Progesterone for Women
Progesterone acts as a balance to estrogen – essentially, if progesterone levels become too high or too low, it may cause your estrogen levels to fall too law or rise too high as a result. Progesterone is the pregnancy hormone, responsible for helping the body become pregnant and maintaining a healthy pregnancy afterwards. Even if not pregnant or trying to become pregnant, progesterone is important to keep your estrogen levels properly balanced.
Progesterone is mainly produced in the ovaries. Because of this, your progesterone levels will typically go up during and after menopause, when your body begins to produce significantly less estrogen.
Deficient Progesterone
Having excessive amounts of estrogen may cause your progesterone levels to become deficiency, but there are other potential causes. Having frequent or chronic stress may lower progesterone levels, as your body needs to produce another hormone to deal with it, which prevents it from adequately supplying your body with progesterone. Additionally, poor diet and a lack of exercise may also result in lower amounts of progesterone. Some of the symptoms of having deficiency progesterone include:
- Migraines
- Anxiety
- Weight gain
- Mood swings
- Panic attacks
Because of the nature progesterone has with estrogen, these symptoms are also associated with having high estrogen. Causing other hormones to fall out of balance is one of the highest risks of suffering from a progesterone deficiency.
Excessive Progesterone
Typically, too much progesterone on its own rarely has any noticeable effect on your body. But because progesterone balances estrogen, when your progesterone levels get too high, it is likely to cause your estrogen levels to fall too low. This can result in a number of symptoms, including:
- Exhaustion
- Depression
- Difficulty sleeping
- Memory loss
- Hot flashes and night sweats
Hormone replacement therapy can be used to rebalance your progesterone and estrogen.
Treating Progesterone Imbalances
When dealing with any hormonal imbalance, the first step is to always get your hormones accurately measured. Because hormones are so complex, it can be difficult to tell if your hormones are even the problem, and trying to treat a hormonal imbalance that does not exist can, ironically, cause a hormonal imbalance.
Hormone replace therapy should always be done with the supervision of a medical professional, especially with progesterone. This is because it is possible to be allergic to progesterone treatments, and some conditions like liver disease or blood clots can cause complications in the way the treatments are supposed to work. If you suffer from these conditions, then your doctor may be able to offer some advice on other natural ways to rebalance your progesterone levels.
Hormone replacement therapy can do well in balancing out your progesterone and estrogen levels. Your doctor can measure the levels of these hormones and make an accurate, precise measurement on which treatment you need to bring your hormones back into a healthy range.