68: All about Progesterone: why it may be low, why it’s important and how to improve your levels with Dr. Samina Mitha

The PCOS Nutritionist Podcast

Long cycles? Anovulatory cycles? Heavy periods? Trouble sleeping in the lead up to your period? Recurrent miscarriages? Spotting? These all have one thing in common - they may be caused by low progesterone.

This cheeky little hormone starts to rise in the second half of your cycle and is so so important for your health. Progesterone is very important for so much beyond just your cycle - think bone health, musculoskeletal, immune, reducing inflammation, improving mood and painful, heavy or missing periods.

A lot of women with PCOS deal with low progesterone levels - and the annoying side effects that come with that. One of the main reasons is because you MUST ovulate in order to produce progesterone. Your doctor may have tested you on Day 21 of your cycle and said you don’t have anything to worry about or they’ve given you some progestin to use - but there are some pitfalls here.

On today’s episode, I speak with the amazing Dr. Samina Mitha, ND about everything you need to know about Progesterone. We talk through what it is, how its produced, common symptoms of low progesterone, why it’s important for your health, how it may be impacting your PCOS, why ovulation is a big part of this conversation, progestin v micronized progesterone and so much more.

If you resonate with any of the symptoms I listed above, this is an episode you need to listen to!

This episode is for you if:

• You have heavy periods
• You have painful periods or endometriosis
• You get spotting
• You have hypothalamic amenorrhea
• You have anovulatory cycles
• You have insomnia or don’t sleep well leading up to when your period is due
• You get bad PMS symptoms
• You have long cycles
• You have a short luteal phase

Some things we cover in this episode:

• Natural ways to support progesterone
• Why progesterone is so important for your overall health and when TTC
• Cyclical progesterone therapy
• Provera (synthetic/utrogestan) vs. Prometrium (micronized progesterone)
• When to test progesterone
• Why your doctor may not prescribe micronised progesterone

Resources and References:

• My Book: Getting Pregnant with PCOS
• Dr. Samina’s website
• Dr. Samina’s Instagram
• Cyclical Progesterone Therapy
• Dr Jerrilyn Prior

Links to our programs:

• The PCOS Protocol
• Eggducated