Progesterone, Pregnenolone, and Wrinkles.

A couple of years ago someone in the comments mentioned how Ray's before and after images showing pregnenolone's face-lifting action wasn’t real, or rather that it was an uncontrolled experiment with the camera angles being largely responsible for the perceived effects; he didn't understand why people took Ray's word for it. I think it's asinine trying to convince people of things, and at the time I decided to see if I could find more examples since the idea aroused my curiosity quite a bit. 

Many of the thyroid therapy examples I've posted over the years (here) demonstrate something very similar to that of isolated pregnenolone supplementation since the latter is the first hormone synthesized when there is an adequate concentration of T3 in an organism. Some of these examples, better than others, demonstrate the transformation of sagging, loose skin into looking and functioning “tighter” and healthier.

More specifically, pregnenolone was shown to act as a “hydrating agent”, causing a plumping of the skin and smoothing out of “crow’s feet” wrinkles (Sternberg et al., 1961). A solution of 0.5% pregnenolone, in combination with 1% progesterone and 1% testosterone was demonstrated to be more effective at reducing wrinkles than estrogen, increasing the fullness of the skin, and decreasing the laxity of the tissue (Strauss 1963).

“Many people have noticed that pregnenolone has a "face-lifting" action. This effect seems to be produced by improved circulation to the skin, and by an actual contraction of some muscle-like cells in the skin.“ - Ray

It is important to note here that estrogen also works to smooth out wrinkles and is commonly used as a topical cream for this purpose, however, it does this by drawing water into the local tissues (edema) and waterlogging them, which stretches and fills out the wrinkles.

Research on this topic is scarce, I suppose for obvious reasons, but below is one recent example of progesterone's topical effect on wrinkles after 16 weeks of use (Holzer et al., 2005).

The first time I took a little pregnenolone (~20mgs), I felt the skin around my temples noticeably tighten, despite the absence of sagging skin or wrinkles. I think both oral and topical routes are viable options, however, keep in mind that the skin absorbs around 10-15% of the progesterone or pregnenolone that is dissolved in oil, so much bigger doses may need to be used. I don’t mean to shill, but idealabs products work great for topical use as the SFA esters are quite effective at penetrating the skin and the absorption rate is between 90-100%. A side note I’d like to mention here is that taking progesterone after being hypothyroid for a prolonged amount of time can cause the thyroid gland to release its stored “colloid,” which releases large amounts of T4 into the bloodstream causing temporary hyperthyroidism. Ray said that “this is a corrective process, and in itself isn’t harmful” but if there is hesitancy I think a trial of taking pregnenolone first to bypass this could be an option for some.

I hope you found this article somewhat helpful and informative.

References

Holzer, G., Riegler, E., Hönigsmann, H., Farokhnia, S., & Schmidt, B. (2005). Effects and side-effects of 2% progesterone cream on the skin of peri- and postmenopausal women: results from a double-blind, vehicle-controlled, randomized study. British Journal of Dermatology, 153(3), 626–634. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2133.2005.06685.x 

Sternberg TH, Levan P, Wright ET. The hydrating effects of pregnenolone acetate on the human skin. Curr Ther Res Clin Exp. 1961 Nov;3:469-71. PMID: 13917009.

Strauss, J. S. (1963). Hormones in Cosmetics. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 186(8), 759. doi:10.1001/jama.1963.03710080