Wow there has been a lot written in this thread since I last looked....rather than quote indidivual posts I'd just like to make a few points.
There was talk way back about "gospel truth" and how we are individuals, know our own bodies and work things out by trial and error.
First - Science and medicine do not operate in terms of "gospel truth" or "belief"- that lies in the realm of religion or superstition - just through research, trials, evidence, conclusions and then a decision on what might works depending on the outcome of all of that. It has to be the starting point of everything we take - from paracetamol, to cancer treatments, to HRT. Trial and error may come into it but only from the baseline of research to determine efficacy ( whether something works or not during trials) and safety. So in terms of pain relief - some prefer paracetamol, some ibuprofen, some aspirin etc but all have been approved re safety (more or less) and efficacy - but they won't all work for everyone. Same with HRT. So yes there is trial and error, but if it is not based on research that demonstrates some efficacy - then you are more likely to be wasting your money.
Second there was talk about Big Pharma. Of course Big Pharma wants to make money - but they will make money producing whetever is shown to work and gets licensed, whether it is oestrogen, progesterone etc. There are plenty of progesterone products produced by Big Pharma. If prog cream was shown to be efficacious then surely Big Pharma would be producing it - as there would be money to be made? Similarly all the "alternative" products are equally produced by big companies also making huge amounts of money prducing products based sometimes on spurious claims or misleading claims. Oestrogen dominance is a great theory for selling progesterone creams.
There seems to be two different points of view on here re oestrogen, HRT and peri-menopause - some disapproving of the urging of (mainly private) doctors that increasing oestrogen is almost always the answer to all their symptoms , and others saying that taking oestrogen as part of HRT before peri-menopause officially starts is the answer for many women. Of course both can be effective but neither universal. Some women will benefit from increasing oestrogen, and some women will benefit from starting HRT before cycles begin to go awry - as I said in an earlier post on this thread.
I agree that the rigidity of some in the medical profession is unhelpful - we see that regularly on this forum - and this is sadly due to ignorance.
There has been mention of decreasing progesterone causing menopausal symptoms. As I'm sure everyone knows, progesterone is not produced during anovulatory cycles and oestrogen fluctuates dramatically during peri-menoause. These are two separate things though in terms of symptoms. Lack of progesterone due to lack of ovulation can cause the womb lining to thicken and then cause the irregular heavy bleeding during peri-menopause. Yes progesterone can regulate this - but to regulate the cycle as it does as part of HRT. In fact some women are prescribed progestogens including progesterone during the second half of the month to ensure regulation of bleeding and the cycle. OTC progesterone cream is not strong enough to do this.
The way I see it, rather than taking all these additional products, if women are young enough, one of the pills like Qlaira or Zoely would perform the same function - the cycle would be regulated, and oestrogen would be stable, so the extreme undesirable symptoms due to hormonal fluctuations would be alleviated.
Somewhere in the thread someone mentioned about progesterone being needed by the body other than for reproduction. Yes this is true, and we continue to produce throughout our lives - but it is only produced in large amounts for reproduction which is why it was given the name progesterone. When it declines due to decline in reproductive function, then it only needs replacing to protect the womb or regulate the cycle as stated above - that's my understanding anyway. I haven't read anything to suggest it serves a therapeutic function to "balance" oestrogen - well I've read stuff talking about this but not trials that show that it works for the majority of women - which is the starting point - but perhaps for a small minority?
Hurdity x
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Topic: Has anyone used natural progesterone cream eg Biovea? (Read 140808 times)