NATURAL PROGESTERONE

Treating the whole patient is the pillar of functional and integrative medicine. For women, there is a complex interplay of hormones and their receptors, dietary, lifestyle and environmental factors that converge on every organ system in a woman’s body.

Progesterone is one of many hormones produced by both men and women and for women is produced around midcycle after the release of an egg from the ovaries. Without ovulation, there will be minimal progesterone produced for that cycle. One of its main functions is to balance the effects of estrogen otherwise known as ‘estrogen dominance’ which is especially pronounced during the second half of the cycle and leading into the period.

Symptoms include bloating, headaches, hot flushes, mood swings, PMT, weight gain, fibroids, foggy thinking, breast tenderness and adenomyosis. Another main function is to prevent miscarriage by maintaining the uterine lining. The same often goes for unexplained heavy bleeding. By using natural bioidentical progesterone, a reduction in heavy bleeding, lessening of all PMT symptoms and hot flushes and a higher prevention of miscarriage usually occurs.

Low progesterone is one of the top three hormonal imbalances and it’s also one of the easiest to mend. When one understands why the progesterone is low or out of balance better results are achieved because customising the solution is the best way. Conditions such as endometriosis and endo-cancer, anxiety and disordered sleep are a few conditions linked to low progesterone. Five main reasons for low progesterone include aging, stress as cortisol blocks progesterone production, little or no ovulation, low thyroid and high prolactin.

In this clinic, we often prescribe bioidentical hormone therapy using natural identical progesterone as a cream application. It is quickly absorbed and the body recognises it as the same biochemical structure as what we normally produce each cycle after ovulation. Wild yam doesn’t work but is often sold as a herbal remedy able to fix hot flushes and low progesterone levels. However, the active component of wild yam, diosgenin, can be converted to progesterone in a lab but not by rubbing it onto the skin. It is not the same being a plant steroid. It needs converting. Similarly, some may think the progestins found in HRT and birth control pills are the same as natural progesterone. They aren’t. They can produce some seriously debilitating side effects for women whereas progesterone application is simply adding to your own body levels. The body is interrelated and everything needs to be addressed in a connected way.

When progesterone is in balance with other key hormones, you hardly notice your period until its there, you have regular periods, your weight remains stable, no sleep disturbance, no breast tenderness or PMT. It can be achieved !