Progesterone Monotherapy: A Promising Way to Relieve Peri + Menopausal Symptoms

As the search for safer and more effective treatments for menopausal symptoms continues, progesterone monotherapy is a standout option. This treatment is especially appealing to women who worry about the side effects that come with the usual estrogen-based hormone therapies.

What Is Progesterone Monotherapy?

Most hormone replacement therapy (HRT) uses synthetic, or lab-created, hormones to replace natural ones. But bioidentical hormones are found in plants and have the same chemical structures as hormones made in the human body.

Progesterone monotherapy is progesterone-only therapy— bioidentical progesterone without estrogen. It aligns well with the body's natural processes because progesterone is a hormone made by the ovaries, mainly during the second half of the menstrual cycle and during pregnancy.

What Are the Benefits of Progesterone?

Progesterone is key to women’s health in all life stages. Recent studies, such as one from the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research in Canada, have shown that progesterone can also relieve menopausal symptoms. This stands in contrast to progestin, the synthetic progesterone in traditional HRT.

When it contains estrogen and progestin, HRT leads to serious health risks, including heart disease, stroke, and breast cancer. On the other hand, natural progesterone offers these benefits:

1. Relief for menopause symptoms. Studies, including those led by menopause specialist Dr. Jerilynn Prior, have shown that bioidentical progesterone lowers the number of hot flashes and night sweats in menopausal women when they don’t also take estrogen. And any hot flashes or night sweats they still have are less severe.
2. Protection for the brain. Research shows that progesterone may have protective effects in the brain. It can help lift your mood and boost your brain function, which are often concerns during menopause.
3. Improved heart health. Unlike synthetic progestins, bioidentical progesterone doesn’t raise the risk of heart disease. Some evidence suggests it might even benefit the heart.
4. Better sleep. Progesterone is known to promote sleep quality, which can be vital for menopausal women who are struggling to sleep well.

Despite all it can do for your health, you may not have heard about progesterone therapy or the benefits of progesterone. That’s because the medical industry puts a lot of emphasis on estrogen.

Do Women in Menopause Really Need Estrogen?

The truth is not every menopausal woman has low estrogen. It’s a common medical myth that estrogen levels in all women take a major drop after menopause and that these low levels cause everything from depression to hot flashes.

In truth, women in America and Europe often have high estrogen levels (even after menopause). This is shown by studies of actual blood and tissue levels—especially of estrone, one of the three forms of estrogen.

Estrone rises with age and plays a bigger role in estrogen-driven diseases, such as breast cancer, than the estradiol and estriol forms do. Menopause just means the ovaries are making too little estrogen to induce a menstrual cycle. It doesn’t mean estrogen has gone to zero.

Since a woman's fat cells and skin cells still make estrogen, levels often remain high or normal. In fat, including the fat in muscle cells, the body uses another hormone called androstenedione to keep making estrogen in smaller amounts.

Perimenopause Doesn’t Mean Low Estrogen

Even before menopause, in perimenopause, estrogen levels don’t just steadily decline; they can fluctuate dramatically. During this transition phase, estrogen doesn’t just keep falling at the same rate. It changes a lot from one day to the next and one month to the next.

This wild ride can cause a range of unpredictable symptoms, including mood swings, hot flashes, and irregular periods. And often, progesterone levels fall even faster than estrogen levels, adding to the hormonal imbalance that happens during this time.

Progesterone Drops Faster Than Estrogen

And it’s not just that progesterone levels can fall faster. The science is also showing progesterone levels fall a lot earlier than estrogen levels as women approach menopause. A woman’s body tends to start making less progesterone as long as a decade before she notices her estrogen levels begin to fluctuate.

The earlier drop in progesterone, a hormone that women make most right after ovulation, happens because women ovulate less and less as they age. As they release an egg less often and eventually stop, the body makes much less progesterone, leading to an imbalance between progesterone and estrogen.

This hormonal imbalance is behind the variety of challenging symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, such as poor sleep and changes in mood and the menstrual cycle.

Is Progesterone Therapy Safe?

Progesterone is much safer than the synthetic progestins used in conventional HRT. Research suggests that progesterone doesn’t increase breast cancer risk, unlike some forms of estrogen therapy. In fact, progesterone can treat and prevent breast cancer.

Progesterone has protective effects against cancer, particularly breast and endometrial cancers, because it controls how quickly cells divide and when the body gets rid of abnormal cells. Studies show that progesterone blocks estrogen from attaching to cancer cells and helping them divide faster, which can drive cancer growth. They’ve also found that women who make more progesterone have a lower risk of breast cancer.

But for those who aren’t making enough progesterone on their own, bioidentical hormone therapy may be helpful.

How Do I Take Progesterone Monotherapy?

For women who have menopausal or perimenopausal symptoms, progesterone monotherapy offers a potential solution that can be adjusted based on individual needs. It’s available in various forms, so it can work with different lifestyles and preferences.

At Moment Health, we see the diverse needs of women going through menopause, which is why we offer both progesterone capsules and creams. We formulate our bioidentical progesterone products without harmful additives like titanium dioxide, peanut oil, and artificial color dyes.

Our commitment to quality and purity ensures you get a cleaner, more natural product that’s less likely to irritate or harm your body and more likely to work. Moment hormone solutions are designed to align with your body's natural rhythms, providing a gentle yet effective solution for managing menopausal symptoms.Explore our full range of progesterone therapies and learn more about how they can benefit you at Raena.com.