PROGESTRONE AND WEIGHT STALL/GAIN

The Depo shot made me too hungry and I had bleeding issues, synthetic progesterone pills still made me too hungry, but Prometrium (bio-identical and FDA-approved) works very nicely. I take it vaginally, which is supposed to cut down on the side effects. Works for me I'm glad I started back on it again, but only in this form that agrees with me!

I had mirena which releases progesterone placed at my 8 week postpartum check up. After 3 months on mirena i had gained almost 40lbs even while dieting and excising. I am just now getting back on track after not being on a progesterone birth control method for almost a year with 27 lbs down. In my opinion the worst birth control to be on.

Hm. Interesting question. I take progesterone as hormone therapy (not as birth control) and never considered that could be why my scale is stuck... Have you asked your doc about it? I'd love to know the response.

I switched to a progesterone only pill the just after Christmas, I'm on Cerazette. The Depo made me go mental, panic attacks, paranoid, 3 months of hell. Tried the combined pill - turns out I'm alergic to the extra oestrogen.
The POP for me is going brilliantly, just started my 3rd pack. I've had no side effects.
I signed up to MFP shortly after new year as I was worried about gaining weight as a lot of what I've read about the POP suggests you will. For years I've been trying to get back to to my WW Gold weight and never got within 8lbs if it. Since new year with the help of MFP and DIet Chef I've had no problems losing weight, for the first 5 weeks I stuck to 1200 calories and now I've upped it to 1400 and lost 25lbs since New Years Day.

So for me the POP is fantstic but the Depo or Implant are hell.

I'm on that drug and I haven't had any issues with weight gain. My boyfriend, luckily, is a pharmacist and he told me that the hormone doesn't normally directly lead to weight gain, it's more food cravings. I definitely have food cravings that are really intense! And I notice that I have a tendency toward water retention. So, to combat this I try to be careful about what I eat and drink a lot of extra water, especially during my time of the month. Good luck lovey!

I had a long discussion about this in another 'medicine weight gain' thread when somebody told me hormones can't have any effect your metabolism Hint: they can. They do. Your hormones are what control your metabolism, by and large.

Reduced progesterone can have an effect on metabolism and also affect production of thyroid hormones (free-t4 etc). Unless your estrogen is also monitored, a reduction in progesterone can also lead to estrogen dominance in the body.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/808684

http://donnawhitehormonemakeover.com/wp-content/themes/donnawhite/pdfs/Are Your Hormones Causing You To Gain Weight_ Article.pdf

Reduced estrogen also has an effect in that way except that estrogen reduction also makes the body hold onto fat (estrogen is also produced in adipose and your body needs it to function. If your ovaries stop producing it, then the body increases estrogen production in fat cells, ergo...) which is why a lot of women gain fat in menopause. I'm one of them - I was on strong hormone medication that put me in artificial menopause and gained 50lb in a matter of months. Every time I'm put on any hormonal treatment whatsoever I gain weight - usually more than could be expected.

I will say, though, that my gynaecologist told me that progesterone treatments such as the implant can have a weight gain effect due to the hormone imbalances etc etc

tl;dr any and all hormone imbalances will affect the function of your body and can cause weight gain and not just as a result of increased appetite. But it doesn't affect everyone the same because, spoiler alert, everyone is different.