Is low progesterone causing your symptoms?
Premenstrual anxiety, insomnia and irritability are common for many women and often it's due to low progesterone.
Progesterone has a calming effect so when you don't have enough of it, you can feel on edge, cranky, raw and anxious.
Low progesterone often also contributes to poor sleep in the days before your period as well as perimenopausal night sweats (most common in the few days before and during your period) which further impacts your mood and your ability to manage stress.
Your progesterone naturally starts to decline in your late 30s and 40s and beyond, in fact it become low much earlier than oestrogen, so a lot of the uncomfortable symptoms of perimenopause are actually due to low progesterone, coupled with wild swings in oestrogen from very high to low.
Other possible signs of low progesterone are spotting and slow to start periods, more frequent periods/shorter cycle (bleeding every 25 days or less) heavy periods, clots in menstrual blood breast tenderness, bloating, headaches, low mood and body aches.
What causes low progesterone?
The two most common causes of low progesterone are anovulatory cycles and stress.
Anovulatory cycles are where you still experience a bleed which looks and feels like a period,but didn't ovulate during the cycle. Anovoluatory cycles start to become much more common during perimenopause but they can also occur following stress or illness (especially viral illness)
The other very common cause is stress which in itself can switch off ovulation but stress also contributes to low progesterone because when your body is making cortisol to help you deal with stress, it makes it at the expense of progesterone.
Testing for low progesterone:
I use salivary hormone testing on approximately day 21 of the cycle to look at progesterone levels in total but also in ratio to oestrogen. The reason we need to test during this part of your cycle is because progesterone ideally is at it's highest at day 21 following ovulation around mid-cycle. Individual cycle length might mean that we test a day or so either side of day 21. Progesterone starts to taper off the closer you get to your period and if it's really low, you won't experience it's calming, buffering effect and that's when you'll start to experience the symptoms of low progesterone such as irritability, anxiety, poor sleep, night sweats etc.
Natural ways to support progesterone production:
Firstly we need to look at why progesterone is low and at what is going on with your other hormones, this is why testing is helpful.
If stress is the cause our approach might be slightly different to the treatment is anovulatory cycles are the cause (often it will be both of these). Certain nutrients are also important to help with progesterone production, along with looking at diet and lifestyle strategies.
If you think that some of your symptoms sound like they could be due to low progesterone and you'd like to discuss it further along with possible tests that could be helpful, appointments can be booked online:
Current/returning clients: https://blossomwellbeing.as.me/?appointmentType=2667879
New clients (or if you haven't had an appointment in the past 18 months): https://blossomwellbeing.as.me/initial-consultation
