Progesterone - Your Hormonal Best Friend
Think of progesterone as your hormonal best friend—it stabilizes your mood, suppress anxiety, supports metabolic functions and keeps inflammation in check. It even helps us age slower!
It counteracts the harmful effects of excess estrogen (surprise, not really the female super-hormone made out to be!), reducing inflammation, oxidative stress, and tissue damage.
That’s because progesterone supports mitochondrial function, which is crucial for cellular energy production, ATP, that drives regeneration. In this way, progesterone helps preserve brain health, bone density, and skin elasticity.
Low Progesterone
Low progesterone is linked to increased inflammation, higher cortisol levels, and faster aging processes.
When progesterone is low (very common!), it can lead to issues like:
Irregular periods
Fatigue
PMS
Anxiety
Weight gain
Too much estrogen in comparison can make things worse, adding:
Bloating
Breast tenderness
Mood swings
Headaches
Heavy, painful periods
Imbalance Is Part Of The Problem
You can have low progesterone with normal estrogen, or normal progesterone with high estrogen—both imbalances create similar issues. It's not just one hormone; both situations can lead to similar symptoms, as it's the imbalance that triggers inflammation and disrupts your metabolism.
How Does This Happen?
Low progesterone can result from several factors including:
- diet insufficient in key nutrients that is often low in common diets
- stress (elevated cortisol decreases production of progesteron)
- wrong type of excercise or too little recovery
- certain medications, like birth control, can also suppress progesterone production.
- menopaus: when ovulation stops, the progesterone productions stops, but estrogen can still be produced in other tissues
High estrogen is common, because estrogenic compounds are all around us! Essentially, your body can get overwhelmed by too much estrogen from various sources, leading to hormonal chaos.
Poor diet: lot's of seed oils, grains, legumes, sugar, processed foods
Obesity: Fat cells produce estrogen
Liver issues: Impaired estrogen detoxification, making it stick around for too long
Stress: High cortisol contributes to estrogen!
Birth control & medications: Elevate estrogen levels
Environmental toxins: BPA, phthalates, pesticides mimic estrogen
Personal care products: Lotions, shampoos, deodorants commonly have hormone-disrupting chemicals
Low Progesterone In Men
While progesterone is mostly associated with women, it’s also crucial for men’s hormonal balance and metabolism.
Testosterone production: Low progesterone can lead to low testosterone, affecting mood, energy, and muscle mass.
Balancing estrogen: Progesterone helps keep estrogen in check, preventing symptoms like fatigue and weight gain.
Brain and stress support: It helps reduce stress by regulating cortisol and supports brain health.
