Just came across the article about progesterone.

Usually this hormone is associated with female reproductive system only. Still, recent studies show that it has important side roles. In males progesterone is produced in testicles converting testosterone into progesterone. It helps to keep our nervous system and brain in good condition. Improving memory and cognitive ability, that many eunuchs after surgical castration have complained about.

From wiki article:

Nervous system

Progesterone, like pregnenolone and dehydroepiandrosterone, belongs to the group of neurosteroids. It can be synthesized within the central nervous system and also serves as a precursor to another major neurosteroid, allopregnanolone.

Neurosteroids affect synaptic functioning, are neuroprotective, and affect myelination.[36] They are investigated for their potential to improve memory and cognitive ability. Progesterone affects regulation of apoptotic genes.

Its effect as a neurosteroid works predominantly through the GSK-3 beta pathway, as an inhibitor. (Other GSK-3 beta inhibitors include bipolar mood stabilizers, lithium and valproic acid.)

Brain damage

Previous studies have shown that progesterone supports the normal development of neurons in the brain, and that the hormone has a protective effect on damaged brain tissue. It has been observed in animal models that females have reduced susceptibility to traumatic brain injury and this protective effect has been hypothesized to be caused by increased circulating levels of estrogen and progesterone in females.[63] A number of additional animal studies have confirmed that progesterone has neuroprotective effects when administered shortly after traumatic brain injury.[64] Encouraging results have also been reported in human clinical trials.[65][66]

The mechanism of progesterone protective effects may be the reduction of inflammation that follows brain trauma.[67]

The full article is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progestero ... ive_system

If there are doctors among us, it would be interesting to hear educated opinion about progesterone effects in eunuchs. Perhaps there are people who have already experimented with it?

It leads me to thinking that it is possible to improve eunuchs energy and brain function with progesterone and erythropoietin without sex drive returning.

I would like to see if BestOfBoth has any opinion

erikboy (imported) wrote: Sat Jan 07, 2012 2:00 am Perhaps there are people who have already experimented with it?

It leads me to thinking that it is possible to improve eunuchs energy and brain function with progesterone and erythropoietin without sex drive returning.

I started taking 100mg of progesterone daily about three weeks ago. It seems to give me additional energy without any return of libido.

I do know that progesterone, particularly the synthetic progestins like provera, are notorious for increasing depression, which is why a lot of doctors don't like to prescribe them for trans women even if it may improve breast development. Probably a large majority of trans women suffer from some degree of depression, (when I ran trans support groups we used to joke about buying anti-depressants by the truckload.) I don't know what effect it would have taken on its own.

Ttansward

i am a trans woman and i suffer form a pretty high level of depression but one thing i can sat is that micronized progesterone stablized my moods greatly. but thats the micronized stuff not provera or anything like that

p.s. orchi scheduled for feb 12 2012 YAY

kyennamo (imported) wrote: Sat Jan 07, 2012 7:26 pm micronized progesterone stablized my moods greatly.

That is the type of progesterone that I'm taking too and yes, it does seem to help me feel more positive about things. It hasn't caused my breasts to go either.

I take micronised progesterone, 200mg before bed. The brand name is utrogestan, I take the 100mg capsules, the 200 were too big. My gender clinic do not prescribe by routine but can be persuaded. Before this I was on duphaston brand dydrogesterone but this was discontinued in the UK a few years ago. Neither are supposed to cause depression in the way provera is known to. I realise I neglected to mention the progesterone in the other thread. It's very interesting to read that their are these positive effects. I'd heard that it is known to block male pattern baldness developing although I can't seem to find a source on that.

Are there any references as to the effects of progesterone for us neuter folk (i.e. those of us who absolutely do not want to take estrogen)?

I take 200mg of microgest in the morning. The a shot of progesterone of 50mg 1ml biweekly. Then a shot of DepoProvera 300mg biweekly. Plus others CA, Estrogen

My mood well is pretty darn good. I'm calm and really happy life. The meds really help!

Todays New York Times has an article on the emotion disgust (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/scien ... emc=tha210) It has some interesting info on Progesterone.

Researchers have also been trying to pin down details about the mechanisms and evolutionary value of disgust. Daniel Fessler, an anthropologist at the Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture at the University of California, Los Angeles, investigated with his colleagues why pregnant women were more sensitive to disgust. What they found was that as progesterone levels went up, so did sensitivity to disgust. That was true in the first trimester of pregnancy, when derailing fetal development would have the most dire effects. In very recent work, Dr. Fessler said, the researchers found that even in women who weren’t pregnant and were not suffering nausea, disgust increased with the levels of progesterone.

An important function of progesterone, Dr. Fessler said, is that it dials down an early-warning part of the immune system, inflammation, which might prevent the embryo, or conceptus, from implanting itself in the placenta. The eight-cell embryo “actually destroys tissue as it burrows in,” Dr. Fessler said. “Left to its own, the maternal immune system would destroy the conceptus.” So, he and his colleagues reason, while the body turns down the dial on one kind of protection, it turns it up on disgust, another kind of defense.

Transward

A link to a blog post on the use of Progesterone was just sent to all WPATH members this morning. It goes over some of the pros and cons of using it.

Should Male-to-Female Transsexuals Take Progesterone as part of Hormone Replacement Therapy for Better Breast Development?

http://biopsychologytstg.cniib.com/Biop ... TSTG/?p=83