[Isabelle]

It'll be Wednesday before I'm in Amsterdam again with enough time to drop by http://www.jacob-hooy.nl/ for more goat's rue. I'm almost out. Maybe I'll make it until Monday, which is my next tape day.

I started 200 g on September 8th. Up to and including Monday is 51 days. So my average consumption is 200,000 / 51 = 4,000 mg daily. That's 1,000 mg more than I thought. I'll update it in my profile, which is where I keep my current doses.

After the first 200 g, I'd say this is one great herb. It swells like mushrooms. It contributed to my growth. Its only NBE effect is to increase prolactin. Fenugreek is similar, but that also increases progesterone. I'm not sure about the waist slimming effect. At the same Body Mass Index (BMI) as I measure now, my Waist to Hip Ratio (WHR) was lower in the weeks before and after September 1st, when I had only been using fenugreek. I'll take some more fenugreek now: as I wrote to Marcy above, you can't really take too much, and the powdered seeds are dirt cheap

[Isabelle]

Today, my two younger kids, my ex and I went to Amsterdam to see an exposition of 15 young photographers, and to see the ancient Egyptian section of the museum of one of the Amsterdam universities. The weather was sweet: dry and warm for the time of the year. Next week-end is the museum night in Amsterdam, and I kept remembering the museum nights I did in drag, between five and ten years ago. I feel really privileged living here. Can't hide my breasts, but I don't need to either. Relaxed.

My ex noticed a transvestite on the street, and said to me: "did you see how bad that one was"? So I'm not the only one who got used to the idea that I look kinda good

Maybe I should get out of the house in drag more again. The estrogens are smoothing the skin on my face out, so I actually look younger than I did in those days. My younger daughter saw a male model in a fashion magazine and commented on the veins on his arms: "would they be blocked if you put your arms around him? You don't have those". I honestly answered the herbs did that.

Yes, I need my heels again. Maybe it's the latest Amanda Lepore pic I saw yesterday: www.amandalepore.net
All implants and photoshop. I know I can do better, even if it takes years on PM

[Isabelle]

A recent comment on the forum got me thinking. People seem to think I'm taking a supermarket full of herbs, or at least an herb shop. Yet all I take is four herbs and a multi-vitamin.

The core program is still hops, fenugreek, and vitamins. Maca accelerates the effect of hops, and goat's rue adds to what fenugreek does. I have grown on hops alone, and on hops with fenugreek. I could easily do without maca and goat's rue.

Digested hops contains a phyto-estrogen, 8-prenylnaringenin. Undigested hops contains xanthohumol, an anti-androgen, which also decreases Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1). I take the hops with a light meal (porridge) to digest it, because I need IGF-1 to grow breasts. I used to ingest hops, as tea or in lemonade, and in those days, I never had pimples. I now rarely have them.

Maca root flour acts as if it increases De-Hydro-Epi-Androsterone (DHEA). DHEA becomes testosterone. Testosterone cannot become Di-Hydro-Testosterone (DHT), because the xanthohumol blocks 5α-reductase, the enzyme that makes DHT from testosterone. Aromatase makes estrogens from the testosterone.

Fenugreek increases prolactin. Prolactin actually starts milk production, so it causes swelling. Fenugreek also contains diosgenin. Diosgenin increases progesterone. Diosgenin increases estrogens slightly.

Goat's rue increases prolactin without increasing progesterone. Both fenugreek and goat's rue increase insulin sensitivity. Fenugreek also stimulates the pancreas to release insulin. Goat's rue doesn't.

In the multi-vitamin, the important ingredients are zinc (12-35 mg), vitamins C (200 mg), B6 (2-10 mg) and B12 (> 50 mcg), and folic acid (400 mcg). Vitamin E increases progesterone.

So with only four herbs and a multi-vitamin, I manage the three estrogens, testosterone, DHT, DHEA, IGF-1, progesterone, prolactin, and insulin. Hops also increases Human Growth Hormone (HGH). Cortisol is made from progesterone, so by keeping progesterone low, I also keep cortisol low.

Complicated? Maybe to those who take pueraria mirifica (PM) only. But the simplicity of PM is deceptive. PM contains miroestrol, which mimics estrone. The liver makes deoxymiroestrol, a more potent phyto-estrogen, from miroestrol. Decreasing PM increases progesterone and prolactin. PM also contains β-Sitosterol, which is an anti-androgen, because it blocks 5α-reductase. Stopping PM triggers an ovulation in women, so it must affect Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Luteinizing Hormone (LH) too.

The most successful PM programs (MydreamisGcup and idreamofD) include L-arginine and a multi-vitamin. L-arginine increases HGH. HGH increases IGF-1. The vitamin E in the multivitamin increases progesterone, while PM suppresses it.

PM users don't have a hard time slimming their waists. PM keeps cortisol low by suppressing progesterone. I don't know what PM does to insulin and to insulin sensitivity, but at least not using fenugreek will keep insulin low.

GorgeousBlonde and lled34aa have goat's rue in their PM programs, to increase prolactin, and to increase insulin sensitivity. I expect goat's rue would be a useful addition to the programs of MydreamisGcup and idreamofD.

For my own program, digesting hops, and keeping fenugreek low, are the main learnings. Adding L-arginine will help too. MydreamisGcup wrote that above age 35, GABA might be better than L-arginine for increasing HGH. Wahaika advised GABA too. Worth looking into.

[melissa4u]

Hi there Isabelle!!
Your posts are always full of great information.

You wrote that vitamin E increases progesterone, my multi-vitamin contains 30 IU of vitamin E, would it be okay if I add a seperate vitamin E pill to my program??
Is it okay if I take it everyday?

Thank you Isabelle!

[Isabelle]

Thank you, Melissa,

I checked
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminE-QuickFacts

For breastfeeding, that fact sheet recommends 19 mg daily, or 28.4 IU. The upper limits are really high:
"The highest safe level of intake from supplements for adults is 1,500 IU/day for natural forms of vitamin E and 1,100 IU/day for the synthetic form."
So it's safe to get an additional supplement. Whether it contributes much, is another matter. Even 800 IU does not do much about hot flashes, but it is safe:
http://www.jcojournal.org/content/16/2/495.short
Vitamin E "helps" in case of breast pains at the end of the cycle:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6684167

My brother brought a whole crate of walnuts two weeks ago, and I almost ate them all. So check the supermarket. Vitamin E is in season now.

Because it increases progesterone, Ginie takes vitamin E during luteal phase only.

[Isabelle]

I checked Mel's guidelines on how to measure:
http://www.breastnexus.com/showthread.php?tid=8982&pid=37699#pid37699
If I measure the underbust level (flat), it's 99 cm, and if I measure the shortest circumference around my body, which is not level, but like how a bra band would sit, it's 98 cm. At 99 cm underbust, the difference between bust and underbust is 10 cm. That means I lost an inch in less than two weeks. This week, I experimented with higher hops, and I lowered goat's rue, because I was running out. So as soon as I get new goat's rue, it goes up again. I'm starting flax seed again today, to repeat the experiment I did two weeks ago. I bought 400 g yesterday. For two weeks, that's 29 g a day.

I also gained weight again: sushi with the kids yesterday, Burger King with the kids on Saturday. OK, I know. It's funny that Waist Hip Ratio (WHR) improved. I upped fenugreek some this week to compensate for the lower goat's rue. There is more and more evidence in my measurements that fenugreek is better for waist slimming, while goat's rue is better for breast growth.

Height: 178.5 cm = 5*30.48 + 10*2.54 = 5' 10"
Weight: 83.0 kg * 2.2046 lbs/kg = 183 lbs
Body Mass Index (BMI): 83.0/1.785/1.785 = 26.0
Breast: 109 cm = 43"
Under: 99 cm = 39"
Waist: 91 cm = 36"
Hip: 98 cm = 39" (actually the widest part around my butt)
Waist to hip ratio (WHR): 91/98 = 0.93

Progress:
Day 11/7 26/7 08/8 22/8 05/9 19/9 3/10 7/10 17/10 31/10 2014 2016
BMI: 26.5 26.4 26.2 25.7 25.3 26.0 25.7 25.3 25.70 26.00 23.0 23.0
B-U: 8.00 5.00 8.00 8.00 8.00 10.0 10.0 10.0 13.00 10.00 15.0 20.0
WHR 0.95 .945 0.94 0.92 0.92 0.96 0.93 0.92 0.940 0.930 0.80 0.70
B-U = Breast - Under in cm

[Isabelle]

I checked my measurements before lunch, after some exercise. That's better:

Height: 178.5 cm = 5 * 30.48 + 10 * 2.54 = 5' 10"
Weight: 82.0 kg * 2.2046 lbs/kg = 181 lbs
Body Mass Index (BMI): 82.0/1.785/1.785 = 25.7
Breast: 109 cm = 43"
Under: 98 cm = 39"
Waist: 90 cm = 35"
Hip: 99 cm = 39" (actually the widest part around my butt)
Waist to hip ratio (WHR): 90/99 = 0.91

Progress:
Day 11/7 26/7 08/8 22/8 05/9 19/9 3/10 7/10 17/10 31/10 2014 2016
BMI: 26.5 26.4 26.2 25.7 25.3 26.0 25.7 25.3 25.70 25.70 23.0 23.0
B-U: 8.00 5.00 8.00 8.00 8.00 10.0 10.0 10.0 13.00 11.00 15.0 20.0
WHR 0.95 .945 0.94 0.92 0.92 0.96 0.93 0.92 0.940 0.910 0.80 0.70
B-U = Breast - Under in cm

[Isabelle]

Yesterday evening, I decreased hops again from 3 to 2 tablespoons, or 3,000 mg. I added broken brown flax seed, 30 g, which is a little over two tablespoons. Tomorrow, I'll buy more goat's rue, so I can drink three mugs of goat's rue tea again, from 4,000 mg. I've been drinking only one for nearly a week now, and upped fenugreek to compensate. But after tomorrow night, everything will be back to normal in my program, except for the flax seed.

Two weeks ago, I had experimented with flax seed for a week, and I measured nearly 1" bigger. Before that, each time I experimented with flax seed, it added something too. But as I wrote two weeks ago, flax has so many different effects, that it's hard to tell what the net overall result will be. Even if the flax experiment shows miracle results when I measure again two weeks from now, it will be hard to predict what it will do for someone else, in another program.

Eve M used both flax and oats. Large amounts of flax increase Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG), and oats decrease it again. That's convenient, because if the SHBG binds to all the free testosterone, aromatase can't make estrogens from the testosterone any more. Just plain oat flakes from the breakfast cereals wing in the supermarket also contain, per 100 g, 3.6 g beta glucan, .33 mg vitamin B6, 60 mcg folic acid, and 110 mg magnesium, among others. That will make a great substitute for the sweetened cereals in my hops evening porridge, but no earlier than two weeks from now. I really must make a habit of changing no more than one thing at a time in my program: how else am I going to learn?

[chiquitabella]

Hi Isabelle- how long do you give a change in your program to determine if it is helping or not? I added goat's rue extract to my program but in the interest of saving money, I'd like to know if it is something to continue buying. I should really probably be recording my results. Maybe it is not too late!

[beachbumbythesea]

Hello again Isabelle,

I am so sorry for asking this question again but someone else has asked this and I want to know too again.. what supplements, herbs, and or foods effect progesterone.. Thanks ahead..