a little worried about my progestin

[travelfish]

I have been pregnant for five months and both the baby and mother are going well. I gained about 3KG by far and the baby is growing well and healthy. But this time when I met the nurse, my pregestin level becomes 124 and much lower than previously 135. Although the nurse said this is still on the normal level as long as not lower than 120 or 117, I feel a little worried. The nurse explains that this is most likely because the baby is now growing fast and I have not got enough nutrition for myself and I need more red meat, dark bread and peanuts.

May I have more advices from all of you? Thanks!

[Rosamunda]

I know nothing about progestin levels but I do know it is a good idea to keep off peanuts while you are pregnant. A peanut allergy is no fun, for you or the baby. But to be honest... what's the link between progestin and peanuts (or red meat)??? Are you sure you understood what the nurse said

If you need to increase your calorie intake, just stick to your normal diet but try to eat a bit more. No need to hit the peanut butter.

[biscayne]

Walnuts definitely are helpful in raising the levels, haven't heard about peanuts though. Wild Yam is another one that is "famous" for it, (not sweet potato though). But, since the 80s (at least) they have been prescribing a cream which absorbs the hormone through the skin. The dark bread, could be because of the levels of B6 in it which help maintain the balance. Zinc is essential in producing progesterone, so hence the red meat advice, but chicken, turkey and shellfish have that too, (I know some people are advised against shellfish during pregnancy). Good luck for the rest of the pregnancy.

[biscayne]

By the way, before someone picks up on it, the OP said progestin and I said progesterone, one is the naturally produced stuff, the other is the synthetic, same thing really and the terms are often used interchangably

[AldenG]

Just to clarify biscayne's comment, progesterone is the naturally-occurring hormone. Progestins are a family of chemicals that bind to progesterone receptors in the body and therefore have similar but not identical effects to progesterone. A progestin has a different chemical structure from progesterone but is capable of binding to a progesterone receptor.

It's similar to the relationship between GABA (gamma amino butyric acid) and a benzodiazepine-family tranquilizer. GABA is the body's own neurotransmitter that dampens electrical activity in the nervous system. The body must always maintain a sufficient amount of GABA for binding to nerve cell receptors. A benzodiazepine tranquilizer is a chemical that binds to the same receptor as GABA, which is often called a "GABA/benzodiazepine receptor." Different benzodiazepine tranquilizers have similar effects but differ in speed of onset, strength of effect, duration of effect, and also in the side effects that various individuals experience. So just because two different kinds of molecules bind to the same receptor does not at all mean they will have the same effect.

Consider another type of receptor, the opioid receptor. Heroin, morphine, raw opium, methadone, naltrexone, and a variety of other drugs all bind to the that type of receptor but have dramatically different effects from each other. In fact, as with naltrexone (an opioid blocker), some molecules can bind to a receptor without stimulating it, thus blocking the effect of other neurotransmitters or hormones or drugs that act by stimulating the receptor. A number of important medications work by blocking various receptors in the body.

This difference between the structure, effects, and side effects of progesterone and progestin is the source of the controversy over using progestins versus bioidentical progesterone. Patients are often told in ignorance or for other reasons that there is no difference in the effect of progestin versus progesterone (although simultaneously told it would be dangerous to prescribe naturally occurring progesterone, which is of course logically inconsistent with claiming there is no difference in effect.) No matter which side of the controversy one stands on, it is not scientifically correct to claim that the two substances work identically.

Advocates of progestin treatment state that the effects of administering progestin are well studied and known to be safe and effective while the effects of administering progesterone identical to what the body makes are not studied and potentially or probably unsafe.

Advocates of progesterone treatment state that the practice IS safe and effective and has fewer risks and adverse effects than administering progestin.

I'm not taking a side, just trying to put the controversy into a nutshell.

[AldenG]

BTW, are both types of treatment readily used in Finland?

[biscayne]

Well, yes, you are absolutely correct, and I shouldn't really have said "same thing really", I meant that the person who was speaking to the OP seemed to have been using the terms interchangably. I'm assuming (always a bad idea!!!) that the concern over the levels was related to the possiblity of pregnancy loss, so I would have thought they should be talking about progesterone in this case, not progestin, as the OP posted? At work, we give progestin suppositories.

[AldenG]

I shouldn't really have said "same thing really"

I didn't mean to criticize anything you wrote and I'm sorry if it came across that way. I always read your posts with interest.

I was referring to the way some doctors tell women who want bioidentical hormones that the hormone analogues are the same thing "but safer." Obviously they can't be both. They can be the same thing OR they can differ in safety, but not both. And given all the problems attributed to non-pharmaceutical estrogenic hormone analogues coming from chemicals in the environment, the "safer" meme also seems suspect in regard to any hormone analogues/mimics.

[biscayne]

Yes, I would certainly agree with that.