10 Reasons Why Progesterone is Vital
by Kristen DeAngelis, RD, LDN, RYT
⚡️The GOAL of a healthy menstrual cycle is not the “PERIOD”, it’s actually OVULATION ⚡️ !!!
Ovulation is the 👑 QWEEN , it’s the big event. And then the period is just the breakdown of that big show.
➡️Remember, Your period is a vital sign for health (just like heart rate, blood pressure), but so is the actual OVULATION itself. We can ovulate every month, but how “strong” that ovulation is can dictate how your luteal phase symptoms, length, and period are there after.
▪️Timeline to note: when you pass ovulation, PROGESTERONE rises - a key hormone for period health.
The biggest purpose or Progesterone? It’s for Pro-Gestation, aka it’s made to help hold & support a pregnancy to term. However it’s VERY important for more than just pregnancy!
🤔WHY IS PROGESTERONE SO IMPORTANT?
1. It’s our calming hormone
2. It balances out estrogen & other hormones(which is rising in the 1st half of a cycle). When Estrogen>Progesterone, we run into problems, anxiety, PMS, Acne, Moodiness, in some cases fibroids, endo, and it’s often something to work on for PCOS population
3. It protects against breast cancer
4. It has a stimulating effect on thyroid (so if your P is low, you’re not ovulating well, likely your Thyroid is off too)
5. Reduces Inflammation
6. Builds Muscle
7. Promotes sleep and relaxation
8. Protects against heart disease
9. Calms the nerves system and supports ability to cope with stress (it converts to a ALLO which is a calming neurosteriod that acts like GABA In your brain. So if you know you love GABA supps, you might actually want to look at how much progesterone you’ve got instead)
10. Acts like a BANK to store up progesterone to help ease Menopause in later years when we DONT ovulate and therefore rely on what progesterone we’ve stored up.
➡️FUN FACT: Hormonal Birth Controls do not give you actual progesterone they give you a synthetic version called PROGESTIN - which does NOT convert to ALLO and therefore does not have GABA like calming response - instead this is why some women feel MORE anxious when taking BC.
⚡️Stay tuned in NEXT post for SYMPTOMS of low P! 📸
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