Some of you have purchased home test kits (saliva or urine tests) such as DUTCH Complete which measures your hormones. Imagine that everything came back normal except progesterone, which was extremely low.
But do you think low progesterone could explain your symptoms of weight gain, hot flashes, and depression?
If you’re pondering the answer to this, it’s definitely YES!
And there’s possibly an over-the-counter (OTC) fix! The symptoms that could plague a person with low progesterone (also termed estrogen dominance) include weight gain, depression, fatigue, irritability, incontinence, insomnia, heart disease, infertility, and osteoporosis. The picture of ‘low progesterone’ is not pretty! Unfortunately, millions of people walk around with imbalanced hormones for many years and never get diagnosed or treated properly. I know, I know, shocking isn’t it?!
It is because we live in a pill-popping society that wants the drugs advertised on TV, not one that understands the power of bio-identical hormone replacement, keyword “bio-identical.”
The medical establishment is also to blame. If you tell your doctor that you are fearful and tired, you may have bought yourself a lifetime of anti-depressants. A man with heart disease or erectile dysfunction is rarely given testosterone replacement, rather he has prescribed sex pills and given a stent. So sad, because correcting hormone imbalances is the key to losing weight, improving heart function, preventing diabetes and enhancing mood.
Home test kits that use urine such as the DUTCH Complete Hormone Test, can be purchased at my online store. It’s the BEST way to test your hormone levels! Both men and women can take the DUTCH Complete Hormone test. Saliva tests can be purchased in progressive weight loss centers, compounding pharmacies, and holistic physician offices. The most popular saliva test is made by ZRT Labs and it measures various hormones including estradiol, testosterone, DHEA, cortisol, and progesterone. Transdermal testing (versus blood testing) is particularly useful if you already apply hormonal creams to your body. Many people do, especially since natural, bio-identical progesterone cream is sold in the United States at health food stores nationwide and online.
Clearly, you are not applying a natural progesterone cream to your skin, but it sounds like you should because you are deficient and have the symptoms. Ask your physician about it.
Why is doctor approval and supervision such a big deal when applying natural progesterone cream? It’s a good question since progesterone is OTC and it might improve or cure those awful conditions I mentioned at the outset of this column. I’ll tell you why. Because in certain people, the cells have been missing the proper ratio of hormones (especially estrogen) for many years. So you could be super sensitive to the sudden application of progesterone and boom, you get a backlash of side effects (like spotting and hot flashes at 65 years old).
Correcting the ratio of hormones, improving estrogen levels before progesterone gets introduced is really one huge factor of anti-aging. One more thing, OTC progesterone cream is NOT the same as the prescription drug, Provera.
Did You Know?
Tanning beds are now thought to dramatically increase the risk of melanomas and may get a ‘cancer risk’ warning by the FDA.
Suzy Cohen, has been a licensed pharmacist for over 30 years and believes the best approach to chronic illness is a combination of natural medicine and conventional. She founded her own dietary supplement company specializing in custom-formulas, some of which have patents. With a special focus on functional medicine, thyroid health and drug nutrient depletion, Suzy is the author of several related books including Thyroid Healthy, Drug Muggers, Diabetes Without Drugs, and a nationally syndicated column.
