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This seems to be the main thing women over 40 are striving for (or at least those who are suffering from signs of fluctuating hormones)
Most of you know that I’m a big proponent of natural or bioidentical hormone therapy, but of course there’s a wealth of herbal supplements that can support symptoms and hormone balance. It’s great that we have these options because some women just don’t want to or also don’t tolerate (even natural) hormone therapy well.
I have to say though that they give you much less bang for your buck and also you’ll have to take many different things for different symptoms whereas you could just take or apply natural hormones and you won’t need all those supplements. I also want to highlight that the things you can do for free, (but that unfortunately require a bit of effort and also the capability to prioritize your own health) are even more important and can in many cases actually help resolve or minimize symptoms. It’s true that when we are in this place of low energy, overwhelm, anxiety… it seems impossible to make diet or lifestyle changes and that’s where hormone therapy can be a game changer because it helps put you in a better place with more energy to be able to manage making changes. It suddenly seems feasible!
By the way, if you want to join my free 5-Day Happy Hormone Challenge, there’s still time to sign up - we’re starting on 18th November (we’ll be adding 1 easy & simple habit each day (2-10mins of your day max) Sign up here: https://mariekesteen.myflodesk.com/happyhormones
I’ve been using oral progesterone for a couple of years now, always in the second half of my cycle. And it’s really helped me especially with my sleep during this time, but it also helps me stay calmer, be less irritable and not bloat up.
For those of you who have been following my story a little bit, I've been battling with bad yeast overgrowth in my intestines and I’ve really been frustrated about my lack of progress. I kind of had a fed up moment when we came back from our summer holidays where I had literally what felt like the worst relapse of bloating and abdominal pain. I’ve also had horrible skin! So when I came back from holidays, I was like “okay I’m done with the gentle approach to killing off the yeast”. I need something much more aggressive now. This can’t go on like this.
And then in one of my peer groups the discussion about progesterone and yeast came up and it reminded me that taking oral progesterone can actually worsen Candida or yeast overgrowth. And it’s true that I actually started taking my progesterone again the day we left on holidays.
Long story short, I've switched now to a progesterone cream in the second half of my cycle and this is the second month I’m taking it and I wanted to share my experience in comparison.
Progesterone cream, oil or pill?
I can now also report from my own experience that topical progesterone does not have the same great impact on sleep than oral progesterone.
Another thing that I don’t like about it is that one pump of the cream is so much cream that I don’t really know where to put it all. I find that pretty annoying but I’ve actually gone over to using it as part of my body lotion.
On the other hand, with the cream or oil, you can much better manage the dosage of course: you can apply as much and when needed and also spread out the dosages throughout the day. If one is feeling anxious, you could apply it in that moment to help with anxiety
There’s also oil-based solutions that are much more user friendly as you only have to use a drop or two.
As for the creams be that progesterone or estrogen you also need to look for other ingredients are there sometimes they use alcohol or other things that women can react to. Of course the pills are the same Prometrium which is the main natural progesterone in the US uses a base of peanut oil that can cause tolerance issues for some
So sometimes women have reactions to progesterone or they think their reacting to the hormone, but they are actually reacting to the other ingredients that are hidden in their cream, gel or supplement they using.
Foods & Hormone Boosting Herbs
Check out my Hormone Balance cookbook for guidance on foods to boost estrogen, progesterone and testosterone and recipes of course with these foods.
Herbal solutions that can support increasing estrogen. You may want to try these first before opting for bio-identical hormone therapy. Keep in mind though, that these herbal solutions often take a minimum of 3 months before you see the benefits.
Black Cohosh is an old remedy against menopause symtoms. However, it’s not completely understood how it works. It seems to influence how estrogen behaves in the body independent of estrogen receptors. It does have anti-inflammatory properties and a positive effect on your nervous and immune system too. This is my favorite supplement for peri and menopausal women: FemGuard Balance: it contains black cohosh, but also has vitex for progesterone support and DIM and chrysin to support your beneficial estrogen detox pathway (so this is a great prevention for avoiding the toxic estrogen build up which can lead to breast cancer).
Hops are well known as a main ingredient in beer. Now you start to understand why too much beer leads to a beer belly and breasts in men? Yes, hops actually contain the most potent estrogen-raising flavonoid, which is called 8-prenylnaringenin (8-PN). There’s a product from Metagenics called Menohop which is a blend of hops and soy. It has helped me in the past bringing my hormone levels back up.
Wild yam Some traditional medicine practitioners suggest using wild yam as an alternative to estrogen replacement therapy for treating symptoms of menopause. The theory is that wild yam may increase or stabilize estrogen levels in the body to help relieve menopause symptoms. There's also evidence to wild yam to supporting progesterone, so in the end, it can be helpful for both it seems.
Ginkgo biloba is known for its positive effects on circulation and memory. And, it’s also a source of phytoestrogens, so it may improve your estrogen levels or at least smooth out your estrogenic decline.
Red clover is another herb that is high in isoflavones and that you can use to increase estrogen levels. Red clover is often used in tea form.
Maca doesn’t actually contain phytoestrogens. It works as an adaptogen instead, adjusting the body’s estrogen levels as needed. Clinical studies have shown that maca alleviates symptoms of low estrogen levels like hot flashes, memory issues, fatigue, vaginal dryness, and mood swings. It’s also known to increase your libido. 1g per day is the minimum dose needed to see benefits. I use it as a powder in chia pudding, smoothies or baking. Check out my cookbook for recipes. Otherwise, this is a great supplement.
For progesterone, there's mainly one plant known to help boost levels: Vitex berry or also called Chaste tree. I have not seen much success with it but there may be women who do see improvement with it.
As I mentioned above, wild yam may be more interesting in my opinion.
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