I am interested in this, as it may pertain to NBE and better ways to get our herbs doing what we want. Out of that article I posted earlier it says...
"Ordinary Household Products such as breakdown products from laundry detergent and dish detergent that include nonylphenol, octylphenol and spermicide. Laundry detergent persists in the clothes even after washing gets on the skin and is broken down by bacteria. It is then absorbed by the skin. If an estrogen is taken orally it is 80-90% first pass metabolized by the liver before entering the body. In other words, the body only gets 10% of the estrogen when taken orally. By contrast anything absorbed by the skin goes directly into the body. Looked at another way, anything on the skin has an effective concentration that is 10 times that of an oral dose."

and "These preservatives are found in the vast majority of skin an body lotions, even in natural progesterone creams. Anything absorbed through the skin is 10 times the concentration of an oral dose."

Does anyone have further info on this??? It would seem to point to the use of topicals, as they would get into the body better. I know the use of "patches" is fairly widespread now, even for medical stuff.

I am still interested in any input??

Hmm, well I think it's right, but the info I read so far is still a bit confusing. I heard it said often how recomnded it is to use a cream, but then I also herd that a cream alone won't do the trick. But this should be wrong, if everything taken orally is a ten times smaller dose than taken topically. But it's also possible that the liver *has to* metabolize some of the substances we ingest before they can work. And I also have a hypthesis that some people migh have poor digestion and absorption and that way don't get the essential components in their blood, but that's just a hypotheses. Personally I'd recomend topicals. But we have to remeber the discussion about mineral oil from a while ago, how it could be really bad for NBE, so I wouldn't use anything with mineral oil init.

Yeah...the mineral oil isn't good for much except keeping wooden cutting boards moist! LOL
For me personally, I notice sublingual and topical seems to work better...and that points to digestive issues with me. I was on a large dose of progesterone cream for balancing for awhile (dr. reccommended)... and I would rub it on my belly. I noticed effects of it within 15 minutes...calmness, peace of mind, relaxed. It was like almost instant pms relief.
It is scary to think how much is absorbed in our skin though...I have been wanting to put in a whole house filter for the water...so I ma not sitting in chlorine and flouride every time I take a bath.

Now this absorbtion thing, was abit of a sore point a while back.
It was argued that coca butter and collagen were not absorbed because of the size of the molocules,from what i reaserched i couldnt find anything to confirm that they did absorbe.
What i did find out which is in general ref pages was that essential oils deffo penetrate and last in the body for 20 Min.
so in rely to your thread, i believe that topicals, depending upon what they are would be as good if not better than oral aplication bassed upon what you have found out.

It has to be said that what base the stuff is makes all the difference. My progesterone cream was all natural and NO mineral oil. It was almost a whipped cream consistancy...so it seems like it was made of lighter base, with the progesterone. I tried some pm cream on my breasts that had mineral oil in it, and it did nothing, plus it was gross and clogged my pores. The wonderup cream I have is nice and light and seems to "soak in". I wonder too about just using tinctures on the breast as some ladies have. It would be interesting to test, say, rubbing tinctures in, and also using fenugreek and fennel essential oils topically. Of course, the smell would deter one I suppose...but one could lay in the bath, let it soak in and then wash it off.

tried the fennel oil, the smell was very bad,iv been thinking about a mix such as:
Borage oil, epo, Blackcurrant oil,orange blossom,fennel or fenugreek,Lavendar,AC ground
Im not sure how well this would work but i can't imagine the smell being too bad and contains items with high GLA & items associated with NBE.

Too be honerst im sticking with my collagen gel for now as im very happy with it.But i am interested in experimenting with essential oils

LOL! Whatch out for that lavender...remember the hair growth thing???
I have been using PM cream (switched to St herb) and it has a bit of lavender. not very strong though...and I have to say since starting this NBE thing my breasts are LESS hairy. I get one hair that grows on my chin, and I used to get about four on my boobies ick! drives me crazy...but I haven't seen them for awhile...I never had those dang hairs until after taking BCP for a year.

I think oils and fats and much other stiff *is* absorbed throguh the skin. The controversy on cocoa butter was because it was claimed that because the fats penetrate skin, they deposit in the breast and make them bigger, which is not so, they travel to the liver and are from there dispatched to all parts of the body.