Are you getting close to 50?
Having trouble sleeping?
Waking up soaked?
Having a hard time getting back to sleep?

If so, you may be experiencing your first symptoms of menopause.

Night sweats, insomnia and hot flashes during the day are caused by the drop in your estrogen and progesterone levels at menopause.

There are a lot of options out there that can be used to relieve your night sweats and insomnia.  But for women with the most severe night sweats who just can’t sleep through the night, Progesterone replacement is the key.[1. Eichling PS, Sahni J. Menopause related sleep disorders. J Clin Sleep Med. 2005 Jul 15;1(3):291-300. Review. PubMed PMID: 17566192.]

Progesterone isn’t the same as progestins, powerful synthetic hormones that work LIKE progesterone, but don’t even come close to replacing the progesterone your body needs.

Here are some facts you need to know about progesterone:
1. Progesterone is sometimes called “bio-identical progesterone,” which means it’s chemically exactly the same as the hormone your body makes (or at least used to make)
2. Progesterone helps menopausal women have fewer night sweats, sleep better and even have fewer hot flashes during the day.
3. Progesterone has helped European menopausal women sleep for decades.  In a survey of 100 thousand French menopausal women,  the women who took Progesterone had lower breast cancer rates than women who took medroxyprogesterone, the most commonly prescribed progestin in the U.S..[2. Regidor P-A. Progesterone in Peri- and Postmenopause: A Review. Geburtshilfe und Frauenheilkunde. 2014;74(11):995-1002. doi:10.1055/s-0034-1383297.][3. Stanczyk FZ, Hapgood JP, Winer S, Mishell DR. Progestogens Used in Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy: Differences in Their Pharmacological Properties, Intracellular Actions, and Clinical Effects. Endocrine Reviews. 2013;34(2):171-208. doi:10.1210/er.2012-1008.][4. Fournier, A., Berrino, F., Riboli, E., Avenel, V. and Clavel-Chapelon, F. (2005), Breast cancer risk in relation to different types of hormone replacement therapy in the E3N-EPIC cohort. Int. J. Cancer, 114: 448–454. doi: 10.1002/ijc.20710][5. Fournier A, Fabre A, Mesrine S, Boutron-Ruault M-C, Berrino F, Clavel-Chapelon F. Use of different postmenopausal hormone therapies and risk of histology- and hormone receptor-defined invasive breast cancer. Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical OncologyJournal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. 2008;26(8):1260-1268. doi:10.1200/JCO.2007.13.4338.]

Progesterone is readily available from any pharmacy in the U.S., as an FDA approved oil filled capsule for menopause symptoms. Progesterone is also available from compounding pharmacies in other dosage forms like sublingual troches and transdermal creams.

I’m here to help you understand the sometimes confusing world of hormones for menopause.  I’m constantly looking at the latest research on hormones and breaking it down so it’s easy to understand.

Thanks and I’ll catch you on my next post, which touches on intimacy issues in menopause.