I've actually been doing a lot of reading in the past day or so trying to get a better understanding of progesterone, and more specifically now, diosogenin.

I bought this cream several months ago after reading something somewhere, but never used it. As I continued to look into possible hormonal connections with my neuropathy given recent observations, I decided to go ahead and try it. It seemed like it could do no harm.

The product I'm using is this one, and it does indeed use yam extract:

http://www.amazon.com/NOW-Foods-Prog.../dp/B0013OXGNU

As I'm sure MrsD knows, yam extract contains the substance diosogenin which can be synthesized into progesterone in the lab, but there's apparently no evidence that that the human body can do it.

So now I don't know what is at play. I have no reason to believe it's psychosomatic, because I've tried so many supplements over the past 20 months hoping for some miracle, and have not seen any drastic improvement with any of them (save maybe RLA which I think did dial things back a notch).

Maybe I'm in some kind of coincidental wane, but this is the fifth day in a row I haven't woken up buzzing and have had no burn. I still have parasthesia and referred sensation, but not nearly as bad as it's been.

I tried to learn more about what diosogenin is what role it might play in helping neuropathy, and found this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21881239

Then I found another article saying that study was flawed.

So I have no clue at this point what's happening with me, but I still feel good and am going to continue to use the cream for now. I find it interesting as I read reviews on Amazon for all the various progesterone creams how many women swear by them. I don't know if we're all nuts, or whether researchers just don't understand.