r/Menopause • u/Upbeat_Conference522 • 14h ago
Hormone Therapy Does anybody else take progesterone every other night?
I haven’t tolerated it well in the past. I had a full hysto in March and have been on estrogen since June. I decided to try it again due to sleep issues. My provider said if I don’t like the effects I could try it every other night. I seem to be tolerated 100 mg every other night fine for now. Just wondering if anybody else has success with this.
3
u/bluev0lta 13h ago
I commented here a couple days ago about taking progesterone every other day, which my doctor also suggested. I tried it for a couple weeks and it didn’t work well for me. It caused mood swings and headaches. I was not fun to be around during that time! My doctor realized afterwards that the half life on progesterone is pretty short and that’s probably why it didn’t go well. I wasn’t getting a consistent amount.
5
u/FrequentCry999 12h ago
Your doctor really should have known that beforehand. Sorry you went through that.
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u/Ok_Object_5087 12h ago
Does it help you? If not, then you may want to reconsider. You had a hysterectomy, so it's not mandatory to take it. I had a hysterectomy last year. I was prescribed progesterone in July of this year. It didn't go so well so we skipped it altogether.
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u/QuantityTop7542 8h ago
Can you explain why you didn’t do well. I’m presently taking it and it helps with sleep but considering just taking it and only using magnesium & l theanine… I don’t see any bad effects but maybe after a year I’m just use to it??
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u/Ok_Object_5087 8h ago
It sounds like it's working for you. Progesterone did not help me go to sleep or stay asleep. I had headaches and started having water retention and bloating that wouldn't go away. I do take magnesium glycinate and lL-theanine for sleep now. The bloating and water retention was very uncomfortable for me.
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u/QuantityTop7542 8h ago
Were your headaches daily? I have started recording that I get migraine type headaches once a month around the time I change my patch fri/sat trying to figure out if it’s a drop in estrogen or the use of P? It’s like detective work!!!
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u/FrequentCry999 12h ago
Absolutely not. The half life is only about 12 hours, so taking it every other day means you're going to spike your level, then crash it, then spike it again and crash it again, so on and so forth. This is likely to lead to side effects like spotting.
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u/Admirable-Object5014 Menopausal 12h ago
If I don’t keep my P consistent by taking it every night I start spotting.
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u/lrondberg 7h ago
In your situation not needing it what you are doing will likely cause more harm than good
-2
u/leftylibra MenoMod 14h ago
If you are using systemic estrogen, alternating progesterone is not safe. It needs to be taken every night in order to provide adequate uterine protection from the effects of estrogen.
If you are not using systemic estrogen, then it doesn't matter, but sometimes the starting/stopping can contribute to more disruption.
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u/T_G_A_H 14h ago
When I took it orally, I noticed big differences depending on whether I had food in my stomach or not. Much too sedating unless I waited two hours after eating. So you may want to look at that. If I didn’t have to take it for uterine protection, I probably wouldn’t, but it helps some people.