If you suffer from infertility, miscarriage, PMS, insomnia or mood swings, progesterone deficiency would be the reason behind your hormonal imbalances.
In this post, I’ll help you understand how progesterone affects your menstrual cycles, whether you have signs of progesterone deficiency, and what you can do to increase your progesterone naturally.
What Does Progesterone Do for a Woman
Progesterone is very important for women during the reproductive years. It helps regulate the menstrual cycle, facilitate and sustain a pregnancy, counter balance estrogens, and promote a feeling of calmness and contentment.
1. Facilitate and sustain a Pregnancy
Progesterone means “pro gestation” in Latin. And its name pretty much sums up its most important function – helping a woman to conceive and sustain a pregnancy.
It does so by raising the basal body temperature, providing blood supply and nutrients to the uterus, and increasing immunity to protect the development of the fertilized egg.
2. Balance Estrogen
In addition, progesterone acts as a great harmonizer to balance estrogen levels. Without this counterbalance, there can be too much estrogen in the body – which not only creates irregular cycles and PMS, but also increases the risk of infertility, fibroids, PCOS, endometriosis, and even cancer.
3. Calm Emotions
On an emotional level, progesterone is a “life is good” kind of hormone. It’s calming, relaxing, and has a sedative quality. It gives you a sense of contentment and helps you sleep.
4. Regulate Menstrual Cycles
Progesterone is produced immediately after a woman ovulates (as shown in the graph below). The level peaks about one week before the next expected menstruation and falls when no fertilization takes place.
If there is a fertilized egg, the body continues to produce a large amount of progesterone to support the development of the fetus during pregnancy.
As you can see, progesterone plays a dominant role in the second half of the menstrual cycle and is crucial for maintaining its regularity – and harmony.
Source: Armand Grimshaw, M.D.
How Do I Know if I Have Low Progesterone
The most common signs of progesterone deficiency are related to its most important functions:
- Maintaining the regularity of the monthly cycle,
- Counterbalancing estrogen,
- Providing emotional comfort, and
- Supporting pregnancy.
Your progesterone levels may be low if you have one or more of the following symptoms:
1. Irregular Periods
Ovulation determines the timing of the menstrual cycle. If you don’t ovulate, your ovaries will not produce and release progesterone. So irregular periods is the first sign that your progesterone levels may be low.
Below are some examples of irregular menstrual cycles:
Amenorrhea (no period)
When there’s no ovulation there will be no period and the ovaries only produce a bare minimum amount of progesterone.
Oligomenorrhea (infrequent periods)
In this case, ovulation may only happen every few months, and so does the period.
Heavy and frequent periods
When there’s a prolonged progesterone deficiency, estrogen levels may be elevated without the counterbalancing effect of progesterone.
Because estrogen helps thicken the endometrial lining, high estrogen levels can cause tissue buildup in the uterus and result in heaving bleeding and frequent periods.
Spotting a few days before period
Here, progesterone levels drop rapidly and prematurely during the menstrual cycle, causing period-like bleeding.
2. PMS and Estrogen Dominance
The appropriate estrogen and progesterone ratio is crucial for a harmonious cycle – one free of emotional turmoil and physical discomfort.
Here are a few examples:
- Because progesterone helps release excess fluid in the body, low progesterone can cause water retention and weight gain.
- Due to its role in raising the body temperature and promoting metabolism, low progesterone can make you feel tired and sluggish.
- And when there’s excessive estrogen due to progesterone deficiency, there may be signs of estrogen dominance such as tender and painful breasts, headaches, irritability, anxiety, anger and insomnia (which we’ll discuss in sign #3).
3. Poor Sleep, Anxiety, Irritability, and Mood Swings
Progesterone stimulates GABA receptors. GABA is a neurotransmitter that sends chemical messages through the brain and nervous system.
The role of GABA is to inhibit or reduce the activity of the neurons or nerve cells, which have a sedative effect on the moods.
This perhaps explains why many women feel their best during the second trimester of pregnancy when progesterone level is high.
Correspondingly, if progesterone is low due to menstrual disharmonies or during perimenopause and menopause, one tends to feel irritated and anxious, have lower tolerance for stress, and sleep poorly at night.
4. Infertility and Miscarriages
One of the manifestations of low progesterone is a luteal phase defect (LPD), which occurs when the corpus luteum fails to produce enough progesterone during the two-week period spanning ovulation to menstruation.
You may be diagnosed with LPD when the second half of your menstrual cycle is 10 days or less, or if you have low progesterone on day 21 of the menstrual cycle, or both.
LPD is found in about 10% of women with infertility, and 35% of those women who experience recurrent miscarriages.
This makes sense, considering one of the most important roles of progesterone is to support fertility and sustain pregnancy.
Recommendations for Progesterone Deficiency
1. Take a Progesterone Test
If you have one or more symptoms discussed above, it helps to get your progesterone and other key hormones tested.
Our friends at True Health Labs provide female hormone imbalance test that you can take at the convenience of your own home.
After you take the test, you can also schedule a consultation with Dr. Brady Hurst and his colleagues to explain the results to you.
Standard Reference Range for Progesterone
For your info, here’s the standard reference range for progesterone:
- 0.2 – 0.8 ng/ml during follicular phase (the first half of your menstrual cycle)
- 4.1 – 23.7 ng/ml during luteal phase (the second half of your menstrual cycle)
- 0.1 – 0.6 ng/ml for post-menopausal
So if your progesterone level during the luteal phase is lower than 4.1 ng/ml, it indicates an insufficient level of progesterone.
2. Understand the Causes of Low Progesterone
There are various reasons that can cause your progesterone levels to be low.
It’s helpful to understand your specific cause. This will help you choose the right remedies.
To learn more, read the 7 most common causes of low progesterone.
3. Support Your Progesterone Levels Naturally
Once you identify the right cause, it’s time to use proven, natural remedies to increase your progesteorne productions.
Maintaining adequate progesterone levels is one of the keys to solving the hormone puzzle. So, please take your time to digest this information and come up with a plan to improve your hormonal and overall health. A small but right action can make a noticeable difference.
And as always, please leave a comment to share your questions and experiences.
Vitex (proven to help treat low progesterone and regulate menstrual cycles in more than 60 years of clinical research, including 5 randomized trials)
Vitamin B6 (one of the best vitamins to boost progesterone)
Progesterone Cream (bio-identical hormonal support)
Reduce Estrogen Dominance
Liver Cleanse Detox and Repair Formula (support liver functions)
Dim Plus (improve estrogen metabolism)
Support Adrenal and Thyroid Functions
Adrenal Health Daily Support (promote overall hormone balance)
Thyroid Support Complex (support energy and metabolism)
Once Daily Organic Whole Food Vitamin Supplement (provide essential nutrients for health and hormone balance)
Liquid Iron (support healthy blood)
The Hormone Cure, by Dr. Sara Gottfried
Cooking for Hormone Balance, by Magdalena Wszelaki