(and an anovulatory period is possible even as a teenager),

Therefore you become estrogen dominant. EXCESS estrogen is toxic, your own, synthetic or natural. Progesterone is protective...to prevent miscarriage, toxemia, etc. etc. hysterectomies caused by fibroids, endometriosis, etc. All these problems are caused by TOO MUCH estrogen.

Therefore if you had a hysterectomy, full or partial (ovaries removed or intact) the signal to make progesterone is immediately gone or will be soon. Progesterone is now absolutely necessary....NOT estrogen. Everywhere in your body MAKES estrogen...not so with progesterone. The ovaries are not the only place, but the main place in women.

The fatter you are the more estrogen dominant you are, and the fatter you become. No amount of diet or exercise helps.

Estrogen dominance can commonly be the cause of hypothyroidism, chronic fatigue, etc. and in men prostate problems.

Balance is required. Natural preparations of replacement hormones are the way to go. Prescription or over-the-counter...and yes you must be careful to get good quality here. Synthetic HRT causes the same or worse problems than you started with...they are toxic.

I use: Progest-E Complex and Prometrium

The Prometrium was prescribed and it is taken orally, but the capsule can be poked with a pin and some expressed to be used sublinguinally (under the tongue). It is higher in concentration to account for the ingestion. Sublinguinally or topically does not require such high concentration per dose.

VitaminExpress.com has a sublinguinal progesterone Progest-E complex by Kenogen...see article the article there by Dr. Ray Peat

However this can also be used topically by spreading a bit of virgin olive oil or coconut oil on your skin before the progesterone. Other vegetable oils are toxic.

See a small selection of his articles at http://efn.org/~raypeat Read all of them.

I have purchased a progesterone cream, but am unsure if it had any effect as I also required thyroid replacement. Now that I have thyroid replacement (currently using synthetic T3, T4 combo named Thyrolar but my preference is Armour, now made by Forest Pharmaceuticals) the sublinguinal and oral progesterone (Prometrium) work well.

Dr. refused to prescribe natural thyroid at outset and has refused twice more. I'll get my own, thank you.

See http://w-i-n.com for Dr. Lee's progesterone cream or at least recommendations on what to look for. Read all articles here on natural vs synthetic hormones.

Required reading...your library can interlibrary loan this book if they don't have it 'The Estrogen Alternative' by Raquel Martin.

I don't have any monetary link to any of these supplements. This is what has worked to bring my hormones back to balance, helped me lose weight, and cleared up endometriosis, excessive bleeding (3 mos period) and other health problems including dry skin. Prevented hysterectomy.

See post with subject heading 'ALL Questions answered here' at least I think that's how I typed it. A few more valuable links.