Days 1-10 of cycle - Progesterone Cream use? Please advise.

[Guest guest]

I am a bit perplexed and wanted to get your advice and comments. I

have been tracking my temps for the past 3 months. I am using a bio-

identical progesterone cream on days 10-28 of my cycle to alleviate

headaches. I begin using 30mg for days 10-15, 60 mg for days 16-23,

and then 30 mg for days 24-28. So far it has shown great improvement

in my migraines. I am truly impressed.

I was previously taking 30 mg per day all throughout my cycle. I

think my system had built up the levels to the point IZ had saturated

my system. The 10 day break seems to help in that regard.

The problem I am having is those 10 days are the worst part of the

month. I have noticed a sharp decline in my temps (both basal and

averaged daily) of between 1-1.5 degrees (97.0-97.4 degrees average

with lows of 96.9). It corrects itself by the second day (day 10-11

or so) of application of the progesterone cream. For days 10-28, my

temps average 98.2-98.4 for the first time ever! During that 10 day

tiem frame I am also more emotional, moody and find myself stress

dosing with Isocort more often.

I am wondering if my body is interpreting the progesterone as

cortisol or using the excess progesterone to produce cortisol. I

know from the hormone cascade that there is little difference between

progesterone and cortisol, and that progesterone can be converted

into cortisol.

I also considered that my body may be responding to the sharp drop

off of not having progesterone at all for the 10 days.Any thoughts?

I am wondering if adding a small amount (10mg or so) during days 1-10

may help. Or maybe tapering down to a smaller dose over the first few

days of my cycle (ie. Days 1 and 2=20 mg, days 3-4 = 10 mg, etc).

Thank you,

Marva