What’s the big deal about progesterone?

Progesterone is one of my favorite hormones. Learning about the importance of our natural, God-given progesterone during my first functional medicine course was life-changing personally. It also probably marked the beginning of the end of my career in Western Medicine. Learning about progesterone (and other hormones, vitamins, minerals, and lifestyle modifications that actually could improve our health and reverse disease) taught me that allopathic medicine might have been able to treat symptoms, but not help us feel better or live longer.

Progesterone is vitally important for optimal health in women, and yet it is almost totally ignored by most medical practitioners–including those prescribing hormone replacement.

Women are told that they don’t need progesterone if they don’t have a uterus. Or that synthetic progestins have all the benefits of natural progesterone.

Both of these statements are untrue and harmful for women of all ages, from teens with PMS and acne, to women struggling with infertility, to postmenopausal women with poor sleep and osteoporosis.

Progesterone is important for all areas of the body, but especially for the brain, bones, and breast tissue. I would go so far as to say that it might not be possible to have a healthy brain without progesterone.

And yet many women who are given prescriptions for hormonal replacement are not given progesterone if they have had a hysterectomy. And even if they still have a uterus, many women are prescribed unnatural, unsafe, synthetic progestins. Progestins are molecules that are shaped similarly to progesterone but can behave the opposite of progesterone. Progestins can cause bone loss, mood issues, and an increased risk of breast cancer-and more.

And it’s not any better online. Some social media “experts” are recommending that women use dosages of progesterone that are up to 10 or 20 times more than a young healthy woman would make. Most of the time this is because they are using blood or urine tests to measure hormones. Using these tests can cause women to massively overdose on progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone.

Another reason women are overdosing on progesterone is because they are being instructed to use oral progesterone vaginally or rectally. This is very problematic for a few reasons. When progesterone is used orally nearly all of it is metabolized by the liver and only a very small amount remains as progesterone. Oral progesterone dosages are often 10 times higher than the amount made by healthy young women. When oral progesterone is used vaginally or rectally, it doesn't go into the gut initially and isn’t broken down by the liver. This usually leads to massive overdosing of progesterone. And that much excess progesterone can convert to cortisol-causing yeast infections, poor immune system function, high blood sugar & insulin levels, resulting in weight gain.

When it comes to progesterone, like many things in our bodies, more is not better.

Understanding the differences between routes of administration and dosages are extremely important. And knowing which delivery systems and testing is necessary to know how much progesterone is being absorbed is vital.