Our hormones affect a lot, from our metabolism to our mood. One important hormone to keep in mind is progesterone. This sex hormone is vital for keeping the menstrual cycle regular and helping with a healthy pregnancy.

Because of this, low progesterone levels can negatively affect the health of your menstrual cycle and ability to conceive. Read on to find out more about progesterone, the signs and symptoms of low levels, and ways progesterone levels can be increased naturally.

Why is Progesterone Important For Women?

Keeping progesterone levels stable is essential for women, as it is an integral part of the menstrual cycle and vital for conceiving and maintaining a healthy pregnancy. This female sex hormone is released from the ovaries and depends on whether fertilization or ovulation occurs within the female.

When fertilization occurs, progesterone levels naturally rise after ovulation for the uterine lining to get thicker, ensuring it is ready for pregnancy. On the other hand, an unfertilized egg means progesterone levels will peak and then decline as pregnancy is not occurring, causing the uterine lining to shed and become a period.

Progesterone is also involved in breastfeeding and breast development, complementing estrogen, and working with testosterone, two other crucial hormones. So, what happens when progesterone levels are low? During the childbearing years, sufficient progesterone is needed for a healthy pregnancy. Because progesterone can help the uterine lining thicken, insufficient progesterone means the egg won’t implant (1).

Signs and Symptoms of Low Progesterone

Progesterone is a hormone to be considered when trying to conceive or have a healthy pregnancy, and low progesterone can also cause many symptoms in women who aren’t pregnant. These include headaches, mood changes, and an irregular menstrual cycle (2). It can impact your menstrual cycle by causing uterine bleeding outside your standard cycle window and excessively lengthy or absent periods. During pregnancy, symptoms of low progesterone can include miscarriage and spotting (3).

Because progesterone works in conjunction with estrogen, insufficient levels of progesterone can lead to estrogen dominance. This can come with a host of problems, including decreased sex drive, heavy bleeding, weight gain, and fibroids (4). While the signs and symptoms of low progesterone will vary across individuals, the effect on the quality of life is the same. Luckily, there are several ways to increase progesterone levels naturally to keep hormone levels stabilized.

Ways to Increase Progesterone Levels

A common way to treat low progesterone is by hormone therapy, done by increasing progesterone supplementation. However, this carries some risk, with an increased risk of breast cancer, stroke, and blood clots associated with this therapy (5).

Another great option to increase low progesterone levels is with natural alternatives. These remedies don’t come with any side effects and are a gentler way of increasing progesterone levels safely and effectively.

1. Maintain a Healthy Body Weight

Keeping weight within a healthy limit has been linked to lowered risk for many diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes (6). However, another way excess weight may impact your health is by increasing the amount of estrogen produced.

When too much estrogen is produced, this can disturb the delicate hormone balance, creating an imbalance in progesterone. Keeping within a healthy weight limit doesn’t necessarily mean more progesterone will be produced, but it helps keep hormone levels stabilized and prevents estrogen dominance.

2. Increase Consumption of Progesterone Boosting Foods

While these foods don’t necessarily contain progesterone, some may help stimulate the body to produce more progesterone. Others have been shown to lower the amount of estrogen present in the body, stabilizing the balance of hormones (7). These foods include:

• Whole grains
• Nuts
• Cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cauliflower
• Pumpkin
• Beans
• Bananas

3. Reduce Stress Levels

Managing stress levels is vital for all life stages to promote wellbeing. However, when planning to conceive, keeping stress under control is extra essential. High-stress levels encourage the production of cortisol, a stress hormone that helps the body survive under extreme circumstances.

Being in a high-stress environment can also encourage the kidneys to convert hormones, including progesterone, to cortisol, decreasing progesterone levels available in the body (8). While most modern life pressures are hard to avoid, such as work deadlines, incorporating more mindfulness into your routine with mediation, reading, or slow-paced living can be useful.

4. Keep Blood Sugar Levels Balanced

Another way excess cortisol can be produced is by having overly low or high blood sugar levels. When blood sugar is not controlled, the body can become hypoglycemic or hypoglycemic. This, in turn, causes excess stress hormones to be produced, decreasing progesterone levels (9).

Having balanced blood sugar levels ensures the body remains stable throughout the day, limiting cortisol production and balancing progesterone levels.

5. Avoid Over Exercising

While adequate physical activity is a surefire way to reduce stress levels and maintain a healthy weight, excessive exercise may have the opposite effect. Intense exercise has been shown to keep progesterone levels low, as this keeps your body in a high-stress situation, promoting cortisol production (10).

Exercise can still be done, but incorporating more gentle forms of exercise like cycling or swimming is a great way to keep fit while keeping progesterone levels stable. Alongside this, women need enough body fat to maintain normal hormone production and keep their menstrual cycle regular (11). Avoiding extreme forms of exercise while incorporating more gentle forms may help promote this comfortable body fat percentage.

The Bottom Line

Progesterone is a sex hormone important for women. Lowered progesterone levels can result in irregular menstrual cycles and even miscarriage. While progesterone levels can be increased with hormone therapy, many side effects can occur.

Some natural ways to increase progesterone levels include maintaining a healthy weight, eating more progesterone boosting foods, and keeping stress levels down. All of these encourage the production of progesterone while decreasing excess estrogen or cortisol that may be produced. Incorporating several of these into your routine is an excellent way to ensure your progesterone levels remain healthy.