Progesterone

What is Progesterone and Why Is It Such a Big Deal?

We need progesterone to balance out estrogen levels.  Progesterone is also absolutely crucial for a health pregnancy.  If we either don’t produce enough or don’t produce any, we can experience common symptoms or issues like:

• PMS
• Cramps
• Painful periods
• Heavy periods
• Cyclical headaches
• Irritability
• Anxiety
• Poor sleep
• Breast tenderness
• Bloating
• Difficulty getting pregnant
• Difficulty staying pregnancy
• Infertility

Are you nodding as you are reading this list?  You may think of it as your fertility/pregnancy hormone.  Progesterone = “pro” + “gestation”.  Progesterone is the hormone that governs the second half of our menstrual cycle – if we’re producing it.  We have to ovulate to produce progesterone.  Hormones called progestins in birth control are not the same thing.

After the ovaries release the egg there is something left over called the corpus luteum and this is what produces progesterone.  Progesterone has a lot of important functions in the body – it’s more than just a critical fertility hormone.

Progesterone:

• Make the uterine lining sticky for egg implantation
• Protects the uterine lining
• Has anti-anxiety benefits
• Has muscle relaxation effects
• Balances out estrogen levels

Because of these important roles in the body, if progesterone is low (or non existent) these can occur:

• Estrogen not balanced with adequate progesterone:
  • PMS
  • Period pain
  • Bloating (particularly pre-period)
  • Cyclical headaches
• Relationship with GABA, low progesterone can result in anxiety/mood swings/harder to relax or wind down
• Lack of ovulation can result in:
  • Irregular cycle
  • Infertility (not releasing an egg for conception)
• Low progesterone levels can possibly play a role in first trimester miscarriage (not enough progesterone produced to maintain the integrity of the uterine lining)
• Low thyroid function can also interfere with progesterone production.  If you are struggling with heavy periods, I first suspect possible low progesterone/low thyroid function

If you are experiencing low progesterone/not ovulating and would like some help with where to start, let’s chat.  We can start to understand and heal the root cause and we can use a targeted approach that works to get you feeling better quickly.