How to Raise Progesterone Naturally

Are you suspicious of your progesterone levels?

Maybe you’ve always had bad PMS symptoms, anxiety, breast tenderness, cysts, endometriosis, or even infertility. All of these can be signs of low progesterone during your cycling years.

Or perhaps you’re 35-50 years old and noticing big shifts in your hormonal rhythm or overall health - yep, you heard that correctly, perimenopause can begin as early as age 35.

And one of the first things to happen is that progesterone levels begin to drop.

This could simply mean that your cycles become irregular, or heavier than normal.

Or, because of the wildly fluctuating estradiol levels that also go along with perimenopause, maybe it feels like a hormonal hurricane just swept through your body, leaving major destruction in its path.

Contrary to how scientists used to understand the changes that happen during perimenopause, it’s NOT all about estrogen - which is why we’re giving progesterone the attention it deserves, because progesterone does some really important stuff to keep you feeling healthy, vital, and sane!

Progesterone stimulates GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) receptors in your brain, which soothe your moods by balancing out glutamate, an excitatory and inflammatory neurotransmitter.

When progesterone is doing its job, you feel more cool, calm, and collected. Many women with chronic anxiety have low progesterone, especially if it fluctuates with their monthly cycles.

Because of the mild sedative properties of GABA, progesterone also helps you sleep, so if you’ve noticed insomnia or restlessness increasing as you age, it could be a sign of relative low progesterone.

Progesterone is also important for maintaining a healthy body weight and fat percentage. It influences your metabolism by helping your thyroid perform efficiently. It’s “thermogenic,” which means it raises your baseline body temperature, which also boosts metabolism.

And if “water weight” or puffiness is a problem for you, progesterone is a natural diuretic, helping you release extra fluid in your body. Progesterone also helps lower inflammation and cortisol, which both contribute to fat gain.

Progesterone on its own is important, but its relationship to estrogen is even more crucial for overall health.

Maintaining balance between these two hormones is essential for fertility, chronic disease and cancer prevention, and overall vitality. Estrogen and Progesterone have opposing but interdependent actions. For example:

Estrogen stimulates the lining of the uterus to grow. Progesterone stops that growth, stabilizes it in the case of pregnancy, or releases it - resulting in what we call a period, or menstruation.

Estrogen stimulates breast cells to grow. Progesterone prevents cysts from developing in inflamed, painful breasts.

Estrogen causes you to retain salt and water. And, as I mentioned earlier, Progesterone is a natural diuretic.

When progesterone is low it causes estrogen dominance, even if estradiol is at normal levels. You can also end up estrogen dominant if estrogen is too high, and progesterone is at normal levels.

OR - and this is a big one - you can be estrogen dominant if estrogenic chemical toxins otherwise known as xenoestrogens are too high - think BPA from plastic, glyphosate from pesticides, and phthalates from cosmetics.

These compounds mimic estrogen’s activity in the body, often strongly binding to estrogen receptors and causing estrogen dominance. Statistically, women slather on over 1500 chemicals per day in body care alone!

But, back to progesterone.

If estrogens are unchecked by low levels of progesterone, it can cause heavy bleeding during your period and lots of breast tenderness.  Common symptoms also include:

• Migraines
• irritability
• mood swings
• outright rage

Periods may be early, heavier than normal, or both. And because progesterone is in charge of the shedding phase of your uterine lining, you might not shed all of it during one period, which could mean a light period one month and a heavier one the next.

You might even have thickening of your uterine lining, which can be a risk factor for cancer.

These symptoms are really common during perimenopause, but some women have low progesterone or estrogen dominance for their entire reproductive lives.

Worse still, they’re often told that the migraines, PMS, and heavy periods are “normal,” or that the only solution is birth control pills - which often exacerbate the problem or result in long-term side effects. And in the case of fertility struggles, progesterone problems can result in heartbreak and huge expenses.

So, what can you DO about it?

Thankfully, there are natural, evidence-based functional medicine options to help you raise your progesterone levels!

My favorite plant-based progesterone support is Vitex agnus-castus, also known as Chasteberry.

It’s one of the most effective and safe herbal supplements out there. It’s been researched extensively over the last 60 years, including five randomized trials, which are the gold standard of best evidence.

Not only does it help the body produce more progesterone, but it also improves progesterone sensitivity, making the progesterone that you have more efficient and effective.

Most researchers think that Chasteberry does this by increasing the release of luteinizing hormone from the pituitary gland, which raises progesterone and normalizes the second half of your menstrual cycle. Clinical trials showed that Chasteberry reduced symptoms like:

• breast tenderness
• edema or swelling
• irritability
• depressed mood
• anger
• headache
• other symptoms of PMS.

A smaller trial suggested that women with fertility disorders who took Chasteberry achieved pregnancy more than twice as often as the placebo group.

It’s my first line of treatment for low progesterone symptoms before and during perimenopause. But as women age, the ovaries can become less responsive to Chasteberry, so if you don’t see much improvement after an 8-week trial, and you’re in menopause, it might not be your solution.

Are there other Functional Medicine strategies to help improve progesterone?

Yep - and this one might surprise you.

Vitamin C is also a safe and effective treatment for low progesterone, especially in the case of luteal phase problems, which are common in women experiencing infertility. And you don’t need crazy high doses, either - we’re talking 750mg/day.

In a randomized trial, women received either vitamin C or a placebo. Within three menstrual cycles, the group who got vitamin C saw progesterone levels go up from 8 to 13 ng/mL on average!

And that might not seem like much, but we’re typically shooting for 10-25ng/mL during the second half of your cycle, so it makes a difference!

And there are other bonuses to taking vitamin C, including prevention of cancer and stroke, along with improved immunity. You can purchase my favorite practitioner-grade Chasteberry and Vitamin C HERE.

If you’re feeling confused and overwhelmed by all of these symptoms,

and you’re not sure what’s going on with your hormones, it’s a really good idea to test them. And I don’t mean a randomly-timed progesterone blood test with a “normal” range you could drive a bus through.

For cycling women, progesterone should be tested during the luteal phase - approximately day 21 or 22 of the cycle, or about 5 to 6 days before your period starts if your cycle is typically longer or shorter than 28 days.

And you have to test estrogens, too, in order to determine if estrogen dominance is part of the issue. AND you’d better test DHEA and cortisol while you’re at it, because both can create low progesterone.

That’s why I recommend the DUTCH test - it gives you all of this crucial hormone data AND MORE, whether you’re cycling, perimenopausal, or you haven’t had a period in years.

Wondering if your progesterone is low or your estrogen is too high? The DUTCH will tell you.

Need to know how chronic stress is impacting your progesterone, perhaps via the dreaded “cortisol steal?” The DUTCH will tell you that, too.

Want to know if your infertility or hot flashes or weight gain or depression are being triggered by progesterone problems - or something else? You guessed it - the DUTCH can help answer those questions.

Let me put it this way, I have been using this test for years with my clients - both male and female - and NOT ONCE have I heard someone say it was a waste of money. In fact, most of them wish they’d had access to the test sooner - like, sometimes decades sooner - because it would’ve saved them so much pain, suffering, and frustration.

How can you get your hands on the DUTCH? Well, you can order your at-home test kit directly from my website - and I’ll even send you a recorded interpretation of the results once they come back.

Collection is simple, and the test comes with easy-to-follow instructions. You can learn more about the DUTCH test HERE.

I know that hormone issues can be super frustrating, so I hope that this article gave you some helpful information you can use to take the next step.  Problems with progesterone can create serious chaos, but there are evidence-based, Functional Medicine solutions that can help you balance your hormones and achieve better overall health.