Progesterone: The Little-Known Source of Your Menopausal Symptoms

When it comes to menopausal symptoms, all the blame usually gets tacked onto declining estrogen levels. But there’s another female hormone that’s just as big a source of your anguish. With its central role in everything from female reproduction to brain function, progesterone can throw your entire body out of whack when it begins its steady decline during menopause. But by lifting the mystery surrounding the hormone, and understanding how to keep it balanced, you can ease your menopausal transition.

Keep reading to learn more about progesterone and its role during menopause.

Progesterone: The All-Around Hormone

Though it is most well known for its role in pregnancy and ovulation, progesterone holds influence over a wide swath of bodily functions. For most women, levels of the hormone remain stable from young adulthood through middle-age. Like its hormonal cousin estrogen, however, progesterone production in the body begins to fluctuate and then taper off in perimenopausal and menopausal women. This leads to a great number of unpleasant side effects, including:

• Irregular periods, hot flashes and depression in perimenopausal women
• Vaginal infections and an increased risk of uterine cancer in menopausal women
• Infertility and weight gain in postmenopausal women

Though progesterone declines are natural and unavoidable during menopause, there are steps you can take to help ease your side effects. Keep reading to learn more about lifestyle changes and other remedies to menopausal symptoms brought on by declining progesterone levels.

Treatments for Low Progesterone

There are two triggers for progesterone declines in women: natural causes and induced causes. Natural causes include menopause and are largely beyond your control. Induced causes like poor diet, lack of exercise and excess stress, however, can be corrected through lifestyle changes.

If you’re going through menopause and suffering the effects of declining progesterone levels, be sure to incorporate a healthy diet and exercise into your lifestyle. All the advice the experts give holds true here. Eat three balanced meals a day and avoid junk food. Make time for cardiovascular exercises like jogging, biking or swimming. In addition, if things and home or work are bogging you down, try to make time for stress relieving activities like playing with your children, walking your pet, or even meditation methods.

Learning More About Progesterone

Understanding progesterone is important for maintaining the best quality of life possible during menopause. Click the following link to learn more about progesterone.