Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from David Mills.
Hi I’m David,
Three and a half years ago I was diagnosed with low testosterone. I had man boobs, I was overweight, I had low energy, and my libido sucked. In this article I’d like to share with you how I used 100% natural methods to boost my testosterone levels by more than 280% in a matter of months. Not only did I get rid of my man boobs, but I’m also in great physical shape, I’m full of energy, and at age 63, I feel better than I have in decades!
Three and a half years ago my testosterone was just 155 ng/dl (normal reference range 348-1200 ng/dl). My estrogen levels where also high, with estradiol at 46 pg/ml (normal reference range being 7.6-42.6 pg/ml). My doctor put me on weekly testosterone shots, which gave me some nasty side effects. After many months of extensive research and experimentation, I finally managed to find some all-natural alternatives that work just as well as my doctor’s prescription testosterone, yet without the nasty side effects.
I have now been off testosterone supplementation of any kind for sixteen months. At almost 64 years of age, my testosterone checked last month at a whooping 590 ng/dl, and my estradiol at just 10.5 pg/ml. Let me repeat; I am at 590 ng/dl not taking any testosterone. My testosterone increased from 155 to 590 and my estradiol decreased from 46 to 10.5. My testosterone/estradiol ratio was 3.36 to 1 before I started any kind of treatment. It is now 56.2 to 1.
4 Natural Remedies That Skyrocketed My Testosterone
Here‘s how I did it. I take four things to boost my testosterone and decrease my estrogen. All four can be bought over the counter; no prescription is necessary. Here is my regimen for the last twelve months:
- Topical progesterone – 60 mg a day;
- Pregnenolone (progesterone’s precursor) – 100 mg capsules every other day;
- DHEA – 25 mg pill once a week,
- D-Aspartic acid – between 1,500 and 2,000 mg per day (usually comes in a capsule of 500mg or 750 mg).
How I Discovered This Powerful Regimen
The main reason I had low testosterone was due to low levels of leutenizing hormone (LH). Low LH happens to many men. LH is the hormone the pituitary gland in your brain makes to tell your testicles they need to make testosterone. I was making only 2.0 mIU/L of LH, when the reference range is 2-10 mIU/L.
My internist sent me for a CAT scan to rule out a tumor in my pituitary gland. Thankfully, the scan results were negative. I had no tumor, but I also had no answer for my low LH levels. Apparently some men get low LH without any identifiable reason. So I asked my internist if there was anything I could take to raise my LH levels, but he didn’t know. He had not heard of D-Aspartic acid and was unaware of recent studies showing that D-Aspartic Acid increases LH.
The only solution my internist had for me was testosterone shots. I took these and they worked. My energy increased, my strength increased, and I had a substantial improvement in mood.
The greatest benefit was to my back. At the age of 48, I had a lumbar disc removed and my back had been in constant knots ever since. I had five or six golf ball sized knots in my lower back. I called them the “iron cross”. Twelve years of an iron cross across my back just disappeared on high levels of testosterone. It was amazing. Testosterone is a steroid after all, and it worked on my back as well as Medrol dose packs (hydrocortisone). I could only take Medrol dose packs a couple times a year and they would help for a couple of days; but testosterone was magic. I could have shots every week and the knots pretty much stayed away.
However, these high levels of testosterone (mine got as high as 1250 ng/dl at one point) also had some unpleasant side effects…
The Nasty Side-Effects Of Artificial Testosterone
The only way to safely boost testosterone is to increase your body’s own natural production of the hormone. The trouble with external testosterone shots is that your body converts all the excess testosterone into estrogen. It does this using the enzyme aromatase.
After just 10 weeks on testosterone shots, my estrogen increased from 46 to 86 pg/ml. I soon got gynecomastia (man boobs) and a shrunken testicle sac (felt like my balls wanted to ascend to my abdomen). I also gained 15 pounds in a couple of weeks.
My doctor put me on an aromatase inhibitor to lower my estrogen, but I didn’t feel it was helping. I was also suffering from another common side effect of external testosterone supplementation, called polycythemia. This is where your body produces more blood cells and your blood gets thicker. It can lead to heart attacks, strokes, hypertension, and countless other life-threatening conditions. I learned that many people have to stop taking testosterone because of this condition.
The Testosterone Alternative That Flattened My Man Boobs Almost Overnight
I was not at all happy with the idea of taking an aromatase inhibitor (aromatase inhibitors are highly toxic and one of my doctors flat told me to throw it out), so I started taking progesterone to see if it would work on my man boobs.
Progesterone is the body’s natural aromatase inhibitor. It also opposes estrogen. Taking 30 mg of progesterone a day reduced my estrogen from 86 to 30 pg/ml. It worked literally overnight to cure my gynecomastia and shrunken testicle sac. So I said goodbye to prescription aromatase inhibitors and began using progesterone to reduce my estrogen levels. I started taking progesterone two and a half years ago for my man boobs and still take it to this day.
I was astounded by my discovery that progesterone could reduce estrogen so effectively.
But this paled in comparison to what I discovered next (and did so completely by accident).
Here's what happened.
The ups and downs you get from weekly testosterone shots can drive you crazy. Thirty hours after a shot, testosterone peaks; and thereafter it begins a steady decline. Ten days later you are back to baseline.
Taking a daily topical gel stops the ups and downs, so my doctor put me on testosterone gels; but the gels didn’t work nearly as well as the shots. After six months on gels, my testosterone level was back in the 200 range and taking large amounts of gel only got me to 350 or so. The gels did help my back but not nearly as good as the shots.
In the end I decided to get back on the shots, but to do so, I would have to come off the gel to establish my baseline testosterone levels.
As I feared, soon after I stopped taking testosterone altogether, my back pain started to come back. And here's where the magic happened…
I increased my progesterone dose to 60 mg to see if its anti-inflammatory properties could rival that of testosterone. To my surprise, it did! Progesterone worked just as well as my old testosterone shots.
When I went for my next hormone test, I was fully expecting to have testosterone levels of 150 ng/dl again (since I had stopped taking testosterone); but to my surprise, it was about 350 ng/dl, and all thanks to progesterone!
Progesterone had somehow boosted my body’s internal production of testosterone, which as I mentioned earlier, is the best way to boost testosterone safely and without side effects.
So How Did I End Up Adding Pregnenolone, DHEA, And D-Aspartic Acid To My Progesterone Regimen?
Since adding these to my regimen, my testosterone has gone from 350 ng/dl (on progesterone alone) to an impressive 590 ng/dl! I was not satisfied with 350 and wanted to see if I could get it higher.
Here’s how I did it.
On doing some research online, I discovered that D-Aspartic acid can raise LH levels – something my doctor was NOT aware of. In fact, it was the bodybuilding community that taught me this (it turns out bodybuilders know more about testosterone than most MD’s). When the study showing D-Aspartic acid raises testosterone came out, the bodybuilders were all over it. So I wanted to try it to see what it would do.
The problem was that D-Aspartic acid taken alone could deplete your testosterone precursors. Just to be on the safe side, I thought I should have testosterone precursors in reserve. The three primary precursors of testosterone are progesterone, pregnenolone and DHEA. These three precursors were also listed in a scientific article as a means of reducing cholesterol if you returned them (along with testosterone) to “youthful” levels. Since my cholesterol was on the high side, it made sense to try all of them, plus I had literature supporting the idea of taking them.
I figured if I took reasonable, safe doses of these three testosterone precursors, I could safely take D-Aspartic acid and not worry about running out of testosterone precursor reserves.
So I started adding in pregnenolone, DHEA, and D-Aspartic acid to my progesterone regimen. I decided to take very little DHEA because of concerns about its use in higher doses (I take 25 mg of DHEA a week instead of the 25 mg a day recommended on the bottle).
The amount of pregnenolone I decided to take was based on recommendations by Dr. Ray Peat. I settled on 60 mg a day of progesterone, though even higher doses of progesterone had been recommended to me by Wray Whyte, the owner of progesteronetherapy.com, who had been running the site for 15 years. She convinced me that several hundred milligrams a day of progesterone was safe, partly due to the fact that as fetuses, we are floating in a placenta making 400 mg of it a day during the third trimester of pregnancy.
As for how much D–Apartic acid I take, I started at a lower dose than what is recommended on the bottle. The bottle lists a daily dose of 3,000 mg a day and I decided to take 1,500-2,000 mg a day. As of last month, my LH is now 3 mIU/L, which is up from the 2 mIU/L I had three and a half years ago.
Tweaking the Regimen Even More
Now that I have my latest results, I recently bumped up my D-Aspartic acid to 3,000 mg a day instead of the 1,500–2,000 mg I was taking before. If I can get my LH to 4 or 5 maybe I can get my testosterone back up to 700 or so, which is my target. I am feeling pretty good right now, so who knows, I might already be in the 700 range – my next test will tell.
Safety and Benefits of the Regimen
I have now been on a regimen of 60 mg of topical progesterone, 100 mg of pregnenolone capsules every other day, 25 mg of DHEA a week and at least 1,500-2,000 mg a day of D-Aspartic acid for twelve months with zero side effects and excellent lab results. I also lost the 15 pounds I gained from my testosterone shots.
All of these substances are known to be very safe, with the possible exception of DHEA in high doses (which is why I take a much lower dose than recommended on the bottle).
The studies are all clear on the safety of progesterone, pregnenolone, and D-Aspartic acid in high doses. In one study, subjects took 2,660 mg of D-Aspartic acid daily for 90 days. Not only did they experience significantly higher testosterone levels and increased fertility, researchers also noted no serum abnormalities and no side-effects.
Just for good measure, and because Wray Whyte highly recommended it to me, I also take 6,000 units of Vitamin D a day to keep my Vitamin D levels up. Vitamin D is more of a hormone than a vitamin and it has a symbiotic relationship with progesterone.
So What Have You Got to Lose?
I welcome anyone to try my regimen, but if you do, I would caution everyone to get their hormone levels tested regularly. Getting tested may seem expensive, but since you’ll only be doing it every six months or so, it really isn’t that bad.
Where Is The Best Place To Get These Supplements?
I have looked all over the internet searching for the best deals on these products. Seeing that they have restored my testosterone levels, along with my youth and vitality, the fact that I pay just 50 bucks a month for all four of these supplements, seems like a total steal.
Here is where I have found the best prices and best quality.
I buy progesterone and prognenolone from a place called Supplementspot.com. I get the progesterone gel in the pump bottle; and each pump is very consistent in delivering 15 mg of progesterone per pump (so I take 4 pumps a day).
It's important, by the way, to only ever get bioidentical hormones, as these are closer to nature and studies have shown that they are safer and more effective than their synthetic counterparts.
I get my DHEA from Walgreen's.
I buy D–Aspartic acid on Amazon. I use a brand called “Finaflex Pure Test”, but since I am increasing my daily dosage I just bought a brand called “Hard Rhino D Aspartic acid”.
If you are interested in learning more, I have told Garry I would be glad to write more about progesterone, pregnenolone, and testosterone; including their relationship to cholesterol (they all come from the LDL “bad” cholesterol — for which I took statins and which ironically may have contributed to my low testosterone). I have been studying this stuff almost daily for the last three and a half years and am glad to share what I have learned. Your thoughts, comments and questions are welcome.
David Mills is a retired personal injury attorney with a keen interest in medicine. Over the 35 years he spent in this career, he has amassed a team of reliable medical experts he can consult at any time.
David has had a lifelong influence from medicine. His father (deceased) taught medical and graduate school for 40 years. His brother, with a PhD in biophysics, has spent 30 years doing human biochemical and medical university research. His wife is a registered nurse.
Thanks David. I just started. I am 47, low T, man boobs and shruken testicles. I was on a dr. Program for awhile years ago and after last round my testes never bounced back. I am pretty clear on starting point. Gonna try the Preg 3x a week and Progesterone erone daily 2 pumps. I am unclear on how much Progesterone 2 pumps is and if I need to take a break from the regimen after a certain amount of days on the regimen? Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.
Two pumps equals 30mg. I take four pumps, 60mg daily.
Each pump is 15mg if you are using a bottle that is 4 oz and has 2000 mg of progesterone. That is what my Supplement Spot bottle has. I take 4 pumps and shoot for 60 mg. These pumps are supposed to pump the same amount of product every time, but in reality that does not happen.
I never take breaks from pregnenolone or progesterone because the half-lives of these steroids are so short, particularly progesterone, that has a half life of 13 hours. Pregneneolone has a half life of several days which is why I take it daily as well. The idea is to keep these levels as constant as possible.
I never cycle off of them.
Please contact me at my email. I have sensitive personal data to share and a proposed offer. I am part of an R&D group.
David, your identified regimen; What say you regarding liver first pass issues since you are engaging oral alternatives? Is this a concern?
What is your SHBG levels and are you using the labcorp sensitive e2 assay if not your results on e2 are not valid.
you have to check both vit -D assays or you are not getting the complete picture on vit-D which is actually a hormone.
I don’t mind contacting Tom by email if he has personal info he does not want to share.
Does anyone have a contact email address for David Mills. I would like to correspond with him by email if possible.
Matthew Barber
mb at quest-technical.co.uk
Hi Matthew. David checks the comment section of this article on a regular basis, so you’re likely to hear from him soon.
Prolong D aspartic acid can cause increased glutamate to the brain
Hi!
First of all, I am not from US but Poland. I’ve been trying to find a substitute for a progesteron cream, which you recommended. The thing is what I’ve found is aimed at women with menopause-easing effects. It says that it is a cream with natural 14% extract from Wild Yam that contains substances that are precursor for natural progesteron biosynthesis. The product also contains collagen.
Here’s composition:
Aqua, Caprilic/Capric Triglyceride, Dioscroea, Villosa Extract, Polyacrylamide C13-14Isoparaffin Laureth-7. Tocopheryl Acetate, Grapefruit Seed Extract, Aloe Barbadenis Leaft Juice, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexyglycerine, DMDM Hydantoin, Iodopropynyl, Butylcarbamate.
I can’t find how much mgs of progesteron it has.
Should I try it out?
That probably will not work. I suggest you go to progesteronetherapy.com and ask Wray who runs the site whether she can get you some. I think they sell worldwide.
Great article Mr. Mills, thank you for sharing. I am also 63 and am going to give this a try. I have a question – How do you take these supplements, all at once or in divided doses, and what time of day do you take them?
I take them all at once for convenience. It might be better to do them twice a day to keep levels more stable. Particularly progesterone since it has a half life of 13 hours.
Thank you David. I was curious to see if you are still on this regimen and how it is working. I have read that the testosterone boosting effects of d-aspartic acid can be short lived so I’m curious to know if your testosterone levels are still holding. Could you give us an update?
Yes I am still on my regimen. Slightly altered. I am taking 25 mg per day of DHEA per day now and I don’t take D-Aspartic acid as regularly as I used to do. I probably should take it more regularly, but the efficacy of D-Aspartic acid is hard to evaluate unless you get regular lab tests. And it is the second most expensive supplement.
Unfortunately my doctor still is not doing labs on me. So I have no idea what my levels are. I am supposed to see her next month. I am going to beg her to do labs again. She is definitely not into the testosterone thing.
Dave
Any thoughts to taking your recommended protocol after vasectomy.
Have experienced major drop in T, extreme fatigue, libido issues, brain fog, and more since having V about 6 weeks ago.
I would try it. I have never experienced any side effects and only one person who has done it has said he experienced any. But your only other option for low T is shots and gels. And the gels are very expensive if not covered by insurance. And the shots are going to make you go up and down as they only last for ten days. And you are likely to feel awful the last couple of days.
Hi David,
Firstly thanks for sharing, already feeling a little stronger and energy is improving after a week taking your recommended supplements.
Is there a reason why you take Pregnenolone 100 mg every other day, rather than 50mg everyday? On your response January 8th you mention you take it daily so i’m confused. Thanks Dan
I actually take 100 mg of pregnenolone every day and have been doing that for a long time. I see that my initial regimen said I took it every other day.
And this is the honest truth. I have been taking 100 mg of pregnenolone a day for so long, I don’t remember if I started out taking it every other day and then changed to daily or if that was a mistake in my initial article and I didn’t catch it.
I am definitely sorry for the confusion.
But the reason I take it every day is because it has a long half life and I want to keep my levels up.
I also take 25 mg of DHEA a day now due to my age (I will be 66 in August). And this is going to sound really strange. I think it darkened my hair and perhaps even regrew some. Dr. Peat mentioned that when he took it, it darkened his hair. But that is not why I take it. I take it to keep my testosterone levels up.
Hi David,
Interesting article. I have the following questions :
1) Is there a specific type of progesterone cream needed or any OTC type.
2) Is there a danger of it being converted into estrogen.
Thanks
Dom
It just needs to be bioidentical progesterone. But it needs to be progesterone and not some yam substitute.
Progesterone keeps testosterone from metabolizing into estrogen. It is an aromatse inhibitor and aromatse is what converts testosterone into estrogen.
That is why progesterone is so good at preventing man boobs which are caused by estrogen excess.
David,
Me too suffering from Man Boobs From year ago. I am 26 right now. I had hormones test six months before .At that time my Estrogen Levels were quite high nearly 80.04 pg/ml and T was 23 Nmol/L. Kindly guide me what i do to get rid of Man Boobs??
That was about the estrogen level I was at when I was on testosterone shots. Progesterone is an aromatse inhibitor. Aromatse is the enzyme which converts testosterone to estrogen. Simply put, you have too much aromatase for a man. Women have lots of aromatase to convert testosterone to estrogen.
Progesterone blocks the production and or effect of aromatase. So you need more progesterone.
Most young men should not start out with progesterone. It is better to take pregnenolone which is progesterone’s precursor. Your body should be able to convert pregnenolone into progesterone.
Plus, pregnenolone is much cheaper than progesterone. Pregnenolone comes in a capsule that you can swallow as opposed to a cream or gel that you have to rub on your skin like progesterone.
I would start with 50 mg of pregnenolone a day (low dose) and see if that works. Try it for a couple of weeks. If that doesn’t work, then try a 100 mg a day for a couple of weeks. And if that doesn’t work, try progesterone starting with 15 mg per day for a couple of weeks. And then add 15 mg of progesterone per couple of weeks until it resolves. I would not get over 100 mg of pregnenolone and 60 mg per day of progesterone.
But only take as much as you need to get your estrogen down to normal levels and your testosterone up to normal levels. You don’t want to over do these steroids.
If it works, let us know what amounts worked for you.
Good luck.
Ok David. I will let u knw if it works..
Thankyou.
Hii David ,
U told me earlier to take 50 mg Pregnenolone for couple of weeks to get rid of man boobs. I am already on tamoxifen 10 mg from last one week. I just want to know could i take pregnenolone along with tamoxifen? ?
If you are taking other hormones or steroids I don’t think I should be telling you what you should do. But you might go to progesteronetherapy.com and ask the person who runs that website, Wray Wright. She knows far more about progesterone than I do. She is the one who convinced me it would be ok to take the levels I take. She usually doesn’t prescribe pregnenolone though. Dr. Peat is the person who thinks young men should start out on prenenolone rather than progesterone.
David,
I am taking pregnenolone 50 mg since 22nd june and from last two days i increased my dose to 100 mg. I usually take pregnenolone before breakfast. But i didnt notice any change in my hormones and man boobs. I think my libido also sucks. Kinldy let me know should i take it more or stop it??
Hi guys,
Does anybody know if we can get similar quality products in the UK?
Thanks
Try going to the progesteronetherapy.com website. I think they sell there.
Hello,
So I’m confused. There used to be a lot of comments and they have all disappeared? What is the reason for this?
Hi Mike. The comments are all still there, they’ve just been separated into pages. Just above the first comment on this page you’ll see some numbers which respond to the different page numbers. Clicking on these numbers will take you to those pages.
Hello! My husband has been on testosterone shots for over four years. He too has experienced many side effects. What would be a good way to get him off the shots and onto the D-Aspartic Acid?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks!
I guess it depends on his age. As I write in this article, I had taken shots with some significant side effects I didn’t like. I tried the gel which was far more expensive and my testosterone levels tanked after several months. I was going to go back to shots but my doctor wanted me to wait for a month to see what my testosterone baseline was. But due to my back hurting so much (it didn’t when I was doing shots and gels) I started taking lots of progesterone (60 mg per day). My back pain went away and at the end of the month when I went for my test, my testosterone was higher than it was on the gels.
One way he might work into this is to begin taking progesterone and pregnenolone at the 5-6 days before his next shot is due. See if that helps. If he does and he feels fine then just keep trying the progesterone and pregnenolone daily to see if it works for him. He will probably need those two things for certain and some DHEA. The D-Aspartic Acid would only be of help if he has low LH. And his LH might be fine.
Where on the body do you apply progesterone cream?
Anywhere. It is best to move it around. I use it a lot to help with joint pain or back pain. So sometimes I put it on my knee, my wrists or ankle where I tend to have some joint pain. Stomach area is good too as is the groin area.
I am 47 and was diagnosed with low T. My level was 117 and my doctor prescribed generic testosterone gel. I have been taking it for 1 month now, and haven’t really seen much of a difference. I am concerned that he isn’t fully aware of TRT, and I will be moving back overseas soon, and treatment wont be as readily available as it is here in the US. If I were to try your regimen, should I stop the use of the gel all together? I’d be open to any advice via email or whatever works best.
I actually started low levels of progesterone (15 mg a day) when I was taking T shots and continued when I was doing the gel to get rid of my gynocomastia. But I didn’t bump it up to 60 mg until my doctor took me off of T entirely. The problem with taking both together early on is if your T rises you won’t know why. If you get a good baseline number for T on the gels, then add progesterone and pregnenolone, you can tell which is helping or if neither are helping.
Why do you take Pregnenolone every other day? as opposed to every day. I would love to know the reasoning – ie if there is some implication with this –
I found your post when deciding to increase my Allopregnanolone – via pregenonlone supplementation maybe progesterone but I was looking for cream ( I’m testing to see if this is the reason for my high cholesterol and great effects from pregenolone alone)
Any idea of why you had low leutenizing hormone? also how did you test this? or did your doctor discover this from a CAT scan ?
Regards,
I no longer take 100 mg of pregnenolone every other day. I take it every day now and have been doing that for a long time. I think the reason I started out every other day was because I thought I needed 50 mg a day and I was having trouble getting 50 mg capsules. But it has a long half life so every other day was fine.
I also now take 25 mg of DHEA every day and have been doing that now for about a half a year. I was initially afraid to do that but after a while I decided to see if it would help and I think it has but my doctor no longer tests me for any hormones. So I don’t have lab studies to confirm anything of what I am doing anymore.
As for the low LH, that was found with a blood test. I take much less D-Aspartic acid than I used to since I have no means of telling whether it helps with my LH anymore. It is also the second most expensive ingredient.
I would not think prenenolone has any effect on your cholesterol unless somehow you are taking way too much of it and somehow you are not metabolizing cholesterol like you were before.
Cholesterol is still the one thing my doctor checks regularly and my cholesterol has always been about the same since I started my regimen.
By the way, Dr. Peat says studies show that a cholesterol of 280 in women is the best number to have for longevity in women. He assumes it would be the same or nearly the same in men. Low cholesterol is good for your heart but bad for many other things like cancer, infection and a number of other deadly illnesses.
Actually, the latest studies are showing there’s no causative link between heart disease and high cholesterol. 75% of people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol.
There’s weak correlation at best. High cholesterol tends to be an indication of poor health choices, and it’s the poor health choices that lead to heart disease, not the cholesterol itself. Inflammation, vascular health and triglycerides are much more important than cholesterol.
Plus more important than just high or low cholesterol is the TYPE of cholesterol. HDL cholesterol is good for your heart, while LDL cholesterol is bad for your heart. When you eat healthy sources of saturated fat and cholesterol (e.g. organic grass-fed animal fats), your HDL levels go up and LDL levels go down.
If you live a healthy lifestyle (e.g. diet high in healthy fats, low in refined carbs and sugars, plenty of high intensity exercise, low body weight, non-smoker, plenty of sleep, minimized stress), you don’t need to worry about high cholesterol.
David, do you think this combination would be fine with DHEA.? I forgot to get this with the rest of my supps, and i think i may be doing topical pregnenlone… Any thing spark a cause for concern in your eyes regarding your above mentioned ‘Stack’ Without dhea and topical preg instead of oral?
I would really appreciate a response thanks (:
Do you also take in account D-aspartic acids ability to excel or initate Baldness – possibly ?
when i say excel… I mean more that it can Increase DHT which can in turn excel the speed of balding – receding hair line.
but yeah i just got my d-aspartic acid and progestrerone… preg coming in a few days, i think i will start to take without DHEA but i am cautious of any possible issues without DHEA ocassionally.. ( i need to order dhea where i live as it is prohibited without a prescription)
Reply By David Mills:
Progesterone is a 5 alpha reductase inhibitor as well as an aromatase inhibitor. 5 alpha reductase turns testosterone into DHT and aromatase turns testosterone into estrogen. So progesterone protects you from the excess output of DHT and estrogen.
For a guy 66 years old I have a reasonable amount of hair. I think my hair loss all occurred before I started my regimen. I really haven’t noticed much hair loss since I started my regimen but I haven’t added any either that I can tell.
Reply By David Mills:
When you take progesterone topically as opposed to orally it only requires about 1/10 as much. The reason is that when it is absorbed through the skin it bypasses the liver. When you take it orally, after you ingest it, the liver filters it before entering your bloodstream and makes you excrete 90% of it.
Dr. Peat suggested that it could be taken orally with Vitamin E and perhaps some other things to help it get past the liver excretion problem, but I have never tried that. And my memory of what he specifically recommended is not very accurate.
I would definitely go topical if at all possible unless the pills are much cheaper than I think they would be. Otherwise you would be paying for ten times as much for the same effect.
Hi David, thanks for this article, it’s been very helpful. My question is, how did you use the progesterone gel?
Did you apply it as cream, what areas of the body ? I thought is in tablet form. My order came in today,it says apply on the skin. Am confused. I won’t use it at all until I hear from you . Thanks a lot. U can write me directly on [email protected]
I
Yest progesterone is a topical gel or cream. You put it on the skin and it is absorbed through the skin. I put it on areas where I hurt the most, like my back, my knee, my neck, etc. But I try to move it around. On my belly, groin area, my wrists and arms. Anywhere.
The pregnenolone is a pill that you swallow.
I’m 64 in OK shape (5′ 8″, 150 lbs.) with recent blood work indicating naturally high Testosterone (830 ng/dl) and high estradiol (61 pg/ml) with LH at 7.1). Three years ago my DHEAS was 21 (range 80 – 560). I have all the indications of estrogen dominance including man boobs, fat around my middle, fatigue, sinusitis, etc. Any thoughts as to what’s going on with me and what I can do to get more in balance? Thanks very much!
I think your his estradiol is caused by conversion of testosterone to estradiol and if you took progesterone you could prevent much of that conversion. Progesterone is an aromatase inhibitor and aromatase is what causes testosterone to convert to estradiol.
David
I’m 56 yrs old and did lab work recently. My ESTRADIOL was 28 pg/mL my total Testosterone is 346 ng/dL but my FREE T is only 42.9 pg/mL which is very low. My LH is 6.5 and my FSH 4.3 which is in the normal ranges. Why the low FREE T? Estradiol is in range. I’m getting a saliva result back soon for my T, Estradiol and progesterone. Tomorrow I’m going in for a short consultation on getting Testosterone pellets that last 3 months. Should I hold off on doing that and try progesterone too? I’m already taking DHEA and pregnenolone.
Thanks for any reply
Dan
PS I have had memory loss with brain fog, night sweats, insomnia, etc with increase belly fat all signs of Low Free T