Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I am wondering if anyone here uses progesterone as part of their HRT regimen and if so can you share your experiences, positive or negative?  thanks

I take it, I got it to help with breast growth after about a year of just Spiro and E.  So far at about 6 months it has not helped. I don't notice any side effects from it at all.

I was started on progesterone when I firs started hrt. My endo says that it helps lower testosterone. Since I have been on it since the start, I don't know exactly what it is doing. But, after 6 months I have B cups, so something is working.

I began using a progesterone creme and I seem to be getting fuller, which is a big plus.

I recently added progesterone. I started with smallest dose of medroxyprogesterone and noticed boobs more tender and nipples changing in a fairly short period of time (a week?). I wanted to try because I am getting some decent boobs but nipples haven't changed much at all. After a few days I noticed mild insomnia or at least trouble sleeping as a side effect. I asked the doc if I could try prometrium and OMG the first night I took that (again smallest dose) I was a dizzy mess and could hardly walk. I felt "totally wasted" lol. The next day I was a mess (like I had been up all night doing recreational drugs) and really felt like crap so I waited a few days to feel normal again and went back on the medroxyprogesterone. I'm taking it every other day and the insomnia side effects are very minor now. Taking it early in the morning seems to help. I might try daily after a few weeks but may just stick with every other day. I do feel like it's helping and even on pretty strong dose of spiro my T levels were kinda high so hopefully this will help with that too. I am on estriol not estradiol (horrible side effects from estradiol) so that might be part of this? I am hyper sensitive to meds, most people seem to do better on prometrium than medroxy but for me, the prometrium was something I never plan to take again! :P

As on older transitioner my endo felt the progesterone would have little added effect to E and AA.

As ever I think we need to trust experienced medics who work in the area.

 I used progesterone for about a month in November '11. I don't think it did anything for my breasts, but it may have catalysed these last thirteen months of constant depression. Depression is, after all, a side-effect.

I'm hoping that it just did nothing, and that the depression was inevitable...

Quote from: Kelly J. P. on December 12, 2012, 01:46:59 AM
I used progesterone for about a month in November '11. I don't think it did anything for my breasts, but it may have catalysed these last thirteen months of constant depression. Depression is, after all, a side-effect.

I'm hoping that it just did nothing, and that the depression was inevitable...

What AA are you on?

 Spironolactone, maximum dose as per Vancouver's guidelines.

Quote from: Kelly J. P. on December 12, 2012, 02:07:43 AM
Spironolactone, maximum dose as per Vancouver's guidelines.

OK it is Androcur that has the severe depression side effect. I refused it and take Spiro instead.

Quote from: Cindy James on December 12, 2012, 02:31:48 AM
OK it is Androcur that has the severe depression side effect. I refused it and take Spiro instead.

I went for the Androcur.. And I got the depression as a side effect. On the plus side, I've not taken an AA of any sort on 6 months and still have no T worth mentioning..

That's because you prefer Vodka.

(sorry injoke, Kelly is a friend)

  I was on the progesterone along with E and Spiro.  My Dr. dropped that this past summer over reports of not much difference than E alone.  I seen to be more moody without it. 

  Joelene

I'm planning to talk to my gender clinic doc about progesterone, because there's some possibility it may make me less anxious than the E and Decapeptyl alone do - I've had a lot of trouble with anxiety since going on hormones.

(I'm partly basing this progesterone hope on watching a friend with ADD who's recently got pregnant, and has calmed waaay down!)

My endo prescribed me prometrium about a month ago (before I even asked, which I was going to  :D).  His thought was to lower my T a bit more, which was something I didn't know.  I hope to see some nipple development from it, but we'll see.
No side effects so far (I take it before bed to avoid tiredness), although I will say those little round pills are surprisingly hard to swallow.

Honestly I think the results from these meds are very individual. You really have to learn to listen to your body carefully. I don't think anyone, even the smartest doctor on the planet can predict what sort of reaction or results a certain med will or won't have. If most docs (or experts on the internet) looked at my blood work they would say "You aren't going to see any results" yet I went from flat chested to very close to a full 34B and still growing. Others have been on max strength dosages with perfect blood work for years and still at AA size. Unfortunately a lot of it is trial and error, like finasteride caused depression for me, it doesn't bother others. Prometrium was a disaster, medroxy wasn't. I do not plan to stay on progesterone long but I do want to see if it will kick start some nipple development and maybe drive my T levels down some, the spiro isn't doing that. That was another weird thing, I'm on a pretty strong dose of spiro but my T levels are still around 200, almost exactly where they started at almost 2 years ago. Yet another thing that doctors don't understand..

I am sure that a study could show progesterone does nothing depending on the sample of patients used. A different set might show a big increase. I've read too many people who said their growth got stagnant and P kick started it.

I've had progesterone in my hrt regimen since the beginning. I couldn't stand medroxy after a while so I switched to prometrium. Its been better so far

Thanks for all the replies.  It seems the more I ask around about Progesterone the more varied answers I get.  I am only 7 months into HRT and if I do it try it it will be in a few months, but I will keep researching it and post anything new I find here..:)

I was told progesterine was not worth it, but it cant hurt to try it out.  If I was on progesterine I wouldn't stay on it forever.

I'm wondering about the side effects, too. Soon it'll be 6 months and my doc first mentioned that it's about time to start P for breast growth. Mind you, I'm only 5'2"?ish (161~162cm) so it's not like I NEED to be huge, but I'm worried about the bad side effects. I'm pretty sensitive to medicines and side effects and me being who I am, I read the possible side effects (which of course are listed for EVERY SINGLE DRUG nowadays...but it still worries me.

I mentioned that I'm coming back to the US for a bit, so she said it's got to wait until I come back *for the side effects*. That kind of worries me if she KNOWS nasty effects are bound to happen. Of course, better to find it out when I'm in the same country as the doc, but still...

An update on my progesterone. For me I feel like the bad side effects start after I have been on it for a while. For me is mostly insomnia. I go to sleep, wake up 4 hours later and can't get back to sleep/feel anxious. This got worse the longer I was on it daily. I talked with my doc and he suggested we try taking it for 4-5 days at the first of the month and then stop for the rest of the month. I've been doing this now for about 4 months and the bad side effects have disappeared. I've had a lot of breast growth this year and while I can't point to anything specific, I think it's mainly I found a mixture of meds and dosages that work for me.

I was on HRT for over a year with very little development and about 1.5 years into it, things changed a LOT. I read people saying they had boobs after 6 months. Again, you really can't judge anything by other people's reactions to these meds. Or expect to follow another persons timeline, it's not like females go from little girls to women in a year either. Everyone is going to react differently and you have to learn to listen to your body and use some common sense. Also you have to learn to be patient :) For me it was easier to be patient as I went full time long before I started HRT. I feel for people who are living as the wrong gender waiting impatiently for HRT results to "make it easier"..