symptom of low progesterone
Low progesterone causes a progesterone deficiency problems can result including, the month-long presence of unopposed estrogen with all its attendant side-effects. Studies have shown that many women in their 30s - some even younger - will occasionally not ovulate during their menstrual month.[1] Without ovulation, no corpus luteum results and progesterone is not produced.
A second major problem results from the interrelationship between low progesterone and stress. Stress combined with a bad diet can induce cycles where ovulation does not occur. The low levels of progesterone interfere with the production of the stress-combating hormones, worsening stressful conditions (cortisol hormone increases) that give rise to further non-ovulation cycles and so continues the cruel cycle.
Low Progesterone and PMS
PMS is caused by a hormonal phenomena associated primarily with women living in Western industrialized countries. Women with PMS tend to have lower levels of natural progesterone, especially when progesterone is supposed to be dominant in their cycle. Instead, estrogen is dominant, either because the ovaries are not producing progesterone or because excess estrogen is overwhelming their own progesterone.
Symptoms can range from being a minor nuisance to quite severe and debilitating and may encompass: Irritability, headache, backache, general body aches, breast swelling or tenderness, loss of libido and fatigue. For some the range of symptoms might include confusion, impaired decision making, disorientation, anger and hostility toward others and sleeplessness.
Another major factor contributing to this imbalance between estrogen and progesterone is the industrialized world now live in, immersed in a rising sea of petrochemical derivatives.
They are in the air, food and water and include pesticides and herbicides (such as DDT) as well as various plastics (polycarbonated plastics found in babies bottles and water jugs) and PCBs. These estrogen-mimics are highly fat-soluble, not biodegradable or well excreted, and accumulate in the fat tissue of animals and humans.
Chemicals Mimic Natural Estrogen a Chief Cause of Estrogen Dominance
These chemicals mimic natural estrogen and thus are given the name "xenoestrogens" since, although they are foreign chemicals, they are taken up by the estrogen receptor sites in the body. Drinking carbonated beverages in plastic bottles is a chief cause of estrogen dominance.
Extensive research reveals an alarming situation created by the inundation of these hormone-mimics. The book, Our Stolen Future, has identified 51 hormone mimics, each able to unleash a torrent of effects such as reduced sperm production, cell division and sculpting of the developing brain. These estrogen mimics are not only linked to the recent discovery that human sperm counts worldwide have plunged by 50% between 1938 and 1990 but also to genital deformities, breast, prostate and testicular cancer, and neurological disorders.
Dr. John Lee, MD has discovered a consistent theme running through women's complaints of the distressing and often debilitating symptoms of PMS, peri-menopause and menopause: too much estrogen or, in other words, estrogen dominance. Now, instead of estrogen playing its essential role within the well-balanced symphony of steroid hormones in a woman's body, it has begun to overshadow the other players, creating biochemical dissonance. Even natural estrogens should not be prescribed unless it is clear that a deficiency exists. Dr. Lee has been able to balance the estrogen-dominance effect through the use of transdermal natural progesterone cream.
Low Progesterone Info continued.