Lara Briden - The Period Revolutionary
Leading the change to better periods and hormones
Progesterone is a beneficial hormone for mood, hair, and lightening periods. It has a natural anti-androgen effect and is different from the progestins of hormonal birth control.
Ovulation is beneficial because it’s how women make hormones.
Every month, as the ovaries get ready to release an egg, they pump out estrogen. Estrogen, in turn, stimulates serotonin, which is why women can be more outgoing and energetic in the few days leading up to ovulation.
Every month, after ovulation, one of the ovaries releases a huge amount of progesterone—the calming, soothing, anti-inflammatory hormone.
We must not fear estrogen—our own queen of hormones. With all the current talk of estrogen dominance, plus the 2002 HRT scare, estrogen has acquired a bad reputation it does not deserve.
Hair loss used to be something that women suffered occasionally after childbirth or illness. It is now so common that doctors see it every day.
Hormonal birth control is largely to blame. It damages the hair follicle in a way that can take years to repair. Other conditions such as PCOS and thyroid disease also play a role.
Natural progesterone fared well in the new KEEPS study. It proved to be effective for menopausal symptoms, but without the risks of conventional HRT.
When I first started practicing in the 1990s, many of my patients needed a way off the nasty HRT duo of Premarin (horse estrone) and Provera (medroxyprogesterone). As the WHI study was to prove in 2002, those pseudo-hormones cause breast cancer and significant cardiovascular risk. My job as a natural doctor was to help women transition onto natural progesterone.