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 produced by the ovaries and is one of the hormones that prepares the womb for pregnancy and make it a perfect environment for the fertilised egg to stick to the womb wall and 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 a perfect world progesterone would also be consumed through our food as well and this would naturally keep 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 of utmost importance for the overall health of a woman that her production of progesterone stays at a normal level throughout 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 far more prominent in our diet nowadays because of the xenoestrogens. Xenoestrogens are mostly petroleum based synthetic estrogens and are now present in massive amounts in our food chain, water supply and environment.

There are a number of other factors that can effect the levels of progesterone, like stress, smoking, lack of sleep, and prescription hormones and the hormones found in foods that are commercially produced and processed like meats and dairy products.

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, decreaced/low sex drive, depression, obesity, night sweats, bone loss, irregular menstration, excessive bleeding during menstruation, uterine fibroids, water retention sleeplessnss, vaginal dryness, thyroid dysfunction, uncear thinking, infertility/miscarriage, headaches, endometrios, weight gain, memory loss, irritability, hair loss and hair thinning.

When looking at these symptoms separately they do not seem like any great problem, making them seem harmless as a passing problem, often being waved asde as “Oh that’s just menopause, it will pass!”. But having several of the symptoms can make life quite difficult for the sufferer, and warrant further investigaton into what can be done to improve their quaity of life again.