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Help with dose and estrogen dominance and heavy bleeding (sheesh!)

Hello;

I am 42 and have been on progesterone for appx 6 months. The first 3 months, I was only on 30 mg/day. I had blood work, and increased to 50 mg/night. Then the really bad estrogen dominance hit me like a flood. I got so bloated I gained 16 lbs in 3 weeks, had awful headaches, acne, couldn't sleep, and was the most irritable and angry person I ever met. I almost lost my fiancé over this. I started doing research and found this site and several good books. I raised to 100, then up to 150, then 200, then 250. I have been on 250 mgs for appx 1.5 weeks now. The bloating is almost entirely gone. I was feeling pretty good, as well, for the first week. Then, 2 days ago, the irritability, anger, and insomnia returned with a vengeance. I began picking fights with my poor fiancé (who is an absolute saint for putting up with me), and noticed I just wanted to be alone. Everything annoyed me badly and I found myself hating life. This paired with the fact that I have ZERO libido AND have been having a very very heavy period every 10-14 days have left me desperate for answers.

After reading through the posts here, I think I need to go up in my progesterone cream. I get a compounded cream that contains nothing but USP micronized progesterone cream. I apply it vaginally at night, and topically in the am and afternoon. Yesterday, I increased to 350, doing 150 at night, and 100 mg am and afternoon. I feel a bit calmer but still not myself. My bleeding, which was ridiculously heavy for the past 2 days, seems to be slowing down today.

My question is, could I be estrogen dominant again at the 250 where I needed to increase to combat this? Should I go higher than 350, as this site says that for heavy bleeding and stubborn estrogen dominance the dose should be 400-600. How do I know how much to raise and how long to hold the dose before raising again? Do I know when I start having periods again every 28 days? Any advice would be appreciated!

Comments for Help with dose and estrogen dominance and heavy bleeding (sheesh!)

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Jun 12, 2014
 Help with dose and estrogen dominance and heavy bleeding (sheesh!)
by: RJ

Hello!
Estrogen likes to rear it's ugly head at every opportunity....the foods we eat or what we put on our bodies or breath into our bodies, the stress we endure, which is nonstop for most of us, illnesses, lack of proper supplementation. It's awful. The heavy bleed will come and go. This month may be awful and next month you may ovulate and things go so smoothly compared to this month. And remember each month that you do not ovulate...which will be more and more frequent given your age....the estrogen gets to giggle and rev up again and you feel like the steam engine that's ready to blow it's whistle. So, lets say, for example, last month you ovulated, the body made some progesterone and the 250mg a day was keeping everything in line. But this month, no ovulation, which means the body doesn't make the progesterone, but the estrogen gets to keep going full steam ahead....guess what you need to counteract the unopposed estrogen....yep, way more progesterone...maybe 500-600 mg a day....my worst months I use 1,000mg a day. It is a vicious cycle and you either have to endure or up the dosage and get rid of the symptoms, although, you'll never make your cycles regular again, that's a thing of the past now and there can also be a chance, like myself, that the high dose of progesterone will not stop the bleed, but will only lessen it until the body decides to turn it off. In the two and a half years I've been on this site I do not believe I have come across one woman over the age of 40 who has said she was able to regain the regular pattern of her cycle once it went haywire. It isn't until these irregular patterns come out of the blue that we start searching and wondering what on earth has happened to us and we find out there is a thing called peri-menopause. I know it's not the answers we are hoping to find, but have comfort in knowing that hundreds of thousands of women suffer from this everyday and it's just not happening to you. Have patience and try to keep a comical side to it all because this too will pass. God Bless! RJ
Oct 18, 2014
 Status now
by: Jenny

Thank you for this! I have raised the progesterone and am up to 450 a day. Do I have to go slowly or can I just go up to 500-600 and watch for sleepiness? What other signs would I get if progesterone dose is too high?

I had actually started to feel better on 375 mg, which I had been on for the last 2 months. I lost a few pounds, the bloating had started to subside. Mood was better. THEN, my Doc said my testosterone was way too low and started me on 100 mg/day of compounded pharmacy testosterone cream. I just had bloodwork and NOW my estrogen is 5 TIMES HIGHER than estradiol and I am even WORSE estrogen dominant now. Gained all the weight back and MORE. SO bloated I cannot wear anything but sweatpants, in FLORIDA, because they are the only things that go around my distended stomach. Bad moods. Insomnia.

I am so angry my Doc did this to me. He now says I cannot take testosterone without taking Arimidex/anti estrogen pill. I stopped the testosterone for now because I really don't want to take that pill. But now I have bad bad bad estrogen dominance. I am up to 450 in progesterone this past week, but I think I should go much higher to counter this estrogen. WOuld you suggest the same? I am on 200 mg of DIM to try and clear it out, milk thistle, and avoid any estrogen's. Only grass fed organic meat and dairy. I am even trying the ketogenic diet now to try and lose the water weight.

Any other suggestions? I also have sky high cortisol, and take Adrenasense and phosphatidylserine to help bring it down. Doc just told me to raise melatonin at night from 2 mg to 10-20, but when I raised it to 6 mg I got insomnia. So now I am at 3 mg. He says this is the only way to effectively lower cortisol.

HELP!!!

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