Progesterone cream is key to keeping a woman’s estrogen in check. But why is it important to combat estrogen? If left unchecked, estrogen can lead to all kinds of symptoms— weight gain, fatigue, headaches, mood swings, etc. That’s in the short term. In the long term, an imbalance between estrogen and progesterone increases a woman’s risk for breast and reproductive cancer.
What is Progesterone?
Progesterone is a hormone naturally created by a woman’s body during ovulation. It’s the counterpart to estrogen. Progesterone is necessary to combat excess estrogen.
When is it necessary to use progesterone? Well, during and after menopause, progesterone levels are capable of dropping close to 0%. And while there’s a 40% to 60% drop in estrogen, there’s still quite a bit in the system, so you can see where it’s easy for too much estrogen to build up. This can lead to something called estrogen dominance, which is a term coined by Dr. John R. Lee in his 2004 book What Your Doctor May or May Not Tell You About Menopause. Before menopause, the body creates estrogen, but may not produce enough progesterone, which can again lead to the imbalance.
How to Increase Progesterone
The importance of progesterone is not unknown to doctors. The usual prescription is Provera, which ostensibly helps the body to produce progesterone. But Provera has all the side effects of your usual run-of-the-mill prescription. The difference between Provera and progesterone is like the difference between melatonin and Tylenol PM: melatonin is naturally produced by the body, and therefore consuming melatonin at the right time of day will align with your body’s natural hormone production. Tylenol PM, however, contains all sorts of unnatural chemicals that will knock you out and lead to a variety of side effects like grogginess. Similarly, Provera is a synthetic drug foreign to the human body, whereas progesterone already exists and is already being produced by the body.
In that regard, it’s hard to pick a ‘better’ natural progesterone because by its very nature, progesterone is already the natural alternative to Provera. There’s not much difference between different types of over-the-counter progesterone.
That being said, progesterone is a topical agent. It’s applied directly to the skin, and in order to get through the epidermal skin layer certain things need to be added to accomplish this. For that reason, it’s still important to research products, just to make sure the producer hasn’t added in a synthetic chemical to help the progesterone move through the epidermal layer.
There are two types of progesterone products: one is a cream, and one is introduced to the body orally. The cream is the better option. This is because when progesterone is introduced orally, almost all of it is lost through the liver. This means that you would need to consume a huge amount of it to get the required daily dosage (which we’ll be covering shortly). So while you’re still getting the same dosage, the oral type puts a greater strain on the liver, making the cream the better alternative.
The Best Available Brand
We believe that Source Naturals is the best brand on the market. Source Naturals Progesterone Cream is a natural product derived from soy. In addition to soy, there are several other key ingredients. Let’s take a closer look at those ingredients:
Wild Yams. Wild yams are a natural fruit and contain high levels of progesterone. And since there’s no such (natural) thing as progesterone growing in the wild, we have to look to things in nature that already contain it, and wild yams are one such thing.
Vitamin E and Ginger Seed Extract. Both of these ingredients are included because they contain progesterone. You might be thinking “if wild yams already contain progesterone, why is Vitamin E and Ginger Seed extract included too? Why not just make a cream that exclusively contains wild yams?” The answer to this is that we don’t want to ‘put all our eggs in one basket’ so to speak, and Vitamin E is a good example of why.
In small amounts, Vitamin E can raise progesterone levels, but in large amounts Vitamin E will actually reduce it. For that reason, we don’t want to have too much of it- we don’t want too much of any of the ingredients. Besides, in a topical cream, Vitamin E is a great ingredient to include regardless of the cream’s intention because it does great things for the skin. So introducing Vitamin E while correcting hormone imbalances gives this cream a two-for-one benefit.
Jojoba oil. This ingredient is sourced from jojoba shrubs, which grow in the wild. Its oil is incredibly light and has no problem seeping through the epidermal layer, which is why you’ll find it in a wide array of cosmetic products like makeup removers and skin softeners. In the context of progesterone cream, it’s used as a carrier oil: it transports the progesterone through the epidermal layer and into your body, so it can get where it needs to be. Without the jojoba oil, the progesterone might end up just sitting on the skin, unable to fix hormone imbalances.
How to Use The Cream
While it may seem intimidating to be taking responsibility for your own hormone balances, using the cream is a fairly easy task. Since it’s a topical agent all you need to do is apply it according to where you are in your menstrual cycle, and how close you are to menopause.
If you’re pre-menopausal, you apply anywhere from 15mg to 24 mg of the cream every day for two weeks (14 days) before the start of your expected menses, and stop one day prior to the start of your menstrual cycle.
If you’re postmenopausal, you apply 15mg to 20mg per day for 25 days of the calendar month.
The nice thing about progesterone is that unlike other natural remedies, you will have a tough time overdosing on it. During pregnancy, the body produces around 300 mg of progesterone per day, so even if you apply the entire bottle to your skin all at once, your body is still able to handle that amount (though you might feel sleepy).
Conclusion
Progesterone is an important element of your body which, unfortunately due to the way the human body is designed, ceases to be produced. This puts you at risk for estrogen dominance which can lead to various short- and long-term consequences. However by using a cream, you’ll be doing your part to supplement your body with a needed hormone, ensuring good health for days, months, and years to come.