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Friday, 25 September 2020 12:01

Understanding Progesterone

SEPTEMBER 15, 2020 - DR LIBBY WEAVER

Progesterone is one of our key sex hormones and its name gives some indication of what it does in the body (think ‘pro-gestation’). Yet it plays a key role in so much more than fertility. In fact, progesterone is a substance that every woman needs to know about, regardless of whether pregnancy is on her agenda or not, because of its many biological effects.

Progesterone production that is far from ideal is, unfortunately, very common and it’s likely that you have experienced this at some point in your life—if not right now. When we’re not making optimal amounts of progesterone, this can contribute to a range of challenging symptoms in the lead up to and/or during menstruation. The reason for this is because progesterone helps to counterbalance estrogen. So, when we have poor progesterone production, this can tip the delicate balance of our sex hormones—and our body lets us know about it.

Progesterone has a number of important functions in the body. It supports the body’s fluid balance to prevent you from feeling puffy and swollen, and it helps to hold the lining of the uterus in place so that you don’t experience excessively heavy or prolonged bleeding. Not to mention it has anti-anxiety and antidepressant actions, making it a pretty powerful substance that we don’t want to be lacking.

When progesterone is low, signs and symptoms can include:

Very heavy periods
Spotting for a number of days leading up to your period
Bloating and fluid retention
PMS—especially anxious feelings and irritability leading up to your period
You may feel like you can’t get your breath past your heart or like your heart is racing in the lead up to menstruation
Irregular periods
Missing periods (and pregnancy is ruled out)
A short luteal phase, which sometimes shows up as a shorter cycle—there’s not enough progesterone to hold the lining of the uterus in place
A longer cycle, which means an increased number of days between ovulations.

How your body makes progesterone

During the menstruation years, progesterone is predominantly made by the ovaries in a cyclical manner, and much smaller amounts are made by the adrenal glands across your life. The trigger for ovarian progesterone production is ovulation so if we don’t ovulate, we don’t make it. Once ovulation occurs, a temporary gland called the corpus luteum forms in the ovary where the egg was released from. The corpus luteum produces progesterone from that point (after ovulation) up to just before you get your next period and this phase of the cycle is called the luteal phase.

For ease of understanding, the luteal phase is often referred to as the second half of your cycle (think ‘l’ for last half). However, this isn’t technically correct for every woman as depending on her cycle length, the two phases (the follicular phase and the luteal phase) may not be equal halves—their durations can differ. The luteal phase is ideally about two weeks long and progesterone levels peak at the mid-point of this, so this is why if you are having a blood test for progesterone it is best done about seven days before you get your period (so day 21 if your cycle is 28 days long).

What interferes with great progesterone production?

As you now understand, regular ovulation is essential for a woman to produce enough progesterone during her menstruation years. If you aren’t ovulating or you ovulate infrequently, it’s incredibly important to get to the heart of why this is. Commonly, this can be linked to chronic stress or worry, a frantic pace of life, inadequate rest, not feeling ‘safe’ (whatever this means to an individual) physically or emotionally, not eating enough and/or excessive exercise. These are all forms of stress to the body and increase stress hormone production. Not only can chronic stress lead to anovulatory cycles which means no ovarian progesterone production, but it can also contribute to scenarios where ovulation occurs but progesterone production is suboptimal.

Stress is a major contributing factor to low progesterone because of its link to fertility (because your progesterone levels surge after an egg becomes available). If the body is getting the message that your life is in danger—which is what too many stress hormones communicate—the last thing it wants is for you to potentially conceive at a time it perceives as dangerous, as this could mean the baby might be at risk. So, your body thinks it is doing you a favour by downregulating fertility during times of high stress. Processes that aren’t essential to our survival (such as reproductive function) are not prioritised when the body is putting all of its resources into keeping us alive.

There are also life stages where we are more susceptible to irregular ovulation and low progesterone, such as puberty and perimenopause. These are transition phases and it is normal for ovulation to be less regular during these seasons of our life. While many women experience challenging symptoms during perimenopause, it’s important to know that there are things you can do to support your body and experience a gentler transition. During this time, it’s even more important to take great care of yourself in terms of your nourishment and stress management, as excess stress hormone production—which can be driven by worrying, rushing and feelings of overwhelm, daily alcohol consumption over an extended period of time, restrictive dieting or excessive exercise—can still contribute to anovulatory cycles, irregular periods and low progesterone during this life stage.

That said, irregular ovulation or a lack of ovulation can also sometimes occur with other conditions such as polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) or thyroid dysfunction. If you experience unexplained irregular periods or if your periods have gone missing (and you are not using a type of hormonal contraception that causes this), it’s important to check in with your doctor. For more on hormonal contraception and its influence on progesterone production, you might like to read this blog here on the OCP or this one here on the Mirena.

What about progesterone post-menopause?

Progesterone levels are naturally low post-menopause as ovulation is no longer occurring and women in this life stage don’t have the cyclical sex hormone fluctuations that characterise the menstruation years. The adrenal glands become the primary source of progesterone post-menopausally, and these important glands are also tasked with making our stress hormones. Incorporating strategies to help reduce and manage stress or worry, such as daily breath-focused practices and getting to the heart of what stress really is for an individual so you are able to make fewer stress hormones in the first place, is incredibly supportive for women post-menopause and can truly make a difference in how you feel day-to-day.

Published in breath + calm + mind

Just Jump! The Universe Supports You

Authentic Yoga is always a spiritual discipline ... even when the focus is on the body." Georg Feuerstein

Benefits Of A Functional, Therapeutic YogAlign Class:

Empowering people, no matter what age & fitness level
Develops strength, flexibility & balance
Elongates our muscles, re-organises the matrix of the fascia
Efficiency in energy utilisation
Stabilises where we were too mobile & mobilise where we were too stable
Brings you into the joy of the present moment
Helps release physical, mental, emotional, spiritual & energetic blocks
Re-programmes the brain to set a new tension in the body
An expression of self love to maintain your optimal wellness

Begin your self care practice by booking a class today - click on 'YogAlign' in menu then 'Booking' - join me for either a small class (maximum 4) or a private session. All yoga mats & props provided ... just play & walk away ;o)

Love Leonie x

Published in wellness + nourish + move

Here's a more physical way to process difficult emotions

With stress and anxiety at an all-time high these days, it's more important than ever to find ways to process our difficult emotions. This goes beyond simply finding ways to cope and self-soothe, although these are also important.

Part of processing emotions in a healthy way is taking time to actually feel our feelings rather than immediately springing to "manage" or get rid of them. When we allow ourselves to sit with our emotions and identify what they are and where they come from, we can start to understand more about ourselves and our core needs.

Sexuality doula and sex educator Ev'Yan Whitney recently shared with us one particularly tactile way of doing this that can easily be done from home: sensual dance meditation. Think of it as a type of mindfulness-based, unstructured movement that allows you to fully be in your body—and your emotions.

How sensual dance can help process emotions.

If you instinctively bristle at the idea of dancing, just stay with me here!

Many of us tense up just thinking about dancing—because we feel self-conscious, because it perhaps feels silly, or because it's just not something we normally do. But sensual dance meditation, as Whitney conceives of it, isn't about performance, skill, or any structure at all really. This type of dancing is actually less about the dancing itself and more about tuning into yourself and your emotions. It's giving those emotions an outlet through which they can be expressed.

"Using dance or some kind of movement to move out that energy, to move out the anxiety, the fear, the lack of self-worth, the lack of self-confidence, is just a great way to connect to ourselves," Whitney tells me. "Emotions want to be moved out. That's why they call it e-motion."

Whitney says her dance meditations are often a mix of both joy and pain. "It's like getting more clear about what is underneath the surface... Allowing ourselves to feel sadness. Allowing ourselves to feel regret."

Dancing—when practiced mindfully and intuitively rather than performatively for others—can essentially be a way to move emotions that are stagnant in the body. You know that feeling of being overwhelmed, like your whole body feels heavy or weighed down by stress? Movement can help to relieve some of that pressure. While taking a walk or exercising shares some similar benefits with dancing, more unstructured movement taps into your intuition. You move the way you want to move, based on how you're feeling. In this way, emotions can be expressed more freely.

"There's something about just allowing our bodies to move the way our bodies want to move, without judgment, without trying to do any choreography," she explains. "When I dance, I give my body permission to do what it wants to do, to show up the way it wants to show up, to feel and emote in a way that it wants to feel and emote."

How to try it.

Whitney regularly leads sensual dance meditations on her Instagram if you want a little guidance, but she offers this exercise if you'd like to try it on your own:

1. Put on a song or two that gets you moving.

You may consider putting together a short playlist on songs you resonate with. They can be songs that you know. The idea is simply that each song "automatically and intuitively gets you moving, and then your body just does the rest."

Whitney adds, "They don't have to be fast songs. I actually like to play with both slow songs and fast songs because it just gives my body different ways to experience and to feel. But put on a song and just dance to it."

2. Be mindful as you move.

This is not necessarily supposed to be like "ooh, I love my body, and I'm moving it, and it feels so good!"

Although it might totally be like that when you're feeling great, this exercise is about getting in touch with any emotions you're feeling—positive and negative.

"Just say, whatever comes up, however my body wants to move, I'm going to let it move, and I'm going to be very mindful in the dancing. I'm just going to dance it out," Whitney says.

She recommends prompting yourself with questions as you move: What emotions are coming up for me in this moment? As I move my arms like this, what emotion wants to be released? As I move my hips like this, what am I shaking loose?

"Even if the questions can't be prompted, I always remind people that remembering to breathe is enough," Whitney adds. "Just connect to the breath."

3. Don't overthink it.

Try not to get caught up in thinking about how to move your arms or your hips. No one's watching you.

If you're struggling to get out of your head, Whitney again recommends just focusing in on your breath. When you focus on breathing and paying careful attention to the feeling of the air moving in and out through your lungs, you're better able to connect with your body. "It can be a really great way to disconnect a little bit from your brain, from that self-talk, and just really get into the flow of that movement," she says.

4. Allow yourself to feel your feelings.

Notice whatever emotions come up. They might sound like: I'm feeling scared. I'm feeling anxious. I'm feeling like I should be doing better right now.

Just notice them.

"I use dance as a way to move those emotions out," Whitney says. "Maybe they're not moved out completely, but just to get them moving. It helps to invite other new and more possible energies in like hope, joy, pleasure, things like that."

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