So I decided to do a little research into "natural" ways to increase my progesterone - ways that involve a change of diet or lifestyle vs. simply taking hormone replacements of some sort. My research was specifically on dealing with low progesterone and too much estrogen.
If I understand what I've read so far, there aren't foods that *contain* progesterone; however there are foods that trigger your body to want to produce more of certain hormones, and there are certain things your body needs enough of to make those hormones and then process them out later. So when people talk about using diet to help with the hormone balance, its about focusing on the foods that promote production of the hormone you're lacking, avoiding those that promote the hormone of which you don't need more, and making sure your body has plenty of the building blocks it uses to make those hormones.
One thing to mention is that the information that I found about helping your body with certain hormone levels with food and herbs is that it wasn't geared towards peri/menopausal woman; there are various reasons people want to influence their hormone levels, be it wanting pregnancy, easier cycles, etc. Talking with my doctor, he agreed that its a hard thing to say "this will help your body produce normal levels" when this time in our lives is all about 'normal levels' changing to something new. So take that into consideration when you set your expectations on how much this course of action may or may not help you.
With all that in mind:
Food:
There are things called plant sterols, and certain ones promote progesterone production. Raw nuts and seeds, and avocados all are great sources of these specific plant sterols. The key is to eat this food raw to gain the most benefit.
Supplements:
Zinc, Magnesium, B-6, and Vitamin C all play important rolls in progesterone production.
- Foods high in zinc: shellfish, wheatgerm, pumpkin, squash seeds, dark chocolate, chickpeas, veal liver, lean red meat, and watermelon.
- Foods high in magnesium: whole grain cereals, halibut, spinach, black beans, okra, nuts, squash seeds, and raw plantain.
- Foods high in B-6: whole grains, bananas, poultry, seafood, walnuts, spinach, lean read meat, potatoes, beans, fortified cereals, avocados, and tomatoes.
- Foods high in Vitamin C: bell peppers, dark leafy greens, kiwis, broccoli, berries, citrus fruit, tomatoes, papayas, and peas.
Herbs:
Chasteberry herb stimulates the pituitary gland leading to more of the chemical that tells the ovaries to make progesterone.
If you're trying to combat low progesterone levels, high estrogen levels is also part of the issue, and these herbs should thus be avoided: blue cohosh, black cohosh, dong quai, hops, lavender, licorice, rhodiola rose root, saw palmetto berry, red clover blossom, motherword leaf, and tea tree oil.
Stress:
I'll bet you already know that stress, especially prolongs stress, is hard on the body; maybe like me you didn't know it has a direct effect on progesterone levels. When we're under stress our body uses a lot more cortisol than otherwise; our adrenal gland can't keep up, so our body will start looking elsewhere for its cortisol. One of the places it gets it is by grabbing our progesterone and converting it into cortisol, leaving us depleted of progesterone. Of course "avoid stress" is a pretty difficult bit of advice for most of us, but hopefully women experiencing these things can find a little more time to de-stress and do self-love/self-care regularly. (Korean spa date, anyone?)
Here are the links I gathered my information from; there is more detailed explanations throughout:
http://www.herinterest.com/natural-ways-to-increase-progesterone/
http://youqueen.com/life/health/top-7-natural-ways-to-increase-progesterone/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/539170-foods-that-naturally-increase-progesterone/
http://www.wikihow.com/Increase-Progesterone-Levels
