Can progesterone cream help with fibroids?
Hi Catherine,
I have fibroids and was wondering if progesterone cream could help, also how much should I use?
Thank you,
Nancy
Dear Nancy,
Fibroids are a direct result of estrogen dominance, so in order to shrink your fibroids you have to reduce the body’s estrogen levels.
Fibroids occur during a woman?s reproductive years and affect at least 50% of women over the age of 35. With the decrease in production of estrogen at menopause, fibroids stop growing and symptoms tend to disappear.
Most often, fibroids cause no problems at all. However, for some women fibroids produce troublesome symptoms which may leave them feeling tired and lethargic and cause disruption to lifestyle and relationships. You may experience one or more of the following symptoms:
- Heavy Bleeding
- Pain
- Pressure Symptoms
- Infertility
Fibroids are tumors which grow within the normal muscle of the uterus (womb). Single or multiple fibroids may be present and may vary in size from a grape (1cm) to a grapefruit (10 cm) or even larger.,
Fibroids are usually benign (not cancerous).
When a woman enters menopause and her estrogen levels drop to the degree that her periods stop altogether, her fibroids will subsequently shrink (atrophy) naturally.
But it’s not uncommon for women in menopause to be diagnosed with fibroids and, as you delve deeper into their history, you learn that their estrogen levels have remained elevated by way of synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT), obesity or other factors.
Fibroids are one of the most common reasons that women in their thirties and forties have a hysterectomy.
Whilst progesterone therapy has proved successful for a majority of the women experiencing heavy bleeding associated with fibroids, there has been a couple of cases reported where fibroids have not responded to progesterone therapy. They, in fact, grew in size.
Overall, an average of seven months on high levels of progesterone (ranging between 60~100mg/day, adjusting dosage accordingly) appears to be an effective timeframe to get some measure of control.
High doses of 100~200mg/day (via suppositories) taken under strict medical supervision, gradually reducing dosage over a few weeks, have been incorporated with successful outcomes (documented in literature).
A number of women have managed to successfully control their fibroids with no less than 40mg/day (4%) progesterone cream as a baseline dose, while others have required an average maintenance dose of between 50~60mg/day.
Stress and personal grief, fatty liver and other factors need to be considered here as to their potential to compromise the uptake of progesterone.
Vaginal application of cream can, for some women, provide a more direct and effective route of delivery in the treatment of fibroids where topical delivery has rendered progesterone therapy less effective.
Of course, I strongly urge women, working in consultation with their physician, to undertake regular ultrasounds to monitor the stages of fibroid growth, and to determine the success of their progesterone dosage. Saliva assays would be helpful to capture a snapshot of hormones levels.
