Progesterone

Thousands of women in the western world are using natural progesterone, generally in the form of a non-prescription product that is applied to the skin. These women experience increased vitality, better skin tone, and a renewed emotional balance, along with many other benefits.

Natural progesterone has been totally overlooked by medical science while the focus has been placed more heavily on estrogen.

Thyroid

Thyroid hormones set metabolic activity and are thus responsible for the speed at which every enzyme action in the body takes place.

Thyroid function becomes unbalanced with excessive estrogen. Adequate progesterone levels can prevent this. Hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) and hypothyroidism (low functioning) systems are very common with unbalanced hormones. Hypothyroidism systems include sluggishness, early morning fatigue, cold extremities, lowered basal temperature and menstrual problems.

Low progesterone is often misdiagnosed as a thyroid deficiency. The thyroid hormone is basic to all biological functions and sometimes both thyroid and progesterone supplements are needed to promote the action of the other.

Estrogen Dominance

Estrogen dominance is really progesterone deficiency. The term “estrogen dominance” can be confusing at times because it is less related to the amount of circulating estrogen and more related to the ratio of estrogen to progesterone in the body. More relevant is that the estrogen levels drop by only approximately 40% at menopause while progesterone levels plummet by approximately 90% from premenopausal levels. It is the relative loss of progesterone that causes the majority of symptoms termed estrogen dominance.

This condition is common in women during the reproductive years, but tends to be particularly symptomatic for women in the peri-menopausal and menopausal years. Estrogen dominance is worse in women not ovulating, women being exposed to a higher estrogenic environment, or women not metabolizing estrogens correctly. Estrogen dominance is a term coined by John Lee, M.D. in the book What Your Doctor

May Not Tell You About Menopause.

Both estrogen and progesterone are necessary in the female cycle. Many women have an imbalance of these hormones, especially insufficient levels of progesterone to counter excessive estrogen. Progesterone is a hormone important to a number of body functions. During times of stress or conditions of chronic adrenal hyper-stimulation, progesterone is capable of being converted into the stress hormone cortisol.


The symptoms of progesterone deficiency and estrogen dominance are:

   Anxiety
   Irritability  
   Hypersensitivity
   Nervousness
   Restless sleep
   Weight gain
   Headaches/migraines
   Breast tenderness
   Decreased libido
   Heavy periods/Irregular menstrual cycles
   Mood swings
   Uterine fibroids