Great News! PMDD Tied to Sex-Hormone Reactive Genes

Today's guest post welcomes author Eryn Speers' unvarnished reaction to the news that National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers have discovered molecular mechanisms that may underlie a woman’s susceptibility to disabling irritability, sadness, and anxiety in the days leading up to her menstrual period.  I couldn't have said it better myself, which is why I asked permission to reprint Eryn's original Facebook post here.  

The bottom line is this NIH discovery is good news for us all.  Please be sure to watch the five minute video (link provided) at the end.

I have been through the gambit, had my moments of doubt, and a few good months where I thought I was "free" of PMDD. Chalking it up to stress, or difficult times, only to have it return with a vengeance. In my frustration I began my research again, shaking my head every time I ended up down the same road: eat clean, eliminate sugar and caffeine, get your hormone levels checked, get acupuncture, see a naturopath, try anti-depressants and Cognitive Behavior Theory. The list goes on and on, as we know. What I, myself, have come to realize, is that all this conflicting information just makes it all worse. That's why I am taking this new research as a cue to stop blaming myself, and to stop listening to all the noise and babble about what the "correct" treatment of PMDD is. While it's a good idea for anyone to reduce sugar intake, exercise regularly, and investigate possible food sensitivities - these things will make anyone feel better in general, but to continue to go in circles just adds stress to what is already a stressful situation.

I hope this new research helps others to do the same. Yes, it means we still suffer until they find a way to use the info to come up with a therapy that targets the actual cause of the problem, as opposed to the symptoms. However, at least those of us who are desperate and tired of trying everything to no avail, can try to find some hope in knowing that they are really working on it.

This is a disorder on a cellular level, and I am ready to accept whatever treatments they come up with in order to get my life back. My hope is that those of you who are very anti-pharma will try to trust, for a while, and give yourself a break from feeling that the only one who can correct the problem is you.

This puts so much undo pressure on us, and also nurtures an environment of pessimism and fear. We deserve to feel better! This problem is not caused by us. This is not a matter of poor diet or lifestyle choices, or a hormonal imbalance. All we can do right now is cope as best we can, and we're all doing that.

We're here to support one another, and I feel that we should all encourage one another to stay open to the possibilities as the research advances. Please, I implore you to keep trying new therapies until you are finally free of this awful disease. If you want to take anti-depressants in the meantime because they help, great! If you want to take birth control, or stay 100% natural in your efforts to get through and lessen the severity of your symptoms - also great!

However, please don't let the way this disease makes you feel hopeless and useless allow others to tell you exactly how to approach your own health. Don't let the fear and skepticism of others stop you from trying a drug that has been specifically developed to treat this issue in the future. They ARE working on it.

Please watch the video, and find hope.

Have faith! ~ES

Surviving the Holidays with PMDD

Wow, here I am, a year later, still researching my post on progesterone...there's so much information, pro and con, to sift through.  I seem to uncover new information daily and it's all conflicting.

 

You see, the truth is, I want to be able to say progesterone is good for you and it works miracles for your PMDD...unfortunately, that is not what I am finding...

 

So I keep looking.  But I think it's time to stop researching, and just write the post.

In the meantime, going in to the holiday season, I thought we might revisit a few posts on relationships to remind ourselves of what's important, what's not, and what we can do about it.

Here are the links to my series of posts about all sorts of relationships, because between now and when life settles down again in January, we'll most likely be dealing with more people than we do the rest of the year combined. So bookmark this page, and refer to it as needed :)

Relationships Begin With You

Learning to Treat Yourself Like a Friend

HOW to be a Friend to Yourself

Choosing Your Friends Wisely

Choosing Your Family

How to Survive Family Gatherings

It's Not Personal, It's Just Your PMDD

Finding the Right Partner

Dealing with PMDD - Advice for Men

and, as a reminder,

They Only See Our Failures

Take care, God Bless, and may your holidays be happy.

Progestins, Bio-Identical Progestins, and Progesterone

Research on the post about progesterone and progestins is nearly complete and the information will be divided into at least four parts: progestins, more about progestins, (including LARCs, or Long Acting Reversible Contraceptives), bio-identical progestins, and progesterone itself. I don't know when they will be done, as some medical issues have cropped up that limit my time at the computer.
When they are complete, however, I will come back and link to them in this post.

In the meantime, I hope you will find other useful information here, and wish you peace, prosperity, and as many PMDD-free days as possible.

Continuing the Conversation about Depo-Provera

In keeping with my latest posts on progesterone, progestins, and birth control, I 'm posting this link to a post about Depo-Provera.  I know many of you have had negative experiences with the shots and this may help others to think twice about getting them for your PMDD.  There's a lot of good information on this site overall regarding all things menstrual, so it's well worth your time to look around once you get there. 

Enjoy, and may you be having a PMDD-free day.

PMDD Wars: Progesterone vs. Progestins: Part 1, Progestins

There are many controversies surrounding PMDD, and one of the biggest is the use of progestins and progesterone to help mitigate the symptoms.  I think someone out there must be marketing progesterone for PMDD pretty heavily, because of all of the questions I'm getting on the subject.  So I'm going to back up and start at the very beginning, assuming you know nothing about progesterone and progestins, like I did when I first started researching this topic. 

First of all, we are talking about two different things.  Progesterone and progestins are not the same.  Progesterone is produced naturally in your body; progestins are synthesized to mimic what progesterone does for your body.  It's important that you do not confuse the two, and when reading articles or advertisements or results of clinical studies on hormones, it's important that you know which one they are talking about--natural progesterone, plant-based progesterone, or synthetic progestins, also called progestogens.  

Somehow it all gets lumped into being called "progesterone", and I think this is a big part of where our confusion as consumers comes from.

So:

Progesterone is what your body makes naturally

Bio-identical progesterone - a synthetic progesterone made from plant sources that is biochemically similar to those produced by the body

Progestins  - synthetic progesterone-like chemicals structurally different from what your body makes

Progestogens - synthetic progesterone-like chemicals structurally different from what your body makes

If you read nothing else of this post, please make sure you learn the above distinctions.

Because of the enormous amount of information on progestins alone, I will not get to the information on what is termed bio-identical progesterone today.  If that's all you want to read about, you will have to wait for a different post, but in the meantime I do encourage you to keep reading, as what follows may answer some of your questions, and may help to explain why you feel the way you do.  

Now, back to the basics:

Progesterone is a hormone naturally secreted by the ovary in the second two weeks of a woman's menstrual cycle.  Both bio-identical progesterone (synthesized from plant sources) and progestins (synthesized from chemicals) can also be taken in pill form, the latter by women taking birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy pills.  Progestins can also be used to induce a menstrual period in the case of stopped menstrual periods, or to regulate abnormal bleeding in the case of heavy blood flow problems.  Progesterone is also used in high doses for women with infertility problems and to prevent miscarriages.

There are several different kinds of progesterone being marketed today.  Today's post is about  progestins, the synthetic progesterone-like chemicals (also called progestogens) which bind to the body's progesterone receptors and function, for the most part, just like progesterone.  But because they are chemically different from our own natural progesterone, they have side effects.

Progestins were originally developed because they could be absorbed into the blood when ingested in pill form--this was before the development of micronized progesterone capsules. 

Progestins are only available via a prescription. You find progestins in birth control pills, also called oral contraceptives.  There are two main types of birth control pills: combination pills and progestin-only pills.  Most pills are available in both a 21-day or a 28-day pack, with the 28-day pack containing 7 placebos, or inactive pills, taken on the days you would normally have a menstrual period.  Combination pills are the most popular, due to the well-published side effects of synthesized estrogen-only therapies, and contain both synthesized estrogen and progestin. 

However, all combination pills raise the risk of heart attacks, stroke, and blood clots.  That risk rises if you are either smoker or over the age of 35.  Other factors, such as being obese or having a family history of heart disease make these blood clots more likely, therefore the FDA advises women against taking any combination birth control pills if you have a history of blood clots, heart attack, or stroke. 

One type of birth control pills carries a higher risk of deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism (blood clots that start in a leg vein and travel to the lungs) than others.  Those are the pills that contain the ingredient drospireone and include Beyaz, Gianvi, Lornay Ocella Safyral, Yasmin, Yaz, and Zarah.  According to a post in the blog re: Cycling, as of April, 2012, pharmaceutical giant Bayer (makers of Beyaz, Yasmin, and Yaz) faced 11,300 lawsuits from women who have been seriously injured and family members of women who have died after taking Yaz or Yasmin.  In December of 2012 the company reported they settled the first 3500 cases with a total of $750 million in payouts.  As of this date, the latest case filed, November 28, 2012, is from a woman in Oklahoma who took Yaz for only two months, ten years ago, and developed deep vein thrombosis.

That said, the following side effects, usually severe or sudden, may be caused by blood clots:

Headache or migraine

Loss of or change in speech, coordination, or vision

Numbness or pain in chest, arm, or leg

Unexplained shortness of breath

 More common side effects of progestins include:

Changes in vaginal bleeding

Light bleeding or spotting between withdrawal bleeds

Symptoms of blood sugar problems (Dry mouth, frequent urination, loss of appetite, or unusual thirst)

Mental depression

Nausea

Skin rash

Unexpected or increased flow of breast milk

Abdominal pain or cramping

Breast tenderness

Bloating or swelling of ankles or feet

Blood pressure increase

Dizziness

Headache

Mood changes

Nervousness

Unusual or rapid weight gain

Acne

Brown spots on exposed skin

Hot flashes

Loss or gain of body, facial, or scalp hair

Loss of sexual desire

Trouble sleeping

Certain doses of progestins may also cause a temporary thinning of your bones, which is a factor in developing osteoporosis, but on the other hand, it has been found that progestins *may* offer some protection against osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.  Smoking, drinking alcohol, and taking or drinking caffeine can also thin your bones, so be aware of the added stress you may be placing on your bones by taking progestins.

Progestin-only pills (also called the mini-pill) are most commonly used by nursing mothers, women at risk for blood clots, and other conditions that prevent them from taking estrogen.

Combination birth control pills come in different phases, depending on whether the level of hormones in the pills changes throughout the month.  Monophasic (one phase) pills contain the same amount of estrogen and progestin in all of the active pills.  Two-phase pills change the level of hormones once during the menstrual cycle.  Three-phase pills change the levels of hormones every seven days during the first three weeks of pills.  Then you have the inactive pills for the fourth week, which is when you get what is called a withdrawal bleed.  It's not to be confused with a period.  You bleed, but you don't have a true period.  You can't, because you didn't ovulate.  Four-phase pills change their hormone levels four times per cycle. 

Is it safe or healthy to skip periods?  If you aren't taking oral contraceptives, you need a period after ovulation to shed the lining that's built up in  your uterus in preparation to receive a fertilized egg.  But when you're taking birth control pills, they suppress ovulation, so no eggs are released, and therefore your uterine lining doesn't build up.  The reason you bleed is because of the week of inactive pills in your birth control packet.  And sometimes you might not bleed at all. 

I am of the opinion that it's not a good thing to chemically suppress any natural body functions, but every woman has to decide for herself.  More information on this (so that you can make your own informed decision) can be found at the blog, Sweetening the Pill.

So, in addition to regulating your menstrual cycle by suppressing ovulation, and treating women with no period (amenorrhea) in an effort to bring about a period if possible, progestins are used:

To prevent estrogen from thickening the lining of your uterus

To treat pain related to endometriosis

To help treat cancer of the breast, kidney, or uterus—as progestins can stop the growth of an estrogen-fed tumor

To help prevent anemia (low iron in blood)

and, in high doses:

To stop heavy menstrual bleeding

To help a pregnancy occur during egg donor or infertility procedures

and

To help maintain a pregnancy when not enough progesterone is made by the body to do so.

So both progesterone and progestins are tricky things:  High doses can either start or stop menstrual bleeding, and can be used to help support pregnancy, while low doses can prevent pregnancy from occurring.

However, there have been some reports that high doses of progestins during pregnancy may cause birth defects in the sex organs of a male fetus, and some progestins may cause male-like changes in a female fetus and female-like changes in a male fetus. 

Hormones are powerful things, ladies, so buyer beware.

Before taking progestins, you should also tell your doctor if you have or have had any medical issues with the following, either through your family history, or having experienced these issues yourself, as progestins may make these conditions worse:

Allergies (to medicines, food dyes, preservatives, or animals)

Asthma

Epilepsy

Heart or circulation problems

Kidney disease

Migraines

Bleeding problems

Blood clots

Breast cancer

Deep vein thrombosis

Heart attack

Liver disease

Pulmonary embolism

Stroke

Blood clots in the veins

Breast lumps or cysts

Diabetes

Memory loss

Vision changes

Note:  Just as each woman is individual in her hormonal makeup, each synthetic progestin has a different side effect profile, due to the various formulations, so it is hard to pinpoint which progestins will cause which symptoms in which women.  I'm just trying to cover all the possibilities here so that you can see where, if at all, you fit in. 

Proposed off-label uses for progestins include treating hot flashes (interesting, since they can apparently also cause hot flashes) and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).  An off-label use is one that has not been approved by the FDA, but once a drug has been approved by the FDA (in this case, birth control or hormone replacement therapy) to treat a specific condition or disorder, doctors may then prescribe it as they see fit.  Much marketing is done in the area of off-label use for many drugs touted as PMDD symptom relievers, and several drug companies have been reprimanded and fined by the FDA for promoting non-approved uses of their drugs to treat these symptoms.

We'll talk more about that next time. 

Confusion City

This post was completely updated September 23, 2015

One of the main problems I find in researching PMDD is that every woman’s hormones fluctuate daily in concert with her menstrual cycle, so it’s hard to separate what’s caused by normal female hormonal fluctuations and what’s caused by PMS or PMDD. To be clear: PMS and PMDD are not the same. PMDD is *not* PMS on steroids, although it can feel like it when you’re having an episode.

There is a definite brain component to PMDD that is not present in PMS. PMS mostly deals with physical symptoms (aches, pains, tenderness, cramps, bloating, etc.), with some minor mood fluctuations…a little irritability, a lack of energy or motivation, some weepiness, maybe more anxiety than usual.

PMDD ratchets these symptoms up a few hundred notches, to the point that these mood disturbances affect your ability to function and maintain stable relationships.

A lot of books and websites discuss the more mild symptoms of PMS, and then simply transfer the same thoughts and theories to PMDD. A lot of these sources even call PMDD a more severe version of PMS. This is not true. They are two separate conditions that unfortunately have enough in common to confuse everybody. But in the end, they take two different paths.

However, since they are often treated as similar, even interchangeable, by many media, for years I thought I had PMS, and couldn’t figure out why—if more than 80% of all women experience some form of PMS—why couldn’t I cope like everyone else did?

Because it wasn’t the same thing, and I didn’t know that.

So, while PMS affects (mostly) your body and (mildly) your mind on more or less a regular cycle, with more or less the same cluster of mind/body symptoms each month (specific to you as an individual), PMDD affects your brain’s ability to regulate itself, and therefore affects just about every other hormone in your body, too.

This is why you often feel as if something or someone else has taken over your body. You think one thing, and something totally different comes out of your mouth. You think you’re eating right, getting enough sleep and exercise, and suddenly one day you have no energy and your body simply won’t cooperate. There’s a missed connection there, and while it’s not “all in your head,” as many friends, relatives, co-workers, and even medical personnel would have you believe, it is happening in your brain.

So what are some of these hormones, and what do they do?

Here (in alphabetic order) are the ones most likely to affect your levels of PMDD.

Aldosterone – Never heard of it? Doesn’t matter. It still contributes to excess water weight gain when your progesterone levels are high, like in the second half of your menstrual cycle, when you feel all fat and bloated. Now you know (in part) why you get that way, and why (short of diuretics) there’s really nothing you can do about it but avoid salt, celebrate the fact that you’re a woman, and know that this, too, shall pass…

Androgens (DHEA and others) – When levels of these are too high they enhance your sex drive and aggressive tendencies, produce unwanted facial hair and apple vs. pear-shaped bodies in women, stimulate your appetite and contribute to waistline weight gain.

Cortisol – This affects your metabolism and tells your body to store more (more! more!) body fat, and is produced in even higher amounts under stress. (Remember, a woman with PMDD is more sensitive to stress to start with, so don’t be surprised if your levels are off the charts.)

Think about this: Our bodies have not changed much biologically since prehistoric times, and so are designed to respond to stress in a certain way that back then was perfectly normal and balanced. But stress back then might be due to a natural disaster, imminent death or starvation, attack by a wild animal, or, in later times, attack from a warring tribe.

Now our stress comes from sources like electronic devices, over-commitment, dashed hopes and unmet expectations, financial strain, unsafe drivers, emotional upsets, and major life changes like birth, death, marriage, divorce, surgery, change in employment or living location, to name just a few.

But our bodies still react in the same way they did in prehistoric times to these threats and upsets—as if we were literally under physical attack.

So up goes your cortisol, which, among other things, suppresses your normal immune functions, leaving you susceptible to every cold and flu that comes your way. In time your body can get so run down that you develop something serious, even terminal.

The Estrogens – Estradiol, Estrone, and Estriol These three wonder hormones are involved in over 400 crucial functions throughout your body and brain, including your metabolism, moods, body heat regulation, insulin sensitivity, pain levels (think muscle and joint pain, and headaches), and carbohydrate tolerance. Both too much and too little estrogen are bad for you, in ways too numerous to go into here. But know this—you have estrogen receptors in your brain, bladder, bones, muscles, blood vessels, skin, breasts, uterus, eyes, heart, and colon. It’s not just about sex anymore.  With all those receptors, you can easily take in too much estrogen—or, more appropriately, too much of the WRONG kind of estrogen (aka xenoestrogens).

Insulin – Lowers your blood sugar, stimulates fat storage.

Melatonin – Regulates your sleep cycles and body rhythms, promotes fat storage for hibernation (remember those cave dwellers) and increases your appetite for carbs. Melatonin also plays a role in Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) syndromes that affect your energy levels, weight gain, daytime sleepiness, and depressed moods.

Norepinephrine and Epinephrine – aka your Adrenaline Hormones. These govern your “fight or flight” responses. They increase your heart rate, lift your mood (or in excess cause anxiety), increase alertness, and dilate your arteries to provide more oxygen, glucose, and nutrients to your key organs in times of distress.

Remember what I said about how our bodies were initially designed to respond to threats and the differences between threats then and threats now? Some of us are living in a nearly constant state of fight or flight simply due to the lifestyles we live. But on top of that, when a woman enters her PMDD zone, her fight or flight switch comes on, but because of some missed connection in the brain—it does not shut off. 

Until her period comes.  That can last up to three weeks in the worst cases. 

Being trapped in that fight or flight state is exhausting, to say the least. You know how you feel when you're exhausted...apply that to a woman with PMDD ten-fold and you may begin to understand her emotional instability during her episodes. 

Progesterone – The jury is still out on this one. Some sources say too much progesterone can increase your appetite, increase fat storage, reduce insulin sensitivity, make you sleepy, depressed, and depress your sex drive.  Fatigue, breast tenderness, bloating, and vaginal dryness are also symptoms.  Other sources say too little progesterone can cause many of these same symptoms—in addition to anxiety attacks, insomnia, dizziness, irritability, difficulty concentrating, extreme changes in mood, muscle pain, joint pain, and urinary incontinence.

Who to believe?  All I know is progesterone supplementation is something that needs to be fine-tuned over the course of your cycle    .  I have found that, much like an upside-down U-curve, there seems—for me—to be a sort of sweet spot at the top of the curve; too little progesterone creates symptoms, too much progesterone creates symptoms.  The dosage needed can vary daily.  I have to constantly adjust and readjust my progesterone intake, using supplementation and nutrition.

So be wary of progesterone creams, especially over-the-counter brands.  Depending on what else is in them, you can get too much, too little, or none at all.  They are not regulated.  Other ingredients in the creams can also clog your pores and provide added fake estrogens if you do not read the label carefully.  Only a precious few progesterone creams perform the way they are intended to.  I use a cream when symptoms are particularly bad, but for the most part I take a 100 mg capsule of micronized progesterone daily, and double that on symptomatic days.  If you would like to know which brands I use, contact me directly. (info (at) livingwithpmdd (dot) com.)

Testosterone – It’s not just for guys. Too little testosterone can negatively affect your bone and muscle growth, metabolism, mood, energy level, and sex drive.

Thymosin – This little-known hormone plays a major role in the development of your immune system. Be good to it or be betrayed by it.

Thyroid – Affects your metabolism, nervous system, muscles and bones, energy levels, heart rate, body heat production, and brain activity. (Hello? Brain activity? Remember this.)

Okay, now I’m no doctor, but if you take the major symptoms of PMDD and bump them up against these hormones, you’ll find that too much or too little of eight of them can lead to weight gain, five of them can cause problems with your metabolism, five of them can affect mood disorders, six can cause problems with your energy levels, two can make you anxious, two can make you aggressive, three affect your sex drive, two reduce insulin sensitivity, two affect sleep cycles, two can depress your immune system, and two can affect your brain function…which can affect all of the above.

Let’s break that down into something more understandable.

Imbalances (for lack of a better word) in the following can cause weight gain:
Androgens
Cortisol
Insulin
Melatonin
Progesterone
Testosterone
Thyroid
Aldosterone (water weight gain)

Imbalances in the following can cause metabolism problems:
Cortisol
Estrogen
Testosterone
Thyroid

Imbalances in the following can cause mood disturbances:
Estrogen
Progesterone
Melatonin
Testosterone
Thyroid

Imbalances in the following can cause your energy levels to plummet:
Estrogen
Insulin
Melatonin
Progesterone
Testosterone
Thyroid

Imbalances in the following can compromise your immune system:
Cortisol
Thymosin

Imbalances in the following can reduce insulin sensitivity:
Estrogen
Progesterone

Imbalances in the following can cause problems with brain function:
Estrogen
Thyroid

Or, to cross-match it another way…

DSM-V Symptoms of PMDD affected by hormone levels:

Markedly Depressed Mood (feelings of hopelessness, or self-deprecating thoughts)
Estrogen
Progesterone
Melatonin
Testosterone
Thyroid

Marked Anxiety, Tension, Feeling Keyed-up or On Edge
DHEA
Norepinephrine
Epinephrine
Thyroid

Marked Affective Lability (feeling suddenly sad or tearful or increased sensitivity to rejection)
Estrogen
Progesterone

Persistent and Marked Anger, Irritability, or Increased Interpersonal Conflicts
DHEA and other Androgens

Testosterone
Thyroid

Decreased Interest in Usual Activities (work, school, friends, hobbies)
Estrogen
Insulin
Melatonin
Progesterone
Testosterone
Thyroid

Subjective Sense of Difficulty in Concentrating
Estrogen
Progesterone

Testosterone
Thyroid

Lethargy, Easy Fatigability, Marked Lack of Energy
Estrogen
Insulin
Melatonin
Progesterone
Testosterone
Thyroid

Marked Change in Appetite, Overeating, or Specific Food Cravings
DHEA
Cortisol
Insulin
Melatonin
Progesterone
Testosterone
Thyroid

Hypersomnia or Insomnia
Estrogen
Melatonin
Thyroid

Subjective Sense of Feeling Overwhelmed or Out of Control
Estrogen
Progesterone

Thyroid

Physical Symptoms, such as breast tenderness or swelling, headaches, joint or muscle pain, a sensation of bloating, or weight gain.
Aldosterone (water weight gain)
Estrogen
Progesterone
Cortisol
Insulin
Melatonin
Testosterone
Thyroid

Do you see where I’m going with this? You could have PMDD, or you could have some kind of hormonal excess or deficiency that is exacerbated pre-menstrually (called Pre-Menstrual Exacerbation). It might actually be an insulin problem, or a thyroid problem, an auto-immune system problem, and not PMDD at all. Some doctors have been making great strides with theories of inflammation. Your problem might be PMDD or it might be something entirely different.

The reason to get a diagnosis of PMDD is not to brand you with the PMDD label, but rather to rule out any other treatable causes for your symptoms.

Once you get that something else identified and dealt with, you might be left with only PMS to deal with.  And wouldn't that be wonderful?

The bottom line is only you and a caring, knowledgeable, and forward-thinking medical professional will be able to identify and separate the many connected hormonal threads in your body and figure out what's working right and what is not. 

You are a beautiful, complex system of individual ups and downs, highs and lows, checks and balances.  Don’t let medical professionals simply hand you prescriptions for one-size-fits-all blanket treatments and/or try to make you feel to blame or as if you are not trying hard enough when they don't work. 

And most of all, don't let anybody tell you you’re crazy.

Because the only things out of kilter here are your hormones.

Keep searching until you find the right practitioner and answers for YOU.

What's Special About Progesterone

Getting a late start today. It’s the last week before school starts and all is in chaos :). Today I want to write more about progesterone, since the subject came up. Again, I want to say there I nothing wrong with taking natural progesterone if your progesterone levels are low, but how are you going to know they are low without a blood serum test of your levels, taken during at least two different points in your cycle? Hormone saliva tests are notoriously inaccurate, and if you look closely, you’ll notice most companies that produce these saliva tests also conveniently produce product formulations that you can take to boost whatever their tests determine you are lacking in.

Some other day I will tell you about my experience with saliva hormone testing. Today I want to focus on progesterone and what it does for you.

Actually, it’s a good thing. Progesterone in and of itself is wonderful, and has a wonderful purpose. You know that it rises during the second half of your cycle, starting to rise just before ovulation. And as it does, it settles your mood and slows down your digestive system. That’s right. Just like progesterone smoothes out your mood, it smoothes out the muscles in your digestive tract to allow your body more time to process what you have eaten, and grab every morsel of nutrition it can from the food you eat before sending the waste on its way.

This is a big part of what causes that full, bloated feeling you get the last half of your cycle, and this is what often causes constipation during the same time frame.

Why? Because your body, in all it’s miraculous wisdom, is preparing to sustain a child. Your body doesn’t know (or care) whether you’re trying to get pregnant or not, so every month during your reproductive years it faithfully prepares to sustain a fertilized egg, whether you need it to or not. Slowing down your digestive system is just one way your body has of making sure that baby gets every ounce of nutrition it can get so that it will thrive in your womb.

When no egg is fertilized, the level of progesterone in your body drops, and this causes the buildup of tissue in your uterus to slough off because it isn’t needed, and pass out of your body via the blood you shed during your period.

Unfortunately, it also causes your mood to plummet.

But progesterone has a definite purpose. A purpose that drives women mad on the months when we are not hoping to conceive, because it makes us puff up and think we are fat. But all of that is just our body trying to hold on to the nutrients we have ingested…just in case.

Another time progesterone surges is during the first trimester of pregnancy, and that’s for the same reason. So that the baby growing inside you has the best chance your body can give it of getting all the nutrition it needs to survive.

Now, about those mood swings. During the last two weeks of your cycle, progesterone also causes your brain to at first become more relaxed and sedated, all warm and fuzzy, then gradually (and sometimes not so gradually), as the level of progesterone drops, more irritable, less focused, and a little slower. This is part of why you’re more sensitive to stress in the second half of your cycle.

Then, when no egg is fertilized and the level of progesterone in your system abruptly drops, this leaves your brain feeling somewhat shell-shocked. This is when you start snapping and screaming at your loved ones. Because your brain is feeling the effects of progesterone withdrawal, just like any addict goes through withdrawal when the source of their feel-good drug of choice is no longer available.

Our reactions to this loss of progesterone include feeling aggressive, negative, hostile, and/or even hopeless and depressed. This is when we weep at the drop of a hat, weep uncontrollably, become really obnoxious and confrontational, have panic attacks, and/or contemplate suicide.

Just like an addict.

So when we need it, progesterone is a very good thing.

When we don’t, it causes trouble.

What happens when we get too much?

Please read my previous post.

In closing, please try to be patient with yourself and understand that you really are not in control of this miraculous, yet incredibly frustrating (given our modern lifestyle) cycle that takes place inside your body each month, other than to provide your body with the best possible work and living environment and nutrition that you can--so that your body can do its job the way nature intended for it to do.