Would my 15 year old daughter benefit from progesterone treatment?

Hi Catherine,

My 15 year old daughter suffers from severe cramps for first 2-3 days of her period as well as water retention and other PMS symptoms. (craves sweets and can be a little testy) She takes Ibuprofen for relief. I wondered if she would benefit from progesterone treatment and what would be appropriate for a girl her age.

Thank you,

Sandy

Dear Sandy,

I would suggest you first determine, via her treating physician, your daughter’s baseline hormone levels. From these results, you can more accurately determine hormone imbalance.

But that’s only one approach. You still need to figure out the ‘why’. What is it in your daughter’s environment (that includes diet & lifestyle) that is causing what appears to be estrogen dominance?

She should be thoroughly checked out by her physician and, if there is nothing remarkable wrong with her, and her hormone levels are within the normal reference range yet her symptoms persist, well, you might consider dabbing a little progesterone on from Day 12~26 to gauge the result, in consultation with her doctor if possible.

Personally, I’m somewhat cautious when it comes to my own teenage girls. If they complain of headaches, mood swings, acne, heavy painful periods, or a craving for sweets, I open up discussions around what might be contributing. More often than not it can be tracked back to stressors or classroom apprehension, or they are not getting enough rest, maybe skipping meals and eating too much processed food. Basically, I tell them to listen to the message their body is sending them. When they unravel the ‘why’, the need for any medication is markedly reduced.

For this reason, I don’t keep anything stronger that panadol in the house. As a fibromyalgia sufferer, I’ve learned to use magnesium supplements to manage pain, and this seems to work rather effectively if I act quickly before the pain takes hold. My daughters follow suit with equal success.

There is, as I’ve said, a considerable safety margin with progesterone supplementation given its low toxicity but I’m just not comfortable nor do I feel it is responsible to embark on progesterone replacement therapy without due care, especially at such a tender age.

When hormone replacement therapy IS medically indicated, I would insist on bio-identical hormone replacement therapy.