[AbiDrew85]

There's loads of confusion because otc PC is known as useless as its just wild yam so no progesterone, no matter what you hear, its ineffective(as per my Dr.) Now, lab created progesterone(synthetic) though its known as bio identical progesterone made from Mexican wild Yam is supposedly recognized by our bodies.

So, it seems, WY as an herb is effective, though not recognized as progesterone in the body, but when converted in a lab is recognized as some version of progesterone in the body. It seems either way you take WY, you get some kind of benefit though it is technically not real progesterone.

So what surferjoe said, its a saponin as an herb. but coverted, its a form of progesterone. I spoke with my pharmacy and they said what they do to it in the lab, converting it to progesterone is as close to bio identical you can get.

It can be converted in a lab to all kinds of hormones and hormonal analogs actually... And you CAN get what would be a prescription strength PC in some locales OTC as well. It's the same stuff as is in progesterone pills and gels and shots and whatever btw. The estradiol people get prescribed usually is derived from diosgenin as well, whether from WY or another source... *shrug* probably depends on what's cheapest at the time the lab bought up a bunch of the stuff to process into the various hormones they were tasked with converting it to.

Anyways. What it apparently does as an herb, as just diosgenin directly, is to deregulate at least some of the negative feedback loops allowing us to take our hormone levels higher than our bodies would otherwise permit. I imagine this is most useful for two groups of people: People who aren't quite as sensitive as they'd like, and people whose regulatory systems kick in too soon.