Progesterone Is Important for Transgender Women’s Therapy

[Jessica]

Is it one of those yellowish, about 1/2" long, egg shaped capsules?

Yep!

[Linde]

Yep!

They recommend to orally take them before bed time, do you know when one should be shoving them into the rear end?

[Jessica]

They recommend to orally take them before bed time, do you know when one should be shoving them into the rear end?

I do understand that your endo is not entirely on board with progesterone and you needed your GP to prescribe it for you.  I can't tell you which time or way is best for you personally, that is up to your physician.

[Linde]

I do understand that your endo is not entirely on board with progesterone and you needed your GP to prescribe it for you.  I can't tell you which time or way is best for you personally, that is up to your physician.

I need to teach him!  Remember, I used to work in that field, too.  My endo is not on board at all.  Once I have my physician "trained" enough to understand this hormone stuff, I might drop the endo entirely, and just deal with my physician.  The hormone related blood tests are pretty easy to interpret, and without my testes muddig the picture anymore, I am mostly on maintenance now!

I will try the sublingual route first, and see how that goes (and tastes).  It depends on the coating of those pills, if it is an enteric coating of some kind, it might not melt away under the tongue, but could have problems to melt in the colon, too!

[Jessica]

I need to teach him!  Remember, I used to work in that field, too.  My endo is not on board at all.  Once I have my physician "trained" enough to understand this hormone stuff, I might drop the endo entirely, and just deal with my physician.  The hormone related blood tests are pretty easy to interpret, and without my testes muddig the picture anymore, I am mostly on maintenance now!

I will try the sublingual route first, and see how that goes (and tastes).  It depends on the coating of those pills, if it is an enteric coating of some kind, it might not melt away under the tongue, but could have problems to melt in the colon, too!

I asked my girlfriend what she thought of the sublingual route....she said yuck.
I, for your knowledge, have not experienced any problems with it not melting you know where. 

[Linde]

I asked my girlfriend what she thought of the sublingual route....she said yuck.
I, for your knowledge, have not experienced any problems with it not melting you know where.

OK, the results of sublingual are in, brought to you in life and in color!
If your mouth is OK wet, it melts relatively easy, and leaves a bitter seat taste in your mouth, nothing to write home about, but also nothing not to take it sublingual!  It takes a little longer for the capsule part to fully dissolve (probing with the tongue, it seems to be empty), and I will just swallow the rest down in a minute or so.

Sublingual will be the way to go for me, probably at the same time as I take estrogen this way.

[steph2.0]

I asked my girlfriend what she thought of the sublingual route....she said yuck.
I, for your knowledge, have not experienced any problems with it not melting you know where.

I tried a couple of them rectally. Dr Powers says they work better that way in every respect, including T suppression. But no matter how far I pushed them in, I woke up the next morning with an oily patch in my panties and a short bout of diarrhea. I may try again to verify, but I've just been taking them orally for a while.


- Stephanie

[Jessica]

I tried a couple of them rectally. Dr Powers says they work better that way in every respect, including T suppression. But no matter how far I pushed them in, I woke up the next morning with an oily patch in my panties and a short bout of diarrhea. I may try again to verify, but I've just been taking them orally for a while.


- Stephanie

I've read that when Progesterone is prescribed to cis-women and directed to insert vaginally, there have been an "inserter" involved.

[Linde]

I tried a couple of them rectally. Dr Powers says they work better that way in every respect, including T suppression. But no matter how far I pushed them in, I woke up the next morning with an oily patch in my panties and a short bout of diarrhea. I may try again to verify, but I've just been taking them orally for a while.


- Stephanie

I have the same concern.  I will take them sublingual, and should have a similar effect to inserting them into the colon.  In both ways it is absorbed through mucosa, and the results should be very similar.  I do not have any T to suppress, and I don't know with which parameters Dr. Powers measures the outcome!

[pamelatransuk]

Maybe if you have zero T Progesterone will work in ways you wish quicker??

As they say YMMV.

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I sure hope so. In February my T was 0.2 (Intl) or 6 (US). I have my next BTs for E&P&T next week.

Hugs

Pamela

[Linde]

I sure hope so. In February my T was 0.2 (Intl) or 6 (US). I have my next BTs for E&P&T next week.

Hugs

Pamela

We are close in T, mine was <5 (US).  I am taking P now sublingual, and let's see how that goes for me.  I am up for the next test in about 8 months.  My endo does not feel there will be many changes, because there is nothing left for me that could change the T level, and because of this, he feels that two blood tests a year are enough for me.

[Dorit]

I just returned from my endo appointment.   She said NO to my request to start progesterone.  She read all the current articles(I sent her the link to the UK article posted here), consulted with another endocrinologist with transgender patients, and decided that it was still too much of an unknown.  Her point was that I was already doing a lot of new things to my body, and thought it was risky to add another hormone that has little to no research about its effects on transgender women.

Israel is a small country with state supported medical care.  She is one of two endocrinological clinic heads that provide transgender medical care.  There are no other alternatives.  I thanked her for her cautious, conservative approach to my health!

[Linde]

I just returned from my endo appointment.   She said NO to my request to start progesterone.  She read all the current articles(I sent her the link to the UK article posted here), consulted with another endocrinologist with transgender patients, and decided that it was still too much of an unknown.  Her point was that I was already doing a lot of new things to my body, and thought it was risky to add another hormone that has little to no research about its effects on transgender women.

Israel is a small country with state supported medical care.  She is one of two endocrinological clinic heads that provide transgender medical care.  There are no other alternatives.  I thanked her for her cautious, conservative approach to my health!

Hi Dorit
Some endos seem to be extra conservative, mine for sure is!  He did not want to prescribe progesterone for me either.  he was of the opinion that the authors of the papers had it wrong because there has never been evidence that progesterone was present in females earlier than several years they started puberty, etc.  But endos are not always right.  When I went to him first time, my breasts were barely an A cup, and he told me very confident that because of my age, I should not expect any more growth!  Well I started to wear a C cup yesterday, because my B cup bra was hurting me!  What did he know?

I went with all the research to my family doctor, who is an internist, and he studied it and prescribed progesterone for me!  The endo can be happy with his opinion, I trust my family doctor more than the endo!
Have a wonderful day!
Linde

[Donica]

I just met with my new Endo this morning. She is willing to prescribe progesterone but not until after I recover from my surgery. The only problem is, Kaiser only covers the bad progesterone and not micronized progesterone so I will have to pay out of pocket until things change. I will report back in about two or three months.

YAY!!!

[Linde]

I just met with my new Endo this morning. She is willing to prescribe progesterone but not until after I recover from my surgery. The only problem is, Kaiser only covers the bad progesterone and not micronized progesterone so I will have to pay out of pocket until things change. I will report back in about two or three months.

YAY!!!

The micronized stuff seems to be pretty expensive.  For my 90 days supply I had to copay $45.  The bad stuff I had before did not require any copay!
So, be prepared for a little sticker shock when you have to pay it on your own!

[Sabrina Hope]

The micronized stuff seems to be pretty expensive.  For my 90 days supply I had to copay $45.  The bad stuff I had before did not require any copay!
So, be prepared for a little sticker shock when you have to pay it on your own!

I do pay around 100 a month for e injections so I am eager to see progesterone when I have my prescription in 2 wks

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[Jessica]

@Donica

I just met with my new Endo this morning. She is willing to prescribe progesterone but not until after I recover from my surgery. The only problem is, Kaiser only covers the bad progesterone and not micronized progesterone so I will have to pay out of pocket until things change. I will report back in about two or three months.

YAY!!!

Northern California Kaiser allows micronized Progesterone in their formulary. 
The price of course is determined by your plan.  I get the employee rate at $20 for 3 months worth.

[Myranda]

The micronized stuff seems to be pretty expensive.  For my 90 days supply I had to copay $45.  The bad stuff I had before did not require any copay!
So, be prepared for a little sticker shock when you have to pay it on your own!

It all depends on your insurance policy for sure.

[Myranda]

@Donica

Northern California Kaiser allows micronized Progesterone in their formulary. 
The price of course is determined by your plan.  I get the employee rate at $20 for 3 months worth.

Wow that is pretty amazing.  I thought my insurance was great, and it is $7.50/month

[pamelatransuk]

Hello Everyone

You may recall I started Progesterone March 17th but my quarterly Blood Tests were due yesterday and hence that for Progesterone refers to just 74 days.

My readings are: E 242 (Intl)   or 66 (US)
                         T  0.4 (Intl)  or  12 (US)
                         P  3.7 (Intl)  or 107 (US). I assume in US you measure P in ng/dl as you do for T but please correct me if I am wrong. Intl is nmol/l.


My thoughts are that: E is low as previous reading was 558 (Intl) or 152 (US)
                                T is fine
                                P is a little high

I shall discuss with my doctor and endo and let you know their thoughts in due course.

Hugs

Pamela