Progesterone Fertility Guide

Hormonal Balance is an important factor when it comes to healthy fertility and getting pregnant. During the course of a menstrual cycle various hormones are working together in a complex symphony to trigger the various components of ovulation and menstruation.

Progesterone is one of these key hormones. After ovulation progesterone production is triggered by Luteinising Hormone (LH) which stimulates the corpus luteum (the remnant egg sac) in the ovary to produce progesterone. One of the main actions of progesterone with fertility is to help support a developing embryo.

If pregnancy occurs, the production of progesterone continues from the corpus luteum continues for about 7 weeks (it is then produced by the placenta for the duration of the pregnancy). If pregnancy did not occur, the period begins 14 days after ovulation. When fertilization does not occur, the corpus luteum disintegrates which causes the level of progesterone to fall and this causes the endometrial tissue to disintegrate and shed as menstruation.

What does progesterone do?

Are you progesterone deficient or estrogen dominate?

Too much estrogen in the body

One of the main reasons women are progesterone deficient is because they have too much estrogen in the body. Estrogen dominance can happen for many reasons:
Commercially raised meats and dairy contain large amounts of estrogens and consuming them can cause hormonal imbalance.

Pollution and stress mimic estrogen at the estrogen receptor sites.

Eating a large amount of processed soy products can also mimic estrogen.

PCOS and endometriosis can also have an estrogen dominate action.

Not enough progesterone in the body

There are many signs that may show up in the body if you do not have enough progesterone in your system during the correct times of your cycle.

Hormone Testing

Hormones testing can be diagnosed by a doctor, naturopath or by tests. There are a couple of test options. Tests range from charting you menstrual and basal body temperature, finding out the length of your luteal phase, or taking saliva tests to find out your progesterone levels. The questionnaire above help to point out signs of progesterone deficiency while these tests help to confirm it.

BBT Charting
Basil Body Temperature charting can help to determine the availability of progesterone in the luteal phase. You can learn more about BBT Charting here. There will be a slight rise in temperature after ovulation has occurred and progesterone has increased.

Length of luteal phase
If the date of ovulation is fewer than 11 days before your period, this could suggest luteal phase defects. You can detect ovulation using BBT charting, ovulation detector strip tests.

Saliva Hormonal Testing
Dr. John Lee was very adamant that testing for hormones and progesterone should be done through saliva testing, not blood testing (almost all doctors will test the blood).

You can order an “at home” saliva test that you will take at a certain time during your cycle and then send away to a lab for analysis. They will then mail back the results so you can find out if you have any hormonal imbalances. You can order FDA approved home female hormone tests here.

What you can do for progesterone deficiency

Natural ways to balance a progesterone deficiency…

1. Reduce your exposure to xenohormones

We have become an estrogen dominate society from all of the excess estrogen in our foods and environment.

Reduce your exposure by avoiding these xenohormone producers:

Solvents and adhesives: These easily enter the body and can be found in paint/varnish, nail polish, and in dry cleaning chemicals. Solvents can damage a developing fetus and should be strongly avoided by pregnant women, in any amount.
Meat from conventionally raised livestock (non-organic): Conventionally raised livestock are fed estrogenic drugs in order to fatten them up. Eat only organic meats and dairy products.
Car exhaust
Almost all plastics
Petrochemically derived pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides
Emulsifiers found in soaps and cosmetics
PCD’s from industrial waste

2. Use Herbs for hormonal balance

Vitex

Vitex Extract (Chaste Tree Berry) is one of the most powerful herbs for women’s fertility and menstrual health. There are numerous studies and testimonials of Vitex and it’s effects on the body. One of the reasons Vitex is so effective and popular is because of its ability to balance hormones while not containing hormones itself. Vitex supports hormonal balance in the body by having an effect on the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axins (hormonal feedback loop), correcting the problem at the source.

Directions for use
Capsules: 1,000mg a day is the suggested amount to use. Take vitex all month long except during menstruation.

Tincture: Take 10-15 drops of vitex extract, taken 2-3 times a day except during menstruation.

However, unlike powerful hormone drugs, vitex works slowly to normalize the body. Maximum benefits are often achieved after 6-12 cycles with vitex.

3. Use Natural Progesterone Cream

Natural progesterone cream can help to supplement your body’s own progesterone levels and lead you back to a state of natural balance.

Natural progesterone cream comes from plant fats and oils called diosgenin which is extracted from either from Mexican Wild Yams or soybeans. In the laboratory diosgenin is chemically synthesized into a molecular structure that is identical to real human progesterone.

The United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) denotes a recognized standard of purity and strength. It is sometimes referred to as “human-identical” or “bio-identical” progesterone, which differentiates it from synthetic progestins or progestogens.

When and How to use progesterone cream

Transdermal application (through the skin) has been found to be one of the most effective ways to use natural progesterone. It is absorbed through the skin into the underlying fat which helps to slowly allow progesterone into the blood. This way of application helps the progesterone to be “time released” into the blood stream. To closely mimic the body’s progesterone cycle, it is best to use progesterone cream twice a day.

Natural progesterone cream is easily and quickly absorbed into the body through the skin (within seconds). So you can apply it essentially anywhere as long as you rotate locations of application.

The best areas for application are places that have capillary blood flow such as:
-Face
-Neck
-Upper Chest
-Breasts
-Inner arms
-Palms of hands and feet

When it comes to dosage, more is not better. Too much progesterone can cause hormonal imbalances, just like too little progesterone can. Dr. John Lee recommends a dosage of 15-30mg during the two weeks before your period.

Dr. Lee recommends that progesterone use begin directly after ovulation, which is usually day 12 in our cycles (twelve days after menstruation), and ending usage once menstruation begins. Once you become pregnant, stay on the progesterone. Read below for pregnancy instructions.

Loading Dose

A loading does is useful for women who have had many months or years of anovulatory (no ovulation) cycles , which can create extreme progesterone deficiency. Each cycle that passes without ovulation can increase estrogen dominance as progesterone stores are depleted. Very thin women who have little body fat can become estrogen dominant very easily as there is no fat to store extra progesterone. In either of these situations Dr. John Lee recommends a higher dose of progesterone the first one to two months of progesterone cream use. This helps to replenish the progesterone stored in the fat of the body. After 2-3 months the does can be lowered to the usual dosage.

Loading dose: 1/4 teaspoon twice a day (40mg a day) for two weeks before to your period
Regular dose: 1/8 teaspoon twice a day (20mg a day) for two weeks before your period

Inducing ovulation using progesterone

Dr. Lee had a number of patients in his practice that had been unable to conceive because they were not ovulating. For two to four months he had them use natural progesterone from days 5 to 26 in the cycle (stopping on day 26 to bring on menstruation).

Using the progesterone prior to ovulation effectively suppressed ovulation. After a few months of this, he had them stop progesterone use. If you still have follicles left, they seem to respond to a few months of suppression with enthusiasm — the successful maturation and release of an egg.

His patients, some of whom had been trying to conceive for years, had very good results conceiving with this method.

Preventing miscarriage using progesterone

Low progesterone during pregnancy can cause recurrent miscarriages. Progesterone is responsible for creating a healthy environment in the womb by creating a healthy uterus lining. It also reduces the chances of blood clots and immune system responses to the fetus as a foreign substance. Progesterone is the pregnancy hormone.

If you feel this might be your situation, try to get your hormone levels tested before using the progesterone, than get tested again to make sure your levels are high enough. Working with a healthcare practitioner is helpful as they can help to monitor your hormonal levels.

Make sure to have at least two bottles on hand, because running out could cause a big drop in progesterone which may cause the menstrual cycle to begin.

Progesterone for endometriosis

If you have endometriosis, Dr. John Lee recommends using progesterone from days 8 to 26 of your cycle, to reduce the effects of estrogen on the body (estrogen stimulates endometrial growth). Take a short week off to refresh your receptor sites. He has had success with this controlling symptoms within six months. Once the outbreaks of endometriosis are tolerable reduce the usage to days 12 till menstrual cycle.

Progesterone Use During Pregnancy

Natural progesterone is safe to use during pregnancy and may likely prevent many first trimester spontaneous abortions but should be used with caution in nursing as it may stop lactation. In the first trimester of pregnancy progesterone production is the sole responsibility of the ovaries, often fail to produce sufficient levels to maintain the pregnancy. By the second trimester, the placenta itself is responsible for producing progesterone, and it hikes the level of this hormone to 486% higher than the non-pregnant norm.

Synthetic progesterone drugs, not being natural progesterone, have side effects that if used to maintain the pregnancy may do damage to the baby.

If you are taking progesterone and get pregnant, you must continue taking progesterone until at least the 16th week. I personally would not stop if I had seriously low levels to begin with. But it is best to work with your health care practitioner if this is the case. They will continuously monitor your levels to make sure they are healthy for pregnancy.

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Studies of interest

Babies born from mothers who used natural progesterone during pregnancy were larger, smarter and calmer
Research by British hormone researcher Katherina Dalton, M.D., indicates that babies born to mothers who used natural progesterone during pregnancy are normal–and, in fact, are larger, calmer, and smarter.

Also in her 1968 study she found that none of the women receiving antenatal progesterone experienced toxemia during the pregnancy. In her control group, more than half experienced toxemia. It was used from conception to delivery.

“Progesterone babies” are smarter, walk sooner and have a higher chance of getting into college
In an article published in 1968 in the British Journal of Psychiatry, Dalton studied 60 children at the age of one year. Twenty-nine of these were born to mothers who used supplemental natural progesterone during pregnancy.

The mothers of the other 31 did not use any. Over 90% of the “progesterone” children were standing by age one, compared to only 60% of the “non-progesterone” children. Also at age one, over 60% of the “progesterone” children were walking, compared to about 35% of the “non-progesterone” children.

Even more significantly, Dalton followed a different group of 79 children and related their school grades to whether their mothers had taken natural progesterone during pregnancy. She used a scale from 0 to 100% to measure their scholastic achievement in various subjects at school.
This scale did not reflect actual grades received, but was an arbitrary method of measuring success.

In all cases, “progesterone” children did better than the “non-progesterone” children, but in some cases the results were astounding! She also discovered that the best results occurred when the progesterone was started before the 16th week of pregnancy. Math skills were three times as high (60% to 20%) in progesterone children, and this was only for those whose mothers took it before the 16th week.

For mothers who took it after the 16th week, the scores were 30%, still a 50% improvement over non-progesterone children.

Progesterone children scored much higher than non-progesterone in verbal reasoning skills, academic subjects, and significantly better in physical education and English. In fact, the only skill where non-progesterone children scored almost as high as the progesterone children was in crafts.

Finally, children whose mothers used natural progesterone were about seven times more likely to gain entrance to a university than their non-progesterone counter parts. A possible reason for the apparent increase in IQ and academic performance seems to be natural progesterone’s ability to retain glucose in the blood stream, thus elevating it.

Since the fetus’ developing brain needs all the glucose it can get, natural progesterone allows more to reach it, and it may develop more than the brain of a baby whose mother did not take supplemental natural progesterone.

References:
1. Lee, John, M.D. Hormone Balance Made Simple. 2006
2. Lee, John, M.D. What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause. 1999
3. Hobbs, Christopher, L.Ac. Vitex The Women’s Herb. 2003
4. Trickey, Ruth. Women, Hormones, and the Menstrual Cycle. 2003
5. Weed, Susun. Herbal for the Childbearing Year. 1986
6. California PSR and CALPIRG. “Generations at Risk” Chemicals and Reproductive Health.PDF