Cycle 1, Day 18
I'm well over two weeks into the first cycle and all in all I can't say I've noticed all that much of a difference... maybe that's how it's supposed to be or maybe my whole mind-body/somatic connection isn't all that great. That's definitely possible. Trauma has a way of teaching your body to just not report things, and I've had enough of it that I genuinely don't know how much I'm not feeling versus how much I'm not noticing. Either way, the study's primary endpoints are pharmacokinetics and microbiome data, not vibes, so the instruments will tell the story even if my body won't.
Hormone wise things have confused me a bit. Both E3G and PdG seem to be heavily influenced by hydration status, which makes sense given that they're urinary metabolites and urine concentration is going to directly affect the reading. I'm going to start using at-home urine specific gravity test strips alongside my Inito tests to see if I can tease apart "my estrogen went up" from "I was dehydrated this morning." That's a Cycle 2 addition since I want to keep Cycle 1's methodology consistent, but it's on the list.
Looking at the chart, the overall trend is there even if the day-to-day readings are noisy as hell. The big spike you can see on CD17-18, where E3G jumps from the ~100-150 range up to 370+, lines up with my Day 15 EV injection having a few days to break down and start circulating. That's about what I'd expect as estradiol levels build in the early luteal phase. The dips and bumps before that are harder to interpret cleanly because of the hydration variable, but the trajectory from my CD1-2 baseline (where serum E2 was 65.1 pg/mL) to where I am now is clearly upward. This is what Inito is good for: trends, not precision.
I wasn't able to get around to getting a serum E2 lab draw done at Day 13 to catch the ovulatory peak, so the loss of that data point kinda stinks. But the more important draw is coming up: Day 21, right in the middle of the luteal phase, where I'll get E2, P4, total T, and SHBG all at once. That'll be the first time I can see what my progesterone levels actually look like on this protocol, which matters a lot more than catching the estrogen peak I can already approximate with Inito.
Progesterone started up for the first time in over a month a few days ago. I started vaginal Prometrium at 200mg nightly on Day 15, and tomorrow I escalate to 400mg twice daily for the rest of the luteal phase. That's a big jump and it's the highest-dose portion of the entire protocol. I'd love to say I felt something from the initial 200mg, but I haven't so far. Lots of people in the community talk about progesterone making them super horny; guess I might be one of those who doesn't get that particular side effect (woe is me I guess).
The VagiBiom is going well; I'm on my second "week" of it now (5 days on, 2 days off). The biggest difference I noticed was that on the second off day I was much less moist than when I was on it. It's hard to say right now how much of that comes from the vaginal biome itself versus the coconut oil base and hyaluronic acid of the suppositories themselves. My gut says most of the moisture effect at this point is the vehicle, not the probiotics; Lactobacillus colonization isn't going to establish itself in two weeks, especially starting from the baseline my Evvy results showed. The real test will be the next microbiome swab down the road.
Until next week.