Is estrogen or progesterone better? Estrogen and progesterone are both equally important for the healthy functions of the body. If they're at proper levels, these two hormones can support your optimal health and wellbeing.
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.
High levels of progesterone prevent the uterus from contracting (squeezing) and causing pre-term labor. Much of the progesterone you need for a healthy pregnancy is made by the placenta. The placenta is the organ that grows in the uterus to provide nutrients and oxygen to the unborn baby.
Progesterone plays a role in many body functions, including: Helps prepare your uterus for the implantation of a fertilized egg and maintains your pregnancy. Regulates blood pressure. Improves mood and sleep.
Optimal Result: 200 - 1000 Ratio.
If your doctor suspects that you might have high estrogen, they'll likely order a blood test to check your hormone levels. A trained professional will collect a sample of your blood to be tested in a laboratory. The results will indicate if your estrogen levels are too low or too high.
Unopposed estrogen is called estrogen dominance in some medical literature. Without progesterone's balancing influence, estrogen can work overtime in your body and cause cell overgrowths, like tumors in your uterine lining.
The progesterone stimulates the skin to grow thicker and become more elastic. While it will not fill in deep creases or wrinkles, it does a very nice job of filling or at least softening, the fine wrinkles that usually appear in middle-age.
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.
What happens if I have too much progesterone? There are no known serious medical consequences due to the body making too much progesterone. Levels of progesterone do increase naturally in pregnancy as mentioned above. High levels of progesterone are associated with the condition congenital adrenal hyperplasia.
In men, high progesterone levels will increase estrogen levels, which can result in symptoms such as depression, fatigue and the development of heart conditions. For women, high progesterone is associated with symptoms including anxiety, bloating, depression, reduced sex drive and/or weight fluctuations.
While progesterone doesn't directly cause weight gain, it does increase your hunger levels which may make you feel like you're eating more and therefore gaining weight. But progesterone is just a small player in hormone balance and weight management. There are other hormone imbalances that may cause weight gain.
Excess thyroid, estrogen, progesterone and DHEA supplements can all cause hair loss. When the hair follicle is exposed to higher-than-normal levels of hormone, it shuts down and stops responding.
Estrogen causes fluid retention, while progesterone, since it has a diuretic effect reduces that extra fluid. This extra water weight tends to make women feel bloated and can be 5 or more pounds. Estrogen dominance can also increase insulin levels, which leads to sugar cravings to combat the resulting low blood sugar.
Too little estrogen can lead to a low sex drive. Too much of it can cause infertility and erectile dysfunction. Excessive estrogen can cause gynecomastia, or enlarged breasts.
If you have a very light period that only lasts a few days and barely requires a pad, this indicates that estrogen may be low. If estrogen is too low to support ovulation, then progesterone will be low as well.
Symptoms of Too Low Progesterone Include:
Difficulty becoming or staying pregnant; Low sex drive; Depression; Some researchers believe that subtle changes in progesterone production after ovulation may contribute to increased PMS symptoms in some women.
The oestrogen female face was consistently rated as more attractive, feminine and healthy looking. Future studies should address the nature of facial cues related to hormone levels.
Study: Women's physical attractiveness is not related to hormone levels. New research has found no compelling evidence that more physically attractive young adult women have higher levels of the sex hormones estradiol and progesterone.
Does Progesterone cause belly fat? Although progesterone doesn't cause belly fat, one of the side effects of progesterone can be weight gain. As we age, hormonal disruptions like progesterone levels dropping faster than estrogen levels can impact belly fat too.
Estrogen is responsible for an increase in cortisol and testosterone levels, which naturally increase energy levels. Progesterone is the hormone that is dominant AFTER ovulation and is what prepares the uterus to receive a fertilized embryo.
Progesterone decreases the target organs response to estrogen by decreasing the number of receptors the organ has for estrogen. Receptors are molecules on the cells that recognize specific hormones and allows them to carry their message to the cell. Progesterone also decreases breast cell growth.
Summary. 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, difficulty getting or maintaining an erection, and infertility.
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.