[Lotus]

Hello Lotus,

I read with interest your approach to managing progesterone side-effects with Allopregnanolone instead of GABA, considering the latter's poor metabolism in humans. Have you considered the potential benefits of adjusting your diet, specifically increasing protein and saturated fats to elevate LDL levels while keeping triglycerides (TGs) low? This dietary strategy might offer the mental clarity and productivity boost you're seeking, akin to the effects of Allopregnanolone but through nutritional means. From my experience, maintaining strict adherence to this regimen has notably enhanced my mental performance. It might be worth exploring as an alternative approach to managing your side-effects.

Hi Manue, funny you mention that, ? thank you for your question and advice. Currently, I'm taking 200mg of protein daily, which produces more of a satiety (feeling full for those unfamiliar with the topic). Depending on my need, I'll add maybe a tablespoon of ghee (grass fed clarified butter) to my coffee or tea and protein powder a couple of times per day, I started this routine about two months ago, i feel its helpful. Lol, which sounds similar to your approach. Btw, I abhor taking MCT oil,  it doesn't agree with me. Within the breast grower network (meaning everyone who wants to grow breasts)  side effects from progesterone use is common.

 I'm glad you found something that works for you. At best, I can only handle one 100mg progesterone (prometrium) capsule orally daily due to massive migraines, agitation, and some depression. I take 10-30mg of supplemental Allopregnanolone to counter those side effects, allopregnanolone is a precursor to progesterone. There are published studies that disclose how a reduction of allopregnanolone causes depression… PCOS and PMDD (in women) are listed. My thought is to replenish allopregnanolone which gets diminished by using progesterone and nuerosteriod drugs like finasteride... which was proven (scientifically) to cause depression and lower allopregnanolone. So good to hear from you. 

[Lotus]

We've only had one thread on half life, time to unlock NBE (hrt too) and explore the timing of when and how much to take:

Half-life: The period of time required for the concentration or amount of drug in the body to be reduced to exactly one-half of a given concentration or amount.
---------------------------

The half-life of steroid hormone receptors ranges from 2 to 4 hours for ERα, 4 hours for AR, 7 to 10 hours for PR, and 19 hours for GR. The relatively long half-life of the steroid hormone receptors strongly suggests that the receptor proteins are recycled before eventual degradation.

I'd recommend taking (oral nbe between 3-4 times per day at lesser dosages). This way your delivery of what you use matches the half life. Big note here, taking high doses of PM, E2 and FENUGREEK lowers the number of available receptors, which will kill any program (see added science).

Steroid hormones generally autoregulate their receptor levels. Desensitization or downregulation of receptor numbers, measured by decreased ligand binding capacity, occurs in response to exposure to high levels of ligand and involves the reduction in receptor mRNA levels, decreasing the number of available receptors. The receptor gene may be negatively regulated by the hormonal ligand itself through its receptor protein interacting with specific HREs in the gene. Upregulation or self-priming may occur in an analogous fashion. Steroid hormones can regulate receptor levels for other hormones (e.g. E2 increases PR levels in estrogen-responsive tissues). Progesterone can downregulate its own receptors, as well as ERα and ERβ. This increase or decrease in receptor levels in homologous or heterologous regulation can be caused by alterations in receptor gene transcription or decay rates for receptor mRNA or protein.

 So imo take what we know about NBE and throw out the play book. Meaning a confusion exists (well imo) of when and how long to take supplements that will be effective. It also explains how receptor recycling (degradation) and not just steroid receptors gets excreted and recycled again and again. What this means is (and I'll try to explain so all can follow), that taking supplements in shorter (and less) bursts to follow the steroid half life's (this means receptor control too) cycle. 

Single-dose pharmacokinetics of sublingual versus oral administration of micronized 17 beta-estradiol
CONCLUSION: 
Sublingual administration of micronized 17 beta-estradiol results in a rapid, burst-like absorption into the systemic circulation, yielding high E2 levels that fall rapidly over the first 6 hours.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9052581

___________________________

The apparent half-life of E2 after discontinuing a transdermal E2 patch is 2.7 h or 161 min.

___________________________

Puerarin (after 7.5g/kg water extract of the decoction) were a half-life of 46.9 minutes (β-Half life of 925.7min) and AUC of 790.3μ min/mL; a Cmax of 1.41ug/mL (3.39umol/L) and a Tmax of 18.5 minutes; suggesting rapid absorption.

__________________________

Elimination half-life of endogenous testosterone is 10 to 100 minutes and is dependent on the amount of free testosterone in the plasma. Exogenous testosterone, such as testosterone cypionate (when injected intramuscularly) has a half-life of approximately eight days.

____________________________

Why increasing the dosage doesn't always work

Negative feedback occurs when the result of a process influences the operation of the process itself in such a way as to reduce changes. Feedback can produce stability and reduce the effect of fluctuations. Negative feedback loops in which just the right amount of correction is applied in the most timely manner can be very stable, accurate, and responsive. In other words, do you remember your body made changes when starting PM or E2?Some good changes did occur, however, the changes in testosterone made your testicles feel like it was going to explode. 

Negative feedback loops have been compared to a thermostatically controlled temperature in a house, where the internal temperature is monitored by a temperature-sensitive gauge in the thermostat. If it is cold outside, eventually the internal temperature of the house drops, as cold air seeps in through the walls. When the temperature drops below the point at which the thermostat is set, the thermostat turns on the furnace. As the temperature within the house rises, the thermostat again senses this change and turns off the furnace when the internal temperature reaches the pre-set point.

Negative feedback loops require a receptor, a control center, and an effector. A receptor is the structure that monitors internal conditions. For instance, the human body has receptors in the blood vessels that monitor the pH of the blood. The blood vessels contain receptors that measure the resistance of blood flow against the vessel walls, thus monitoring blood pressure. Receptors sense changes in function and initiate the body's homeostatic response. Cycling NBE or NBE will diminish blood levels of PM and ESTRADIOL, and you'll feel like crap because you've interrupted the steady state of delivery from the former and latter. CYCLING NBE or HRT ISN'T NECESSARY,  TO RECAP, YOU'LL REDUCE YOUR BLOOD LEVELS OF NBE/HRT by cycling, upsetting the apple cart so to speak.  

The goal (when doing NBE/HRT) is keeping a steady state of PM/E2... even for 

Read more: Homeostasis - Negative feedback - Body, Blood, Internal, and Conditions - JRank Articles http://science.jrank.org/pages/3365/Home...z34AWy8WWP

____________________________________________________________

Cycling supplements isn't for NBE/HRT. Once your body makes the adjustments to get back to homeostasis (from the negative feedback loop of starting NBE/HRT) you're body will fight you to keep at your current NBE/HRT levels.

[Lady Charlotte]

Hi Lotus

so basically, once you have started, DO NOT CYCLE?

ie stay on the regime youre on with no breaks? 

I assume this applies to PM and HRT, be it  PM, estrogen and or progesterone, and the same for any AA's such as RR?

Do i assume correctly?

[Lotus]

Hi Lotus, so basically, once you have started, DO NOT CYCLE?

ie stay on the regime youre on with no breaks? I assume this applies to PM and HRT, be it  PM, estrogen and or progesterone, and the same for any AA's such as RR?

Do i assume correctly?

IMHO Yes, that's correct. I used to advocate for cycling nbe/hrt until I realized it made no difference to my program. I would suggest doing a detox if you believe your estrogen dominant by using milk thistle or dandelion root, which helps deal with detoxing the liver and to correct the E2 dominance.

Apologies to prostatenipple and Karen Hart (and others) for not making my newer position more clear. 

[Lady Charlotte]

Hi Lotus, so basically, once you have started, DO NOT CYCLE?

ie stay on the regime youre on with no breaks? I assume this applies to PM and HRT, be it  PM, estrogen and or progesterone, and the same for any AA's such as RR?

Do i assume correctly?

IMHO Yes, that's correct. I used to advocate for cycling nbe/hrt until I realized it made no difference to my program. I would suggest doing a detox if you believe your estrogen dominant by using milk thistle or dandelion root, which helps deal with detoxing the liver and to correct the E2 dominance.

Apologies to prostatenipple and Karen Hart (and others) for not making my newer position more clear. 

thankyou so much x
ok, one last daft question....how long to detox for and take no hrt during that period?

thanks again, you're a star lotus!
Charlotte x

[SweetO]

I wonder if no cycling has been the *key* for the cis women in Breastnexus that were using birth control! As far as I remember 90% of the cis girls that were using bc had a massive success. 

Well, and also there's Rocketmelon's unique story  the girl took 188766 herbs and grew A LOT hahaha.

[Lotus]

thankyou so much x
ok, one last daft question....how long to detox for and take no hrt during that period?

thanks again, you're a star lotus!
Charlotte x

You're welcome, 

I'd recommend reading this thread below... it's been tucked away in a sub-section with little traffic, still, it's good information. On how long does it to detoxify?, that's hard to say based on individual needs. Most don't detox before starting NBE or HRT, if they did (detox) prior to starting a program they might see better results... the thread explains this more in detail. Thank you kindly for the nice comment. 

The Quick Toxin Flush for NBE
https://www.breastnexum.com/showthread.php?tid=20619

[Lotus]

I wonder if no cycling has been the *key* for the cis women in Breastnexus that were using birth control! As far as I remember 90% of the cis girls that were using bc had a massive success. 

Well, and also there's Rocketmelon's unique story  the girl took 188766 herbs and grew A LOT hahaha.

Hi Sweets, this will be an interesting topic for discussion. I'll put some thoughts together for you asap. 

[Lotus]

Hi BN, I've been inactive because I've been battling the flu for the last 10-12 days. Today, I finally felt better enough and got past the nagging migraine I had for five days (lol, my skull even hurt). 

I had some leukemia tests run (as follow-up care) which found my blood counts spiked somewhat. 



Results

IMPRESSION:

1. Enlarged precarinal and right hilar lymph nodes as described.
2. Focal pleural thickening right pleural effusion. 

Narrative
CT CHEST WITH CONTRAST

INDICATION:follow up of hilar node, Hilar adenopathy.

COMPARISON: 9/20/2023

FINDINGS:

Postcontrast CT scan of the chest was performed. Axial, sagittal coronal reformatted images were obtained for further evaluation.

Heart size is normal. Thoracic aorta is of normal course and caliber. Atherosclerotic disease. Less than 50% narrowing origin of the left subclavian artery. 

Again seen is an enlarged precarinal lymph node, measuring 1.4 cm, similar to prior. Mildly enlarged right hilar lymph node again identified, measuring 1.6 cm in short axis dimension. 

Pleural effusion and/or pleural thickening noted, series 301, image 25. Calcified right upper lobe granulomas noted.

Here's some recent pics, Still a solid L-cup
52-inch bust
40-inch band 






If I go silent for a period of time it's likely from illness. I post health updates from time to time, please note I'm not looking for sympathy from anyone when I do (I appreciate when someone does, but... i dont want anyone to feel obligated to do so). 
Maybe what I share will help someone in the future. I'm thinking my health issues stem from being exposed to asbestos and lead based paints when I served in the military from the late 70’s to early 80’s. I'm working with my doctors to confirm the possibility of having mesothelioma (that takes time to backtrack some 45 to 50yrs ago). But since a pleural effusion (fluid on the outside of the lung) was noted from a CT scan and other findings it seems like the signs are there.

[Eloise]

Lotus,

Wowzers   L-cup, my gosh!! 

Sorry to hear about the flu and the elevated levels.  

I’ve been doing some research and let me know if I’m totally off base.  

It seems like the ultimate way to nuke T is a GnRH inhibitor.  Some doctors proscribe these to transgender teens to thwart puberty.  So wouldn’t they work for older individuals limit LH and FSH?  And it seems like a natural GnRH inhibitor is Huang Bai.  I found some Huang Bai liquid extract.  I have no idea if it will work but in conjunction with Spiro or Reshi/Green Tea it could help really crush T and DHT.  Am I just wasting my money here or would it be worth a shot?