My endo effectively leaves it up to me whether I start progesterone now, 1.5 years into HRT. What I could find online suggested that starting too early could have negative impact on breast growth, so I said no at this point since I haven’t yet seen as much breast growth as I would like.
Should I be starting after 2y? Should I be contacting my endo to change my mind and start now? What’s the wisdom?
I think over a year is probably fine. I started at 8 months and don’t regret it, my boobs seem to be continuing to grow. There are people who report starting progesterone from day one and have normal breast growth.
You might already know this, but every time progesterone comes up I like to gently remind people that progesterone should be administered rectally to be effective, oral progesterone is filtered almost entirely by the liver.
It might be fine for cis women who produce endogenous progesterone and the less than 10% of the oral dose that actually reaches their blood is still helpful, but for transfem individuals, that won’t meaningfully raise your blood progesterone levels to anything close to cis female levels.
Very much noted :) thanks dandelion!