Choosing a Progesterone Cream

It’s a well-known fact that the quality of products vary in as much as no one person is exactly alike. The less expensive a product is, the more likely it is to have filler ingredients that are cheap for the manufacturer to use, and subsequently provides a sub-par product. Regulations vary …from country to country and continent to continent, with the U.S. being the most lenient when it comes to monitoring products we use every day. The hygiene products you find in stores may abound with formaldehyde producing preservatives, parabens, carncinogens, and xenoestrogenic petro-chemicals.
That being said, today I thought I would share a few tips about what to look for in a progesterone cream. Most likely this “happy hormone” cream can be purchased at your local drugstore. It may not be regulated, and indeed, it could contain ingredients that would actually prohibit the benefits of bio-identical progesterone from the desired effects.

The resources for today’s info comes from a presentation provided to me by an area doctor, Stacey Bean, and from a new e-book I have which is titled “Progesterone & Pregnancy”, written by Catherine P. Rollins of the Natural-Progesterone-Advisory-Network.com (This site is a great resource for traditional doctors wanting to learn more about natural approaches for their patients.) For anyone desiring to start a family, I highly recommend this book which sells for less than $10. It is an invaluable source for information on how to have a healthy pregnancy, which starts long before conception. You owe it to yourself and your future baby to have a most pleasant pregnancy and your baby will benefit from healthful steps you have taken prior to God working the miracle inside you. (Consider the price of two lattes and you have just afforded this e-book!) Back to progesterone shopping tips….

• Creams made in the U.S. should contain micronized progesterone that meets USP (United States Pharmacopiea) standards. (or BP – British Pharmacopoeia if you live in Britain). If not USP, or BP, certified – it would be wise to question the quality.
• The USP is a standards-setting organization that advances public health by ensuring the quality and consistency of its medicines, and its logo will be found on certified product packaging.
• Micronization mills the progesterone to a particular size. Basically the smaller the particle size the more absorbent the progesterone is in order to pass through the intercellular spaces of the skin’s strateum corneum (the physical lipid barrier to prevent substances/chemicals from entering the body).
• The cream itself, that is used as a “carrier” for the progesterone, has to be one formulated for maximum absorbency. Creams containing mineral oil (paraffin) will NOT deliver progesterone to the body because the progesterone is more soluable in the mineral oil and will not penetrate the skin.
•  For the same reason, creams should contain NO animal products or by-products  (an example would be lanolin derived from sheep), or any petro-chemical based ingredients.
• Parabens should be avoided as a 2004 study suggests paraben exposure may have negative health effects.
• Avoid Wild Yam Extract creams. This is not the same as progesterone and can potentially have an estrogenic effect on the body. There is also no proof that the body can convert wild yam diosgenin into progesterone on its own.
• A container of cream should contain 450-500 mg of progesterone per ounce (28 grams).
• Percentage of progesterone cream determines how much is administered, i.e. 2% = 20 mg./1 gram; 4% = 40 mg./1 gram, etc.
• Look for creams that provide their own dispensing systems, as teaspoons vary from kitchen to kitchen and it is best to dose in grams or ounces. Most cream distributors provide their own measuring dispenser, eliminating guesswork.

My personal choice is USP certified Prolief, which administers the cream via a pre-metered pump, and delivers 2%, or 20 mg. per application. I find the pump extremely convenient and quick to use, so no matter how rushed I am in the morning, or how tired I may be at bedtime, it is simple to use. Another benefit to a sealed bottle with an airtight seal is that the progesterone itself maintains potency, and the cream does not oxidize.

If having a cream made at a compounding pharmacy, I would recommend an assurance that the cream does not contain trace heavy metals. One friend of mine used a cream from a compounding pharmacy, and one of her doctors traced some of her issues to metal toxin traces from the bio-identical progesterone cream she was taking. This is why it is so important to do your own due diligence and obtain a potentially life-changing, life-saving cream from a reliable and trusted source.

 

To your health, and may your life become more balanced!

Rita S.

Morning Sickness and Hormones

This morning I met a young woman in worship who was not feeling well…experiencing morning sickness in her 17th week. I did the math in my head. “That’s not typical,” I thought. To me it seems that this women’s body is not producing enough progesterone. I found an empty piece of paper in my bible and wrote down some URLs from memory of where she could go to learn more about hormone balance and how progesterone, “the feel good, happy hormone absolutely necessary for the well-being of fetal development”. I had to step out of my comfort zone to be bold enough to bring this up after worship, and talk to her about it. Every women deserves to feel GREAT during pregnancy, it is a gift from God.

I have to tell you that as a woman in balance 13 years ago, I did not even know I was pregnant with our son until 16 weeks into the pregnancy. Pregnancy was great – I had lots of energy, redecorated the house, Christmas shopped in July so I would not have to do it with a baby in tow come December, etc.

Think about the word P R O G E S T E R O N E – what do you see? Progest. Progestation. Gestation. Progesterone is essential for progestation to happen. It is necessary to prevent miscarriage and necessary for brain development of the fetus. As women, when we become pregnant the level of progesterone in our bodies continually rises until we have a 100x more than what we would have had prior to become pregnant. There is no doubt that God has created us because only divine wisdom could build bodies such as ours.

If you google “progesterone and pregnancy” you will think I am crazy. Old information, mis information abounds on this subject. Although I am not a doctor, I have read A LOT about hormones this past year for personal reasons. Multiple sources, books, scientific studies, women’s health sites on line, claim the many benefits of the “procreation hormone”. To help weed through the contradictory information, one might start with the Progesterone Advisory Network. Their home page does a great job explaining why so little is known about hormone balance and why progesterone is so misunderstood. I highly recommend that if you visit this blog, to stop right now and read this first page at very least: http://www.natural-progesterone-advisory-network.com/

Doctor Katharina Dalton researched progesterone and pregnancy all the way back in 1968. Of course, here in the U.S. we do not hear of these studies, unless we go looking for them. There is no money for big Pharma in promoting a product that is all natural and made by the human body - it cannot be patented and therefore cannot make them money.

Dr. Dalton calls morning sickness “a sign that the ovarian progesterone is insufficient and the placenta is not yet secreting enough progesterone.” She says that giving the woman extra progesterone will ease the symptoms. PLEASE, PLEASE read this entire article, print it out and take it to your doctor if you are experiencing morning sickness. Check out the NPAN site for additional articles on progesterone and pregnancy. I have additional women’s health sites in my sidebar for your convenience as well.
Doctors may counter because of the misinformation that is out there. Again, please do your own diligence. When you consider that progesterone is key for pro-gestation – it makes absolute sense that you need it, and that it needs to be in balance with estrogen for the most pleasurable pregnancy experience ever.
The NPAN site also has available, in addition to a great e-book, a FREE 50 page PDF on progesterone and what you must know. This may sound silly, but print it out, burn it to a CD, and give your doctor a copy. I have taken it upon myself to educate my own doctor on hormone balance. My last physical, and something she has said, gave me concern that she may misunderstand what is going on during pre-menopause, and handed her one of Dr. John Lee's books, "What Your Doctor May Not Know about Pre-Menopause".
When I attended Dr. Stacey Bean’s women’s health seminar in Madison, November 2010, she stated that they received ONE month in all their years of medical training on hormones. ONE MONTH! Yet hormone imbalance is truly the cause of pretty much every disease and illness. Instead, the medical school curriculum is focused on treatment, and training heavily directed by the prescription drug companies. If your read the testimonies by other doctors who use the Natural Progesterone Advisory Network as their go to resource, they an attest to Dr. Bean's story.
Speaking of which, when you talk to your doctor about progesterone and pregnancy, do NOT let them prescribe HRT, synthetic progestin. They may think, "okay, this person wants to try progesterone, I will prescribe it". It is not the same! Drug companies ried tto reproduce that which God has made naturally, is not recognized by the human body as progesterone, and serious outcomes may be realized, with cancer being just one example.
Pregnant? Congratulations! This should be one of the most amazing experiences in your life. It is never too late to focus on getting hormones into balance. Food, environment, skin care, and sometimes even genetics can be a precursor to estrogen dominance. Take control. Learn. Act. You deserve to relish in the gift God has placed in your womb.

ENJOY YOUR PREGNANCY!
Rita S.