DIY Prog — Helpful Info & FAQ
Cocoa Butter
- Melting Point: 93.2–100.4 °F / 34–38 °C — Near body temperature
- Form I melting point: 63.1 °F / 17.3 °C
- Form II melting point: 73.9 °F / 23.3 °C
- Form III melting point: 77.9 °F / 25.5 °C
- Form IV melting point: 81.1 °F / 27.3 °C
- Form V melting point: 92.8 °F / 33.8 °C
- Form VI melting point: 97.3 °F / 36.3 °C
- Density: ≈0.92 g/cm³
- Pubchem
- Aqua-calc
Cocoa butter is one of the more expensive plant butters. Its role in the recipe is to provide structure and a melting point near body temperature to improve handling and insertion.
To encourage Form V crystals to obtain near-body-temperature melting point, melt cocoa butter completely, cool to room temperature, then remelt to 90 °F / 32 °C to leave only Form V crystals unmelted. Then re-cool slowly to room temperature before refrigerating.
Coconut Oil
Using some Coconut oil reduces the overall cost, and makes the final product softer, at the cost of a lower melting point.
Isopropyl Myristate
- Density: 0.85 g/cm³
- PubChem
Isopropyl Myristate is an emollient and moisturizer used in cosmetics that softens and helps penetrate skin, which can facilitate progesterone uptake. It also makes the final texture less greasy. It can also be used as a food additive.
FAQ
Why this blog?
I have been boofing my prog (taking prescribed progesterone rectally) for five years. In early 2025, I began using pessaries made by a compounding pharmacy. Then after reading speculation that it could work, I started taking them vaginally.
It does work.* I felt like it was working so well I needed to cut my dose in half.
When I learned that progesterone does not require a prescription to obtain, I wanted to see if there would be any benefits to making the prog vehicles for myself. One potential benefit is clear: in the event there is some interruption in my prescription supply, I would be ready to DIY. It also lets me stockpile in a way that you really can't with a prescription med, eliminating uncertainty in an uncertain world.
* When I say it 'works' I'm not making a medical claim about what will happen if you do it—I mean that my physiological experience is similar to or indistinguishable from the experience I have when I use prescribed prog in the same way.
For someone taking HRT, does prog do anything?
It depends on what your threshold for "anything" is.
- Progesterone is a vasodilator that causes blood vessels to expand, increasing blood flow and lowering blood pressure. (Source)
- Progesterone is a precursor to a number of hormones—including allopregnanolone, a neurosteroid with effects that include antidepressant, stress-reducing, rewarding, aphrodisiac, cognitive, and neuroprotective effects. (Source)
- Some people experience that it aids in sleep, particularly when taken orally.
In practice, people's experience of taking prog varies quite a bit. It probably depends on an individual's biochemistry.
Why DIY Prog?
Besides anticipating supply interruption, making them myself is cheaper than paying out-of-pocket for pessaries from a compounding pharmacy. The price of my approach isn't yet competitive with a co-pay for gelcap prog, but it might be if some of the lower-cost plant butters turn out to be acceptable substitutes for cocoa butter.
Why boof or take vaginally?
Oral medications are broken down by stomach acids and pass through the liver before they are made available for use by the body. Non-oral progesterone results in more progesterone available for the body's use. (Source)
Why pessaries and not gelcaps?
My theory is that the pessaries, because of their larger volume and different medium, allow for more gradual uptake, smoothing the peak and prolonging the availability.
Is there anything unique about your body that might helpful to know?
I have an aftermarket box.