Re: progesterone gel for the quick fix??? boob pain drives me insane :(

I value your opinions V, thanks for chiming in. I do however think I failed to make my point clear so let me try and explain in more detail.

I never said adding external hormones was bad, simply that they will suppress natural creation due to specific feedback and regulatory system at work in the body. I think there is a time and place for the addition of hormones but wanted to make it clear that adding them can complicate the process of trying to restore proper hormonal function.

Its very well established that thyroid function is strongly tied to sex hormones in both men and women. In a vast majority of cases in both sexes where there is a sex hormone imbalance there is often diminished thyroid function as well.

The true level however is masked by the fact that many folks dont have a personal thyroid lab history to compare their most recent results to so they have no other alternative but to use a lab range as an indicator of their own thyroid function which we all know is really only good for highlighting extreme problems where a number may be out of range.

Stephy clearly made some progress on Iodine but it would seem her ongoing need for Iodine is greater than the dose she dropped to OR/AND perhaps her body simply just needs more time to fully saturate and heal the previous damage done. The remainder of the bodies hormonal systems cant fully recover until the thyroid function does.

With the above in mind stephy asked.....

"could i use it to speed up progress? or is it totally counterproductive????"

And to that question my answer is taking in external hormones MAY offer relief if any of the sides are due to low prog but taking the prog will also prevent her body from producing its own. The net result is it may help her symptoms BUT its not a cure, its a bandaid. By taking the prog she is masking a possible symptom that can be used in determining the success of her supplementation plan at restoring her natural hormonal balance so in that aspect it could be conceived as counterproductive.

In the end it boils down to what she wants to accomplish, is relief of symptoms whats important or seeing if she can restore proper hormonal balance AND get relief? I guess thats for her to decide. Having said that taking the prog temporarily while she continues to take her supps is also a viable path, but at some point if/when she wants to truly evaluate her own natural hormonal function she will need to stop taking the prog for some time to judge the success of her nutritional therapy.