Does anybody have experience with progesterone creams?
I feel like I am at a point in my transition where I might benefit from adding progesterone into the equation. However, I have heard wildly different opinions on whether it has any impact at all, and criticism of generally available creams on amazon for not being the same as human progesterone, since they are often derived from plants.
What do you girls think? Are they junk, or are there some out there worth trying?
I would take bio-identical progesterone (P4) prescribed by a doctor. The common recommendation is to press the pill (normally taken orally) up into the rectum, since taking it orally causes the liver to filter most of it. Bypassing the liver by putting it up the rectum allows it to absorb readily in the lower intestines.
A common recommendation is to start progesterone a year or two into HRT once the breasts have reached Tanner stage III, as taking it too early supposedly can negatively impact breast development (take this with a grain of salt, may or may not be true; there is also no empirical evidence progesterone helps breast development, it’s all anecdotal reports).
Gotcha gotcha. Did you have an easy time getting a prescription for it? I have heard some health workers are hesitant to prescribe it because of the lack of clinical studies regarding it
Yeah, I had some pushback, but I mentioned it a few times and accepted any possible risks. I think it’s going to depend a lot on your doctor but I mentioned breast growth, hip size, and sex drive as motivating factors for taking it. I’ve been on it for around 4 years now.
Interesting. I am also prescribed progesterone (capsules), and I didn't really get any push-back. When I started HRT, my doctor had said that we could consider it once she had gotten my estrogen levels where I wanted them, which she had said would be after about a year.
Well a year on HRT later, and blood-work showed my estrogen levels were within the lower range for women. So I asked her to increase my dose one more time and prescribe progesterone, and she did without hesitation, after explaining it a bit.
I'm really lucky to have such a great doctor. I'm in a deep red state, and it takes an hour to get to my doctor appointments in the nearest blue city. I guess I'm also lucky that it's only an hour each way.
I have two somewhat personal questions for you, if that's okay:
Do you intend to take progesterone for life, or are you expecting to stop taking it at some point?
Do you take it everyday?
I currently take it each night, but only for the first half of the month each month.
I take tablets. I had already been on HRT for around 4 years when I first mentioned it to my doctor. My doctor is young and pretty progressive, even in a progressive area, but she showed a lot of hesitancy towards changing my medications. She was also misinformed and concerned about cancer risks.
I will probably take it forever, yeah. I am post op and have unmeasurable T levels, so the prog keeps my energy and libido heightened and stable. I don’t cycle it and never have either, I just take it at night with half my daily E and half my daily Spiro.
I'm still pre-op, doing laser, and procrastinating on investigating surgeons in blue cities. My doctor had said that some people take it forever, and some only temporarily. So that's why I was curious about your perspective, as someone who is basically where I want to be.
You doctor's hesitancy is concerning. I hate this overall trend of gatekeeping health care, like the current mess in the UK. That PhilosophyTube video about trans healthcare in the UK was an eye-opener for me as to how seriously toxic the healthcare system there had gotten.
And as far as the slight increase in chance of breast cancer (matching cisgender women), I had told my doctor from the start that I'd prefer breast cancer than ending things myself. Worst case, I die while transitioning and am at least able to feel joy in my final days. As a child, I never thought I would live past 30, but now I actually feel joy and a desire to keep going.
Thank you again for sharing some personal information with me ❤️
My doctor actually gatekept me from referring me for bottom surgery for 6 years. Having had it now I realize I should have gotten it many years ago, but my family doctor kept telling me that I wasn’t ready yet. I think in some way she thought she was trying to protect me, but those were some very long, very hard years of waiting. I live in a very progressive community with many laws that advocate for me but gatekeeping is still a very prevalent very real problem here.
If my doctor and/or psychiatrist make me wait like that, I don't know what I'll do. I feel trapped here in this red state. And the way things are going in the US right now... it's troubling. But one way or another, I'm getting that surgery.
I honestly wouldn’t trust hormones from Amazon in any form, but I have heard that creams in general have a lower absorption rate.
If you’re not doing DIY, it’d be best to talk to your doctor about it, since they’ll know the best form and dose of it for you to take and you’d also be able to get it from a pharmacy then too.
One of my worries about hormones that aren’t from a pharmacy are that since there unfortunately are people out there who don’t like us, they may purposely make products to harm us (which has happened before, I don’t remember the name of that product though) or they may make products that don’t work to scam people who are desperate and trying to DIY.
This is true. I remember one product called Femboy Tummy Pills that was just poison. I just had my HRT checkup, and I forgot to ask about prog so I am impatient lol. Might be best just to wait, thanks!
Yeah, those femboy tummy pills were exactly what I was thinking of. If the clinic you go to has an online chart, you may be able to send them a message inquiring about prog, but you could also wait too if you feel that’s best.
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