Insomnia, Anxiety and Progesterone

[kellyf]

Recently, I went onto Utrogestan 100mg progesterone capsules. The prescribing doctor isn't much help because he's an elderly male that I had to instruct on what to prescribe after his anthroposophic remedies failed spectacularly. (And even then, he put that I should take the capsules in the morning despite the fact that I need to be able to function during the day.) I need help getting the dosage and timing right. I still have a regular cycle 26-29 days. I should also say that I used progesterone cream when was son was an infant and it worked well. Until it didn't.

Most recently:
- I've tried 200mg at bedtime days 15-26. Works beautifully but the rebounding anxiety that kicked in around day 3 was untenable.
- I've tried 100mg at bedtime days 1- 25 which helps with the early cycle anxiety but then the luteal phase anxiety is off the charts and insomnia gets very bad (frequent waking to the point where it feels like I haven't properly slept at all from bedtime at 10pm, up for the day at 4ish)

Background info that may be relevant:
I'm 46 years old and I think perimenopause began shortly after I had my son when I was nearly 38 years old. In any case, I have had chronic insomnia since then which, in turn has led to anxiety and of course, weight gain. I've worked really hard with lots of practitioners on diet, lifestyle, etc and I feel I have as much of a handle on those as is possible. I've turned myself inside out to do everything "right" and avoid all the things that exacerbate insomnia, anxiety or eczema.

I suspect a histamine link with the mood symptoms (because they also cause skin issues) and an abnormal GABA response, despite taking collagen, magnesium, quercetin, B6, multi, fish oil, vitamin D and avoiding almost all things problematic for histamine. I still eat mild cheese and butter because they help with my sleep.

In terms of GABA, I know I can get a better night's sleep mid cycle and feel fantastic (yay GABA) the following day if I have a glass of wine at 6pm but I prefer not to have alcohol for many other reasons. I'm looking for this effect some other way, hopefully via clever use of progesterone.

[hrtquestions]

I get my good night's sleep from estrogen. Oral progesterone causes insomnia for me. I may not be the only one to have this paradoxical effect.

[Lara]

Hi Kelly,

Some women do well on continuous dose progesterone with a smaller dose in the follicular phase (eg. 100) followed by a bigger dose in the luteal phase (eg. 100 or 200).