Answer by OB-GYN Kelsie Cabrera, DO: Estrogen can reduce menopausal symptoms like hot flashes, night sweats and vaginal dryness. If you have a uterus, you'll likely need to take progesterone along with the estrogen. Estrogen without progesterone increases the risk of uterine cancer.
How to tell if you have low progesterone. The most noticeable manifestation of low progesterone levels is irregular periods and short cycles, but sometimes symptoms like premenstrual spotting may appear. Other symptoms may include mood changes, sleep disturbances, anxiety, and depression.
Estrogen dominance can affect a woman's body in many ways, including abnormal menstruation (heavy/painful periods), PMS, headaches, decreased sex drive, bloating, mood swings, fatigue, anxiety & depression, breast tenderness, endometriosis, fibroids, and hormonal weight gain.
Hot flashes, flushes, and night sweats are the most common symptoms of low estrogen. At times, blood rushes to your skin's surface. This can give you a feeling of warmth (hot flash). Your face may look flushed.
Progesterone levels begin to rise after ovulation through the end of the menstrual cycle. Symptoms of high progesterone are similar to premenstrual syndrome and can include anxiety and agitation, bloating, breast swelling and tenderness, depression, fatigue, and weight gain.
Since progesterone maintains your uterine lining during pregnancy so a fetus can grow, low levels can make it hard for you to stay pregnant. You need progesterone levels to stay high until you're ready to give birth. If you have low progesterone, you're at risk for pregnancy complications such as: Ectopic pregnancy.
A Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center study involving postmenopausal, overweight, and obese women who took 2,000 IUs of vitamin D daily for a year found that those whose vitamin D blood levels increased the most had the greatest reductions in blood estrogens, which are a known risk factor for breast cancer.
High estrogen levels can cause symptoms such as irregular or heavy periods, weight gain, fatigue, and fibroids in females. In males, they can cause breast tissue growth, erectile dysfunction, and infertility.
Vitamin B6, or pyridoxine, may be a valuable supplement for women looking to raise their progesterone naturally. Studies show that taking 200-800 mg of vitamin B6 per day may increase progesterone levels and curb symptoms of premenstrual syndrome.
Fluctuations with progesterone levels can do the same thing to emotions by changing the brain chemistry which can lead to depression. Estrogen becomes the dominant hormone which can cause cortisol levels to rise and increase feelings of anxiety.
Progesterone, or allopregnanolone, influence emotion processing and are likely causal factors for the mood symptoms experienced by women with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD).
As estrogen levels drastically change in perimenopause, high levels can cause bloating, breast tenderness, and heavy bleeding. Once these levels become more consistently low, that can cause hot flashes, night sweats, mood changes, changes in fat distribution (new or growing “spare tire”), insomnia, and fatigue.
Estrogen helps protect the heart from disease, potentially by maintaining higher levels of good cholesterol, called high-density lipoprotein (HDL), in your blood. Lower estrogen levels, especially during menopause, can increase your risk of developing heart disease.
Because B vitamins play a vital role in the creation of estrogen, low levels of B vitamins can result in reduced production of estrogen. Vitamins B2 and B6, in particular, are associated with healthy estrogen levels.
Typically, progesterone and estrogen are both used for menopausal hormone therapy. This is because estrogen alone can make the lining of your uterus thicker, which can increase the risk for endometrial cancer. Of course, in some cases you might take progesterone on its own without estrogen.