Progesterone Detox
Progesterone is a lipophilic hormone. That means it “loves fat”. All steroid hormones love fat. but progesterone loves fat the most. It builds up in the fat and organs in our bodies. See Dr. Formby’s documentation.
The body can only metabolize so much in 24 hours. Every woman is different, but one study reported that it took 4 months for women to clear half of the 42mg per day dose they used for 40 days. One month of progesterone with the Wiley Protocol is 8,200mg. There is variation from women to women as to the degree of absorption, but the WP dosing is so high that even if only half were being absorbed it is still a huge amount building in the tissues and organs each month.
When we continued to put more progesterone on our bodies we just made the buildup greater. We felt like it was interfering with our ability to ‘hear’ our estrogen. Why we continued to do it? TS Wiley told us it was dangerous to stop. At the time we believed she was a credible researcher and this proclamation to keep applying seemed bizarre. She said we just needed good product and then we would be able to hear the estrogen. The entire group looked for “good estrogen” and also Please read Dr. Formby’s interview for more information about our unusual situation.
First update:
Many of us have stopped applying all progesterone in an effort to wash out and lower all our hormones to rational levels. Some of us have gotten saliva tests to establish a marker to see where we are at the start of detox (wash out). Many of us our using as little estradiol as we comfortably can while we wash out the progesterone. Some of us are finding (everyone is different) that when we go too fast lowering our estradiol we experience symptoms.
Second update:
After several weeks with no application of progesterone many of us are experiencing a huge wave and additional surging of progesterone as it comes out of our tissues. This has created an enormous need for increased estrogen so we can overload the normal way the system works and smash down the progesterone. It isn’t ideal and it ain’t pretty, but it is all we have right now. It’s a gamble. Are we in an escalation game? Unprotected from massive amounts of estrogen, some of us have been terrified. With massive doses of estrogen some of us are somewhat comfortable and believe we are getting through this without damaging our organs. We hope. This is so unusual and such uncharted territory that we fear consulting with unqualified doctors who do not understand the importance of the use of estrogen to protect our organs. During progesterone surges it feels like our brains are shutting down, our eyes go blurry, our hearts are racing, kidneys aching, thirst raging, blood pressure rapidly increasing, among some of the symptoms. If we put on estrogen we can stop the attacks after the estrogen gets into our systems. We must consult the latest scientific literature, test and listen to our bodies and work with doctors who are reading the literature and respect the needs of our current diseased state.
Some women have difficulty with racing hearts and are getting testing to determine what other body systems and glands might be unbalanced. Some women manage to quiet the racing pounding heart with estrogen. Some aren’t sure if that is the right course of action at the time. They can’t lie down to go to sleep at night because lying down means a racing heart.
We are investigating this in the literature. Everyone is being urged to test all possible hormones with saliva as well as doing regular blood pressure testing, glucose monitoring, and to find licensed and qualified medical assistance. Finding a doctor to treat massive progesterone overdosing that will understand the affects on our organs is not easy.
Deadlocked hormone can sit in the tissues/fat under the area it was applied to the skin. We have learned that the ingredients in the hormone replacement cream we used from the compounding pharmacies will make the hormone get stuck in the fat base. We are waiting to see if this can be viewed with an ultra violet light.
Some of us are finding that when we gently massage the area we get a surge of progesterone into our system. We are finding that estrogen is the only solution to lessen the impact of the progesterone surge. The surge can be terrifying as the progesterone starts blocking estrogen reception in the heart, eyes, brain and other organs. Eyesight will lessen and blur and it feels like our brains are shutting down.
To see what elevated levels of progesterone can do to our organs visit our Recovery Resources Library of Scientific Literature Excerpts prepared by Dr. Bent Formby. These Excerpts and Dr. Formby’s interview should be shared with your doctor. Printer friendly versions of all items are on the webpage.
If you have tissue saturation of hormones get a test to see where you are. There is debate about blood vs saliva, but we know the blood testing is not recording what happened. Many of us with progesterone poisoning are stopping the progesterone, getting a full panel of saliva tests, and our washing out our systems. We are in detox. See the group to find out how that is going. Some of us are having uneven surging of progesterone out of our tissues. We have learned that we would do well to test testosterone and DHT as well. See recovery resources as to possible reasons why.
Third Update:
There is huge variation in the recovery women are experiencing. Some women have stopped all hormones, some still get ill if they apply only 50mg of progestereone, some are doing a bi-est program now. There is huge variation in what women are doing. Some women report that they feel the progesterone metabolites coming out of the tissues after more than 5 weeks. Some are now exploring urine testing to see what is coming out of the tissues. Urine testing is done by perscription.
Saliva Testing
http://www.aeron.com/
http://www.diagnostechs.com/
http://www.salivatest.com/