Sister Act:
The Story of E&P

I like to think of Estrogen and Progesterone as sisters with different personalities. Estrogen is exciting, loud, provocative, and loves with all her heart (while protecting yours)!  Progesterone is calm, steady, grounding, healing and gives you an inner glow.

Specific to your menstrual cycles, the first half of your cycle is ruled by Estrogen. She’s out there as a mover and a shaker, stimulating the ovaries to create and release an egg, encouraging the lining of your uterus to grow lush and large. After all of that hard work she *should* take a break and pass the baton to Progesterone.

Progesterone maintains that lining to welcome a potential very special guest… a fertilized egg. Hoping to turn this quick visit to a longer engagement, she’s sending out calming, grounding vibes and remaining present. But alas if this is not the way, with either no visitor or the wrong kind of visitor, she steps aside, the lining gives way, leaves the body in menstruation and the process starts again with big sis, E.

This is the healthy pattern in our child-bearing years, but as dysfunction becomes more common in our society, this may not be the “normal” pattern. I intentionally labeled Estrogen as the big sister, because she is the more dominant force between the two. If Estrogen is having too much of a good time, she is loud, lingering and can get kind of annoying.  Progesterone is quiet and waiting off to the side, not able to provide her needed support and countermeasures.

Estrogen is produced not only by our ovaries, but also our adrenals and stored fat. Additionally it can enter our body in the form of fake estrogens, chemicals called xenoestrogens. These chemicals are estrogen wannabes and do as E does. They can be found lurking in our water, our food, even our personal care and household products. Gross.

When we want the party to be over, our body tries to reduce estrogen by breaking it down in our liver and sending it away via the toilet in a healthy bowel movement. Good bacteria in our gut are also trying to breakdown and escort out this fiery one, but only if good bacteria is in adequate amounts. Otherwise, non-beneficial bacteria act as estrogen promoters, sending out little enzyme agents to keep the party going.

Now let’s talk about the two times the female body will experience internal decline of progesterone beyond our monthly cycle. One, is very dramatic and the other, slow and steady.

During pregnancy, progesterone is sticking around and plays the lead role in maintaining a beautiful, lush environment for a thriving pregnancy. After pregnancy, progesterone dramatically decreases and that’s a big shift after 9 months! Mentally, we can experience this as postpartum mood changes like anxiety or depression.

A more subtle change over time is related to our bodies natural decline in progesterone production, which begins around age 35. From 35-50 years of age, Progesterone decreases 75%, while estrogen is only decreasing about 35%. And chances are, estrogen was already in abundance before this began.