Very low progesterone mid-30's female

[tyr_1]

Greetings all,

Here is my wife's situation and we were looking for some insight (the female hormonal situation completely eludes me ...) She is 36 yoa female, very active, lifts heavy weights regularly and so forth and fairly recently (last few months) started experiencing significant anxiety. Two blood tests, one in May and one last week show progesterone numbers in the basement and very low testosterone and DHEA. Aside from the symptoms of anxiety and brain fog (much worse around her period fyi), she is very healthy, carries a decent amount of muscle, has strong sex drive etc. After the first low progest. came back, doc put her on 200 mg of cream for that which she religiously adhered to but as you can see with last week's test I posted below, nothing budged. Doc is forward thinking integrative physician who does want to help and she is going back to him to adjust things. Does anyone have any further thoughts/guidance on this?

Update: Sorry about screenshots. Here are her numbers:

Progesterone > .5
Estradiol 72
Testosterone 13
Dhea Sulfate 156

 

[CoastWatcher]

Welcome to Excelmale. I'm sorry to say that I'm unable to read anything on the lab reports you attached.

 

[tyr_1]

Sorry about that. Having trouble with screenshots. I did post her hormone numbers right above those in plain text.

 

[Vettester Chris]

Leading up to the decline of progesterone, was there any changes with her monthly cycle (amount, duration, anything)? Do you have the ranges of the E2 lab, and what was the timing of the lab in relation to her cycle? Do you know if early peri/menopause is inherit when talking with mom and/or if she has sisters?

 

[hva]

What hormones are in her cream? Her testosterone at 13 is very low for a woman her age as well as DHEA.

My wife had the same anxiety and was basically on edge all the time. She's on testosterone cream now and takes DHEA as well. She also had low free T3 and is taking thyroid meds for that. Her overall mood is very stable now. The testosterone cream has helped her the most. She was taking birth control just for mood stability, but stopped taking it after starting the test cream. Now she's on her natural cycle and the testosterone just keeps her mostly on an even keel day to day like she was when she was much younger.

 

[tyr_1]

The cream she is using is progest. Only progesterone. We thought it strange four months of religious usage didn't budge the number. Testosterone needs to be addressed too but doc wanted progesterone leveled off first. Does that make sense?

 

[tyr_1]

As far as bloods being done during her cycle, she has had them at different points and still show similar numbers. She gave birth 5 years ago. No sister and I'll ask her about her mother's experience with perimenopause/menopause.

 

[tyr_1]

Last thyroid tests in May were as follows:

TSH:1.19 mlU/L
Free T4: 1.14 ng dl
Free T3: 2.9 pg/ml


Doc said those were all good numbers and I don't know much about thyroid.

 

[hva]

My wife's free T3 was about that same number and her doctor thought it warranted treatment. She's with Defy and they like free T3 to be around 3.9 I believe.

 

[CoastWatcher]

The ft3 and ft4 values are in range, but could certainly be a bit more robust.

 

[tyr_1]

What hormones are in her cream? Her testosterone at 13 is very low for a woman her age as well as DHEA.

My wife had the same anxiety and was basically on edge all the time. She's on testosterone cream now and takes DHEA as well. She also had low free T3 and is taking thyroid meds for that. Her overall mood is very stable now. The testosterone cream has helped her the most. She was taking birth control just for mood stability, but stopped taking it after starting the test cream. Now she's on her natural cycle and the testosterone just keeps her mostly on an even keel day to day like she was when she was much younger.

Also, does your wife take supplemental progesterone at all or only testosterone/DHEA/thyroid and what dose of each? Doc wanted to fix progesterone levels first then move on but this doesn't seem to be working.

Thanks for your input, btw.

 

[hva]

Also, does your wife take supplemental progesterone at all or only testosterone/DHEA/thyroid and what dose of each? Doc wanted to fix progesterone levels first then move on but this doesn't seem to be working.

Thanks for your input, btw.

She's just taking testosterone cream, DHEA, and natural dessicated thyroid. Her testosterone cream is something like 15mg/Gram and she does three clicks. I have no idea what that works out to for a daily dose but she's settled on the three clicks as her sweet spot.

Our Dr. Google searches would have suggested she was estrogen dominant, along with her lab numbers, but her doctor (Dr. Caulkins from Defy) was only concentrating on her testosterone and thyroid levels. He didn't seem to be to concerned about her progesterone/estrogen ratio's. I'm not sure about this, but I believe that is more of a concern after menopause and not before. Female HRT seems to be more complex before and during perimenopause since the P and E ratio change so much during their monthly cycle.

Just subjectively speaking, the testosterone seems to have done a good job moderating her overall mood and sense of well being, and the thyroid meds have helped with anxiety and such. I can say that because she was taking testosterone for about six weeks before the thyroid meds and her symptoms resolved in that order.