High Progesterone caused out of balance Cortisol. Need help regulating cortisol.

[Deanne]

I just had my hormones tested after being on Progesterone HRT for 2 years. The progesterone levels were through the roof. I thought taking more would help me sleep. It didn't. It effected my cortisol, which is supposed to work together with Progesterone to help sleep. I've just quit my oral and topical progesterone for a few weeks to get the levels down.
Does anyone know how to help regulate my cortisol levels so I can actually get some decent sleep. As it is now, I'm awake all night and get about 3-4 hrs sleep between 6-10am. Help!

[Vettester]

Deanne, welcome to the forum, glad you joined. There could be a lot of variables to your particular situation, which are directly. or indirectly effecting you. Too much progesterone administration will block the enzyme that converts cortisole to cortisone (11-beta-hydroxysteroid). The good news is that your body is naturally trying to find homeostasis, or call it finding it's normal balance. One of the issues here could be that your over administration of Progresterone has also worked against your estrogen levels, which both work as a natural counter balance against each other. The great benefits of one will be highly diminished by the other if your body is not producing enough to off set the other. In this case, exogenous administration of one hormone is usually offset with administering the other. Most A4M BHRT physicians will usually prescribe progesterone, and some form of compounded cream with E1, E2 & E3.

Again, there could be a lot of variables working against you here, and the imbalance could be effecting other hormones across the board, including your testosterone, which sits right in the middle of your DHEA and estrogen pathways. First things first though ... Could we get some more information from you? Stats, medications, information on what got you started on progesterone? Any and all LABS you have would be very important. Would really like to see a complete thyroid panel with antibodies included, plus B12, D3, Iron/Ferritin, and of course all the main CBC's, lipids, metabolic panels, etc. Do you also have your cortisol tests and ACTH?