How to Boost Progesterone Naturally

The natural ebb and flow of female hormones regulate our menstrual cycle, our mind, and how we feel day to day. Progesterone is an important hormone that works with estrogen to support your mood, metabolism, fertility, and bone and brain health.

Without enough progesterone, your estrogen levels go unchecked and you can end up with estrogen dominance. If you struggle with mood swings, headaches, anxiety, poor sleep, breast tenderness, bloating, low sex drive, irregular periods, or getting pregnant - these are all signs of low progesterone.

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to harness the natural flow of progesterone and bring your hormones back into balance, so you can finally let go of those unwanted symptoms.

Eat Foods that Increase Progesterone

• Healthy Fats: Give your body the nutrients it needs to produce progesterone by getting a healthy supply of fats from coconut oil, olive oil, and avocado.
• Protein: Getting enough protein is essential for stable blood sugar levels and detoxifying excess estrogen. Beef, chicken, fish, shellfish, eggs, and beans are full of protein, vitamin B6 and zinc, which all contribute to healthy levels of progesterone.
• Fiber-Rich: Oats, quinoa, cruciferous vegetables and flax seeds are high in fibre, which helps eliminate excess estrogen and balance hormones.
• Nuts and seeds: Nutrient-dense almonds, brazil nuts, walnuts, cashews, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds help raise progesterone. Nuts are especially good sources of magnesium, which increases progesterone while reducing estrogen.
• Cruciferous vegetables: These include broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, bok choy, mustard greens, turnips, cauliflower, and cabbage. They are rich in vitamin C and compounds that promote detoxification.

Manage Stress When you have chronic stress, fight-or-flight hormones tell your body it’s unsafe and now is not a good time for a baby. To ensure your body is not prepped for conception, progesterone levels drop, and cortisol remains high. To get your progesterone levels back up, give yourself downtime to relax and bring your stress levels down. Mindfulness techniques like meditation, yoga and deep breathing are perfect for entering a more relaxed state, allowing our bodies to regain balance.

Don’t Over-Exercise While exercise is important, be careful not to push yourself too far. Over-exerting yourself can make it so you don’t ovulate or menstruate normally, which leads to low progesterone levels. Make sure you take rest days and move in alignment with the phases of your cycle.

Quality Sleep Sleep is important for regulating hormone levels and restoring natural balance within the body. For quality sleep, work on going to bed at regular times, aiming for 7-9 hours of sleep a night. At least 1 hour before bed, unplug from blue light devices that disrupt sleep. This is the perfect time for your favourite self-care activity (journalling, reading, yoga) to get your body ready for rest. Listen to a sound bath, sound machine or guided meditation to help fall asleep.

Take a Break From Coffee and Alcohol It’s a good idea to reduce your caffeine and alcohol intake, as these stimulants can disrupt blood sugar and hormone balance. Cut back on how many cups of coffee you’re drinking (stick to less than 3 a day max) or switch to green tea or matcha in the morning, which releases caffeine more slowly.

Herbal Support Several herbs can boost progesterone naturally, including Chasteberry (Vitex), Schisandra, Rhodiola and maca. They stimulate progesterone production and correct estrogen dominance issues, resulting in improved mood, anxiety, fertility, libido, and PMS.

Go Natural Toxic cleaning products, plastics, skincare and makeup products we use daily can contain endocrine disruptors that interfere with the body’s hormones. When your body absorbs these chemicals, they enter the bloodstream and travel to the liver where they cause damage. When the liver can’t properly break down toxins and excess estrogen, estrogen build ups, leading to estrogen dominance. Weed out the toxic products that are not working for you and choose natural products to heal estrogen dominance, thereby normalizing progesterone levels.

Individualized Plan How do you know if you have low progesterone? The most accurate way to tell is with a hormone test. I like the Dutch test, which I can do for you. As a holistic nutritionist, I’ll help you interpret the results, get to the bottom of your hormone imbalances, and create an individualized protocol that’s specific to you. Please check out my programs on the HatchPath platform for further information.