Understanding Amenorrhea and Progesterone Cream: A Personal Experience

Question
Hi,

I have had amenorrhea for a few years.  In that time I would only get a mentsrual flow if I had regularly been seeing my Chinese Doctor, who would do massage and give me an awful tasting tea of herbs to drink daily.  Half a year ago I ran out of money, and was no longer able to keep up my visits to her.  Again I went without bleeding.  
Then a friend at a health food store gave me some progesterone creme.  I applied it nightly and after 9 days my period came after an absence of almost 6 months!  Since then I have used the creme again to bring on a second, healthy flow.
The last time I used the creme, I had been applying it for 5 nights when in the afternoon I got very bad PMS symptoms which lasted through the evening and into the next day.  I felt the worst that first afternoon and evening.  I had a headache, I was slightly nauseous, i was hot, my skin felt sensitive and I was so tired.  My body was still achey and I had a headache through the next day, but the worst part lasted only a few hours.  Two days later my flow started.
I had experienced something like this when I first started seeing my Chinese Doctor.  One of the first times her treatment brought on my period, the experience was coupled by intense symptoms.  It was like what happened last time, but 100 times worse.  Through the night I was retching and I thought I had the flu.  This time the symptoms were much milder, but still awful.
I am not looking for relief from the symptoms.  It is just my body's reaction to gettimg my period, and I am tough so I can deal with it.  I am just glad to be getting my period at all.  But I am wondering if you can tell me what exactly is going on in those hours that is making me feel this way.  Is this ovulation?  Is this the muscle working very strongly?  What is happening in those hours that makes my body so screwey?

Thanks very much for your time,
Aislinn

Answer
These sound like normal PMS symptoms.  Symptoms vary from women to women.  I normally don't have any cramping at all while my mom would be in bed for two days throwing up and what-not.  Talk to your doctor and see what she says but I think this is perfectly normal.  It is just your body releasing the bloodflow and tissues.