I am just beginning to try natural progesterone cream. First application was last night, so it will be a while before i know if it's helping. I'm not having hot flashes, but I do get night sweats and my periods are about 4 months apart now, and I'm experiencing difficulty in maintaining/losing weight, even doing strictly what I know to do. I'm 50. I got interested in the cream after reading Dr Eades' latest 3-part blogs on why it seems to gets harder to lose the older we get. (Link to part one: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/...ound/#more-2324 ) He mentions that some menopausal women may find it next to impossible to lose weight without hormonal balancing. (He's also very pro-bio-identicals and anti-horse urine.)

His article and information were very timely for me. In the discussion of one of these 3 articles, a commenter linked to a site that has progesterone cream she had had luck with, and on that site, there were a series of tests you could take to try and get an idea of what hormones you need based on your symptoms. Other than hot flashes, I didn't know what the symptoms of progesterone-deficiency/estrogen-dominance were, and I must have had 15 or more of the ones listed on the quiz. I don't know anything about the quality of the cream sold here, (I bought a different brand locally at a health food store yesterday) but I thought the quizzes were very helpful, so I will provide that link here http://johnleemd.com/ (scroll to bottom)

I tried some natural progesterone cream; it didn't do a thing to help my symptoms. Ditto Black Cohosh.

I've copied my summary of Dr McCleary's book section on hot flushes onto my googlepages if you are interested.
His suggestions include
Dr McCleary's Anti-Excitatory Cocktail To be taken twice daily.

400mg magnesium (malate or taurinate are the forms he suggests) 10mg Thiamin 75micrograms huperzine A 50mg GABA 5 mg vinpocetine 1gram taurine.

He also suggest Img melatonin at bedtime.

Dr McCleary's Ketogenic Cocktail.

1-2 tablespoons MCT oil 1tsp-1tablespoon flaxseed oil 50mg EPA

You may find it cheaper to use coconut oil in place of the MCT. perhaps a bit more as coconut oil is about 60% MCT.
The flax oil may also be tricky as it's very easy to oxidise if not kept chilled so you may want to substitute fresh ground linseed meal for the flax oil again you would need to increase the amount somewhat.

Great stuff on your Google pages, Ted, thanks for posting these links.

amanda

I have found coconut oil gives me hot flashes-I feel like it speeds my metabolizism up and I flush and flash. I love co in coffee and have tried to add back with 1 teaspoon but it still does it. Anne

When I began to have hot flashes I also experienced night sweats from hell. I would sometimes wake two or three times in a night and be soaked head to toe including the bed linens. I discovered i could have nearly complete control of hot flashes and sweats by minimizing carbs. specifically simple carbs.

needs to be shot
Far too easy ... sentence the idiot to 25+ years of menopause the way some of us experience it!

when Im 60 and getting to old to give a darn the maybe it will all go away.
I hope it ends for you (and trust me, when you're 60 you'll still give a darn!) and if you suspect it ends because of something you're taking, please post it in my journal! 25 years and counting and I'm frightened to try again to get off hormone therapy.

Been on an hrt patch for a couple of months now and it has helped a lot. I no longer have the troubling symtoms: life back to "normal". I had hoped to not take anything, but I hadn't slept in months and was having hot flashes at all the wrong times and I finally decided I needed to try something.

I fear trying to get off of it though! And not happy to hear this might go on for years!

ATLPeggy, I'm glad you found something that helps you. I've had hot flashes for almost fifteen years now. I know women in their eighties who still have them. And I know women who never had any.

My diet helps me tremendously, as does not eating late in the day, and daily strenuous exercise. If I move enough to really perspire, it seems to take care of whatever the hot flashes were trying to do.

My main concern now with menopause is metabolism and health.

Sending everyone best wishes!

You ladies with the hot flashes might want to read this book: The brain trust program. He explains why we go hot flashes and what to do to help them -- namely ketones. A ketogenic diet and possibly something like MCT oil or coconut oil.

The venom of the Bushmaster Viper Snake! Worked like a charm for me!

I have found that daily cardio exercise, jogging, power walking, or stationary biking, HUGELY deminishes them or eliminates them all together. When I stopped exercising, they CAME BACK with a vengeance, 3 to 4 times a day. Now, GONE.

I haven't had any symptoms yet but will definitely follow McCleary's plan.

I hope you all get some relief.

Well when I started this thread I was ready to jump off a cliff lol none around good thing. Finally now with no drugs they are far and few between. Thank god. so from start to finish almost 6 years and the last 3 were the worst. I feel for you all going through this and wish I could post a helpfully remedy but with me it was time good luck to you all, it will go away. Mother nature still needs to be shot in my opinion.

Oh Cheryl, I am so glad to hear your doing better

I my self think when there gone , then they come back.. I wish I had kept a journal....

I still get a few durning the night and always when I first wake up in the am. I will be 55 this yr, and they started when i was 44. so I am begging that they will disappear soon.

I know I have gotten into the mood of a bit of depression, but coast through. I am sure my estrogen is low and this is the cause.

it was so nice reading you are better Debbie