Lara Briden - The Period Revolutionary
Leading the change to better periods and hormones
Progesterone is the hormone women make after ovulation and is important not just for fertility but also to help to prevent osteoporosis, stroke, dementia, heart disease, and breast cancer. Regular ovulatory cycles are beneficial for general health. Progesterone can also be taken in the form of micronized progesterone to relieve heavy periods and the symptoms of perimenopause.
Progesterone is usually soothing to mood but can sometimes cause anxiety.
A negative mood reaction to changing levels of progesterone is called neurosteroid change sensitivity or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) and affects about one in twenty women.
Also, see Top 6 natural treatments for premenstrual mood symptoms.
Lost your period? You might just need to eat more. A lot more. Losing your period to undereating is called hypothalamic amenorrhea and is common, especially in women under thirty.
Unfortunately, hypothalamic amenorrhea can sometimes be misdiagnosed as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) because both hypothalamic amenorrhea and PCOS can have “polycystic ovaries” on a pelvic ultrasound exam.
According to a Lancet review paper, menstrual migraines are more severe than migraines at other times of the cycle.
Possible drivers of menstrual migraines include estrogen withdrawal at the end of the cycle, plus an estrogen-dependent release of prostaglandins and histamine. Body-identical progesterone may help to shelter the brain from estrogen withdrawal and reduce the frequency and intensity of menstrual migraines.
Iodine can relieve breast pain, ovulation pain, premenstrual mood symptoms and help to prevent ovarian cysts. It works by promoting healthy estrogen metabolism, down-regulating estrogen receptors, and stabilizing estrogen-sensitive tissue in the breasts, uterus, ovaries, and brain. As one paper says, iodine has “a net anti-estrogenic effect.”
Iodine’s anti-estrogen effect makes it one of the best treatments for estrogen excess or “estrogen dominance”—although I don’t use that term.