My progesterone experience and verdict

[awilliams1701]

I'm almost at a year. I've asked multiple times for P and my endo won't. She told me she would only do it if my T-levels are too high. She took my blood once at the 3 month mark and it was fine, but I felt good then. My breasts were growing fast. I had no "male problems". A month later my breasts stopped growing and I started having "male problems" again. Since then its only gotten worse. She keeps telling me its suppressed and that I shouldn't be experiencing "male problems", but she only checked my blood once. She never even showed me the results. I'm fed up with her and I'm ready for a second opinion. I'm pretty sure there is another doctor that will prescribe P. So I'm ready to move on.

P makes sense to me. Its a pregnancy hormone and pregnant women get bigger breasts. That's just a fact. I think that's why everyone on this board says it works. It sounds like there are some risks, but unless I'm mistaken you only need it for a couple years for breast growth.

[Jessie Ann]

I have been on Prometrium for a couple of months now.  I started out cycling, then tried one month taking it every day and now I am back cycling but on a higher dosage. 

My breasts were developing pretty good but it is hard for me to tell what is happening right now because of my breast augmentation at the end of August.  Because of the dropping and changes that are occurring with that it is a little hard to tell what is natural and what is from the BA.  I do think that they are still growing at a pretty steady level, I just have no of telling right now.  Since the BA has pretty much settled at this point, I should be able to tell going forward. 

My butt has defiantly changed.  I used to have no butt but now I do have some butt.  It really is nice to not have my pants just slide off me. 

My Endo said that he has not seen such dramatic changes in such a short period of time in someone my age. 

[Skeptoid]

I started on progesterone about 1.8 months ago now and haven't experienced any noticeable breast growth. Was already on HRT for a bit over a year. I did start to get erections more often/more easily again though.

[awilliams1701]

Interesting I've only been on estrogen and started having erections at month 4. They've been more frequent since then.

[Eva Marie]

EDIT: Also I will say, you're going to have to get used to mood swings anyway. It really is just a part of the female brain chemistry. Expect mental changes, especially along with the social. I've found that I have developed a certain irrationality, I've become more communicative and social, and I do experience mood swings through my cycle, but within normality for a female. You just have to sort of adapt.

^^^ This. Welcome to being a female.

Ive been on prometrium for about 18 months now. One of the negative effects i've noticed is mood swings and being emotional. I cycle it on a 12 day cycle as prescribed by my endo. On some months I notice nothing out of the unusual except being extra tired and sleepy, but on some months by day 12 my emotions have run the full gamut - I've been emotionally up, down, and sideways. When that happens things tend to get magnified way out of proportion, and I tend to be snappish and impatient/annoyed with people. Now that I know it's possible during those 12 days for me to be that way I make extra efforts to stay cool and calm.

One other odd thing i've noticed is that i've developed certain symptoms that precede the 12 day cycle starting. One of them is that I now reliably have headaches every month just before the 12 day cycle begins.

When it's time to start a cycle i'm always looking forward to it. By the 12th day it's gotten cloying and i'm ready to be off of it 

I put up with all of this to get the physical effects that P brings - namely, curves in the right places.

[KayXo]

The other problems with medroxyprogesterone acetate are vascular problems, increase in risk in blood clotting and breast cancer whereas this is not the case with bio-identical progesterone. Medroxyprogesterone acetate is also mildly androgenic whereas bio P is not.

I personally am wondering, despite some of its benefits to me, if it has made me gain a little too much weight and increased cellulite (also water retention) or if this is due to estradiol.

Lastly, cycling isn't something natural to ciswomen and only a recent phenomena since industrialisation. In the past, women would spend more time being pregnant and breastfeeding and much less time cycling, whereas nuns who would spend all their time cycling had a significantly higher breast cancer occurrence. Plus, cycling increases the risk of mood swings. I don't see the point of it, personally.

[KristinaM]

I did some reading a little while back on the effects of progesterone on breast growth, and here's a basic description of what I learned.

Estrogen promotes the development of "breast tissue" which is the main component of breasts, obviously.

However, progesterone promotes the development of all the other structures present, such as milk ducts and some other things that I can't remember exactly.

So that explains why progesterone makes breasts "fill out" because it causes other parts of the breast to start development which would otherwise lie dormant without it.  Based on that knowledge, progesterone seems like the way to go for the genuine development of female breasts.  I'll be sure to ask my endo about it when I see her on Tuesday!

[Laura_7]

I did some reading a little while back on the effects of progesterone on breast growth, and here's a basic description of what I learned.

Estrogen promotes the development of "breast tissue" which is the main component of breasts, obviously.

However, progesterone promotes the development of all the other structures present, such as milk ducts and some other things that I can't remember exactly.

So that explains why progesterone makes breasts "fill out" because it causes other parts of the breast to start development which would otherwise lie dormant without it.  Based on that knowledge, progesterone seems like the way to go for the genuine development of female breasts.  I'll be sure to ask my endo about it when I see her on Tuesday!

Bioidentical progesterone also seems to have to do with form.
Quite a few people report helping being less cone shaped.

It has anti androgenic properties, too...
https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,192953.msg1733564.html#msg1733564


hugs

[Monica Jean]

I was taking Prometrium from the 5th month of HRT til month 11, that's when my doc wrote the script for the injectables as I'm already using E via injection. 

I couldn't be happier!  While there was some modest breast growth with Prometrium, the injectables are taking this to a whole new level.  I'm almost filling out a size B cup now. 

One thing I've learned is to adapt to a new schedule of injecting...every 3rd day.  This way I'm not dumping all the P into my system once a week.  Doing that makes me extremely sleepy, groggy and irritable.  These are known side effects of P.  Backing off the dose to less than half appropriately every 3rd day makes for a much better experience. 

Yeah, injecting every 3rd days gets to be old, but it's benefits outweigh the annoyance to me. 

[iKate]

I was taking Prometrium from the 5th month of HRT til month 11, that's when my doc wrote the script for the injectables as I'm already using E via injection. 

I couldn't be happier!  While there was some modest breast growth with Prometrium, the injectables are taking this to a whole new level.  I'm almost filling out a size B cup now. 

One thing I've learned is to adapt to a new schedule of injecting...every 3rd day.  This way I'm not dumping all the P into my system once a week.  Doing that makes me extremely sleepy, groggy and irritable.  These are known side effects of P.  Backing off the dose to less than half appropriately every 3rd day makes for a much better experience. 

Yeah, injecting every 3rd days gets to be old, but it's benefits outweigh the annoyance to me.

I already fill a C and size is really not an issue for me. However, fullness and shape is. And P helps in that department a ton.

I am on pills strictly right now. My endo seems to think they're doing just fine. Maybe she's right. They seem to work for me. I get a lot of "hurt" and itchiness now so something is happening.

[KayXo]

I did some reading a little while back on the effects of progesterone on breast growth, and here's a basic description of what I learned.

Estrogen promotes the development of "breast tissue" which is the main component of breasts, obviously.

However, progesterone promotes the development of all the other structures present, such as milk ducts and some other things that I can't remember exactly.

So that explains why progesterone makes breasts "fill out" because it causes other parts of the breast to start development which would otherwise lie dormant without it.

Estrogen promotes the formation of milk ducts while progesterone promotes lobulo-alveolar development (side-branching, milk glands), making the breasts look fuller and rounder.

I was taking Prometrium from the 5th month of HRT til month 11, that's when my doc wrote the script for the injectables as I'm already using E via injection. 

I couldn't be happier!  While there was some modest breast growth with Prometrium, the injectables are taking this to a whole new level.  I'm almost filling out a size B cup now. 

One thing I've learned is to adapt to a new schedule of injecting...every 3rd day.  This way I'm not dumping all the P into my system once a week.  Doing that makes me extremely sleepy, groggy and irritable.  These are known side effects of P.  Backing off the dose to less than half appropriately every 3rd day makes for a much better experience. 

Yeah, injecting every 3rd days gets to be old, but it's benefits outweigh the annoyance to me.

Progesterone needs to be injected DAILY, this is how it's done in pregnant women to avoid miscarriage. Progesterone has a very short half-life so by the 2nd day, levels have already significantly dropped to almost nothing. It's different for estradiol valerate as it can last for longer, so 7 days is usually ok, up to 10 days. I take prometrium orally, always with food, twice daily, a high dose and it works fine by me. I would worry about fluctuations in progesterone because when they drop, I go into PMS! You should test your levels on day 3 just before injecting progesterone or even on day 2...and compare them to day 1, 12 hours after injecting. You'll see...

[WendyAnn.1969]

I have taken oral P bio identical and have had excellent development and normal looking breasts especially so for almost 47 years old. I am right at a year on HRT and 9 months P.  Probably B cup and normal looking says the gynecologist.

[Monica Jean]

Estrogen promotes the formation of milk ducts while progesterone promotes lobulo-alveolar development (side-branching, milk glands), making the breasts look fuller and rounder.

Progesterone needs to be injected DAILY, this is how it's done in pregnant women to avoid miscarriage. Progesterone has a very short half-life so by the 2nd day, levels have already significantly dropped to almost nothing. It's different for estradiol valerate as it can last for longer, so 7 days is usually ok, up to 10 days. I take prometrium orally, always with food, twice daily, a high dose and it works fine by me. I would worry about fluctuations in progesterone because when they drop, I go into PMS! You should test your levels on day 3 just before injecting progesterone or even on day 2...and compare them to day 1, 12 hours after injecting. You'll see...

I exhibit the opposite effect as you, when P levels drop, I have more energy.  I was able to note this if I took P of a certain amount (amounts doses not allowed to be published).  If I backed off the P every 3 days, I rarely noticed the up & down cycle and still come close to the dr's prescribed amount per week.  And my boobs still are growing and hurt!  It's a good hurt

I won't go back to pills, injections make it easy to know exactly how much goes in to the bloodstream.  They just work better for me than the micronized pills.