How do I know when I take the right amount of cream?
Dear Catherine,
Life has been evil for a few years, and I have started taking adrenalin as well as progesterone cream, I am 53 and taking tamoxifen as well. How do I know when I take the right amount of cream?
Thank you,
Agate
Dear Agate,
You don’t mention in your letter what conditions you are attempting to treat with bioidentical progesterone so I’ll break down the information as you presented it.
Estrogen increases the rate that breast cancer cells proliferate (divide & multiply) and tamoxifen slows the rate of cell proliferation by acting as an anti-estrogen. According to the late Dr John Lee in his book ‘What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer : How Hormone Balance Can Help Save Your Life‘ (by John R. Lee M.D., David Zava, Virginia Hopkins) tamoxifen may put a breast cancer to sleep for a few years and in some women who have breast cancer it may slow the rate of recurrence for a few years. But in the long term it tends to do more harm than good (unnatural to the body ~ side effects).
Cancer of the breast and/or in the uterus most often occurs in women with a P/E2 ratio of less than 200 to 1. According to Dr David Zava of ZRT, who contributed to Dr John Lee’s publication, and who has amassed a database of tens of thousands of saliva samples and questionnaires, these cancers occur very rarely in women with a healthy P/E2 ratio.
If we are to protect ourselves from estrogen’s ability to initiate and promote cancer, it’s vitally important women maintain a healthy P/E2 ratio of 200~300 to 1. This is the ratio between progesterone (P) and estradiol (E2) when measured by saliva testing.
I think it’s becoming increasingly obvious to all of us that estrogen without progesterone is a setup for many reproductive cancers - not just breast cancer.
“How do I know when I take the right amount of cream?”
There are two parts to this question. I would recommend you spilt your dose into morning and evening applications to maintain a 24 hr coverage (progesterone levels fall 12-15 hours after application). Having said that, there are women who report bouts of wakefulness at night-time after applying progesterone cream. This isn’t uncommon. Applying cream first thing in the morning after showering will help these women avoid insomnia of an evening.
What is the right amount of cream to apply given that cream formulation and concentrations of micronised progesterone (%) can change from one cream manufacturer to another, sometimes from batch to batch, taking into consideration that every woman’s biochemistry and ability to absorb and use a natural progesterone cream is different?
Well, for starters, a ‘one size fits all’ approach to natural progesterone is just not always realistic. You need to individualise dosage and application methods according to your medical and family history, lifestyle considerations, diet, metabolism, etc. This fact is sometimes over-shadowed by cream availablity and apparent simplicity of cream application.
Monitoring how your body metabolises progesterone cream is the key here! And this can be achieved quite simply through regular salivary hormone profiles. You would adjust your dosage of progesterone (use more or use less) according to your estradiol levels measured by saliva testing coupled with symptom relief.
Research has shown natural progesterone is safer than all over-the-counter pain medications currently available, and there has never been a single case of anyone being admitted to hospital due to a poisoning from this hormone. When you use natural-to-the-body progesterone that is identical to the hormone produced by the human ovary that does not go against Mother Nature, side effects are minimal and by all account benign. If experienced these may include breast tenderness and swelling, fluid retention or slight vaginal bleeding. Dizziness, nausea, fatigue, headaches and light headedness have been reported occasionally and usually disappear with adjustment of dose.
