Progesterone or no progesterone

[Valerie Elizabeth]

I am personally taking progesterone.  I can't comment on to what effect they are helping with my transition because I have not not taken them.  I am also very early on in my HRT.

I wanted to know if other people take progesterone if they feel like they got better results when they started.  I know that is probably hard to answer, but if someone could answer, that would be awesome.

I also found this article, and I wanted to know if anyone had heard this before?

Progesterone is used in hormone therapy for transsexual women and other women with intersex conditions - especially when synthetic progestins have been ineffective or caused side-effects - since normal breast tissue cannot develop except in the presence of both progestogen and estrogen. Mammary glandular tissue is otherwise fibrotic, the breast shape conical and the areola immature. Progesterone can correct those even after years of inadequate hormonal treatment. Research usually cited against such value was conducted using Provera, a synthetic progestin. Progesterone also has a role in skin elasticity and bone strength, in respiration, in nerve tissue and in female sexuality, and the presence of progesterone receptors in certain muscle and fat tissue may hint at a role in sexually-dimorphic proportions of those.

I thought that it described a lot of transwomen breasts pretty well.  I do know that genetics will always play a part.  I feel though that this makes scientific sense.  I am going to look into this more.

Lastly, a little off topic, I feel like I saw recently a chart that showed womens hormones levels through puberty and that they seemed to fluctuate quite a bit, going very high, and then dropping down pretty low, whereas males have a very constant hormone rate that plateaus and slowly decreases as they get older.  I bring this up because it would seem that people who have taken hormones for a time, stop, and then start again some time later, seem to have better breast growth than those who take it without stopping.  I also want to look into this further, and maybe I could get some insight from other folk on here.  If I can't find to much information or this simply is none available, I might consider trying to get a small research grant through my school for this.  I am sure I can get one of my med related teachers to work with me on it. 

Again sorry for rambling.  I always feel like I come here and plan to type a couple sentences, and end up talking forever.

[Ashley315]

I use it.. I like it.  but that could just be me.

[FairyGirl]

your post brought up some interesting related links below- this is a good discussion about it here:

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,18782.0.html

[Janet_Girl]

I use a progesterone cream for ten days each month.  I read somewhere that it was part of a bios hormonal shift when Aunt Flo comes to visit.

Does it do anything.  May be not except maybe psychological.  But I still use it.

Janet

[Hazumu]

Some can't take it because the side effects are too severe (PMS'y things.)

I do ten days out of 28, during the week that I carry the alert phone (my office mates know when it's 'that time of the month' for me, that way...)

I notice a dulling of libido and emotional sensitivity -- my personality loses the feminine edge and slides towards neuter.  Then it's nice when it comes rushing back after stopping.  Also, mu breasts are sometimes a little tender during the ten days.

But, YMMV

=K

[Tanya1]

Conclusion?

Varies upon individual. No hard data. All have different effects. Some with cycling it works wonders, other with stable doses and others it's best with no dosage.

[Sheeba]

Be sure to look up the differences between bio identical Progesterone and synthetic progestins (such as provera, etc.).

From what I've read there is a huge difference. 
Right now I'm taking Prometrium, which is micronized bio identical progesterone which is identical (in chemical structure) to the progesterone that the body naturally produces.

Progesterone is a very good balancer. It harmonizes and balances the hormones and has a protective effect. It does give a feeling of calm and peace.  I take one pill at night and it helps me to sleep. I've noticed that I don't feel as much anxiety when I take progesterone.
Note that progestin does not offer the same balancing and calming effects, actually it can do the opposite. When I used to take Provera it made me feel awful, cranky, depressed, bloated.

When genetic females experience PMS it isn't from the production of progesterone, it's actually because they are lacking progesterone and their bodies are Estrogen dominant.

[Ashley315]

I think it helps in breast development, or seems to have helped with me.