How does the doctor know what progesterone dosage to put me on, and when to adjust?
In countries where progesterone is a prescription S4 drug supposedly monitored by your doctor, problems arise when your doctor is asked to write a script for a drug she/he knows very little about. Most GPs err on the side of caution and follow drug indicated usage. Which is what most compounding pharmacists are already recommending with doses of between 16-20mg from Day 12 to 26 if you are menstruating or 25 days if menopausal.
The truth is, women are going to have to improvise, and hopefully rely on Natural-Progesterone-Advisory-Network.com website observational data to determine their parameters. To tune into their bodies, adjust their doses according to symptoms, initially working with higher doses in the first 6-8 weeks and weaning back to where they are asymptomatic.
We have observed that some doctors who are progesterone ’savvy’ have been very quick to reduce a woman?s dosage to a physiological dosage well before progesterone has had an opportunity to work effectively in the body, bringing about a rapid return of symptoms or a flare up of a particular disease or condition.
It is a fact, the Natural-Progesterone-Advisory-Network.com website encourages each and every woman to take responsibility themselves during progesterone therapy. Our publication has broadened our scope to include our opinions and observational data, and what the women have reported to be effective in their own use and experience with progesterone.
We impress upon women not to take our information as gospel. Use our information and experiences and tailor it to your own needs and opinions, or not. Neither should you blindly follow a doctor?s instructions if you intuitively feel that perhaps a little bit of extra progesterone could help you in the initial stages.
If you are having an estrogen dominant ‘wake up’ crisis, increase your cream to double the strength versus what you?re on now, providing it’s under 10% or 100mg. If the symptoms subside within 24 hours, then you know you are on the right track and should maintain a level where you are holding your symptoms. Once you settle, start gently reducing. Usually you will see changes either way within 24 to 36 hours. So, if you feel you need to go up a bit, try it for a few days.
Alternatively, if you?re feeling worse on a higher level, try going the other way and see if your symptoms get better. Some women actually need to decrease their progesterone in the first eight weeks purely because it is actually reacting in their body, particularly if their liver is not in good working order or their receptors are very slow to wake up and they just can?t cope with high levels. These same women may cope with high levels further down the track.
We urge women to experiment, but keep in mind that at the end of the day your goal is to work to physiological doses, mimicking nature (equal to ovarian output at ovulation of roughly 16-20mg).
In the back of your mind remember you don?t want to end up having an imbalance through too much usage of progesterone.
