STRESS IS A PROGESTERONE BUSTER

Maintain a Healthy Estrogen-Progesterone Balance - Hormone Harmony

Maintaining a healthy estrogen-progesterone balance is easier said than done.
Many women have had wonderful results from using bioidentical progesterone creams
or capsules, not to be confused with progestins, which are pharmaceutical progesteronetype
drugs shown to increase breast cancer risk (Bluming and Tavris 2009). While the
labels of many products on the market claim that they are progesterone creams, our
view is that hormone balance is too critical to be left to chance. Therefore, we believe
it’s imperative that you work with an integrative practitioner to measure your
progesterone levels so you can add just the right amount of bioidentical progesterone
to maintain a healthy hormone balance.

Keep in mind that birth control pills only add to your body’s estrogen load,
making this balance even more difficult to attain.

STRESS IS A PROGESTERONE BUSTER

Progesterone is the major precursor of important corticosteroid hormones
(aldosterone and cortisol) made in the adrenal cortex. When progesterone is sidelined
into producing cortisol, the hormone that helps us deal with physical and emotional
stress, there’s less progesterone available for other uses, such as balancing estrogen.
In this way, the fast-paced, demanding lifestyle of the twenty-first century can
deprive the body of its natural progesterone, which already declines dramatically after
menopause under any circumstances. Premenopausally, stress may also affect your
ability to ovulate, restricting or shutting down the production of progesterone entirely.