Mistakes I've Made Recently With Natural Progesterone Supplements

Happy Spring! Have you ever done something stupid, but it took doing it a few times to realize it was stupid? That's what happened to me in January of this year regarding my natural progesterone supplements. Listen in to hear what I've learned.

Next week: Special Guest sharing about how her whole food, plant-based eating + exercise has eliminated her pmdd symptoms. 

April is PMDD Awareness month. Special Guest Marybeth Bohn will be with us. She lost her daughter to pmdd in 2021.

Take Aways

• I still sometimes make stupid decisions even though I've been addressing pmdd for years. 
• Changing the timing of progesterone supplements really messed with my body
• Not going to bed RIGHT after taking progesterone supplements made me light-headed.
• My tiredness has increased so much while using the 300 mg dose that I think my body is producing more progesterone now.
• Transitioning to a low-dose progesterone cream for some of my cycle will be better, I think.

Want to feel better? I'd love to help. Book a 30 minute call with me (Heidi) here. 

Heidi's links:

• Heidi's website
• Heidi's Instagram

Are you here for pmdd support? I've got you.

• 5 Ways To Feeling Better with PMDD: I created this free download to help women with pmdd feel better. I wish it had been around when I first learned I had pmdd. 
• Semaine PMS and Period Support Supplements: These supplements have reduced cramps and helped level emotional downs that I (and my teen daughter) experience. Book a one off support call Just need some friendly advice about your pmdd journey? A support call is Free support call with me. 

Music 

• Music- Island Breeze by Surf House Productions |...

Transcript

Ep 94: Mistakes I've Made Recently With Natural Progesterone Supplements

[00:00:00] Hello, this is the Living Well with PMDD podcast. I'm your host, Heidi Bradford, certified life coach, mom of five and PMDD Survivor. Happy to have you here. This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered health advice.

Welcome to the podcast. So happy to be here. Hope you're having a wonderful day. We are enjoying our spring. I love just being able to take a walk in beautiful weather. Not too hot, not too cold. It's just amazing. I've had a little bit of sickness, but not nearly as bad as our January and February were. It, it was crazy. Anyhow, hope you are being able to manage whatever sickness or [00:01:00] struggle has come your way.

Um, I wanna put in a plug for next week's episode. We have a friend of mine coming on to talk about a strategy that she has found that has alleviated her pm DD symptoms. So that is an interview with Lavin. Tune in next week for that.

April is PMDD Awareness Month. I have a special guest . This woman that's coming on, Mary Beth. Her daughter, died by suicide due to PMDD. The crazy connection is that it's because of her daughter's death that I learned about PMDD. It is just wild that we have connected after five years of me having PMDD and that being my initial introduction.

So it's one to listen to. It is just gonna be [00:02:00] amazing.

For today, I wanted to give you a real life look at my progesterone use. And what I am learning and what I have learned.

I decided to ask my doctor if I could use ized progesterone or natural progesterone to alleviate some of my PMDD symptoms. She was good with that. That was in September, I believe, is when I talked to my doctor. I started using 300 milligrams of micronized progesterone in October. I was starting it 14 days before my period and go to day 28. They say give it three months. Now, maybe that's, you give it three months, but it can help sooner. I seem to notice a difference in that first cycle. The second cycle, I [00:03:00] definitely noticed a difference, and my third cycle, which was over Christmas, so all the holiday season. There was a noticeable difference.

I felt so much better. I felt so good. Didn't have any of the relationship drama that can come before my period. It was so nice.

Now we got back from the holidays around january 3rd. And we got sick shortly after that. So I'm not sure how all of it plays into affecting my symptoms and their severity. But January was not very good pm DD wise, I was a bit of a mess.

I was doing the progesterone, but I decided, and this was stupid, but I do stupid things sometimes. I decided to help myself go to bed earlier I would take my progesterone at [00:04:00] nine 30, so I would get to bed closer to 10. I'll just put this right here: that was a really bad idea. I found out in January that what happens when I did that is I wouldn't go to bed and I would be doing a task.

I think I was writing in my journal just out on the love seat in our loft, and I suddenly felt dizzy. Not really dizzy, but lightheaded a little bit. Just everything kind of like dimmed. And I was like, uhoh, I need to go to bed. I didn't even stand. I bent over and walked to my bed and I got in my bed. Now you'd think I would've learned just from that one experience. I didn't, it took three nights, maybe even four, for me, to make the connection that, oh, you're taking the progesterone and then you're not going to [00:05:00] bed. And it does have the side effect of making a very drowsy. So I realized, "oh, I messed this up. I need to start taking it at bedtime.

I think that symptoms coming back for me, my PMDD really rearing its head in January was because I switched the time by two hours that I was taking progesterone. But then once I realized, oh, this is creating a lot of lightheadedness and drowsiness and I'm not in bed yet. I then switched it back for the days that I still would take the progesterone. I think that's why my symptoms were, uh, back to severe. What's severe for me.

I could have fainted, I could have fallen down the stairs. I'm so grateful that those things didn't happen in my stupidity of moving the time up to take the progesterone instead of taking it right as I get in bed. [00:06:00] So if you decide to use natural progesterone, please take it right as you are getting into bed. You don't have to take it with food.

Another thing I did... in January, I decided to take it starting on day eight instead of on day 12. Day 12, because my, my cycles were starting on day 26, so I was starting about 14 days before that anyway I felt like, oh, I need to start it sooner because I'm having some angst and irritability.

So I'd also done that in January and I get to February and I've had this huge rollercoaster of a month of flipping the times and starting the progesterone sooner. so February I was like, I'm just gonna go back [00:07:00] to day 14 i'll start it and go to day 28. I had read something about you can I do it longer for a soothing effect or something. My period didn't come and I was a little bit confused, but I did feel some cramps. So I knew something was going on and I realized, wait, I do need to bleed. I wanna have ovulation. So then I just didn't take it and I had like some spotting that day and then I didn't take it the next day and my period came.

Okay, now we're in March. So what did I do this month? I am trying to keep it the same. On day 14 [00:08:00] I took the 300 milligrams of the natural progesterone own. And on day 16, nope, day 15, I think I was. So tired in the morning. I got up, I did the stuff I needed to do. I could not stay awake. I had an 11 o'clock nap. I slept for two hours. Actually, no, I didn't get to nap until one, but I slept for two hours. My alarm went off to pick up my kids from school and I was like, holy cow.

The next day, I took my progesterone as normal and I couldn't wake up in the morning.

I snoozed my alarm for an hour, like literally every 10 minutes for an hour. I did get up and I did get my kids to school and things. I was groggy all morning.

Day [00:09:00] 16, I couldn't wake up it. I was just so tired. I snoozed my alarm for over a half an hour. Finally got up, felt groggy.

Day 17, I couldn't wake up. No, this was day 18, I might be off by a day here, but yesterday, I snoozed my alarm and it was an hour, uh, about an hour and 20 minutes after my initial alarm went off that I finally like, opened my eyes and I'm like, oh my goodness, what time is it?

Only one of my kids was gonna go to school that day. I was able to get him to school late, but I realized, okay, somethings going on here? So I read some of the Laura Brighton's blog posts about [00:10:00] progesterone, and she says in there that.

You might not have to take it forever, that your body might start producing enough, especially if you start ovulating, which I was, had not been ovulating as of September, at least for I don't know how long before that, but I was having an ovulatory cycles, so I would bleed. But that bleeding doesn't equal ovulation.

The you have to figure out if you're actually ovulating. I decided I need to be able to get up in the morning, so I'm not gonna take the progesterone, at least not full strength.

So I decided to take 200 instead of, uh, 300 milligrams. I still had a really hard time getting up. So last night, I did not take any progesterone. I was like, I don't think I need it. I think my body's producing it just fine. So I'm like, great.[00:11:00] 

Well, I went for a walk today and I walked down to the golf course, turned around. And I felt menstrual cramps and I was like, what is going on? And I was like, oh no, because I didn't take the progesterone. Now my body thinks it's time to have my period. I was like, ah, I don't wanna mess up my whole cycle. I, um, thought about what am I gonna do and my walk it, it is just a half an hour.

It's nothing huge. And as I thought about it, I decided to use a progesterone cream that has only about 20 milligrams of natural progesterone and like a little dollop, , a little blob about the size of a dime to, to do that, to rub it on my arms and my thighs.

So when I got home, that's [00:12:00] what I did. And the cramping has stopped, so that's good.

I'll keep you updated here and there. We have some guests coming on the show too, so I'll try and throw it in there. I'm preparing for a, an episode about progestin versus progesterone, so I'll give you an update at least during that one.

My plan, because the 300 milligrams is just too sedating and I think it is because my body is producing more, um, because I think it's turning on ovulation again. I will use the cream until it's time for me to have my period. I may even use a little bit of the cream at the end of my cycle to kind of balance in that time of my hormone shift where I end my [00:13:00] period, I tend to have a bit of struggle. I think I'll just use a little bit of the balancing cream that has the natural progesterone. I think I'll just stick with the cream starting my next cycle, day 14 as well. We'll see. I may read some more things between now and then that I end up tweaking that plan.

Going forward, I hope this is encouraging to you that it's okay to try things and I hope this has shed some light on natural progesterone use for you and where you can find more information: I really like Ryden, because I like naturopathic stuff even though I don't have access to a naturopathic doctor where I live. So it's really all just research based. And me applying it. It's been really interesting and I'm really glad that I am using progesterone to help with my [00:14:00] moods and my cycle and just all of it.

I think it's been very worthwhile. I do think it's probably has gotten me to ovulation. I haven't actually checked using the ovulation strips or my temperature lately, so that's another thing on my to-do list, but we'll get to it. I have five kids, there's a lot to get to.

I'm really thankful to myself for being willing to explore and try things. And that I'm also willing to look back and see that I was really stupid. And that that's okay.

To just start changing the time that I take a steroid because progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, these sex hormones are steroids. And I just bumped the time that I was, um, consuming that by two hours. No wonder it [00:15:00] set my body out of whack. To look back and be like, yeah, that was stupid, but oh, well, I did it and not be really mad at myself. That's good. And it engenders willingness to try things and try to understand how things react with my body.

 Take care. Happy spring.

Thanks so much for listening to the Living Well with PMDD podcast. To learn more about life coaching with me, visit my website Heidi, H-E-I-D-I, bradford coaching.com. Until next time, keep hoping, keep loving, and remember that you are not alone.