Progesterone mucking things up?!

[Guest guest]

Back in January, I posted my saliva results here and was told by Val

that I " could also use progesterone from the looks of things

and might benefit from testosterone if youhave a docotr that will

prescribe it for you. "

Well, I just saw my nurse practitioner last Thursday and she

prescribed testosterone for me. I got a little leary of starting it,

though, because of some of the possible side effects; so I bought

some progesterone cream and started using it Friday.

I am experiencing a return of some hypoT symptoms that were pretty

much gone (stiff, sore muscles and sore feet mostly) and was reminded

on a different forum that estrogen binds thyroid so if the

progesterone I am using is converting to estrogen, that could by

mucking up things as I am trying to switch from levo (200mcg, now at

100mcg) to Armour (started at 1 grain, now at 1-3/4 grains). I know

there is a suggested protocol for treating issues and that treating

the sex hormones are further down the list than the thyroid, but

being that I am in surgical menopause v. natural menopause, my sex

hormones are a bit of a priority for me....not ABOVE thryoid, but

maybe EQUAL TO.

I am at a loss as to what to do...I was thinking that I should give

the progesterone cream at least 4-6 weeks to have a clear indication

as to its efficacy, but now that I am miserably achy and stiff, I

don't really know WHAT to do!! Should I stop the P cream? Should I

add the testosterone cream my np prescribed? Should I do the T cream

only? Should I just stop both sex hrts (I refuse to stop my estrogen

patch...it is the only thing that can quell the nasty hot flashes I

was getting!!)? Could someone please help me with some ideas?!?!?

Here are my saliva results again, just in case you need them to be

able to answer fully:

Free Cortisol Rhythm

7:00-8:00am 26 Elevated 13-24nM

11:00-Noon 6 Normal 5-10nM

4:00-5:00pm 4 Normal 3-8nM

11:00-Midnight 2 Normal 1-4nM

Cortisol Burden 38 23-42

DHEA 7 Normal Adults (M/F):3-10ng/ml

fTSH 60 Normal

fT4 0.17 Normal

fT3 0.49 Normal

TPO Neg Normal:Negative

Estradiol 10 HRT Target Range:5-13 (I use the Vivelle dot)

Progesterone 77 HRT Target Range:100-300

Free Testosterone 7 Borderline Low Normal:8-20

Sorry this is so long...I really am at a loss!

K

[Guest guest]

Hi,

Do you have the ranges for the thyroid levels? I would think that you would

need to get your thyroid levels to an optimal range first and then see where

your sex hormones are at that point. Sometimes getting your adrenals and

thyroid levels up to par will level the other hormones out. However, if Val

said you would benefit from the ohter hormones, then I would follow her

advice. She's in bed right now, but I'm sure she'll respond tomorrow!

Rie

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy

enough people to make it worth the effort. Herm Albright

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5:50 AM

[Guest guest]

>>Do you have the ranges for the thyroid levels?<<

Sorry, I forgot when I copied and pasted my results that I didn't

have the thyroid ranges in there...

fTSH 60 Normal (26-85nIU/ml)

fT4 0.17 Normal (0.17-0.42ng/dl)

fT3 0.49 Normal (0.28-1.10pg/ml)

TPO Neg Normal:Negative **

**I checked with my nurse practitioner and I have had at least one

antibody test come back positive for antibodies, so I guess that puts

me in the Hashi's category, for what it's worth.

I should be at 3 grains Armour around March 21. Are most people close

to optimal at 3? Looking at a conversion chart, 200mg levo (what I

was on) is roughly equivalent to 3 grains. If I wasn't doing well at

200mcg, it would stand to reason that I will need more than 3 grains

to be optimal, no?

Thanks!