Low On Progesterone? What Are The Symptoms?

In a few short minutes, while you read through this article, you will become aware of the many symptoms that can be a direct result of low levels of progesterone and how important it is to keep these levels up. You will understand why the levels of progesterone drop, why progesterone is so important and what you can do to keep the levels normal.

Progesterone is a hormone that is created in a woman’s ovaries and it is one of the hormones that help to prepare the womb for pregnancy, for making it possible for the fertilized egg to attach to the wall of the womb and start to grow. However, once menopause is reached there is no longer a need for the womb to be prepared for pregnancy and progesterone levels tend to drop. In an ideal world we would still be consuming progesterone through our food to naturally keep these levels where they need to be. This, however, is no longer possible with the way we eat and what we eat today, and not having adequate levels of progesterone in the body can be problematic for many women.

It is extremely important for a woman’s overall health that she produces and maintains normal levels of progesterone all through her life. It is very important as progesterone levels that are as they are meant to be help to counter balance the effects of estrogen. Estrogen is found a lot more in the food we eat these days because of the many xenoestrogens. Xenoestrogens are mostly petroleum based synthetic estrogens and are now present in massive amounts in our food chain, water supply and environment.

The levels of progesterone can also be effected adversely by a number of other factors like stress, smoking, lack of sleep as well as prescription hormones, and hormones used in commercially produced and processed dairy products and meats.

There are a number of symptoms that can indicate that you may be suffering from low levels of progesterone. Here is a list of a few: breast tenderness, fibrocystic breasts, decreased/low sex drive, depression, obesity, night sweats, bone loss, irregular menstruation, excessive bleeding during menstruation, uterine fibroids, water retention sleeplessness, vaginal dryness, thyroid dysfunction, unclear thinking, infertility/miscarriage, headaches, endometriosis, weight gain, memory loss, irritability, hair loss and hair thinning.

When you consider these symptoms separately there does not seem to be any huge worry, which makes them seem like a problem that will pass and often being waved aside as being a menopausal problem and “It will pass!”. But having several of the symptoms can make life quite difficult for the sufferer, and warrant further investigation into what can be done to improve their quality of life again.