240-SYNCPodcast_ProgesteroneFINAL

[00:00:00] Jenny Swisher: Welcome friends to this episode of the Sync Your Life podcast. Today we’re diving into the benefits of progesterone therapy for women, especially women in perimenopause. This isn’t the first time that I’ve covered progesterone on the podcast, so I’ll make sure to link up in the show notes for you all of the previous episodes that apply.

[00:01:14] Jenny Swisher: I have found that when women are dealing with estrogen dominance and or low progesterone, and they discover the superpowers of bioidentical progesterone lives are changed. So it makes sense to dedicate an entire episode of the podcast to understanding these benefits. Let’s start by understanding progesterone, and I’m going to actually define it today in two different ways.

[00:01:34] Jenny Swisher: It’s most known as a sex hormone, along with estrogen and testosterone. Progesterone is known as our female fertility hormone, or what protects a potential pregnancy. It’s produced in small amounts by the adrenal glands, but it’s most dominantly produced by the corpus luteum each and every month after a woman ovulates.

[00:01:51] Jenny Swisher: Again, ovulation is our fifth vital sign. The body produces progesterone to keep that potential pregnancy, but we know that progesterone plays a vital role in other body systems as well, including the brain, adrenal health, mood, sleep, and more. Which leads me to my second definition. After reading Dr.

[00:02:07] Jenny Swisher: Platt’s Adrenaline Dominance book, my mind is blown. He, along with other experts in the area of progesterone, claim that modern medicine has categorized progesterone as a sex hormone, when in reality, it’s also a steroid hormone. Without getting into the nitty gritty to make you confused, I’ll keep this high level so you can understand.

[00:02:25] Jenny Swisher: You see our hormones come from cholesterol and from cholesterol make pregnenolone, which is a grandmother hormone to progesterone and cortisol. So while some cases of low progesterone in women can be due to ovarian production, other cases can be more downstream effects of disrupted cortisol. So what are the symptoms of low progesterone in women?

[00:02:45] Jenny Swisher: Well, dominantly migraine, headaches, irregular periods, infertility. mood changes such as anxiety and depression, and in perimenopause, hot flashes, and oftentimes, bloating or weight gain. I’m actually raising my hand as I say this out loud to you because almost all of those apply to me. Let’s also make sure that we touch on perimenopause because most women don’t realize that even if you’ve never dealt with hormone imbalance before, perimenopause is basically the definition of hormone imbalance, otherwise known as second puberty.

[00:03:15] Jenny Swisher: It’s when our hormones start to ride a rollercoaster. And what happens for close to 8 10 years for most women before estrogen declines is a steady progression of lowering progesterone. This gap that’s created between estrogen and progesterone has been named estrogen dominance by the functional medicine community.

[00:03:31] Jenny Swisher: But I’ll be honest with you, not a lot of modern medicine doctors recognize this term. It can come with all the symptoms that I listed before, times 10. Many women will say, I don’t know what happened. I turned 40 and things just shifted. This, my friends, is likely related to progesterone. So what do we do about it?

[00:03:49] Jenny Swisher: Well, there are some things that we can do nutritionally and with our lifestyle to improve progesterone and hormone balance. Vitamin C and foods, especially seeds, known to boost progesterone production, such as sunflower seeds, are great ways to support yourself through food. I’ll also make sure that I link up a seed cycling podcast that I did with Funkit Wellness founder Kate Morton.

[00:04:09] Jenny Swisher: But getting enough quality sleep is also key. On a similar note, hitting the HIIT cardio on the daily can actually be counterproductive. Strength training is queen. But beyond lifestyle metrics, I’m a firm believer in bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. I’ve been using it myself since the age of 27, and the doctors that I’ve worked with and studied under all agree there is more benefit to it for reasons other than hormone health.

[00:04:33] Jenny Swisher: It’s good for our bones, brain, muscle, and longevity, and yes, it can relieve a lot of those symptoms. If you’ve been fearful that bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is harmful, it’s probably because of the WHI, the Women’s Health Initiative study, which was a very flawed study that sort of derailed women’s health in the nineties.

[00:04:50] Jenny Swisher: I’ll be dropping an episode here on the podcast very soon where I interview Dr. Paige Gutheil and we debunk this study so that you can understand what’s going on here and why society is so weird about hormone replacement therapy. But the truth is many doctors out there are on board with supplementing hormones,

[00:05:05] Jenny Swisher: but it’s how the hormones are replaced that matters. You see, progestin, P R O G E S T I N, is a synthetic progesterone, often found in birth control pills. This is a man made chemical progesterone, which is not the same as what your body makes. It can often lead to confusing the female body more than help.

[00:05:25] Jenny Swisher: But unfortunately, most doctors come from the school of Big Pharma, and this gets prescribed first. Progesterone, P R O G E S T E R O N E, is bioidentical, usually compounded by compounding apothecary pharmacies. It’s derived from yam or soy. This is the way to go, my friends, because your body will recognize it as its own, and it knows how to utilize it.

[00:05:48] Jenny Swisher: When my fertility doctor supplemented me on progestin, the synthetic progestin, he said I went crazy. My anxiety was literally crazy high. Progesterone, compounded at a local pharmacy, however, gave me all the benefits, and it still does. Better sleep, calm mood, less PMS symptoms, fewer migraines, and even menstrual cycle regularity.

[00:06:09] Jenny Swisher: But there’s one major thing that I want to point out with bioidentical progesterone. This is actually relatively new information that I’ve learned myself in the last year, and you guys know I’m all about sharing what I’m learning as I go. The truth is, the right dosage plan for progesterone is bio individual.

[00:06:24] Jenny Swisher: And of course it is. Health is individual. So while Jane might benefit from 20 to 40 mg of progesterone in the second half of her cycle, I, as a migraine sufferer, may benefit from more like 250 mg of progesterone all cycle long. It is very nuanced and individual. I find that many women will try it, they don’t see a difference, maybe their sleep gets better, but that’s about it, and so they stop it.

[00:06:47] Jenny Swisher: When in reality, they may have just needed to tweak their dosage or form. Progesterone, like any bioidentical therapy, requires patience. Three to four months of consistent use before the body will start to utilize it properly and make changes. For those of you who haven’t heard my story, I’ll share a little nutshell of it here, and I’ll link up my full story in the show notes in case you want to listen to more.

[00:07:08] Jenny Swisher: But I struggled with migraines through puberty and into my 20s, when things got way worse fast at the age of 22 when I came off of birth control. I spent five years doing everything to get relief. Every neurologist, neck surgeries, Botox, medications, you name it, I tried it. It wasn’t until I started working with a functional doctor that I was able to learn of my progesterone deficiency and estrogen dominance, even at the age of 27, and was prescribed compounded bioidentical progesterone cream.

[00:07:35] Jenny Swisher: Within four months, I was almost completely migraine free and was able to achieve amazing quality of life using progesterone. Now, since I turned 40 just six months ago, things have shifted yet again, and guess what I’m finding? My body is now requiring more progesterone. Of course it is. It makes physiological sense.

[00:07:54] Jenny Swisher: For years, progesterone has helped me regulate my cycle, ovulate again, reduce headaches, eliminate anxiety, sleep soundly, and avoid crazy PMS crashes in my mood, period pain, and everything in between. It’s truly been my miracle, and recently, after joining a support group for women dealing with estrogen dominance, I’m learning of thousands of women with similar stories.

[00:08:15] Jenny Swisher: Progesterone helping them eliminate fibroids, heavy bleeding, migraines, and so much more. Thanks to researchers like Dr. John Lee and Dr. Katherine Dalton, we know that progesterone tends to be deficient in most women, if not before perimenopause, then during. And you can’t have too much of it. In fact, in pregnancy, progesterone levels 10x to support pregnancy.

[00:08:36] Jenny Swisher: And guess when many people who suffer from migraines and more tend to feel their best? Yup, pregnancy. And guess when many women who suffer from migraines and more tend to feel their best? Yup, pregnancy. There are over the counter options available out there, but my best recommendation is to test first.

[00:08:53] Jenny Swisher: Always test before you guess. In the right way, at the right time of your cycle, with urine or saliva testing. working with a functional medicine doctor to determine your best dosage. Getting progesterone from a compounding pharmacy is best and how the cream or capsule or whatever you choose is compounded is key.

[00:09:12] Jenny Swisher: Now I do offer virtual health consults alongside Dr. Page Gutile, which we are soon opening up to the public in May of 2024 when we simultaneously launched the SYNC fitness program. I will make sure to link up in the show notes information on both the fitness program and the consults so that you can look for more info.

[00:09:28] Jenny Swisher: But my friends, if you’re suffering from any of the things mentioned here, it is so worth it to get the right testing and seek out support. You do not have to suffer through perimenopause or any other time of life due to low progesterone. I hope as always that you’ve learned something today that you’ll share this message out with your friends.

[00:09:45] Jenny Swisher: As always, it’s a pleasure to keep showing up to this podcast to inform and educate you and to help you reach maximum energy until next time. We’ll talk soon. Bye. Bye.