

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.

So where do we start?

Proper thyroid function is a key to our metabolic health and hormone balance. The symptoms of hypothyroidism occurring in patients with unopposed estrogen (progesterone deficiency) become less so when progesterone is added and hormone balance is achieved.

It is also true, thyroid function affects liver clearance of progesterone and should we see excessive levels building up in our body, we need to take appropriate steps to investigate what’s interfering with our body’s metabolism of progesterone (ie. thyroid or liver).

Therefore, if we are unsure whether our thyroid is functioning optimally (this can be characterised by an inability to lose weight, puffy and swollen body appearance, lethargy, muscle weakness, dry skin, hair loss and constipation), we might be well advised to ask our doctor to order the appropriate tests.

Dr Lowe suggests the following: (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.

Blood Spot Testing (TSH, fT3, fT4) collection kits designed to be used at home can help us keep an eye on our thyroid hormone profile and track disorders / treatment.

Of course, a full savilary hormone profile is always recommended to ensure we are not putting ourselves at risk, where possible in consultation with a supportive GP who knows what he or she is doing.