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[Macca65]

Hello again,
I think I'm progesterone intolerant.
I have all the side effects and none of the positives of taking it!🙄.
Anyone else have the same problems and if so what have you done? Is there a solution that works for you?
Really need some advice on this.

[sheila99]

What have you tried so far? When you say none of the positives - presumably your lining is thin which is the reason we take it? Have you tried a long cycle? I get tired on utro but with a long cycle I can live with it.

[KiltedCupid]

Hi Macca - I'm surprised you haven't had more replies to this as it's a big issue with hrt. I'm severely prog intolerant, even to my own prog. I've tried them all including stopping hrt entirely. They all get me in the end. Now, realising I can't function completely hrt free, well, not right now, and at the point of being referred to gynae for hysterectomy, I seem to have found a workable form of hrt in a half fem7 sequi patch. It's low dose, so might not suit you but this amount of prog is ok for me and it's continuous. I really believe if you're truly prog intolerant, the highs and plummets of a cycle aren't a good idea, rather, find the lowest dose possible and take it conti.

Don't know what you've tried or how much, let us know and you might get a few more suggestions. One thing you might consider, and I am, is a Jaydess coil. It's not licensed for hrt in uk but some gynaes are willing to fit it and you can have it fitted for contraceptive purposes if you're in that zone. It's significantly less prog that Mirena and acts ‘mostly' locally so the systemic effects are reduced.

Post more about your experiences.

[Ladybt28]

I found out after a lot of trial and error that my body reacted badly to some progesterone, in fact some were downright dangerous to me. (Provera sent me completely loopy!) I also found out that how I took it and the regime I was on also had an effect.  Which progesterone's have you tried Macca?
You mention "benefits" of progesterone.  I think it is more practical rather than beneficial.  If you have a womb then you need to keep the womb lining thin and that is the job of progesterone.  Some ladies who take it orally and who suffer from insomnia can get a "sedative" benefit from it but others it just makes them drowsy or feel "drunk" all the time.

I am post meno and choose to bleed so that means I don't take continuous progesterone and I use Utrogestan vaginally which means I don't take oral progesterone.  I think I have had all the kinds at one time or another, some were worse than others but Utro is the best for me.  However, there are ladies who cannot use that and can prefer Provera, or the Mirina for example.  It depends what you have tried and how you have tried it and for how long for?
If you can tell us some more, someone might be able to help.

[friend of lhasa apso]

Hi Macca65 , I get bad pmt like symptoms on the synthetic progesterone.
Recently I'm trying micronised progesterone capsules with evorel 25 mg patches ;day 7 of progesterone and I'm feeling weepy ,very tired and quite negative and fed up .I'm disappointed because was feeling so much better on first two weeks of the oestrogen patch .
   Also for some reason I'm getting sore and itchy down below, so will probably have to drag myself back to gp next week to see what's going on 😯 .
   From what I've read so far on this forum, a lot of ladies find the progesterone phase difficult. Sorry can't be more help ,I'm a newbie myself ,but hopefully some one more knowledgeable will come along soon .

[Sooze]

Macca65,
From my experience I think of intolerance as, ‘more bad side effects than good therapeutic effects', which makes you want to discontinue treatment.

I am intolerant to levonorgestrel and dydrogesterone.  I also believe for some women the normal ‘prescribed' dosage gives intolerable side effects, whereas, if a lower dose was available it ‘might' be tolerable and therapeutic. 

For me I found it difficult to tolerate Utrogestan orally, so I switched to vaginally, which was a bit better.  Then I switched to vaginally every other day and I am not having any bad side effects so far (10 months in).  This has been done with the OK of my Drs, and I will have regular scans (post meno and on Sandrena 1mg with it).  I wouldn't have known that this regime might work if I hadn't read about it here BTW.
HTH,
S

[AG]

Hi,
I tried two different types of HRT and neither of them agrees with me. Initially, a few positives but I got quite alarming balance problems and lots of other stuff and utrogestan especially is completely off for me. Femoston 1/10 was also not working at all. I have come off HRT completely again, and may also be getting a bit closer to post meno stage (very late peri, now no periods for 3-5 months for last two years). Went to see a specialist and she did mention that I am likely progesterone intolerant in particular and even mirena dosage will likely be too high for me to try. I may consider very low combined patches dose of HRT once post meno if beneficial for bones etc. All of this is very much a trial and error thing but for many women HRT works very well. All the best, AG

[Ladybt28]

sore and itchy down below Ihasa apso - then go and get checked out for vaginal atrophy.  Unexplained urine infections symptoms but no infection traced, soreness, painful sex, watery leaking - all signs of vaginal atrophy.  If you are having trouble with your oestrogen and progesterone levels then VA can come into the mix.

[Mary G]

Macca65, I've pretty much covered my own experience with progesterone in Reed Bunting's thread in the New Members section:

https://www.menopausematters.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,45520.0.html

The progesterone part of HRT is a real problem for a lot of women and the reason so many give up on HRT altogether.

[GypsyRoseLee]

Progesterone intolerance is very real and can actually be dangerous. Looking back, going on the Pill for the first time when I was at university caused a huge slump in my mood. Within 3 weeks of starting it my mood was so flat and joyless all the time, with just a handful of days per month when I felt okay again. It ruined my first year as an undergraduate.

I went on to suffer PND after my first child was born. Then more recently hitting the peri menopause caused absolute misery for me. Some of the HRT I tried with synthetic progesterone honestly made me feel suicidal, like all I wanted was to walk infront of a train just to make the mental pain just stop. It was that bad.

In the end the only regime which cured me was to be on a high dose of 4 pumps + a very low dose of Utrogestan, only 100mg for seven days a month. I have a yearly scan to check my womb lining is okay, and my withdrawl bleeds are very light each month. Though curiously my withdrawl bleed happens around the 17th/18th of the month, yet I take Utro from the 1st to the 7th.

[KiltedCupid]

GypsyRoseLee - entirely agree with your assessment of true prog intolerance. Unlike you, the synthetics in very small doses are more suited to me, utro makes me very depressed, as did my own prog. 2 bouts of pnd and years of misery when I wasn't on bcp. I just thought everyone had that! Anyway, we find a way, simply because there's no option. I, and I'm sure many others, yourself included are treated like oddballs by most medics when we tell them the extent of our intolerance - why would we make it up? It'd be so much easier to just keep taking the doses dished out, but we can't, not without severely affecting our quality of life. Looking back,  my peri certainly had a part to play in the break-up of my marriage. No regrets, but any other ladies reading this who feel really depressed and struggling with their relationship - don't just accept it's inevitable, there's help out there. It can take a while, but it's worth the trial and error when you find the right combo.

[lindseywalsh]

Hi there,
Do you take your 7 days of utrogestan vaginally?
Did your system take a while to get accustomed to the 7 days?
I am progesterone intolerant, and really hoping that this 7 day regimen will work for me